Sugar sends out the call for teenage polygamists with moob jobs

Posted by Axegrinder on 14 September 2009 at 16:14
Tags: Sugar

News agency staff are once again left scratching their heads and wandering about what ever happened to finding the best stories they can and sending them in to grateful publishers.

Instead, journalists dealing with real-life stories increasingly seem to be sending out bizarrely detailed shopping lists for the things they want to have happened.

The latest list of requests comes from teen magazine Sugar which sent out this fascinating wish-list of bizarre tales featuring boys aged 12-19.

It’s been a while since Axegrinder was in short trousers – but can there really be that many teen polygamists who’ve had moob-jobs out there?

Read them yourself and pick your own favourite:

‘I’m 16 and married’

‘I can’t dump my suicidal girlfriend’

‘Wrongly accused of being a dad’

‘I had surgery to get girls’

‘I’m a teen polygamist’ HAS 3 GIRLFRIENDS AND ALL KNOW

‘I spread rumours to spite my ex’ (revenge real life)

‘I loved her but I bullied her’

‘I had a moob job’

‘I emotionally blackmailed my girlfriend into sex’

‘Why I was a stalker’

‘I’m a boy beauty queen’

‘I dumped my girlfriend for a boy’

‘I fell in love with my bully’

“I was dumped for Dougie” (or other celeb)

‘Mates think my girlfriend’s ugly but I don’t care’

Thelondonpaper subs taste the whisky of victory

Posted by Axegrinder on 9 September 2009 at 09:05
Tags: Headlline of the month, sub-editors

Some good news for journalists at News International’s doomed free London daily thelondonpaper - which is set to close later this month.

The craft on display on the subbing team has been recognised by the judges of Press Gazette’s revived headline of the month competition. And a bottle of Jura single malt whisky is on its way to them courtesy of our sponsors - and to Francis Harvey, who nominated them.

The final shortlist included:

SHE DOES MORE HARMAN GOOD, the Daily Mirror - on deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman’s short stint in charge of the country this summer.

LONG ARM OF THE DRAW, The Sun - for the story which revealed how a retired art teacher ensured her mugger was tracked down by police after she drew a portrait of him.

WE KICKED THEIR ASHES, The Sun - on England’s cricket victory over Australia.

Thelondonpaper’s subs won out, with extra marks for performance in the face of adversity, for:

WEISZ AFTER THE EVENT, after actress Rachael Weisz won rave reviews for her performance in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar Warehouse.

The deadline for entries to headline of the month is 22 September.

The sub who writes the winning headline, and the person who nominates them, will both receive a bottle of single malt whisky. The winners also go into the headline of the year draw, with the winner receiving an exclusive holiday on the Isle of Jura.

Video: How the Scott Trust remit included the Observer in 2004

Posted by Axegrinder on 7 September 2009 at 14:42
Tags: The Guardian, The Observer

A Guardian promotional video has landed in my in-box dating from around 2004 - happier days for The Guardian and Observer.

Back then it seems that Guardian Newspapers boss at the time Carolyn McCall (now chief executive of Guardian Media Group) had a different take on the remit of the Scott Trust from the current interpretation.

She says: “The whole purpose of the Scott Trust is to ensure that The Guardian and The Observer exist in perpetuity - that they are totally independent, they can say what they want and behave the way they want without a proprietor. That is a fantastic thing and we think it gives us a great loyalty with not only with our readers but also with our staff.”

Fast-forward to 2009 and McCall is considering closing The Observer to stem GMG losses and safeguard the future of journalism of The Guardian “in perpetuity”.

Follow Giles Coren’s every, er, movement on Twitter

Posted by Axegrinder on 31 August 2009 at 14:20
Tags: Giles Coren, The Times, Twitter

Potty-mouthed hack and TV tart Giles Coren has discovered Twitter, and readers of his Times columns might find his language a little shocking (although Times subs will be used to it, of course)

Here’s a selection from his first fortnight’s tweets:

“Who the fuck’s fucked up ipod is this?”

“fuck I hate computers. No they hate me.”

“trying to tweet a photo. Is it fucked or is it me?”

“fuck me what an absolute cunt”

“Sofra in Mayfair, full of hedgefund fools forking down fuckawful bland, ugly, totally unTurkish chain food.”

“man, that stinky lambstick repeats on a fellow. like i swallowed a weasel. i’m burping shit and fur.”

“A bowl of punishment muesli: aquarium grit and birdseed. Goes you through you like a plunger. Should bring on 2nd poo of morning around 11.”

“it seems my scatalogical approach has actually lost me 2 followers. Probably old people. Jealous cos they can’t poo.”

“desperately pumping poo stories in hope of upturn”

Axegrinder understands Coren is now working on a programme for BBC1, his output having previously been seen on BBC2 and Channel 4. Perhaps going mainstream will make him clean up his act … and his mouth.

Defiant hack warns Trinity Mirror: “You can’t touch me!”

Posted by Axegrinder on 31 August 2009 at 12:57
Tags: Birmingham Mail, Birmingham Post, Jo Ind, Trinity Mirror

Not every journalist at the Birmingham Post and Mail, it seems, was left reeling by news that 85 jobs could be lost as a result of Trinity Mirror’s plans for a shake-up of the two titles.

Take feature writer Jo Ind. Two days after learning that her job “along with those of my fellow journalists, is seriously under threat”, she told readers, via her blog, of her reaction to the grim announcement.

“But did I care?” she wrote. “No, not that day because my great great great great grandmother was Elizabeth Fry and if she could reform the prison service, then I was damn sure I could work out how to support my family even if I didn’t have a job in the depth of a recession. You can’t touch me Trinity Mirror, I’m made of noble, worthy, heroic, pioneering, life-transforming stuff!”

That’s the spirit.

Observer hack feels Twitter outrage of Aggers and Lily Allen

Posted by Axegrinder on 25 August 2009 at 16:15
Tags: BBC, The Observer

Will Buckley, the Observer’s senior sports writer, has roused the Twitter mobs this week thanks to a critical article aimed at BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew centring on Saturday’s Test Match Special interview slot which featured pop star Lily Allen.

Apparently bemused by Agnew’s unabashed fawning over Allen, Buckley suggested in the piece that “Aggers had positioned himself firmly on the pervy side of things”.

Cue outrage. Buckley’s line proved to be the springboard for several pages of critical comments and a subsequent Twitter storm.

Agnew blankly tweeted: “I gave Will Buckley 24 hrs to apologise for calling me a pervert, and he has declined.” Moments later he told his followers the email address of Buckley’s boss - and Observer sports editor - Brian Oliver, and suggested that anyone who “may feel moved by this” could register their views.

He then admitted that he had “taken being called a pervert quite badly.” No kidding, Aggers.

But hark. Is that the sound of a miniature pop princess jumping into the fray?

Knocking Buckley’s bouncer out of the ground Lily Allen tweeted: “I dont know one person that agrees with The Observer on this one. Maybe this is Buckley’s attempt at creating a name for himself as the demise of the Observer Monthlys (including Sport) are imminent. Sorry @aggerscricket , I should have left you all alone.”

The spat has now taken a turn for the mainstream, with the Telegraph penning an article on the controversy. The Telegraph? Interested in a story that is vaguely related to Twitter? I never would have guessed.

The B2B editor getting paid the same as a trainee McDonalds manager

Posted by Axegrinder on 25 August 2009 at 07:27
Tags: Formula Won

The recession was always bound to exert downward pressure on starting wages - but Formula Won Recruitment are surely taking the piss with their advert for a B2B editor “with significant experience” to help produce a “lively mix of magazines and newsletters” in the property sector for a salary of between £18,000 and £25,000.

So to edit not just one but several publications - in London! - you are getting a salary that seems more commensurate with managing an average sized provincial amusement arcade.

By way of a reality check - a trainee McDonalds manager in Doncaster can look at a starting salary of £18,500 and they also get company car, pension, private health care and a potential bonus.

How not to win headline of the month and a bottle of Jura whisky

Posted by Axegrinder on 10 August 2009 at 16:35
Tags: sub-editors

This example of the sub-editors’ once proud craft, from Wales Online, won’t be making it into the reckoning for Press Gazette’s relaunched headline of the month competition.

If you think you can do better - why not enter headline of the month?

The winning entry each month, and the person who nominates them, will receive a bottle of Jura single malt whisky - and they will also enter into the running to win an exclusive weekend away on the Isle of Jura.

The deadline for entries to this month’s competition is 17 August.

No knee-jerk reactions at Northcliffe to brothel story

Posted by Axegrinder on 8 August 2009 at 15:42
Tags: Christine Rayner, Northcliffe Media, the News

A week ago, Axegrinder revealed that The News in Rochester, Kent, had run a page-three story about claims a “brothel” was operating from premises above Labour Party offices in the town. The weekly paper ran the story even though the very same edition of The News carried an advert from the alleged operators of the “vice-den”, an outfit called A Touch of Class.

Axegrinder asked editor Christine Rayner if The News would continue to carry adverts in its Adult Services section from A Touch of Class but she failed to respond to our emails.

But seven days on and the latest edition of The News (part of Northcliffe Media) appears … with another advert from A Touch of Class, where “specialist services” start from £60.

A weaker paper might have cancelled the sleazy ads in a knee-jerk reaction to our story, but The News is made of sterner stuff.

Let’s hope Lord Rothermere appreciates this determination to support a small business under fire (not to mention the income from the ads).

If this is the “best subbing operation in the business”…

Posted by Axegrinder on 6 August 2009 at 19:10
Tags: Daily Mail

Last week, the Daily Mail advertised for news subs to “join the best subbing operation in the business”. Judging by Thursday’s paper, perhaps the Mail really does need an injection of new talent.

The paper reports that the two British backpackers accused of faking a robbery in Brazil are “both 23″ and “graduated from Sussex University in 1997″. When they were both aged 11, presumably.

The Brazilian judiciary should prove a pushover for such talented legal brains.