Is Russia U-turn on protecting journalists genuine?

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 3 December 2008 at 14:11
Tags: Journalism

Media rights groups are sceptical over claims by pro-Kremlin officials in Russia that the government is getting serious about protecting journalists, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Although the attack on journalist Mikhail Beketov following his criticism of local authorities has had coverage on state TV and in a government newspaper and has been taken up by a Kremlin advisory body, some are finding it hard to believe that it is genuine and think it could be to detract from the trial of murdered investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Elsa Vidal of media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said: “It is such a U-turn that it’s hard to believe it’s sincere.”

Indian journalist runs into terrorist attack

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 28 November 2008 at 09:54
Tags: Journalism

An Indian journalist desperate for a scoop ran into the Taj Hotel Mumbai during the terrorist attacks, despite police ordering her not to enter the building.

Preeti Acharya from Mumbai based news organisation DNA told Gulf News that when she entered the hotel at 10:45 pm she saw 15 policemen taking positions.

She said: “I can never forget those five hours when I was trapped in the south side lobby of the Taj Hotel. The terrorists were banging on doors, trying to take hostages but did not succeed as the rooms were locked.”
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Thai columnist settles with Tesco Lotus

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 28 November 2008 at 09:35
Tags: Journalism, Law, Newspapers

Thai business columnist Nongnart Harnavilai has reached an agreement with Tesco Lotus after being sued for libel damages of £1.9 million reports Media Guardian.

In her “Buzz” business gossip column in January Harnavilai remarked that the company did not “love” Thailand.

Harnavilai has agreed the wording of a clarification with supermarket giant Tesco Lotus before a judge, which will be published in the newspaper Bangkokbiznews.

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Metro doubles celebrity news content

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 27 November 2008 at 11:47
Tags: Free Newspapers

Daily freesheet for commuters, Metro is having a revamp and a boost in celebrity content, reports Roy Greenslade.

The pagination and editorial/advertising ratio will remain the same, the listings pages will reduce and celebrity news pages “Guilty Pleasures” will increase from two to four pages.

A spokesman told Greenslade it was a “little makeover”, and added that the Metro remains profitable despite the decline in newspaper advertising “for the time being, anyway”.

Spectator and GQ hold joint birthday party

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 27 November 2008 at 11:39
Tags: Consumer Magazines, Magazines

Conde Nast’s style monthly for men, GQ, and right-wing news weekly The Spectator, have more in common than the editors of each writing for the other.

The titles have decided to hold a joint birthday party next week. To celebrate the Spectator turning 180 and GQ turning 20, Matthew D’Ancona (Spectator) and Dylan Jones (GQ) are holding a “combined 200th anniversary” party - “Politics Meets Style”.

The do, at Sir Rocco Forte’s Brown’s Hotel on Albermarle Street, promises a “fascinating mix of political and style insiders”.

Will anyone fit into both categories we wonder?

Government withdraws licence fee cash for Channel 4

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 26 November 2008 at 17:06
Tags: Broadcast, Television

The government has withdrawn plans divert £14m of the BBC licence fee to Channel 4 to help with the cost of the digital switchover and is broadening its funding plans for the broadcaster, reports Media Guardian.

Culture secretary Andy Burnham said today in a written statement to parliament that the debate on the future of public service broadcasting has moved on since the offer of funding, and said that Channel 4’s future funding would be “more wide-ranging”.

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Olympic jest poster from Sun banned by ASA

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 26 November 2008 at 11:29
Tags: Advertising

An advert by the Sun gloating about Britain winning more medals than Australia at the Olympics in Beijing this summer has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for using offensive language.

“”Where the bloody hell are you?” was meant to be a tongue in cheek take on the Australian Tourist Board’s ad campaign using the same slogan, but the ASA said the word bloody could be considered a swear word and told the paper not to use it on a poster again.

Scrapping BBC Local could result in 200 jobs cut at BBC

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 26 November 2008 at 11:19
Tags: Broadcast, Television

The rejection of BBC Local by BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons could result in up to 200 job cuts.

BBC Local was intended to be a UK network of 65 local video-based websites but following much protest from commercial media outlets plans were scrapped last Friday and Lyons told BBC management to concentrate on “improving the quality of existing services.”

Media Guardian reports that the project would have employed 400 staff with a total budget of £68m up to 2013. Around 200 staff would have been recruited from outside the BBC and the remaining 200 were to be from the BBC Nations and Regions operation, whose jobs could now be at risk.

A spokesman said: “We have been implementing a significant savings plan across the nations and regions which involved post closures. These would have been mitigated by transferring as many of those jobs as possible to new local [video] service. However, this will not happen and as the BBC Trust suggests we will make every possible effort to mitigate these job losses in other ways.”

Publisher of US Maxim facing administration

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 24 November 2008 at 13:43
Tags: Consumer Magazines, Magazines

Owner of US version of Dennis’s Maxim magazine, Alpha Media, is struggling with debt and could be put in to administration.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Alpha Media is in restructuring talks that are expected to result in company being turned over to its creditors.

Felix Dennis sold his American publishing arm – which includes a US version of gadget magazine Stuff - to Alpha Media in 2007.

The $250m deal meant that the UK version of Dennis could not export, reducing its circulation dramatically.

Journalists posthumously honoured for exposing Ukrainian famine

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 24 November 2008 at 11:06
Tags: Journalism, People

Two journalists have been posthumously honoured by the Ukraine government for exposing the 1932-33 Ukrainian famine caused by Stalin which led to millions of deaths, reports BBC News Wales.

Millions of Ukrainians starved to death and news of the tragedy was suppressed until Gareth Jones and Malcom Muggeridge wrote about it.

Both were given the nation’s Order of Merit at Westminster in a special commemoration ceremony in London on Saturday, the awards bestowed upon them by the Ambassador of Ukraine, Dr Ihor Kharchenko, on behalf of the President of Ukraine.

The niece of Gareth Jones, Dr Margaret Siriol Colley, has written a book of her uncle’s life.

Jones– who wrote for The Western Mail, The Times and The Manchester Guardian – had his journalistic career was cut short when he was murdered by bandits in Inner Mongolia in 1935.

Telegraph: Government opposed to BBC Local

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 21 November 2008 at 09:52
Tags: Broadcast, Television

Government ministers are strongly apposed to the BBC’s plan to extend its local news coverage, reports the Financial Times, and are examining whether they have the power to block the move if the BBC Trust fails to.

The trust is due to make an initial ruling on BBC Local – an investment of £68 million into local news videos online – today.

The FT is also reporting that the trust is considering telling BBC director-general Mark Thompson that the plan should be delayed for two years until the downturn in press and radio advertising is over and the commercial sector is in better financial health.

And finally - last Trevor McDonald bulletin tonight

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 20 November 2008 at 11:20
Tags: Broadcast, Television

Sir Trevor McDonald will present his last News At Ten bulletin tonight.

McDonald originally retired from ITV’s flagship new bulletin three years ago, but was brought back on a temporary basis at the beginning of the year when ITV relaunched the show to go head to head with the BBC.

Trinidad born McDonald joined ITN as a general reporter 35 years ago and has carried out a number of high profile interviews, including the first British television interview with Nelson Mandela after his release

He said: “I’ve tremendously enjoyed the opportunity to help re-establish News at Ten over the last year … but I’ve made no secret of the fact that I cannot be in the presenter’s chair forever.”

“Anchoring ITV News’s live coverage of a hugely exciting and historic U.S. election seems the opportune moment to leave on a high.”

Mark Austin will replace McDonald.

Murdered Russian journalist trial closed to public and media

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 20 November 2008 at 11:01
Tags: Journalism

The judge presiding over the trial of three men accused of involvement in the murder of the Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya has done a u-turn and ruled that the trial will done in secret.

The decision, which has caused outrage from colleagues, friends and family of Politkovskaya, was made because jurors were afraid that their lives would be in danger.

Activists have suggested that the ruling was part of a campaign to cover up the murder of Politkovskaya, who was strongly critical of  Kremlin’s policies in Chechnya in her career, before being shot outside her flat in Moscow two years ago.

Mullin: Daily and Sunday Independent titles will not merge

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 20 November 2008 at 09:45
Tags: National Newspapers

Independent on Sunday editor John Mullin has said that although there will be some integration between his paper the daily in the latest cost cuts at Independent News & Media, the two papers will not be merged.

Earlier this week the Independent News & Media announced it would be axing 90 jobs, including 60 journalists, from the two papers.

Mullin told Media Guardian said: “As part of the cost-cutting review, there will be some integration between the Independent and the Independent on Sunday but Independent on Sunday will remain a distinct editorial voice with a distinct staff.”

“It is of course a very difficult situation that we find ourselves in but I fervently believe in the Independent and the Independent on Sunday and what we are fighting for.”v

News International rethinks Wapping redevelopment plans

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 19 November 2008 at 14:02
Tags: National Newspapers

After scrapping plans to sell News International’s Wapping site and uproot all staff to a new location, James Murdoch has now said that the publisher has had to delay the revelepment of Wapping.

Media Guaridan reports that Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation Europe and Asia, told staff that the planned redevelopment of Wapping site has been delayed because of the economic downturn.

The redevelopment of the east London site - home to The Sun, News of the World, The Times and Sunday Times - was announced in September when Murdoch confirmed he had had abandoned plans to sell Wapping and instead was planning a “campus for UK businesses” that would include shops.

The redevelopment was planned to be ready by 2012 and would see staff relocated for three years until it was finished. Murdoch said that although design plans were going ahead, the relocation of staff and start of the construction has been put back till the economy improves.

Murdoch’s memo to staff said: “For the News London project, we will continue designing the new building, decommissioning and removing the old presses and working to gain planning permission.

“We will however, delay the immediate decamp and the start of the construction programme planned for next summer, which would involve significant expenditure.

“With the low level of visibility we have of the medium term for the business, this is the right thing to do. We will advise you of the likely new timescales when visibility improves.”

Heffer and Liddle star in Telegraph politics show online

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 19 November 2008 at 13:38
Tags: National Newspapers, New Media, Online

Telegraph TV has launched a new political show starring Simon Heffer and politican pundit Rod Liddle.

The weekly show will be available on telegraph.co.uk and will offer comment and debate on a range of topics including politics and economics.

The show has been designed specifically for the internet and will only be about 5 minutes long.

thelondonpaper threatens to quit NRS over low sampling

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 18 November 2008 at 12:25
Tags: Free Newspapers

News International-owned freesheet thelondonpaper is to quit the National Readership Survey following the paper repeatedly trailing its Associated rival London Lite, reports Media Week.

Thelondonpaper distributes 100,000 more copies than London Lite, but according  to NRS data for October 2007 to September 2008 London Lite has a readership of 1,058,000 - 69,000 more than thelondonpaper.

Whilst the Audit Bureau of Circulations figures reveal the number of copies distributed, the NRS uses a survey of a panel of 36,000 people to calculate how many readers a publication has.

Managing director of thelondonpaper Ian Clark said: “The NRS is misleading and increasingly irrelevant for the free papers when sample sizes remain ridiculously low. There were 312 respondents for thelondonpaper for the last six-month survey, during which time more than 30 million papers were distributed.”

Clarke said he is waiting for a new chief executive to be appointed at NRS before making a final decision whether to withdraw or not.

Managing director at London Lite Steve Auckland said it was “typical of News International”. He said: “If the sample does not fit, they just want to change the currency”.

Reed Business Information chief executive steps down

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 18 November 2008 at 10:34
Tags: B2B Magazines, Magazines

The chief executive of B2B publisher Reed Business Information Gerard van de Aast is to step down next month ahead of parent company Reed Elsevier’s sale of the business publisher.

Van de Aast will surrender his positions on the boards of both RBI and Reed Elsevier and from 15 December, when RBI’s UK chief executive Keith Jones will become acting chief executive for the division worldwide “pending resolution of the current divestment process”.

Van de Aast has been dealing with the attempted auction of RBI, which, due to the current economic crisis, has been delayed and seen the value of the business reduced.

Two new launches show signs of resistance in consumer magazine industry

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 18 November 2008 at 10:25
Tags: Journalism

The consumer magazine industry can breathe a sigh of relief – whilst closures and redundancies are flashing up elsewhere, two big consumer publishers have announced new launches.

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PA Sport swaps snooker strings for website

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 17 November 2008 at 15:15
Tags: Agencies

From December PA Sport will stop taking copy from its regular snooker stringers from early next month and will instead its in-house reporters and the website of the sport’s governing body, World Snooker.

Media Guardian reports that the agency said that will use quotes, statistics and match reports from World Snooker, with some additional reporting.

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