Katie Price pays libel damages to former manager over Peter Andre affair slur

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 19 March 2010 at 13:09
Tags: Law, National Newspapers, Newspapers

Celebrity Katie Price has agreed to pay substantial libel damages to her former manager Claire Powell after accusing her of having an affair with Peter Andre.

She made the allegation on the BBC Graham Norton show. Although it was edited from the broadcast it appeared in several newspapers, the Daily Mail and others report.

In 2008 Price won an apology and damages from the News of the World over a report claiming that she and Andre were bad parents.

Six new journalism jobs found today

Posted by Press Gazette on 19 March 2010 at 10:07
Tags: Journalism Jobs

Press Gazette has found six new jobs for journalists today. To view the daily archive of our journalism jobs search click on Journalism Jobs. (more…)

BBC apologises over ‘Mr Plod’ caption for pic of dead policeman

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 19 March 2010 at 09:21
Tags: Broadcast, Television

The BBC has apologised after a captioning error which saw it label a photo of dead PC Ian Terry, Mr Plod. The photo appeared during the Six O’clock news. PC Terry was killed in a shooting and his inquest is currently ongoing.

The Telegraph has chapter and verse on this story. It quotes editor of BBC News and Six and Ten James Stephenson:

“In the BBC News at Six we mistakenly used an image of the late Pc Ian Terry. Pc Terry was a firearms officer with Greater Manchester Police. He was killed during a training exercise in June 2008.

”His photograph was used in a report looking at the impact of unemployment on different sectors of the economy. The intention was to use images of individuals which are cleared for this kind of use. Instead an image of Pc Terry was used. We have taken steps to ensure the error is not repeated.

”I would like to apologise unreservedly for the mistake and for any distress caused to Pc Terry’s family, friends and colleagues.”

Sun slates anti-Tory BBC bias citing free ice cream claim of Nasty Dave on Basil Brush

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 19 March 2010 at 08:59
Tags: Broadcast, National Newspapers, Newspapers, Television

The Sun today publishes an investigation alleging that the BBC is Blatantly Biased Against the Conservatives.

Evidence it cites includes an episode of the Basil Brush Show on BBC2 which featured a mock election with a character called “Dave” who won after promising everyone free ice cream but who was later arrested because the dessert turned out to be out of date.

The Sun also claims that Labour panelists are given more time to speak on Question Time and that BBC News gave disproportionate coverage to row over Tory donor Lord Ashcroft’s tax status.

The Sun makes no secret of its own political leanings after signalling last September that it would be urging its readers to vote Conservative.

Meanwhile, exclusive research commissioned for the April edition of Press Gazette magazine is set to show that specific media outlets have very little effect on people’s voting intentions. Watch this space for more on that story.

Metro to launch quarterly travel supplement in London

Posted by Press Gazette on 18 March 2010 at 14:44
Tags: Advertising, Newspapers

Associated Newspapers freesheet Metro is to launch a quarterly travel supplement for London commuters.

From next week, the glossy Metro Journeys will be available with editions of the morning paper distributed in the capital’s mainline stations, tube stations across zones one-to-three and some stations in zone four.

Metro, which distributed an average of 735,492 newspapers each day in the capital last month, said 250,000 copies of the supplement will be distributed over five days.

The supplement, which has been produced and guest-edited by Sarah Baxter of Wanderlust Magazine, will feature two focus destinations, a pull-out-and-keep European summer travel calendar, a UK destination spread and a celebrity travel interview.

First female chairman for Scottish PPA

Posted by Press Gazette on 18 March 2010 at 12:43
Tags: Magazines, People

Magazine trade body PPA Scotland has appointed Helenor Gilmour, DC Thomson’s head of consumer insight and brand development, as its first female chairman.

Gilmour will replace Fraser Allen, of White Light Media, while Hamish Miller, publisher at Holyrood Communications, will replace Steve Craven, of Craven Publishing, as vice-chairman.

The appointments follow former Emap executive Barry McIlheney joining the PPA as its new chief executive in January.

Report: Lord Ashcroft legal pressure delays Panorama investigaion

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 18 March 2010 at 12:29
Tags: Broadcast, Law, Television

Legal pressure has prompted the BBC to shelve a Panorama documentary investigating controversial Conservative Party donor and ‘non dom’ tax exile Lord Ashcroft, The Independent reports.

A BBC team led by James Oliver has travelled to Belize and the Turks and Caicos Islands to investigate Ashcroft, according to The Independent.

Ashcroft is currently suing The Independent over a story it published in November last year making allegations about his business dealings.

In May last year Ashcroft accepted substantial damages, which he gave to charity, and a public apology over claims published on the website that his company the Belize Bank offered customers unlawful tax avoidance advice.

Aschroft is the major shareholder in the monthly magazine for politicians, Total Politics.

Richard Ayre to join BBC Trust

Posted by Press Gazette on 18 March 2010 at 12:16
Tags: Broadcast, People

The former deputy chief executive of BBC News, Richard Ayre, is to join the BBC Trust.

Ayre, who is currently the Ofcom Content Board member for England and chairman of Ofcom’s Broadcasting Review Committee, will replace former ITN editor-in-chief Richard Tait.

Tait will step down on 31 July with Ayre taking up his appointment on 1 August.

Jobs to go at Stratford Herald

Posted by Press Gazette on 18 March 2010 at 09:47
Tags: Newspapers, Photography

Family-owned Midlands newspaper, the Stratford Herald, is to drop three of its ten journalists, according to reports.

Editor Chris Towner told Holdthefrontpage: “Like everybody else we’re having a rough time and it doesn’t look like it’s getting any better. We thought we could weather the storm as we have done in previous recessions but this one has proved deeper, darker and more protracted.”

According to the report, the cuts are unlikely to affect its reporting team, with the posts under threat expected to be news editor, sub-editor and one of the paper’s two photographers.

New York Times in deal with blog aggregator Fwix to provide local content

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 18 March 2010 at 09:23
Tags: Journalism, New Media, Newspapers, Online, Regional Newspapers

The New York Times company has made an agreement with “real time local newswire” Fwix to use content it has aggregated from “local news, blogs and citizen journalism” across the US.

According to the press release, the “umbrella agreement enables the distribution of Fwix’s technology and hyper-local content across any of The New York Times Company’s Regional Media Group properties, as well as other business units such as Boston.com and NYTimes.com”.

Fwix is a technology-driven company which “filters and selects” stories which are locally relevant.

The FT makes much of the story today, saying it is a way of tackling the shortfall in local news funding.

I’m no so sure. Fwix certainly looks like a handy search tool and a way of automating some of the aggregation that many journalists working online spend much of their time doing nowadays.

But original, quality journalism is what drives up readership and underpins editorial value, and no amount of clever algorithms can make up for providing that.

Ten new journalism jobs found today

Posted by Press Gazette on 18 March 2010 at 09:18
Tags: Journalism Jobs

Press Gazette has found ten new jobs for journalists today. To view the daily archive of our journalism jobs search click on Journalism Jobs. (more…)

Scottish plan to allow councils to cease press ads abandoned

Posted by Press Gazette on 18 March 2010 at 08:59
Tags: Advertising, Newspapers, Regional Newspapers

Public notices will continue to be published in local and regional newspapers in Scotland after ministers dropped plans to shift advertising to the internet.

Scottish finance secretary, John Swinney, said yesterday that opposition to the plan aimed at saving councils around £4m each year by removing their obligation to place notices in the press had proved too great.

The move was welcomed by the Scottish Newspaper Society, which highlighted how the decision reflected a recent vote against the proposal taken during a debate in the Scottish Parliament. (more…)

OFT clears Lebedev takeover of Independent

Posted by Press Gazette on 17 March 2010 at 16:14
Tags: Media Business, National Newspapers, Newspapers

The Office of Fair Trading has cleared the likely takeover of the Independent and Independent on Sunday by the Russian billionaire, and owner of the London Evening Standard, Alexander Lebedev.

The OFT issued a mergers update this afternoon:

“The OFT has decided, on the information currently available to it, that a relevant merger situation, under the provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002, has not been created in the following merger(s):

“Anticipated acquisition by Lebedev Holdings Limited of The Independent and The Independent on Sunday.”

The move follows owner Independent News & Media filing a submission over the proposed deal last month. (more…)

Johnston Press starts rollout of new websites

Posted by Press Gazette on 17 March 2010 at 11:07
Tags: New Media, Newspapers, Online, Regional Newspapers

Johnston Press has begun rolling out new versions of its websites – and not before time.

HTFP reports that The Grantham Journal and Peterborough’s Evening Telegraph are “both sporting the revamped online offerings and inviting readers to have their say on the new websites.”

Johnston Press has long been playing catch-up with some, frankly, poor digital versions of its newspapers. The revamp of its websites was long-overdue and the company had recognised it as such. (more…)

Ten new journalism jobs found today

Posted by Press Gazette on 17 March 2010 at 10:37
Tags: Journalism Jobs

Press Gazette has found ten new jobs for journalists today. To view the daily archive of our journalism jobs search click on Journalism Jobs. (more…)

Local reporter finds sex offender in Switzerland

Posted by Press Gazette on 16 March 2010 at 12:39
Tags: Newspapers, Photography, Regional Newspapers

A local press reporter worked with a photographer from a second paper to track down a convicted sex offender who had breached the terms of his licence by moving abroad.

Holdthefrontpage has the remarkable story of how Derby Telegraph crime correspondent Shaun Jepson and Nottingham Evening Post photographer Jemma Cox flew out to Switzerland in the hunt for 48-year-old Richard Guelbert.

Guelbert, who was jailed in 1999 for 12 years for raping a 15-year-old, failed to notify the authorities of a change of address and after an appeal last month to help find five missing sex offenders the East Midlands papers went looking for him.

Both papers splashed the story this morning (Derby piece, Notts piece).

Photojournalist Charles Moore dead at 79

Posted by Press Gazette on 16 March 2010 at 11:47
Tags: Newspapers, People, Photography

Photojournalist Charles Moore, who captured some of the defining images of the United States in the civil rights era, died last week.

Through his iconic Life magazine photographs, Moore helped define the civil rights struggle in the US and helped sway public opinion.

The New York Times reported his daughter, Michelle Moore Peel, saying he died of natural causes – last week at home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, aged 79.

Among Moore’s work he captured images of Martin Luther King Jr being arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1958.

The BBC has compiled a gallery of a number of his images.

Ten new journalism jobs found today

Posted by Press Gazette on 16 March 2010 at 11:29
Tags: Journalism Jobs

Press Gazette has found ten new jobs for journalists today. To view the daily archive of our journalism jobs search click on Journalism Jobs. (more…)