Observer’s web-first experiment

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 9 February 2007 at 17:42
Tags: Journalism

The Observer claimed today that it was one of the first Sunday newspapers to stick a story up on the internet rather than save it for the paper on Sunday.

While the reaction of some journalists on weekly publications to this news may be “woopy do, we’ve been banging out web breaking news as well print exclusives for years” - it does raise interesting questions about how Sunday newspapers should go about using the internet.

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Journalist named in cash for honours inquiry

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 14 July 2006 at 16:53
Tags: Journalism

UK politics blogger Guido Fawkes believes Channel Four News anchor Jon Snow and Jasmin Albhai-Brown have both been questioned by police in connection with the current cash-for-peerages inquiry.

Congratulations Dear Bill - Deedes marks 75 years in journalism

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 19 June 2006 at 10:35
Tags: Journalism

The Daily Telegraph’s most distinguished columnist, Sir Bill Deedes, marks 75 years in journalism this week. At 93, the former Telegraph editor is still a regular contributor to the paper.

In today’s Telegraph, his biographer Stephen Robinson provides a fascinating rundown of his career so far.

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Fact mirrors fiction for Fielding and Jones

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 22 May 2006 at 10:57
Tags: Journalism

Helen Fielding, who revived her column Bridget Jones for The Independent last year, is pregnant. While Fielding is expecting her second  child at 46, the star of her fiction column - Jones - is expecting her first child at nearly 40.

News 24 Wrongguygate update

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 16 May 2006 at 09:28
Tags: BBC, Journalism, Sun

The Sun has managed to track down the apparently innocent bystander ushered into the News 24 studio and quizzed about the ramications of the Apple iTunes versus Apple Corps legal battle.

It turns out that Guy Goma was waiting to be interviewed for an IT job when he was mistaken for real IT pundit Guy Kewney.

Goma told the Sun: “When I realised I was already on air, what could I do? I just tried to answer the questions and stay calm.”

Economist tackles blogs, podcasts and “metaverses”

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 20 April 2006 at 11:38
Tags: Blogs, Economist, Journalism, Podcasting, Wikis

Blogs, interactive journalism, wikis, podcasts and something called metaverses are all the subject of a special report in this week’s Economist out tomorrow.

According to author Andreas Kluth: “The era of new media is giving way to one of personal and participatory media.”

In addition to the report the Economist has a podcast series including interviews with: David Sifry of Technorati; Chris Anderson of Wired magazine; Jerry Michalski, founder and president of Sociate; and Paul Saffo and Roy Amara of the Institute For The Future.

Where’s George Galloway?

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 3 April 2006 at 09:31
Tags: Journalism, News of the World

The News of the World’s promised George Galloway revelations failed to materialise this weekend.

The Respect MP issued a press release on Wednesday night threatening to un-mask the NoW’s investigations editor Mazher Mahmood and saying that he had been the victim of his trade-mark fake shiekh sting.

The NoW said it would publish the results of its investigation this Sunday - but the only MP-related expose in Sunday’s paper was news of Boris Johnson’s latest extra marital “scrum down”.

Could it be that Galloway’s threats hit home?

Sindy’s bizarre take on Jowell scandal

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 6 March 2006 at 12:19
Tags: Independent on Sunday, Journalism

News that Tessa Jowell was splitting from her husband broke on Saturday leaving the Sunday papers all casting around for a fresh line on the affair.

The Independent on Sunday secures top marks for originality by dividing the figure for David Mills’ alleged bribe by 1000 and using that as the word-count for a story headlined: The £344,000 saga in 344 words.

Whatever next?

Micklethwait is bookies’ favourite for Economist job

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 27 February 2006 at 16:39
Tags: Economist, Magazines

Journalists with the inside track on who is to succeed Bill Emmott as editor of The Economist could cash-in at the bookies.

Paddy Power has offered odds on what it sees as the ten front-runners. It has Economist US editor John Micklethwait as even-money favourite followed by the million-selling mag’s UK editor Emma Duncan.

The runners are: even-money Micklethwait, 6/4 Emma Duncan, 6/1 Matthew Bishop, 7/1 Ed Carr, 8/1 Gideon Rachman, 10/1 Christopher Lockwood, 16/1 Clive Crook, 100/1 Boris Johnson.

Other prices are available on request.

Ricky Gervais leaves Guardian to cash in on podcast

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 23 February 2006 at 11:34
Tags: Guardian, Podcasting

Comedian Ricky Gervais has evidently cottoned-on to the fact that giving away his weekly radio show free on Guardian Unlimited wasn’t the smartest business move.

After clocking up more than three million downloads to become the most requested podcast ever Gervais has opted to move the show to a pay website.

In a recent podcast he joked “I have been a fool” to give it away for free.

The last Guardian podcast of the Ricky Gervais show goes out on 20 February. From Tuesday, 28 February, fans will be able to pay to hear his new series at a rate of $6.95 for four programmes via iTunes or Audible.com.