Video: Watch the new ad campaign for The Economist

Posted by Aduke Thomson on 2 July 2009 at 16:08
Tags: Journalism

The Economist is launching its first cinema ad campaign in eight years in a bid to reach out to people who wouldn’t consider themselves to be Economist readers.

The “Red Wires” campaign includes this 70-second ad aimed at attracting more “intellectually curious” readers to the weekly title.

Last year, the magazine carried out a survey which found that more than three million university students had the same interests as those covered by The Economist.

The ad uses the image of a man walking through a city on a series of red wires with the strapline: “Let your mind wander”.

Each wire represents a thought inspired by reading The Economist.

The ad will be released in cinemas tomorrow and shown during Channel 4 News on Sunday 5 July.

Gannett blogger Jim Hopkins calls it a day

Posted by Joe Johnson on 2 July 2009 at 15:32
Tags: National Newspapers

Former USA Today editor Jim Hopkins is shutting down his Gannett blog, which since 11 September 2007 has kept track of the goings-on at America’s biggest newpaper publisher.

Hopkins claims the site gets more than 10,000 monthly page visits, ranking it in the top eight per cent of all blogs, according to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008.

Hopkins cited poor health and an end to the natural shelf life of his blog as the main reasons behind his decision.

He said: “In the past year, I have lost quite a bit of weight as I’ve neglected proper nutrition and exercise.

“I could have made better choices, to be sure. But I am a very competitive journalist.

“I wanted this to be the best newspaper blog possible, because I think the employees deserve that much.”

“Gannett Blog always had a built-in expiration date of two or three years.”

“I may also pursue film/online video training next year, once I’ve returned to San Francisco.

“I’ve received positive encouragement from people far more expert than me, based on the videos I’ve knocked out with only my MacBook and YouTube as my publishing platform.”

“So, there’s lots and lots of journalism-related opportunities ahead for me.”

Gannett employs 41,500 people which makes it one of the largest private employers in America.

It is continuing to make cuts, with 1,400 redundancies announced yesterday as the slump in advertising revenue continues to take its toll.

Journalists against the war: ‘We are reading rewritten MoD press releases’

Posted by Jenny Williams on 1 July 2009 at 17:58
Tags: Journalism

Media Workers against the War and the Stop the War Coalition have organised a public meeting on 13 July for journalists and others who are opposed to the war in Afghanistan.

According to FT journalist David Crouch, who is one of the organisers, “the public is being mis-informed, Afghanistan is very under reported in the British press, the MOD has clamped down very strictly and what we are reading is no more than rewritten MoD press releases”.

Speakers will include photographer Guy Smallman, investigative journalist Stephen Grey and Guardian columnist Seumas Milne amongst others.

The event starts at 7pm and is taking place at the Friends Meeting House on Euston Road in London.

Sport mag brings forward publication date for the Ashes

Posted by Aduke Thomson on 1 July 2009 at 15:14
Tags: Consumer Magazines, Magazines

England cricketer Andrew Flintoff is to guest edit next week’s special Ashes issue of free weekly magazine Sport.

For one week only Sport will go on sale on Wednesday instead of Friday to coincide with the start of the test series against Australia in Cardiff.

Flintoff, the star member of the 2005 Ashes-winning squad, worked closely with the staff as well as setting his own questions for the captains of each of the teams.

He said: “In my career I have experienced every side of the press – good things and bad things – so I was happy to be Guest Editor of Sport this week so I could make a magazine the way I like it. I asked for a feature on my team-mates, the fans, my darts idol Wayne Mardle and some big pictures of motorbikes and base jumping. I’m not a big reader so I like a magazine with big pictures!”

Russian anti-corruption journalist dies after ‘revenge attack’

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 1 July 2009 at 10:54
Tags: National Newspapers, press freedom

The editor of a Russian newspaper called Corruption and Crime has died from head injuries.

According to AP, police say Yyacheslav Yaroshenko, 63, hurt his head in a drunken fall. But, AP reports that colleagues “are sure it was a revenge attack for muckraking journalism”.

Russian is considered the third most dangerious country in the world for journalists after Iraq and Algeria. Some 50 journalists have been killed in Russia since the end of the Soviet era.

Nick Ferrari quits Press TV amid bias claims for Iranian channel

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 1 July 2009 at 10:34
Tags: Broadcast, Radio, Television

LBC radio presenter and former Sun journalist Nick Ferrari has put his money where his mouth is and quit his regular spot on London-based Iranian TV channel Press TV in protest at its coverage of the Iranian election protests.

Martin Fletcher, writing in The Times, describes how Press TV was launched two years ago to break the “stranglehold” of the Western media.

Ferrari told The Times that Press TV’s news coverage had been “reasonably fair” until the election but that it is not any longer. He said: “I imagine they’ve been told what to do, and I can’t reconcile that with working there.”

A Press TV journalist who recently appeared on the Today programme appeared to be slavishly following the Iranian government line when he refused to countenance any suggestion that the recent presidential election was anything but 100 per cent above board.

Obscenity prosecution dropped in Girls Aloud violent porn case

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 29 June 2009 at 12:57
Tags: Law, New Media, Online

The Crown Prosecution Service has dropped a rare case brought under the Obscene Publications Act against a man who wrote a violent pornographic story about the pop group Girls Aloud.

The report appeared on a website and one of the reasons the CPS dropped the case was that it was difficult to find online.

Jo Glanville, editor of Index on Censorship, said: “Since the landmark obscenity cases of the 60s and 70s, writers have been protected from such prosecutions and have remained free to explore the extremes of human behaviour. This case posed a serious threat to that freedom.”

ITV to drop ITN news service from its website

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 29 June 2009 at 10:37
Tags: Broadcast, Mobile, New Media, Online

ITV has further signalled its retreat from news after revealing that it is to stop carrying news supplied by ITN on its website as of next month.

The move will result in the loss of five journalists’ jobs.

The Guardian reports that ITN’s multimedia division, ITN On, will stop supplying content to the ITV website as of 22 July.

Last September ITV announced plans to cut 40 per cent of its 1,075 regional news staff.

Ben Bradshaw: ‘Why this obsession with Today programme?’

Posted by Paul McNally on 29 June 2009 at 07:25
Tags: Journalism

Ministers must stop “dancing to the tune” of Radio 4’s Today programme and show more “respect” for announcing policy decisions in parliament first.

That’s according to Ben Bradshaw, the new culture secretary and a former BBC journalist, in an interview with the Independent on Sunday.

“The BBC will have to change its news timings to fit in with the new respect that we’re going to give parliament,” Bradshaw says.

“Why this obsession with the Today programme? Why should we dancing to the tune of the BBC, of Radio 4’s news agenda?”

Sunday Mirror apologises for Paul Scholes betting story

Posted by Paul McNally on 29 June 2009 at 07:22
Tags: National Newspapers

The Sunday Mirror has apologised to footballer Paul Scholes over a story published last week with the headline: “Paul Scholes puts £46k on three horses and wins £240k”.

The paper said yesterday: “Last week, relying on a source we believed to be credible, we claimed that Manchester United star Paul Scholes placed bets totalling £46,000 on three horse races within two days and won £240,000.

“We now accept that Paul did not place bets on any of these races and therefore did not win the sum set out. We offer Paul our apologies.”

The original article has been taken down from the mirror.co.uk website - but the headline and intro still show up in search results and on Google News.

BBC defends 400-plus staffing at Glastonbury Festival

Posted by Paul McNally on 29 June 2009 at 07:17
Tags: Broadcast, Television

The BBC has defended its decision to send 405 people to cover the Glastonbury Festival - almost as many as the 437 it sent to last summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

125 staff, 150 freelances and 130 short-term contractors were at the event this weekend, according to the Mail on Sunday.

The BBC produced 111 hours of television coverage, more than 60 hours of radio output and a website featuring 600 pages and 57 hours of video.

A spokesman told the Sunday Times: “Our coverage of the festival is not comparable with the Olympics. We are the official broadcast partner to Glastonbury and are responsible for all broadcast infrastructure and transmission. Our pictures will be used around the world.”

Student hoax wins magazine photojournalism prize

Posted by Paul McNally on 29 June 2009 at 07:14
Tags: Magazines, Photography

It was a worthy winner of Paris Match magazine’s annual €5,000 prize for student photojournalism - a powerful black-and-white double-page spread documenting how impoverished French students were prostituting themselves and foraging through bins for food.

Until the winners admitted that all of the photos had been faked.

In their acceptance speech, Guillaume Chauvin and Rémi Hubert said they did it to expose the “voyeurism” and gullibility of the press.

“There was nothing in the rules of the competition to say that rigged photos were banned,” Hubert said.

Independent News & Media looks to sell Irish Daily Star

Posted by Paul McNally on 29 June 2009 at 07:09
Tags: Media Business, National Newspapers

Independent News and Media is considering selling its 50 per cent stake in the Irish Daily Star, a move that could raise about £12.5m.

According to the Mail on Sunday, INM told potential buyers last week that it would listen to offers for the 105,000-circulation tabloid and its Sunday sister title.

The company has until 24 July to raise enough cash to pay back a £170m bond with interest.

Elisabeth Murdoch makes the Grade for ITV top job

Posted by Paul McNally on 29 June 2009 at 07:06
Tags: Broadcast, Television

Rupert Murdoch’s daughter, Elisabeth, is being tipped by the Sunday Telegraph as a potential candidate for the job of ITV chief executive.

Murdoch, the founder of TV production company Shine, is being talked up because of her “understanding of international media and her entrepreneurial skills”, the paper says.

Michael Grade announced in April that he would be stepping down as ITV executive chairman but hoped to stay on as non-executive chairman.

According to the FT, the global search for a new chief executive will result in a shortlist of six candidates. The internal candidates are reported to be commercial director Rupert Howell and chief operating officer John Cresswell.

Other names linked to the job include former GCap Media chief executive Fru Hazlitt, Google’s European operations director Nikesh Arora and BBC Worldwide chief executive John Smith.

The FT and the Sunday Times both say that former BSkyB chief executive Tony Ball, who was tipped to be a suitable candidate, is not on the list.

An announcement is expected within weeks. The Sunday Telegraph says ITV wants to name a replacement for Grade in time for its half-year results on 6 August.