Met Police changes press photographer guidelines

Posted by Neil Vowles on 31 July 2009 at 11:12
Tags: Journalism, Law, National Union of Journalists, Photography, press freedom

The Metropolitan Police has clarified its rights to inspect photographs taken in public following complaints by the NUJ.

The original Met guidelines issued earlier this month for professional and amateur photographers claimed that under the Terrorism Act 2000, police had the right to view images taken in public.

The guidance has now been updated to clarify that officers can only view images belonging to photographers they reasonably suspect to be terrorists.

Roy Mincoff, NUJ’s legal officer, said: “It is good to see that the police have listened to some of what we have been saying and the new guidance is certainly an improvement. Let’s hope that this marks a recognition on the part of the police that they must take the concerns of photojournalists seriously. We will be monitoring to see if the changes are reflected in practice.”

The original ruling also recognised the right of the media to take photographs in public without interference from police or need for permits and tsaid hat police officers needed to obtain a court order before viewing photojournalists’ images. This section has not been altered.

The guidance followed criticism of police treatment of photographers in a number of high profile protests this year, including the G20 and Tamil demonstrations in April.

Mirror’s 3am Girls to get their own website

Posted by Neil Vowles on 30 July 2009 at 15:41
Tags: National Newspapers, New Media, Newspapers, Online

The Daily Mirror’s gossip column is to get its own website in attempt to tap into an increasing online demand for up-to-date celebrity news.

The 3am site will seek to emulate the success of big US sites such as paparazzi site tmz.com, which broke news of Michael Jackson’s death, and celebrity blogger perezhilton.com, reports the Guardian.

But in contrast to these websites’ occasional caustic tones, the site is promising to replicate the “fun attitude” of the 3am newspaper column that was first launched in 2000 and became renowned for its reporters’ endless party stamina. 

Under development for six months, 3am.co.uk will offer 24-hour celebrity news, video and blogs. 

The launch forms part of Trinity Mirror’s aims to increase its audience of all its sites to 24 million unique users by 2011 from its current figure, by Trinity’s own estimates, of 16.6m in June.

Microsoft wants regional press hook-up

Posted by Neil Vowles on 29 July 2009 at 14:50
Tags: Media Business, New Media, Online, Regional Newspapers

MSN, Microsoft’s news and entertainment site, is seeking to link up with local newspapers to create hyperlocal news feeds that it can integrating with with its postcode-searchable maps on MSN Local.

The feeds would be linked into the site which aleady allows users to search for properties, crime rates and political information in their local areas.

Peter Bale, executive producer of MSN UK, told the Telegraph that MSN “might pay” publishers for the feeds or could come to an arrangement where hyperlinks in each story would drive traffic back to the newspaper sites.

Bale added: “We are hoping to take feeds from local news and tag every pice of information to a map. Hyper local news online has never been more important and we think this is a really interesting growth area.”

Apple and HMV execs lead race for ITV boss role

Posted by Neil Vowles on 29 July 2009 at 10:09
Tags: Broadcast, Media Business, Television

Top executives from Apple and HMV are reported to be leading the race to take over from Michael Grade as ITV chief executive.

Senior ITV sources suggest to the The Times that Pascal Cagni, a London-based Frenchman and Apple’s most senior executive in Europe, is favourite to land the role.

Also to emerge from interviews ten days ago as a contender is Simon Fox, who has revived HMV in his time as chief executive at the music retailer.

The probability that ITV’s appointment will be an external candidate was heightened as Rupert Howell, ITV’s commercial director, told friends he was no longer in the running.

Grade’s deputy, operating officer John Cresswell, is considered as a fall-back option but his appointment would scupper Grade’s hopes to remain on as non-executive chairman as shareholders are demanding an outsider fills at least one of the two senior roles at the broadcaster.

An announcement could be made as early as next week as the ITV board meets to approve its half-year results, although the Guardian report that September is a more likely announcement date.

One applicant who is thought to have failed to impress the nominations committee headed by former HBOS chief exec Sir James Crosby was Tony Ball, previously BSkyB chief executive, who was said to have received a “frosty reception”.

A former front-runner for the role, Ball’s decision to join BT as a non-exec director last month may have created a conflict of interest issue.

Lebedev in Independent takeover talks, reports claim

Posted by Neil Vowles on 28 July 2009 at 13:53
Tags: Journalism, Media Business, National Newspapers

Alexander Lebedev last week met Gavin O’Reilly, chief executive of Independent News & Media, to discuss the possible sale of the Independent, claims Mediaweek, quoting ” a source close to the deal”.

The Russian owner of the London Evening Standard told Media Week: “It would be interesting and we are inside the picture. But they have certain issues to be resolved.”

Those issues could include INM’s negotiations with bondholders over debt repayments and an agreement that will need to be reached between the two parties over syndicating The Independent’s content to other papers in the INM stable.

Lebedev, who owns a 74.9 per cent stake in the Standard, added: “There exists synergies between the two newspapers. You have to ask yourself does The Independent have an audience and a niche and do you have to take tough decisions, like redundancies?”

The Independent sale would raise much needed cash for INM, which last week agreed to extend negotiations with bondholders until 27 August over its 1.4m (euros) debt.

Marie Claire announces autumn makeover

Posted by Neil Vowles on 28 July 2009 at 12:43
Tags: Journalism

Marie Claire is set for an “injection of fun” as it undertakes a major relaunch with its September issue and a £1m marketing campaign.

The redesign is being spearheaded by new editor-in-chief, Trish Halpin, who took over from longtime editor Marie O’Riordan in February.

The relaunched mag will feature a new sections on sex and relationships, a new shopping section ‘Straight to Style’, new beauty pages alogn with resurrecting the food section to its lifestyle pages.

According to publisher’s IPC Media, the Marie Claire relaunch follows its biggest ever research and development programme consulting over 130 women.

Editor-in-chief Trish Halpin said: “This new vision builds on Marie Claire’s reputation for award-winning journalism and outstanding fashion. An injection of fun, a stronger emotional connection with our audience, and a fresh modern look will seal Marie Claire’s position as the UK’s biggest-selling fashion glossy.”

Cheery newspaper launched

Posted by Neil Vowles on 28 July 2009 at 12:36
Tags: Journalism, Regional Newspapers

A community newsletter that will focus solely on positive news has been launched in the North-East.

Coastal View will be distributed to 20,000 homes and businesses in the Redcar and Cleveland area.

The 16-page free colour tabloid is to be part funded from a local enterprise grant and advertising, any profits that the newspaper makes will be invested into the community.

Editor David Honeywell told Press Gazette: “I was thinking of launching a newspaper of some description and after a bit of market research it was clear people in the area wanted something a bit more positive.

“There is lots of positive news of regeneration in the area and businesses launching and this sort of positive stuff just doesn’t get much coverage.”

The newspaper is part of a social enterprise that Honeywell hopes will also involve training local children in journalism.

Portsmouth FC lifts ban on local paper - but is it temporary?

Posted by Neil Vowles on 27 July 2009 at 16:27
Tags: Journalism, Regional Newspapers

Reporters from the Portsmouth News have again been granted access to their local Premier League side after the club excluded them from all press areas five months ago.

The News had been denied access by Portsmouth FC to training sessions, press conferences and to the press areas at home games in February after the Johnston Press owned title ran a story claiming the FA Cup, which Portsmouth won in 2008, had been damaged while in the club’s care.

News reporters were allowed back in last week to cover a pre-season home friendly, although the club have told Press Gazette the lifting of the ban had not yet been confirmed.

A club spokesman said: “The ban has been lifted with a view to it being official but we are still to sit down with them. We’ve let them into games as a gesture of goodwill but we will need to look back at how the story happened in the first place and look forward to how we work together in the future.”

News sports editor Howard Frost told Press Gazette relations between reporters and the club had returned to normal.

Frost said: “The club have been helpful in giving us access to players, although they are still a bit tentative about who we speak to.

“The ban hadn’t harmed our coverage too much as we managed to find ways around it. With Portsmouth being in the Premiership it wasn’t the toughest thing to still get the story.

Frost added: “The ban will not affect at all how we cover any negative stories in the future.”

Johnston Press offers five per cent stake to lenders, claims report

Posted by Neil Vowles on 27 July 2009 at 12:29
Tags: Journalism

Johnston Press is offering lenders five per cent of the company as part of its debt restructuring plan, according to reports.

The publisher is hoping to extend repayment deadlines and reset covenants on its £450m debt part of which could see lenders given warrants for subscribe to a five per cent stake in exchange for their support, claimed the Financial Times.

Under those terms there would be no reduction of the £450m debt as part of the deal.

The Edinburgh-based company, which publishes the Scotsman and Yorkshire Evening Post newspapers, was granted a two month stay of execution in June when lenders agreed to defer testing debt covenants until 31 August.

In May, the company acknowleged its failure to attract a suitable bid for its Republic of Ireland newspapers meant that the breaching of its financial convenants was a “strong likelihood.”

Dutch journalist wins phone bugging ruling

Posted by Neil Vowles on 27 July 2009 at 12:14
Tags: Journalism, Law, press freedom

A Dutch court has ruled the tapping of a journalist’s phone by the country’s secret service (AIVD) to uncover the source of a government leak was illegal.

Jolande van der Graaf, a journalist for De Telegraaf newspaper, reported in March that AIVD had passed on misleading information to the Dutch cabinet in the build-up to the Iraq War in 2003, which the Dutch government supported.

In an almost complete reversal of the current News of the World phone hacking allegations, both van der Graafe and her editor-in-chief had their phones tapped by AIVD as part of a covert surveillance operation.

A court in Amsterdam ruled last week the act was unlawful and information gathered in the phone taps could be used as evidence.

Lawyers for De Telegraaf had argued that AIVD could only act as they did if there was an imminent threat to national security and as the documents were now over five years old this was not the case.

According to reports in the Dutch media, AIVD is expected to appeal against the Amsterdam court ruling.

In an earlier case, another Dutch court ruled the security services were right to raid van de Graaf’s home because as a journalist she had no right to be in possession of classified documents.

der Graafe had refused to hand over secret documents in her possession to the security services, prompting the raid and the seizure of a number of items.

AP tracking system to crackdown on unauthorised use of content

Posted by Neil Vowles on 24 July 2009 at 13:27
Tags: Journalism, Media Business, New Media, Newspapers, Online

The national news agency of the United States, the Associated Press, is gong ahead with plans to launch a tagging system that will allow it to track how its stories, images and video are used across the web.

The system, which has been devised to guard against unauthorised online use, has built-in beacons that will notify AP whether the content it sends out is being used in accordance with its terms of use.

The technology it uses has been developed by the Media Standards Trust, the London-based nonprofit research and development organisation.

Content will be sent in an “informational wrapper” microformat that will allow publishers to specify how they wish it to be used as well as allowing that content to be monitored.

The registry, which will initially just cover AP’s own online content, is set to be extended to content supplied by AP members across the US in early 2010.

AP said wouldfund development and operation of the registry throughout 2010 until the project becomes self-sustaining.

Dean Singleton, chairman of AP’s board of directors, said: “What we are building here is a way for good journalism to survive and thrive.

“The AP news registry will allow our industry to protect its content online, and will assure that we can continue to provide original, independent and authoritative journalism at a time when the world needs it more than ever.”

New York Times post second quarter profits

Posted by Neil Vowles on 24 July 2009 at 12:09
Tags: Journalism, Media Business, Newspapers

The New York Times Co have turned an unexpected second quarter profit of $39.1m (£23.6m).

The 85 per cent rise in profits from a year ago came in spite of a 30 per cent decrease in advertising revenues compared to 2008’s second quarter - with digital ad revenue down 22 per cent.

The profit can in part be attributed to a one-time tax adjustment of nearly $40m and dogged cost cutting, the Huffington Post reports there has been a 19 per cent reduction in staff from this time last year.

An increase in May of the New York Times cover price also helped to boost circulation revenue by 1.5 per cent.

Sunday Sport claims soaring sales

Posted by Neil Vowles on 23 July 2009 at 17:03
Tags: Journalism, National Newspapers, Newspapers

Sport Newspapers is claiming sales of the Sunday Sport to have soared by 22 per cent in the last three months.

Internal figures claim that last week’s sales of the Sunday Sport were almost 87,000 - which they say is an increase of 16,000 sales in 12 weeks. (more…)

PTC New Journalist Awards open for entries

Posted by Neil Vowles on 22 July 2009 at 14:21
Tags: Journalism, awards

Journalists, section editors and designers with less than three years industry experience are being invited to submit their best work the Periodicals Training Council New Journalist Awards 2009.

Submissions will only be accepted for work published between 1 August, 2008, and 31 July this year.

The 26th ceremony prize-giving will be held in London on 20 November.

The closing date for submissions is 18 September, with the shortlist announced online on 7 October.

GQ.com appoints new editor

Posted by Neil Vowles on 22 July 2009 at 12:33
Tags: Journalism

Conde Nast has unvieled Sarah Hecks as the new editor of GQ.com.

Hecks joins the digital division of the international magazine publisher from Mens Health where she is currently acting online editor.

She is set to take up her new role on 27 July when she will replace Camilla McPhie, who is leaving to go freelance.

Heck started her career by freelancing for a variety of men’s publications and national newspapers before joining the editorial team at Men’s Health, moving on to become deputy editor before being appointed acting online editor.

NUJ slams ‘bogus work experience’

Posted by Neil Vowles on 22 July 2009 at 10:54
Tags: Journalism, National Union of Journalists, Student Journalism

The NUJ has heavily criticised “bogus work experience placements” for exploit aspiring journalists as free labour.

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said too many employers used internships as a way of getting work done for free and welcomed new Government plans to improve internship standards.

Dear’s comments follow the publication of the Government’s Unleashing Aspiration report on equality which highlighted internships as one of the ways hopefuls from poorer backgrounds were excluded from entering professions such as journalism.

In a letter to the Guardian, Dear said: “While on-the-job work experience is an essential part of media training, bogus work experience placements are increasingly being used to fill long-term staffing gaps with free labour.”

This resulted, Dear said, in only those with the financial security of well-off families or a willingness to build up massive debts can get into careers in journalism.

“Just when we should be nurturing and supporting the people coming into the industry, media employers are exploiting  dreams and excluding new talent.”

He added: “By ordering proper enforcement of the minimum wage in the media, it could help make our industry a far fairer place.”

Barclay Brothers lent £40m to Telegraph company

Posted by Neil Vowles on 21 July 2009 at 11:19
Tags: Journalism, Media Business, National Newspapers, Newspapers, People

The Barclays’ brothers lent £40m to the company behind the Daily Telegraph last year to tide the business over after it ran up a loss of £33m during 2008.

This is not the first occasion that the Barclays have provided financial support, reports The Times.

Since purchasing the Daily and Sunday Telegraph titles from Conrad Black’s Hollinger International for £665m in 2004 they have provided extra finance on three occassions. 

The accounts filed for the Barclays’ Press Acquisitions do not outline a reason for the loan. A company spokesman told the Times the loan was repaid in April from a £45m cash reserve.

The news follows reports last week that Telegraph Media Group had a pre-tax loss of £15.7m last year.

The group racked up operating profits before exceptional items of £32m, down 6.7 per cent year-on-year. But other costs, notably the £32.9m for terminating the West Ferry joint printing with Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell, contributed to a loss.

Scotsman launches Edinburgh festival website

Posted by Neil Vowles on 21 July 2009 at 08:19
Tags: Newspapers

The Scotsman has launched a new website to bring the latest news on Edinburgh’s festivals.

The site will include show listings and venue guides and will be updated daily with material from journalists on the Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and Edinburgh Evening News.

In addition to the latest festival news, reviews and previews the site, developed by the scotsman.com’s in-house technology team, will include a daily newsletter as well as a photoblog capturing the sights of Edinburgh in festival mood through August and September.

Punters will also get their own say with the chance to leave their comments, reviews and opinions on the site.

Dennis Publishing get their hands on Kontraband

Posted by Neil Vowles on 21 July 2009 at 08:17
Tags: Media Business, New Media, Online

Dennis Publishing has completed the acquisition of Kontraband.com, a global entertainment portal, from Diffusion Media Group.

Kontraband was launched in 1999 and has an audience of over 2.2 million unique users per month. The site offers video, games, jokes, blogs and forums primarily aimed at the lucrative 18-34 year old male market.

The amount Dennis paid for the site was undisclosed. However, the purchase continues Dennis Publishing’s expansion of its online stable.

In May a licensing deal announced digital lads’ mag Monkey was to launch in Sweden, Norway and Denmark by the end of the year.

Kontraband’s editorial team of five will be retained in the move and will work alongside the existing Monkey team.

Video: Walter ‘Uncle Walt’ Cronkite, dead at 92

Posted by Neil Vowles on 20 July 2009 at 11:26
Tags: Broadcast, People, Television

Walter Cronkite, the news anchor revered as the most trusted man in America, has died at the age of 92.

During his 19 years as CBS Evening News host, Cronkite broke the biggest stories to Americans, most famously fighting back tears to announce the assassination of President Kennedy.

The man affectionately known as Uncle Walt also excitedly reported on the first moon landing in 1969 and devoted unprecedented extended reports on the Watergate scandal, according to The New York Times.

Such was Cronkite’s stature he was claimed to have influenced world leaders, despite his reluctance to editorialise. Cronkite’s interviews with the heads of Egypt and Israel in 1977 were credited with helping to open up peace talks between the old foes, reported The Times.

President Johnson upon hearing Cronkite describe Vietnam as a stalemate in a report in 1968 was alleged to have said: “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America”, noted the BBC. Johnson announced two weeks later he would not stand for re-election.

At the height of Cronkite’s popularity, over 70 million Americans would regularly hear him sign off his nightly CBS broadcast with the phrase: “And that’s the way it is”, The Times said.

Cronkite, a father of three, died in his New York home on Friday due to complications related to dementia.