Posted by
Dominic Ponsford
on 29 August 2008 at 13:29
Tags: Media Business, National Newspapers, Newspapers
The Times is rising its price by 10p to 80p from Monday making it cost the same as The Independent, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian reports.
Posted by
Patrick Smith
on 29 August 2008 at 11:13
Tags: Media Business, National Newspapers
Sport Media Group, owners of the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport, yesterday posted a pre-tax profit of more than £6m, before exceptional items.
In a short trading update on the company’s investor site, Sport Media Group said it was pleased with the figures, for the six months to July, and that the board is optimistic for the year ahead.
It is now one month on from the rather unexpected news, broken on PressGazette.co.uk, of former Cambridge Evening Post editor Murray Morse joining the papers as editor-in-chief. The company said it has already seen some “encouraging responses to the changes he has made”.
The company’s annual report is out in November,
Posted by
Rachael Gallagher
on 29 August 2008 at 09:27
Tags: Journalism, National Newspapers
Journalists at the Sydney Morning Herald, the Melbourne Age and the Australian Financial Review went on strike yesterday following owner Fairfax Media’s plan to cut 550 jobs including 180 journalists.
The strike will last until Monday, but chief executive David Kirk said that the newspapers will be published as normal over the weekend.
The cuts included former Observer editor Andrew Jaspan being sacked after four years as editor of The Age in Melbourne.
Posted by
Rachael Gallagher
on 28 August 2008 at 11:00
Tags: National Newspapers
The Financial Times is hosting a debate on its comment pages between the presidents of Russian and Georgia over recent conflict between the two countries.
Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, wrote in the FT on Tuesday this week about why Russia had decided to recognise the independence of the territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Medvedev criticised the west’s interference in the conflict, and wrote: “But the west, ignoring the delicacy of the situation, unwittingly (or wittingly) fed the hopes of the South Ossetians and Abkhazians for freedom. They clasped to their bosom a Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, whose first move was to crush the autonomy of another region, Adjaria, and made no secret of his intention to squash the Ossetians and Abkhazians.”
He went on claim that Russia had no option but to attack Georgia in order to save lives, and said it was “not a war of our choice”.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili responded to Medvedev’s comments in today’s FT, warning Europe that Russia had plans to “redraw the map of Europe using force.
He wrote: “This war was never about South Ossetia or Georgia. Moscow is using its invasion, prepared over years, to rebuild its empire, seize greater control of Europe’s energy supplies and punish those who believed democracy could flourish on its borders. Europe has reason to worry.”
Posted by
Patrick Smith
on 28 August 2008 at 10:48
Tags: National Newspapers, New Media
News International has effectively scrapped its mobile division and merged it with its commercial and digital divisions, reports New Media Age.
Production and delivery of Sun and News of the World mobile content will be handled by existing structures.
Andrew Bagguley, head of mobile, is to leave the company in September and James Davies, head of mobile commercial development, will see his role broaden. Bagguley explains a few things to journalism.co.uk.
NMA reckons the reshuffle is down to the current group-wide cost-cutting review of NI led by Boston Consulting Group.
Posted by
Patrick Smith
on 27 August 2008 at 15:06
Tags: Media Business, National Newspapers
It’s not all bad news for Trinity Mirror in the City these days. This morning Goldman Sachs upped its rating on the beleaguered publisher from “sell” to “buy”, as Times Online reports.
Goldman’s broker was enthusiastic that Trinity’s national titles, The Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and the People, “might prove attractive to potential bidders at the current low valuation”.
Goldman’s target price rose from 85p to 139p for Trinity shares - while the actual share price shot up 5.25p to 104.75p as a result.
The picture was less rosy for Johnston Press, which saw its share price drop 3p to 48p today.
Posted by
Rachael Gallagher
on 26 August 2008 at 11:18
Tags: BBC, Broadcast, Free Newspapers, Journalism, National Newspapers, Radio
Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone will be presenting a new current affairs-based weekly radio show on London commercial station LBC, in which he plans to answer back at his critics.
In an interview in The Independent, Livingstone said: “I’m going to invite on the programme everyone who hates me.”
Top on Livingstone’s list is Evening Standard reporter Andrew Gilligan, who won Journalist of the year at Press Gazette’s British Press Awards earlier this year for his investigations into Livingstone. Livingstone said that Gilligan, whose name is now synonymous with The Hutton Report which found failings in his report on Radio 4’s Today Programme, was responsible for the death of Government weapons expert Dr David Kelly, who was revealed as the source in his report.
Talking about Gilligan doorstepping him, Livingstone said: “If Gilligan hadn’t distorted what Kelly had said, grossly exaggerated it, Kelly would be alive today. I told him to his face, ‘You’ve been responsible for one person’s death, stay away from my family. Get off my doorstep’.”
Livingstone, who writes a monthly column for News International’s thelondonpaper, also attacked the Evening Standard for painting a negative picture of London. “I particularly like thelondonpaper because they set out to have a paper that’s positive about London, whereas if the only thing you knew about London was from the Evening Standard you wouldn’t come here for fear of being mugged, raped or ripped off. It’s all doom, like the Daily Mail.”
Posted by
Rachael Gallagher
on 20 August 2008 at 11:55
Tags: National Newspapers
Former Irish Times sports journalist, Seán Kilfeather, died in Dublin on Tuesday.
Kilfeather, 70, was boxing correspondent for the paper and also had a weekly sports column, Fifth Column.
During his career he also worked at the Evening Mail, Sunday Review and RTE in Dublin.
He was an active member of the NUJ and was made a life member in 2002.
Posted by
Dominic Ponsford
on 18 August 2008 at 17:36
Tags: National Newspapers
The Telegraph is to shut its Berlin bureau.
Media Guardian reports that two further journalists - Graeme Baker and Ben Martin - have resigned from the foreign desk of the paper.
The return of Harry de Quettville leaves just one full-time Telegraph foreign correspondent in Europe - Henry Samuel in Paris - the Guardian reports.
Posted by
Dominic Ponsford
on 14 August 2008 at 11:07
Tags: Law, National Newspapers
The Daily Mail has apologised to Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed for an allegation which was made in a court case.
The paper says that on 20 March the Mail published an agency report of a court case involving an action for the return of jewellery deposited in a Harrods safe deposit box. An allegation was referred to in the case that Al Fayed let his wife select some of the jewellery referred to for her own use.
The Mail has now pointed out that this allegation was not part of the claim and apologised saying there was no suggestion the Al Fayeds acted wrongfully.
Posted by
Patrick Smith
on 13 August 2008 at 10:23
Tags: Media Business, National Newspapers
The FT today turns its spotlight on the continued struggle for public media companies to maintain a healthy share price.
The paper reports that while publishers like Johnston Press and Trinity Mirror have suffered, major local newspaper companies with big exposures to an anemic advertising market, B2B publishers like Reed Elsevier are not immune either.
Posted by
Dominic Ponsford
on 13 August 2008 at 10:19
Tags: Journalism, National Newspapers
Financial Times arts journalist Ian Shuttleworth demonstrated the often contrary nature of members of his profession at a Edinburgh Festival theatre performance where members of the audience were invited to play the part of concentration camp inmates. Shuttleworth refused to enter the gas chamber, the Independent’s Pandora diary reports, despite “repeated screams from the actor to move it” and was left sat on his own leading to allegations that he had sought to “wreck the show”.
Posted by
Dominic Ponsford
on 13 August 2008 at 10:04
Tags: Media Business, National Newspapers, Regional Newspapers
After a recent rally for Trinity Mirror’s share price, broker JP Morgan has downgraded it to “underweight”. Citing the various pressures on newspaper advertising, Morgan said that UK newspaper stocks, which have dropped by 40 per cent since the start of the year, could fall further, The Times states in today’s market report.
Posted by
Meabh Ritchie
on 12 August 2008 at 15:14
Tags: Journalism, National Newspapers
José Mourinho will be writing a column on British football for The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and telegraph.co.uk from this weekend. The former Chelsea manager is already involved in the Telegraph Fantasy Football league which has over 250,000 players.
The Guardian’s Paul Kelso has also been appointed Chief Sports Reporter for The Daily Telegraph and will also report across The Sunday Telegraph and the website. He is currently a sports reporter at the Guardian and is leaving after ten years at the paper.
The Telegraph’s sport reporter Duncan White has been appointed to the post of football correspondent after writing for the paper since 2003.
Posted by
Dominic Ponsford
on 11 August 2008 at 09:14
Tags: Journalism, National Newspapers
Hitchen and Alan Butterfield said they cornered Edwards in a bathroom at the Beverley Hilton Hotel in Beverley Hills last Tuesday. The pair are now filing a criminal complaint against hotel security following a confrontation, Fox News reports.
Posted by
Dominic Ponsford
on 4 August 2008 at 09:32
Tags: National Newspapers
The Sun today dropped its copy price across the UK to 30p. It was already at 30p in London and the South East and the latest move will affect a further 2.5 million copies of the circulation, which had been retailing for 35p.
In a bonus for newsagents, they will still get the same cut as if they were selling the paper at full price.
Posted by
Martin Stabe
on 4 August 2008 at 08:00
Tags: Mobile, National Newspapers, New Media
Telegraph Media Group has launched new services for mobile phones.
The service, built using TMG’s new digital publishing and content management system, Escenic, will allow readers to access the Telegraph’s news, sport and travel sections on all major mobile phones.
The group says the move is part of a wider strategy to “offer consumers news when and how they want it”.
The announcement comes just after last month’s redesign of the Telegraph.co.uk website.
Last week, Trinity Mirror announced plans to launch a network of 14 mobile sites across its national and regional newspaper titles.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 31 July 2008 at 11:59
Tags: National Newspapers
The Independent has claimed a victory in its “Fair Tips, Fair Pay” campaign, with business secretary John Hutton due to announced today that restaurants cannot pay staff less than the minimum wage and make up the difference in tips.
The Daily Mirror, which has also been campaigning for fair tips, has sent investigative duo Penman and Sommerlad to meet acting prime minister Harriet Harman outside Number 10.
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 31 July 2008 at 11:50
Tags: National Newspapers
Hundreds of Times staff have paid tribute to photographer Richard Mills, whose funeral took place on Tuesday.
Mills - who had covered many conflicts for the Times since 2000 - died on assignment in Zimbabwe.
Editor James Harding said: “He had an unerring eye and a rare combination of courage and compassion. He was respected and loved by his colleagues.”
Posted by
Paul McNally
on 31 July 2008 at 09:19
Tags: National Newspapers
The Daily Mail has apologised to former ITV chatshow host Simon Dee - real name Nicholas Henty-Dodd - after it mistakenly suggested he had been expelled from school in an article dating from November 2006.
“We now accepted that he was not expelled from Shrewsbury and that he left that school of his own accord,” the paper said today. “We apologise for any distress caused.”
