BBC Magazines pre-school title to launch on 24 June

Posted by Nikki Wicks on 11 June 2009 at 15:12
Tags: Journalism, Magazines

BBC Magazines has announced a 24 June launch date for its new pre-school title Waybuloo, which aims to develop children’s social and emotional learning.

The magazine will accompany the CBeebies television series of the same name and will be edited by children’s education specialist Stephanie Cooper.

The fortnightly title will be targeted at three- to five-year-olds and have a cover price of £2.35.

‘You can’t start blogging at 23 and call yourself a journalist’

Posted by Nikki Wicks on 11 June 2009 at 12:18
Tags: Journalism

Best-selling author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell has highlighted the importance of lengthy apprenticeships for journalists.

The author of Tipping Point and former New York bureau chief for The Washington Post, told the Independent that:

“You can’t start blogging at 23 and call yourself a journalist.” (more…)

Telegraph deal with user-generated newswire Demotix

Posted by Nikki Wicks on 4 June 2009 at 16:35
Tags: Journalism

The Telegraph has subscribed to Demotix, a user-generated newswire that allows anyone to post stories and pictures from around the world.

The partnership will see the Demotix Widget appear on the World News page of Telegraph.co.uk, providing images and news stories from its 5,600 users around the world.

The deal is the first in the UK but the Telegraph joins Le Monde in France, Lebanon’s Future News and the Himalayan Times of Nepal.

Justin William, assistant editor at the Telegraph, said: “The Telegraph was the first UK media organisation to spot the immense potential of Demotix and its global network of correspondents.”

Chase Carey returns to News Corp as deputy chairman

Posted by Nikki Wicks on 4 June 2009 at 12:54
Tags: Journalism

News Corp has appointed Chase Carey as its deputy chairman, president and chief operating officer, effective of 1 July.

The appointment marks a return to News Corp for Carey who spent 15 years as a senior executive at the company before becoming chief executive officer of the DIRECTV Group in 2003.

Reporting to Murdoch, Carey will be based in New York and will have oversight of News Corporation’s global operations.

Robert Peston and Alastair Campbell to speak at journalists’ Commons party

Posted by Nikki Wicks on 4 June 2009 at 11:24
Tags: Journalism

The Journalists’ Charity is hosting a fund-raising party on the Terrace at the House of Commons on Thursday, 18 June.

Sky News presenter Anna Botting will chair a panel of guest speakers which includes Alan Duncan MP, Shadow Leader of the House, BBC journalist Robert Peston and Alastair Campbell, former director of communications at Downing Street.

Guests will have a chance to quiz the panel for £10 a question.

The Journalists’ Charity aims to assist all journalists in need, also helping their partners and dependants with grants and other forms of financial assistance.

Why charging for online Sunday Times ‘won’t work’

Posted by Nikki Wicks on 4 June 2009 at 10:30
Tags: Journalism, National Newspapers, New Media, Newspapers, Online

Daily Telegraph communities editor Shane Richmond has listed five reasons why the Sunday Times‘ reported plans to charge for online content won’t work.

Topping his list, Richmond writes in his Telegraph blog that “consumers won’t pay if there’s a free alternative” - an opinion he has expressed in previous posts, suggesting that “getting ‘good enough’ free beats paying for ‘great’.”

Coming in at two, Richmond writes that not even unique commentators such as Jeremy Clarkson will be enough to persuade consumers to part with their cash.

Also on the list, Richmond suggests that the Sunday paper experience of negotiating that vast slab of paper is something that consumers will not be willing to lose with online versions.

David Montgomery: Journalists need to be managers

Posted by Nikki Wicks on 27 May 2009 at 11:14
Tags: Journalism, Media Business, National Newspapers, Newspapers

Mecom boss and former Mirror Group chief executive David Montgomery has said that journalists need to become better managers if they want to have a successful future in the industry.

In an interview in the Telegraph today, Montgomery also said: “The industry has to understand that cost-cutting is here to stay.”

He said: “There is a view among journalists that if managers were any good they’d be journalists.

“What I’m trying to encourage journalists to be is managers themselves – to manage their content.

“If journalists want to go on and have a successful future, then they have got to be commercial.

“They’ve got to be managers. They’ve got the skills and the potential to do that, so why are they embarrassed about that?”

Despite the pressure to cut costs, and what he calls a “bankrupt” and “unviable” business model functioning in the industry, Montgomery does remain confident.

He said: “I have had some anxiety, but the fact of the matter is that newspapers are not going to go out of business.”

Prisoner complains to PCC over Daily Mail brain-eating claim

Posted by Nikki Wicks on 14 May 2009 at 11:44
Tags: Journalism

The Press Complaints Commission has resolved a complaint from a prisoner over allegations in the Daily Mail that the brains of a murder victim were eaten.

David Lant and Robert Maudsley were found guilty of torturing and killing a convicted paedophile in Broadmoor Hospital in 1977.

Lant complained that a Mail article published on 24 November last year was inaccurate when it claimed: “The man’s skull had been cracked open like a boiled egg, with part of the brain missing and a spoon hanging out of the cranium.”

Filing his complaint from HM Prison, Norwich, Lant provided the PCC with a copy of the autopsy report on the murder, which showed that the brain-eating allegation was incorrect.

The Mail resolved the complaint by appending the following statement to its internal database for future reference and writing to all national newspaper groups to inform them of the position.

“An article on Broadmoor of 24 November 2008 stated that, after Robert Maudsley and another patient [David Lant] had tortured and killed a paedophile in 1977, the ‘man’s skull had been cracked open like a boiled egg, with part of the brain missing and a spoon hanging out of the cranium’.

“We have now been informed that the autopsy report into the death made clear that the ’skull is intact and the brain shows no gross evidence of injury’.”

News of the World appoints chief football correspondent

Posted by Nikki Wicks on 14 May 2009 at 10:45
Tags: Journalism, National Newspapers, Newspapers, People

The Daily Mail’s Neil Ashton has been appointed chief football correspondent of the News of the World. Ashton, 35, has been at the Mail for five years and was previously a football writer at The People.

News of the World sports editor Paul McCarthy said: “He comes with a reputation as one of the best story-getters in the business, his contacts are first class and he has a real insight into football as well as a passion for the game which comes through in everything he writes.”

Sunday Times mag design pioneer John Donegan dies

Posted by Nikki Wicks on 14 May 2009 at 10:17
Tags: Magazines, National Newspapers, Newspapers

The man who designed the original Sunday Times magazine, has died.

Cartoonist and graphic designer John Donegan joined the Sunday Times in the early 1960s and went on to design the magazine which when on to set the style in art direction a the time. Launched in 1962, the magazine was the first national newspaper colour supplement.

Donegan was perhaps better known for his work as a cartoonist, contributing to Punch (1975-1991) and the Sunday Express weekly strip Waldo (1981-84).