Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 15:03
Tags: National Newspapers
The Sunday Telegraph veteran reporter John Gaskell has died of a heart attack.
According to the Independent on Sunday, a memorial event at El Vino is being planned for the “charming, modest man” noted for his colour writing.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 14:46
Tags: National Newspapers
The Daily Sport is reported to be planning up to 20 job cuts, as new editor Barry McIlheney and consultant James Brown look to turn around the title.
According to the Observer, the move towards a leaner editorial team comes after Sport Media Group warned falling ad revenues were putting pressure on the paper.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 14:44
Tags: National Newspapers
Associated Newspapers is looking to more than treble the circulation of its new Indian daily newspaper, Mail Today, according to the Observer.
The publisher has already spent more than £2m on the title, which is a joint venture with the India Today group and has an editorial staff of 150. It currently sells 140,000 copies - but is looking to increase that to 500,000 in time.
Associated is just one of many western media groups to have capitalised on India’s booming economy and launched titles in the country. Bauer is rumoured to be next, with an Indian version of Grazia.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 14:35
Tags: Agencies
Thomson Reuters will this week announce plans to axe up to 2,500 jobs, according to the Observer.
The paper says the at the newly merged global news agency is looking to save £375m over the next three years, with analysts predicting five per cent of the workforce could be laid off because of overlaps between the two firms.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 14:28
Tags: National Newspapers
Former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan has paid £12,000 at a charity auction to win the chance to edit the title again… for one day only.
According to the Observer, Morgan was seen “furiously bidding” at the Ian Botham tribute dinner last week, raising money for Leukaemia Research.
He’ll get to go to the paper’s news conference, have lunch with editor Richard Wallace and pick the front page headline, the paper says.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 14:25
Tags: Broadcast, Television
Just days after ITV was fined more than £5m for “for seriously and repeatedly misleading its audience” with its use of premium-rate phone lines, the company is reported to be scrapping all of the non-geographic numbers used at ITV head office.
Last year, the 020 phone numbers for all of ITV’s London staff were turned into 0844 numbers - which charge up to 5p a minute and allow “revenue sharing”, where ITV can receive a per-minute payment for every call it receives.
According to the Observer’s Pendennis column, the numbers are reverting back to normal London phone numbers.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 13:58
Tags: Journalism
The culture secretary, Andy Burnham, is to make an appearance on stage at the Albert Hall this week, playing guitar for parliamentary rock band MP4.
Burnham, who according to the Independent on Sunday is “handy with a guitar”, is expected to make his first appearance in the band, made up of a cross-party group of politicans including performers from the Tories, Labour and the SNP.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 13:09
Tags: National Newspapers
The Mail on Sunday will give away the new studio album from Paul McCartney, the paper has confirmed.
The complete 13-track album will be given away free with next week’s paper, following the Mail on Sunday’s giveaway last year of the new Prince CD.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 13:06
Tags: Law, Photography, Regional Newspapers
Local newspapers publishing photos of newly-wed couples signing the register could soon be a thing of the past, over fears that the pics breach data protection rules.
According to the Mail on Sunday, the Home Office is considering banning the classic wedding photo pose because “details taken from the wedding snaps could be used by fraudsters planning identity theft”.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 13:01
Tags: National Newspapers
The Sunday Times has issued an apology to Anna Cole, the ex-girlfriend of comedian Steve Coogan.
“An interview with Steve Coogan was illustrated with a photograph of Mr Coogan taken in 2004 with Anna Cole - who was described as his “then girlfriend” – and her children. In fact, the relationship ended in 1996,” the paper said.
“We apologise for any distress caused by the error and by invading the privacy of Ms Cole and her children in publishing the photograph and information about the schooling of Mr Coogan’s daughter.”
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 12:52
Tags: National Newspapers
The Sunday Times has apologised after it miscalculated the net worth of British architect Richard Rogers in its annual Rich List.
“We wrongly assumed that the stake held by Richard Rogers in Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners is worth £40m,” the paper said.
“We are now aware that … Lord Rogers only owns two ordinary shares with a nominal value of £1 each.”
The paper has withdrawn the entry for Lord and Lady Rogers from its website, and said next year’s Rich List will reflect this.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 12:44
Tags: Media Business, National Newspapers
Rupert Murdoch has abandoned plans to buy the New York suburban daily Newsday.
News Corp said it was “uneconomical” to raise its bid, after its original $580m bid for the title was met with a rival $650m offer by TV operator Cablevision.
New York Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman is still reported to be in the race to take control of the paper.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 12:37
Tags: National Newspapers
Former Sunday Telegraph editor Patience Wheatcroft has been hired by new London mayor Boris Johnson to help him “save substantial sums” at City Hall.
According to the Telegraph, Wheatcroft is heading a group of auditors who will advise Johnson on potential cutbacks. The first cuts are due to be announced on Monday, and the group’s full report is due within three months.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 12:30
Tags: Media Business, National Newspapers, New Media
Rumours that News Corp is looking to buy web video provider Blinkx have sent shares in the online firm up more than 50 per cent, according to the Telegraph.
Rupert Murdoch’s company is reported to be considering a 60p-a-share bid for the video search firm, which counts the Guardian and Channel Five among its 200-plus partners.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 12:26
Tags: National Newspapers
The Guardian’s newsroom restructure - which will bring together journalists from the Guardian, Observer and Guardian.co.uk - will lead to a number of senior staff taking voluntary redundancy, the Daily Telegraph has claimed.
According to the paper, the four new “platform-neutral” roles of head of national, international, business and sport news have been advertised internally this week.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 12:20
Tags: Broadcast, Media Business, Television
The parent company of Panorama producer Mentorn has agreed in principle to a £44.7m takeover bid by private equity house Vitruvian Partners.
Tinopolis, which also owns sports indie Sunset+Vine, has recommended shareholders accept the offer, which would make it the latest in a string of publicly-listed companies to go back into private hands.
The FT says the move is further evidence that investors are falling out of love with small companies.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 11:52
Tags: Magazines, Media Business
B2B publisher United Business Media said this week that trading was slightly ahead of its expectations.
In a trading update, the parent company of Building and Music Week publisher CMPi, said that despite a generally strong trading performance so far this year, CMPi’s print portfolio “has been mixed”.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 11:47
Tags: National Newspapers
The Jewish Chronicle editor, David Rowan, has defended the title’s decision not to include Sir Alan Sugar and Chelsea boss Avram Grant in its annual list of the 100 most powerful Jewish people in Britain.
“For all of their wider influence, they were deemed to have limited impact on the UK Jewish community,” Rowan tells the Times.
The Times comment editor, Daniel Finkelstein, is included in this year’s list. He came in at number 11.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 11 May 2008 at 11:40
Tags: Magazines
The “Rolls Royce of celebrity journalism”, Hello! magazine, celebrates its 20th anniversary this month.
In a piece on Saturday entitled “the real curse of Hello!”, the Daily Mail argues that the magazine has been the driving force in opening up the world of celebrities to public scrutiny – fuelling what it calls today’s “warped celebrity culture”.
The Sunday Times agrees that Hello! “created a Frankenstein’s monster that has left the master’s control” and reveals that, despite the magazine’s glossy, high production values, the behind-the-scenes operation at the magazine has been “shambolic” in the past.
The Independent, meanwhile, has issued a clarification after it failed to credit any of the pictures in its piece on Hello!’s anniversary, which appeared in Friday’s paper.
Posted by
Martin Stabe
on 9 May 2008 at 17:29
Tags: Magazines, Online
Economist.com has unveiled a demo version of its new homepage and is asking for readers’ feedback before it goes live on Monday.
In an e-mail to newsletter subscribers, the new design is described as “an evolution, not a revolution” and explains that the preview has been created “so that the change does not come as too much of a surprise on Monday”.
The new design includes many of the features that have been on many news sites in recent years, such as “most read” and “most commented” lists.
Guardian creative director Mark Porter notes that “the picture trails at bottom right bear a striking resemblance to a feature of a well-known newspaper site”.
