Brendan Martin

2011-11-09T12:15:00.003Z

Gimme some tooth

Uncut magazine's website carries a news story about someone selling a tooth purporting to have come from John Lennon's mouth for £19,000. Oh to have written a headline for that story. How about Give Teeth a Chance, Gimme Some Tooth, Plaque in the USSR, I Am The Molar, and Happiness is a Warm Gum.

2011-10-25T10:58:00.000+01:00

Why can't they speak the Queen's English? Especially when she's visiting their country.

While on the phone to a bank in Australia earlier today, the guy on the other ended asked "Can I grab your account number?"

Well frankly, cobber, no. To grab means to seize hold of something - usually forcefully. It's bad enough when Aussies, Kiwis and Americans say that they are going to grab a coffee. At least in that instance there is a physical object involved. Although they usually don't have it near to hand when they ask for it and have to wait for it to be prepared.

Where has all this misuse of the English language come from? These people's forebears set off from England with a perfectly good language and, no doubt, a copy of Dr Johnson's dictionary.

The first thing the Americans did was remove the letter 'u' from various words. (I wonder do they call the Irish rock band featuring Bonio and The Edge just 2?)

I think maybe the culture of greed that grew up in the 1980s has left its mark with this usage of "grab". Oh, just to hear someone say "I think I'll get myself a coffee" or "May I have a coffee please".

2011-10-11T00:51:00.000+01:00

Punny headlines? We can work them out - 2

Finally saw the Evening Standard's headline last night about the neighbours complaining in St John's Wood: Hard day's night for Sir Paul McCartney's neighbours after wedding

2011-10-10T17:17:00.049+01:00

Punny headlines? We can work them out

Daughter Mary McCartney took the official wedding picture above

Paul McCartney's wedding yesterday (9 October 2011) had the sub-editors reaching for their Guinness Book of Hit Singles and other reference books last night. Given the plethora of great song titles Macca has written there was sure to be some inspiration for a headline to be found in his oeuvre*. And indeed there was:

All You Need is Love - The Daily Telegraph
Sir Paul asks Nancy to Love Me Do - i
And he loves her - The Independent (front page)
Long and winding marital road leads McCartney to US heiress The Independent (page 3)
Love me do, croons Macca to wife No3 - Daily Express
I wanna be your man! - Daily Star
Love is all you need - Daily Star (caption)
Love, lovely do - Daily Mirror
I wanna hold your hand, Mrs McCartney - Daily Mirror (pages 2 and 3)
Meanwhile the Daily Mirror ran an editorial headlined Paul McCartney wedding the start of a magical mystery tour
Love me three - The Guardian
All my loving. McCartney weds for the third time - The Guardian (page 9)
Bawl McCartney - The Sun (front page splash referring to a report that Macca cried while singing a specially written song to Nancy at the reception)
No More Lonely Knight - The Sun (page 4)
Ticket to bride - The Sun (caption)
Help from his friend - The Sun (caption)
I wanna hold your hand - The Sun (caption)
She loves you - The Sun (caption)
Love Me I Do - The Sun (caption)
Hello Goodbye - The Sun (caption)
She loves me, yeah, yeah, yeah - The Times (Front page)
Play it for the third time, Sir Paul: All you need is love - The Times (news page)
Banns on the run - Metro (Front page caption) [Unfortunately the main headline, which is a different story, reads similiarly 'Fox on the Run']
Love Me Do, Honey Pie - Metro (page 4)

Only the Daily Mail seems to have resisted the song title pun. Given its obsession with Johnny Foreigner - or in this case Jenny Foreigner - they could have run with Macca marries migrant

But most boring headline of the lot must be that from the New York Post. Keen to show that Nancy has a New York connection they ran: Paul McCartney weds MTA board member Nancy Shevell

Even the Press Association got in on the act with this intro: It must have been a hard day's night for Sir Paul McCartney's north London neighbours after they complained about the noise in the early hours at his wedding party.

When asked how he felt after the ceremony, Sir Paul said: "I feel wonderful". Oh, how I wish he'd said: "I feel fine".

* See what I did there? A sneaky - but obscure - reference to his 1979 album Back to the Egg

2011-09-13T23:59:00.007+01:00

What's sauce for the bankers should be sauce for the Tube drivers

In tonight's Evening Standard, a story about London's Tube drivers demanding an extra payment for working during the Olympics brought this comment from Tory MP Richard Bacon: "Tube drivers are not badly paid and they should not need extra money just to do their job."

So if that is the case, shouldn't it not also apply to the bankers and their bonuses?

2011-09-01T16:29:00.003+01:00

McCartney interviews Doris Day: Phase one in which Doris gets his notes

Sir Paul McCartney's interview with Doris Day in today's Daily Telegraph made me feel uncomfortable. If Macca phrased his questions the way they are printed then he shouldn't give up the day job. I feel embarrassed at the way he fawned like a fan. His questions told Doris what she already about herself and then he posed his query.

The idea of Paul McCartney and Doris Day in conversation is a sound one for a feature but the execution didn't work. Day's answers were pretty mundane. Was the interview conducted by email? Forget Doris Day, Paul, stick to Yester Day.

2011-08-31T23:21:00.000+01:00

Always check the large print

There is a wise convention in journalism that you don't write funny captions or headlines that are not meant to be published.... because they invariably will be.

The same is true of pictures. Nothing should be put into a picture as a joke as it is sure to appear on the page. I recall some years ago, a car magazine wanted to show a beat-up old car on its cover. The studio was booked. The car arrived. And the staff had great fun throwing dirt on the car and writing in the mud adorning the chassis.

It was an eagle-eyed publisher who spotted the word "wanker" in the dust on the car's bonnet. He caught the obscenity in time and had the picture killed.

Not so lucky were the publishers of Elle Decoration. The September cover features a blackboard decorated with various scribbles in chalk. Sadly, unnoticed in the top right corner of the board someone has written "Our friendship is tighter than a nun's vagina".

Red faces all round at Hachette Filipacchi.

2011-08-21T14:49:00.005+01:00

Slán to The Irish Post

It's always sad to see any publication shut down - especially when it's a result of the stringent economics times in which we live. The Irish Post (final issue pictured right) this week folded its tent and headed off to the newspaper graveyard after 41 years. The closure leaves 12 journalists out of work.

Founded in 1970 by Clare-born journalist Breandán Mac Lua and accountant Tony Beatty, The Irish Post set out to serve the Irish community in Britain. Timing was everything. The troubles in Northern Ireland were gathering momentum and with them an anti-Irish bias in some of the UK press. (Step forward the Daily Mail and Daily Express.)

The Irish community wanted its own voice in Britain. It also wanted to hear news "from home" told from a Irish perspective. These were the days before the internet and the daily publication in Britain of Dublin-based newspapers. Even RTE Radio was not heard south of Birmingham.

The Irish Post carried news culled from Irish papers local and national as well a stories about the Irish living in Britain.

Much of its coverage was of Irish clubs and their activities - Irish dancing, county association dinners, GAA match reports, etc. It met a need and fulfilled a demand. In so doing it gained itself a reputation of being "the immigrants' paper" (or "the emigrants' paper" depending from what side of the Irish Sea you viewed it).

But times change. Travel between Ireland and Britain became cheaper thanks to Ryanair. Telecoms became easier to use - no need to dial the operator - and cheaper. Then more recently, The Irish Times and Irish Independent started printing and distribution daily editions in Britain. The internet offered instant access to all manner of news from Ireland. As well as RTE's radio station and television news bulletins, many independent Irish broadcasters came online. So too did local newspapers from all over the island of Ireland. Some even are even now making their content available using apps for iPhones and iPads available.

The Irish Post adapted to the changes in Irish society with more news from a 21st century Ireland. Their final issue carries no reports of county association dinners or Irish dancing competitions. It has stories on the race for the presidency of Ireland; the recent riots; Ryan Tubridy leaving Twitter; the 2012 Olympics; and a four-page pull-out on the Rose of Tralee.

But all of this content is available elsewhere. And that is the crux of the problem. The Irish Post has been making a loss for the past five years according to owners Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCM). (Of the three broadsheet dailies published in the Republic of Ireland, only TCM's Irish Examiner does not circulate in Britain.)

The demise of The Irish Post does not, however, leave the Irish community in Britain with no newspaper of its own. The Irish World survives and ironically, even though a younger title, it does carry news of county associations and Irish dancing - the original mix of The Irish Post.

The Irish World serves up the editorial mix that was once that of The Irish Post. By moving with the times, did the Post misjudge its market? Moving away from its roots may have sounded the death knell for The Irish Post.

2011-08-16T15:06:00.000+01:00

Radio Times sold - end of an era

The news today that Radio Times has been sold to private equity firm Exponent brings to an end 88 years of ownership by the BBC. The deal has just been made public and so far there are no details of what will happen to the staff. First reports on PA says that they are expected to transfer to Exponent when the deal is complete.

As someone who was working at TVTimes (it is all one word, by the way) when ITV sold it to IPC, I know full well the uncertainty such a sale can bring. Quite often that uncertainty comes to nothing and all is well and people keep their jobs. Let's hope this is the case with Radio Times.

But working conditions may change. I remember the dry comment uttered by writer Marsha Hanlon when TVTimes changed ownership: "Gravy train derailed; no one hurt."

The four-day week, generous expenses and high salaries we all enjoyed at TVTimes became a thing of the past. Indeed, they were never a thing for staff who joined the magazine after the sale.

But despite the good times at TVTimes, I have a soft spot for Radio Times. I started my journalistic career there as a sub-editor - only we weren't called that as we would have to have been paid NUJ rate wages. We were Programme Assistants, responsible for the putting together the television and radio listings pages.

Journalism has changed over the years. Things have become meaner and leaner. It's the way of the world. Radio Times is no longer the biggest selling magazine in Europe but it still sells more than a very healthy 1,000,000 copies every week.

I wish it well under its new owners. Free from BBC politics and the demands of the BBC controllers, here's hoping that the disproportionate number of Doctor Who covers will disappear.

2011-08-16T12:54:00.000+01:00

Headline of the day 2

Actually, it's a headline from last week. It appeared in The Irish Times on Friday 12 August.

Not a lot of point in an active verb in this headline given the dead man's inability to be active!

2011-07-20T09:29:00.001+01:00

Headline of the day

From Metro, this clever pun:

2011-07-10T00:49:00.007+01:00

So farewell then News of the World

It was a moving sight to watch live coverage on Sky News (where else!) of the staff of the News of the World being led by their editor Colin Myler out of their building at Wapping after a day's hard graft putting together the final edition of the paper.

What we were watching was a team of about 200 people losing their jobs for something that others had done. What we were watching was a team of about 200 people facing an uncertain future. What we were watching was a team of about 200 people behaving with great dignity.

So who was the villain of the piece? Well, it certainly wasn't the hard-working journalists of the News of the World. Rebekah Brooks, James Murdoch, Andy Coulson, even Rupert Murdoch himself deserve the blame before Myler and his team. Indeed, many feel that the paper was sacrificed to satisfy the desire of 80-year-old Murdoch's lust for total control of BSkyB.

It is a testament to the character of the man that he was prepared to sacrifice the first newspaper he owned in the UK, and one said to have commanded a soft spot in his heart, just to sate his desire for the bigger prize. If there is any justice left in this world, he'll be denied it.

British journalism has lost one of its greatest newspapers. At the time of its death 7.5 million read the News of the World's mix of investigative journalism, hard news, celebrity gossip and sports coverage every Sunday. In its heyday the paper enjoyed an even higher readership. It doesn't matter what you think of the content it carried over its 168 year history, what it did it did well. It had no equal. Often imitated but never bettered.

2011-06-13T07:29:00.004+01:00

Where is Elliot Morley?

According to today's Sun newspaper, disgraced ex-MP Elliot Morley is sharing a cell in Wandsworth prison with similiarly disgraced Lord Taylor. But The Daily Telegraph has Morley pictured in Ford Open Prison in West Sussex.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location: St Albans

2011-05-01T16:24:00.003+01:00

The grand spectacle that brought April 2011 to a close

LONDON Arrived back in the UK, switched on the television and saw hundreds of people waving flags and cheering. It was obviously a moment of great happiness for the nation. Smiling faces and general joyousness abounded. The spectacle was a sea of blue and red. A moment that will in the minds of a delighted people for some time to come. Leinster beat Touluse in the 2011 Heineken Cup semi-final.

2011-05-01T09:53:00.000+01:00

The power of the advertiser on the media is a threat to a free press

HONG KONG Writing in the South China Morning Post, columnist Stephen Vines discusses the pressure put on the media by businesses and media consultants. The threat of the withdrawal of advertising has been used for years to attempt to influence editors to suppress hostile stories. Such efforts are dumb, Vines writes. But are they successful?

As an ex-editor of an advertising reliant free publication in the UK, I can report that such pressure has been used in this country too. Sadly, many times the bullying advertisers or their agents have succeeded. One local dealer for an international car brand had me removed from my post because he took exception to an unfavourable review I gave one of his models.

The publisher was a small company that could ill afford to lose the regular income from the car manufacturer's local man and chose to cave in rather than stand and fight. Editors are easily replaceable, big-spending advertisers have to be fought hard for.

2011-04-29T05:40:00.000+01:00

Does the internet give newspapers and magazine a better chance to compete against television and radio?

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA This evening and early tomorrow morning, as most of Australia sleeps, journalists at the Australian Women's Weekly will be working hard getting together 40 pages of pictures and text about the wedding of William and Kate. These pages will be inserted into the May issue, which would normally be on sale by now. But ACP Magazines know of their readers' appetite for a British royal wedding and have held back publication until Wednesday 4 May.

The Australian Women's Weekly is actually a monthly that started life as a weekly. But when it changed its frequency of publication, it was thought indelicate to change the title accordingly. Consequently, holding the May issue was the sensible thing to do as waiting until June would miss the boat.

Executive editor Juliet Rieden will watch the coverage at her Sydney home before driving to ACP Magazines' office to oversee the putting together of Australian Women's Weekly. Coverage here is Sydney starts at 6.00pm, which is 9.00am in London. By breakfast time on Saturday, the issue will be put to bed and being on its way to the printer.

None of this would have been possible when the groom's parents married. Theirs was a wedding that the world watched on television. (The bride's parents did not command an audience greater than family and friends.) It is thanks to the internet that pictures and text can be beamed across the world in seconds. This affords newspapers and magazines to compete by making their more permanent product available soon after the event.

The appetite for royal coverage in Australia strong. Almost every newspaper and magazine has devoted acres of newsprint to the event for the past three or four weeks. Television and radio has also offered saturation coverage. Royalty is big business here as much as it is in the UK…maybe more so.

The Australian Women's Weekly is 78 years old and has been Australia's best-selling title for most of that time. At one time it was the world's top seller on a per capita basis.

2011-04-29T02:34:00.000+01:00

Australia's media heads back to the old country for the royal wedding

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA The Qantas lounge at Brisbane airport looked like a scene from the Queensland Media Awards earlier this week, according to the city's paper The Courier Mail.

It's a scene that was repeated at all of Australia's international airports as the country's media headed off in droves to London for today's Royal Wedding. Channel Nine, one of Australia's national television networks, has dispatched 40 presenters and crew alone.

Three radio stations I flicked between while taking a short 10km drive last night had "royal commentators" discussing the bride and groom as if they were their intimate friends.

Interest in the nuptials of William and Kate has consumed much of the nation. The Royal Family sell papers and draw listeners and viewers big time. Talk of Australia wanting to be an independent republic is, like reports of Mark Twain's death, greatly exaggerated.

2011-04-28T04:40:00.008+01:00

Has Bob Dylan passed his sell-by date?

BYRON BAY, AUSTRALIA Bob Dylan croked on Tuesday night. Well, he would have died on stage had the audience not been so delighted that the legendary Mr D was topping the bill at the 22nd Byron Bay Bluesfest. They refused to believe that this was a below par performance. But the reality is that the voice done. Frankly, it's all over now baby Bob.

His vocals have grown more gravelly over the years but now they have become so bad, he is forced to sing as little of a song as he can get away with and rely instead on his playing and that of his backing band.

It may be that his Never Ending Tour has finally taken its toll. Or it may be that Dylan just needs a rest. His current tour of the Far East, Australia and New Zealand only started on 3 April. Before that his last date was at the end of November. Tomorrow (30 April) he plays in Auckland, New Zealand before taking six weeks off.

He returns to live touring on 16 June when he appears in Cork, Ireland followed two days later by the London Feis at Finsbury Park. Then it's off to Israel and mainland Europe until 2 July.

The reason this itinerary is of interest is that on 24 May, he celebrates his 70th birthday. It's an age when many men have been long retired and are enjoying life. Their life's work done and their money made, they take time to do all the things they always wanted to do.

Dylan has made his money and then some. He doesn't need to tour and put his voice under such strain. Last Tuesday he sounded like a man with a very bad sore throat. He was, not to put too fine a point on it, hoarse. It was hard to hear the words he sang (sic). But he and his band played great music. They are a tight outfit.

It was harder too to see Dylan. At his request the large screens that have become so much a part of music concerts were switched off so that only those at close proximity to the stage could see the man.

I thought that was very bad customer service, Bob, and in a day and age when people expect value for the money they spend, this action showed a contempt for those who had paid A$160 (£105) to see and hear him perform 14 songs.

Ironically the best performance of one of his songs was A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall earlier in the evening by Leon Russell (below).

That was an appropriate choice given that the rain had fallen sporadically over the six days of the Bluesfest leaving us to wade ankle-deep through foul smelling mud. A sort of Aussie Glastonbury.

Let's hope it's a sunny two days on London on 18 and 19 June. Let's also hope that Bob Dylan spends the next few weeks dosing his throat with honey and letting it rest. Dylan tops the bill on Saturday and Van Morrison on Sunday.

*** Dylan's playlist on Tuesday 26: Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking; It Ain't Me, Babe; Rollin' And Tumblin'; Tangled Up In Blue; Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum; Spirit On The Water; Cold Irons Bound; Desolation Row; Summer Days; Simple Twist Of Fate; Highway 61 Revisited; Ballad Of A Thin Man; Like A Rolling Stone; Forever Young

2011-04-24T01:56:00.003+01:00

Happy Easter to all

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA Have a very happy Easter all you journalists, publishers, broadcasters and newsagents.

2011-04-22T02:16:00.001+01:00

Carry on Cleo...the success story of an Australian woman's magazine

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA The water cooler topic of conversation for the last few days has been the two-part miniseries broadcast by the ABC, Australia's national public broadcaster: Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo.

The two 90-minute dramas tell the story of the launch in 1972 of Cleo magazine in Australia by journalist Ita Buttrose (played by actress Asher Keddie) and media mogul Kerry Packer. It's a story that seems to have gripped the nation not just those who work in the media. The first part of the series, shown last Sunday, pulled in more than 1.2 million viewers. How I bet ACP, who publish Cleo, would all of those 1.2 million to go out a buy a copy next month.

Ita Buttrose

The magazine was launched almost 40 years ago when ACP's bid to secure the right to publish Australian edition of Cosmopolitan failed. Buttrose put together a magazine aimed at a young female audience in their twenties and upward - Cleo. It even featured a nude make centrefold (but with his naughty bits covered up). But they discontinued that in 1985. (Eventually ACP secured the right to publish the Australian Cosmo and still does today.)

The editorial mix of Cleo is fashion, relationships, sex, beauty and true stories. The May 2011 issue featured true story is entitled "I kept my rapist's baby".

Ita Buttrose is still a working journalist and is winging her to London, where she will be commentating the wedding of William and Kate for Channel 9 - also part of the ACP empire. Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo is being shown again this Easter weekend on ABC2. I shall be watching...even though I won't be near any water coolers in Sydney next week.

2011-04-20T23:55:00.006+01:00

Mental healthcare - the blot on Australia's good name

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA Anthony Waterlow, 44, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. In November 2009 he stabbed to death his father, Nicholas, and sister Chloe Heuston. They would be alive today had the authorities listened to the repeated requests of the family to supply Anthony with the mental healthcare he needs.

Nicholas and Chloe, as well as other family members, made several attempts to have Anthony "scheduled", as they put it in Australia. "Sectioned" is how it's described in the UK. The story is detailed on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald.

Meanwhile, in The Australian the pressure group GetUp! Australia took a full page advert to demand the government allocate more funding to mental health.

It's not a demand out of the blue. All that GetUp! Australia want the government to do is honour a promise made to deliver mental health reform. The advert quotes Australia's prime minster Julia Gillard, who said on 27 July 2010: "I want to make it clear that mental health will be a second-term priority for the Government"

Australia, friends told me over dinner last night, does not make good provision for the mentally ill. This successful country with its high quality of life, I am told, has an out-dated method of coping mental illness.

According to Response Ability (an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing): About 20% of adult Australians, or one in five people, will experience a mental illness at some stage in their lives. Many will live with more than one mental illness at a time, such as anxiety and depression, which commonly occur together.

"Each year a further 20 000 Australians are found to have a mental illness. In summary:
Three million Australians will experience a major depressive illness during their lifetime
5 per cent of Australians experience anxiety so crippling that is affects every aspect of their lives
Almost 1 in 100 Australians will experience schizophrenia during their lifetime
About 3 per cent of Australians will experience a psychotic illness such as schizophrenia during their lifetime.
Today Anthony Waterlow sits in Long Bay prison hospital despite being found not guilty by reason of mental illness of the murder of his father and sister. He will remain there until a place can be found for him at the high-security forensic hospital at Malabar. Time for Julia to honour her promise.

2011-04-17T02:38:00.000+01:00

Speed cameras, the local press and road safety

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA Each week and at weekends The Advertiser here publishes a list of where speed cameras are operating. As the list is published with the cooperation of the South Australia Police, one can reasonably deduce that the rozzers here in SA are more concerned with reducing speeding than raising revenue.

The idea behind the system is that if you know there is a speed camera operating on a particular road (even if you don't know exactly where it is on the road) you will not speed. Surely preventing people from speeding in the first place is better than taking punitive action against those who commit the offence? Prevention is better than the cure.

The Chief Constable of Hertfordshire would probably lose his life at the thought of such a positive method!

2011-04-15T10:03:00.000+01:00

Ageism in broadcasting doesn't appear to be the Australian way

ADELAIDE HILLS, AUSTRALIA Managed to catch some breakfast television this morning. On one station - Channel 7, I think - the news was read by a man who won't see 50 again. The news did not suffer because of this man's age. Indeed some might say it was more authoritative.

Meanwhile over on Channel 9, Kerri-Anne Kennerley hosted her own daytime show. At 57 Kerri-Anne must be the envy of Miriam O'Reilly and all the other women who have discriminated against on the grounds of age in the UK by the BBC.

Kennerley (above) is one of those broadcasters who make it all look so easy. That's because she has a wealth of experience to draw on. Rather than try to lose such talent, the BBC needs to look at the new young turks who want to sack anyone over 40.

Having done a media studies degree doesn't make these new television executives experts on how to please audiences or treat the talent. But they are too arrogant to know that.

Let's hope Australian broadcasting executives do not go down the same road as their UK counterparts.

2011-04-14T23:35:00.002+01:00

The dark air of PR invades journalism...yet again

BLACKWOOD, AUSTRALIA Trying the ascertain the difference between UK and Australian journalism, I sought the views of British-born award-winning journalist Sharon Mascall-Dare, who lives and works in Adelaide for various international news organisations, including the BBC.

According to Mascall-Dare the line between journalism and PR is blurred.

"You have lots of people who work in PR who regard what they do as journalism and you have journalists who have no problem with them doing that. I think they have a different interpretation of the word journalist here," she says.

Page three of The Advertiser today bears out Mascall-Dare's opinion. Half the page - a major news page in any paper - devotes itself to "news" of a new cometic launch. Read the intro and weep.

Fair maidens are crossing to the dark side this winter, casting smoky eyes over blackened talons.

Cult cosmetics brand MAC and French fashion house Chanel are setting the trend, the latter creating a Black Pearl nail polish that was inspired by Tahitian pearls.

Read the whole piece

2011-04-14T16:35:00.000+01:00

A sticky question

ADELAIDE HILLS, AUSTRALIA I am surrounded by gum trees. Or to give them their proper name: eucalyptus. Everywhere I go I see their tell-tale white trunks with the debris of fallen bark at their feet. And all I can think to ask is: if they are gum trees why doesn't the bark stay stuck on?

2011-04-13T04:42:00.000+01:00

An Australian crosshead that made me smile

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA My hire car in Adelaide is a Commodore made by Australian car manufacturer Holden. Nothing remarkable in that but I awoke this morning to discover from The Advertiser that the car maker had made a profit for the first time in five years. Good news indeed for Holden and one which inspired a sub-editor to write this crosshead "Car maker turns a corner". (Might have worked better without the "a")

The intro, presumably written by The Advertiser's motoring editor Stuart Martin (no relation), doesn't quite get into gear though. "Black ink is back in GM Holden's books after five years of losses." What do you think?

2011-04-13T00:42:00.000+01:00

Australians are doing too many degrees says Melbourne's Age

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA Bill Haggerty is a Melbourne-based international executive search consultant. In yesterday's The Age, Melbourne's quality daily, he said: "I've met overqualified people who just lack basic common sense, but because they've got an undergraduate and a postgraduate degree, they expect to walk into a senior management role."

Haggerty is being quoted by writer Gary Newman in a feature entitled Are we too clever for our own good? Newman tells us of Australians aged between 55 and 64 only 19% have a degree. But in the 25 to 34 age group that figure rises to 32%.

I'm not sure of Newman is arguing that this is a bad thing but what becomes clear in his piece is that Australia has it fair share of "course junkies" just as we do in the UK…and probably elsewhere.

A "course junkie" is defined as someone who, not satisfied with gaining a basic degree, goes on to do a Masters or other higher degree rather than going out and getting a job and experiencing real life.

After their Masters the true course junkie will do yet another degree, probably in another subject.

Newman writes: Obtaining a qualification for status rather than education is called "credentialism". Professor Steven Schwartz [Vice Chancellor of Macquarie University, Sydney] says it occurs because students increasingly think of education in terms of economic returns.
But until they stop doing course after course, there can be no economic return.

Haggerty says, according to Newman, demand for qualifications is often driven more by university marketing than employers' requirements.

Whatever the case, what I took away from Newman's well-written piece is that people should enter the world of work and gain life experience before embarking on a second qualification.

Read the full article

2011-04-12T13:47:00.017+01:00

Melbourne's The Age takes ages to get to point

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA Dashing to catch my connecting flight to Adelaide, I passed a news stand at Melbourne airport with just enough time to buy the papers. I grabbed The Australian, The Age and the Herald Sun. Cheap at the total price of A$4.10 (£2.65).

Two hundred yards down the corridor at the Gate 6 was a stand with free copies of The Age and the Herald Sun. I could have saved A$2.60. You have got to tell us these things, Qantas.

But then if my actions helped the Australian newspaper industry and, in particular, the journalists who work here then well and good.

Longest delayed drop I've seen in a long while

I think I've come across the longest delayed drop intro I've ever seen. It features in The Age, "Published in Melbourne since 1854", and is a remarkable report of a harrowing court case.

Some time ago a father killed his own four-year-old daughter by hurling her off West Gate Bridge. The intro to the report of the sentencing in court reads:

Moments after Arthur Freeman was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his four-year-old daughter Darcey, he declared to a packed Victorian Supreme Court that he had something to say.

Until then he had carried his trademark emotionless expression as he listened to Justice Paul Coghlan describe him as self-centred with a tendency to blame others for his lot in life.

The judge mentioned he had shown no remorse for throwing an ''innocent child'' off the West Gate Bridge, in what was an act of spousal revenge against his ex-wife, Peta Barnes. ''You are yet to say sorry to anyone for what you have done,'' he said.

The judge had just left the bench when Freeman's unexpected outburst stopped everyone in their tracks. As three security guards tried to escort him away, Freeman backed into a corner of the wooden dock just beyond their grasp. He demanded to be heard.

Could this be the moment? Would Freeman finally admit responsibility for a crime that shocked a city?

No. As if to confirm the judge's assessment of his selfish character, a bizarre rant about his ex-wife's family then rolled off Freeman's tongue.

The 37-year-old accused a relative of Ms Barnes of being implicated in the theft of diamonds from a West Australian mine. He said Federal Police had been tapping the family's phones and he claimed he had received death threats.

The guards cut him short as they forced him from the court.

Read the full report

2011-04-03T07:54:00.006+01:00

Demise of Daily and Sunday Sport

I hate to see a publication die no matter what its content. But there is something ironic that the Daily Sport and its Sunday sister paper, both of which relied so much on tits, bosoms, breasts, jugs (call them what you will) should go bust.

And on April Fool's Day too. (Note the Collector's Edition strap across the top. Did they know it was the last edition?)

2011-01-17T10:57:00.000Z

The perils of numbers when sub-editing

Take a look at these two extracts from a piece published yesterday about the actress Susannah York pictured above in the 1969 film Battle of Britain:

York was born Susannah Yolande Fletcher in London in January 1939 – although according to York, who was rightly vain about her looks, she always claimed she was born in 1942.

then four paragraphs later

At 18, in 1960, she had fallen in love with Michael Wells.

Some sub-editor at The Sunday Telegraph didn't do his/her job correctly.

One of the main jobs of a sub-editor is to check that it all reads logically and accurately. Numbers should always be checked. The above is just careless.

2011-01-16T12:28:00.001Z

The Daily Telegraph is testing my loyalty - how long before I desert it?

The Daily Telegraph on Friday carried the result of the Oldham by-election but if you read the headline you would get a distorted view of the who the real losers were.

Under the headline Lib Dems suffer in Oldham by-election the paper wrote a story that would lead the reader to assume that the party did very badly. This is true but another party did far worse: the Conservatives.

The intro read: The Liberal Democrats were defeated by more than 3,500 votes early today in the first by-election since the Coalition was formed. While the statement is correct it doesn't tell the whole story and indeed gives a false impression of what happened.

In May 2010 Labour won 14,186 votes; Lib Dems 14,083 and Conservatives 11,773.

In Jan 2011 Labour won 14,718; Lib Dems 11,160 and Conservatives 4,481.

So Labour gained 532; the Lib Dems lost 2,923 and the Conservatives lost 7,292.

So who was the real loser: the Tories.

But perish the thought that The Daily Telegraph would point that out. Now I like the paper. It carries more news than any other, has a lively letters page (whose writers normally infuriate me) and I love its crossword. I like the broadsheet page size too. But I am getting more and more fed up with its anti-Coalition stand.

There is rarely a day when there isn't some pop at the Coalition and in particular the Lib Dems. Had the Conservatives won the election, they would be governing the country single-handed. But no one party did win a mandate from the electorate to run things their way. There had to be a compromise. But I don't think The Daily Telegraph's Tory-supporting readers are happy to accept the will of the people.

This Coalition was voted for by no-one and yet it was also voted for by everyone. That's democracy and it's time "Disgusted from Tunbridge Wells" accepted that. (It is also time the Labour Party accepted it too and stopped trying to destabilise the government by making overtures to less than enthusiastic Lib Dems.)

I don't know if The Daily Telegraph thinks it can batter the Lib Dems into submission and cause an election in which it the Tories will win an overall majority. It certainly looks that way. Why else scrutinise Lib Dems minsters but not Conservative ones. A piece of biased investigative journalism for which it now faces a Press Complaints Commission inquiry.

I applaud the paper for its publication of the MPs' expenses scandal. I was also impressed by yesterday's story on how Qatar won the right to stage the 2022 World Cup. These are stories that show journalism at its best - doing the jobs it's meant to do. The Daily Telegraph has a fine record in its 155 year history.

Today it purports to be a centre-right Conservative newspaper. Nothing wrong in that if its views are confined to the op-ed pages but distorting news is wrong whether left or right. It is not the job of news stories to lead the reader by the nose. News reporting is meant to tell readers what is happening in the world in the more accurate manner possible.

I belong to no political party and vote on the issues not on the party in every election. I love newspapers. I particularly love The Daily Telegraph but it is testing that love by its biased news coverage in news stories such as that shown last Friday. I may have to have an affair with another paper. But the question is which one?

2011-01-15T23:27:00.008Z

Great job opportunity for journalism graduate - so who wants it?

Many of the journalism students I know like to look down their noses at the Daily Mail. Yet, it is a very successful newspaper in every way. It gives its readers what they want. They also pay well compared to other jobs in journalism. So how many of these outraged students will apply for this job:

Daily Mail

Britain's most successful newspaper group is offering would-be reporters and writers an exciting and challenging yearlong training course, plus the chance to work at the Daily Mail and Mail Online.

We are looking for bright, sharp, intelligent writers who believe they can be fast-tracked to the very top.

You'll be on the best journalism course in the business - and be paid a competitive salary while you train.

Successful applicants will probably have completed post-graduate journalism training or had experience working in newspapers.

Apply by February 21, with your CV, 200 words on why you think you could be a Mail journalist, a 200-word news story and a selection of up to six cuttings and send to Sue Ryan, Trainee Reporters' Scheme, Daily Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry St, London W8 5TT. Please send queries to sue.ryan@dailymail.co.uk

2011-01-14T15:48:00.000Z

Keith Richards: Got Life if you want it - Part 2

Finally finished reading Keith Richards' autobiography Life (see blog dated Wednesday 12 January). The book is everything I said it was then: a cracking read. Very candid. That straight-forward honesty even extends to his views on Mick Jagger, his song-writing partner and fellow Rolling Stone of nearly half a century. (Yes folks, the Rolling Stones will have been together for 50 years next year, 2012.)

Richards' version of the row is that the two men had been growing apart after 25 years working together. Jagger wanted celebrity and to rub shoulders with the good and the great. Richards just wanted to play music. But when Jagger put his own solo work before that of the Rolling Stones, the rift became permanent.

Today, the two are not friends but they love each other. They rub along and will gang up on any third party who tries to come between them. Richards views him as the brother he never had...but you don't have to like your brother.

Haven't enjoyed a book so much for a long time.

2011-01-14T09:03:00.000Z

No relation - shurely shome mistake

Names can be minefield for sub-editors. It's all too easy to link bothers Ed and David Miliband; David and Richard Attenborough; David and Jonathan Dimbleby; and Henry, Emanuel and Mayer Lehman. But what of others who share a surname?

Here is a useful guiide to sub-editors of people who are not related:

Septuagenarian dancer Lionel Blair and ex-PM Tony Blair
Showbiz legend Bruce Forsyth and writer Frederick Forsyth
Ex-ladette turned radio presenter Zoe Ball and entertainer Michael Ball
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Pink Floyd's character Corporal Clegg
English footballer Michael Owen and Welsh rugby player Michael Owen
Late comedy legend Ronnie Barker and television sports presenter Sue Barker
US politician Sarah Palin and Monty Python star Michael Palin
Former US president George H Bush and singer Kate Bush
Former US president George W Bush and singer Kate Bush

2011-01-13T15:50:00.000Z

Taking the piss at The Guardian

This is too good not to share. According to Popbitch this notice is pinned up in the gents' loo in The Guardian.

2011-01-13T15:40:00.000Z

Sarah Palin and her bloody "blood libel".

US politician Sarah Palin has answered those who accuse her of engendering a culture that resulted in the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and claimed the lives of six other people, by accusing them of "blood libel".
But is she correct in using the term?

Blood libel is defined as "a false accusation that Jews sacrifice Christian children either to use the blood for various 'medicinal' purposes or to prepare Passover Matzoth (unleavened bread) or for vengeance and mock crucifixions" [Zionism and Israel - Encyclopedic Dictionary].

It is a term that many Jews find offensive.

According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica blood libel can also mean "another form of the belief that Jews had been and still were responsible for the passion and crucifixion of Jesus Christ" and "popular beliefs about the murder-lust of the Jews and their bloodthirstiness, based on the conception that Jews hate Christianity and mankind in general".

So was Mrs Palin intending to offend or just speaking out of ignorance? Look at what she actually said: "Within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn."

Strikes me she speaks without knowing what she is saying.

By the way, The Guardian came up with a punny headline today: Sarah Palin sticks to her guns after Arizona shootings and accuses her critics of 'blood libel'.

Mrs Palin is not the most widely travelled person on the planet. She only obtained a passport in 2006 and travelled outside the USA for the first time in 2007. This contrasts with Michael Palin (no relation) who has travelled all over the world.

Sarah Palin, ex-governor of Alaska

Michael Palin, ex-parrot salesman

2011-01-12T13:01:00.002Z

Three cheers for Miriam O'Reilly

The BBC has a bloody nose thanks to the persistence of TV presenter and journalist Miriam O'Reilly. Yesterday she won her case of discrimination on the grounds of age against the BBC. The 53-year-old broadcaster argued that the BBC dropped her on the grounds that she was too old for primetime television. From a primetime television show that is co-presented by 68-year-old John Craven. How does that work?

O'Reilly is an experienced journalist and broadcaster as is Craven. So why drop one and not the other? Is there something wrong with her way of presenting or speaking? Does she speak with sibilantly? No, but Craven does. He is also over the age of retirement. So should he be dropped as well? No, of course not. He does a good job.

The only reason I can see why O'Reilly was dropped was her gender. She is not totty. But she's not unattractive, however, in a world where television executives seem to grow younger by the day the obsession with looks seems to override talent and experience.

The fragrant Ms O'Reilly has won her case. She has also won the argument for all those other talented television presenters, journalists, actors, etc who the BBC would like to see put out to grass.

Three cheers for Miriam O'Reilly.

2011-01-12T12:29:00.000Z

Keith Richards: Got Life if you want it

I am really enjoying Life right now. I speak, of course, the autobiography Life by Keith Richards.

It is an entertaining, informative and very frank memoir. The Rolling Stones' lead guitarist and the real driving force behind the band, Keith Richards is frank about the sex, the drugs and the rock 'n' roll. But what surprised me most about the book is Richards' lucidity and powers of recall of what we all imagined was a life led in a haze of mind-bending drugs. (Where he has forgotten small parts, he has been able to call upon friends and associates for their account of what happened.)

Richards writes (with the help of long-time friend and author James Fox) with love and enthusiasm for his chosen profession. Other musicians will learn a lot from his explanations about how he plays and his favoured open tuning method that has given the world some of the most memorable guitar licks in the history of rock'n'roll.

His recall of how he wrote many of rock's classics is fascinating and he is generous with his praise for Mick Jagger's lyric-writing skill. He is generous in Life to many people. This reflects as much on Richards as the people about whom he writes. There are few people for whom he has a bad word. Mick Jagger is an exception to this - but as the two men have been joined at the hip for over half a century it is not surprising that they have had their ups and downs in their relationship.

The drug-taking for which is renowned is offered in detail along with sage advice. Always buy the best seems to be his motto - but then he could afford to do so. But he also adds several "don't try this at home" warnings.

He is also discreet and almost middle-class in his accounts of his sexual exploits. He is not a gentleman who kisses and tells. Or even fucks and tells. And in many cases he didn't fuck as often as people may think. Hugs and cuddles are important to this so-called hard man of rock.

The Keith Richards that comes across in Life is a generous, sensible and balanced man with an amazing talent for and love of music. If you read no other rock autobiography, you should read this one.

2011-01-11T21:36:00.000Z

Overhauling the libel laws

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg says he's going to revise the libel laws in this country. Not before time. Under current legislation - which dates back to the 1996 Defamation Act and earlier - wealthy plaintiffs can use the law to silence critics and those who disagree with with them. This is not what successive Defamation Acts were set up to do.

Their purpose is to afford protection to a person's good name and offer redress when their reputation is unjustly sullied. The starting point in English law is that we are all entitled to a good name. Any attempt to damage that good name will result in the clearing of the said reputation and the award of some form of recompense for the damage suffered - unless the person who inflicts the damage can prove that there is good reason for their accusation.

Proving there is good reason for defaming a person is no easy task. The defendant, for that is what the publisher of the defamatory remarks becomes in a libel case, must prove their accusation is true.

Or if the defamation is published as an opinion, the publisher must show that the statement made was fair comment. Or the publisher must show that they are protected by privilege. These defences are not always easy to prove. The law is weighted in favour of the aggrieved party. Mounting a successful defence can be costly and time-consuming.

Given the value of a person's good name, one might argue, that it is right and proper that defending an attack on a reputation should be difficult to prove.

But the system is flawed where those with great resources embark upon legal action knowing that their opponents are not as well endowed. Negative comments made about a giant corporation may well be true but by weight of wallet, the large company can involve the publisher is so many delaying arguments and tactics that the truth may become a victim to expediency.

The publisher may not have the resources to take on the giant corporation and so concedes defeat even though they have right on its side. Journalists, academics and scientists have all been bullied by wealthy individuals and/or companies who disagree with what they have said - no matter what the truth is.

Any reform of the Defamation Act that puts a stop to this bullying and intimidation is to welcomed.

Now all Mr Clegg has to do is to put paid the practice of super-injunctions where again the rich and famous use the might of their wealth to cover their indiscretions

2011-01-01T21:39:00.000Z

How do you get to wash your dirty linen in The Daily Telegraph?

About one-sixth of the front page of today's Daily Telegraph features a picture of Michelle Young, a woman currently fighting for a piece of her husband's reported £400m fortune. Inside on pages 2 and 3 the same Ms Young takes up almost all the two-page spread telling us of her troubles and her husband's behaviour.

I hold no brief for either party - possibly because the paper does not offer us the other side of the story i.e. that of her husband, property director Scot Young. So much for journalistic balance.

What I want to know is who is this woman that she can command two broadsheet pages in the best-selling national quality daily newspaper in the country. Is she a friend of the Telegraph's owners, the Barclay brothers? Or someone who is a friend of the paper's editor?

I am sure that there is much for her to fight for and that there is plenty happening in this bitter battle - but do we want to know? Do we care?

And it's hard to feel sympathy for someone who tells the paper of how she used to live. The Telegraph reports: Christmas was a modest affair – no customary shopping at Harrods or dining at Le Manoir aux Quatre Saisons. Unlike previous years, there was no new Porsche to join the others in the drive on Christmas morning.

If that's a modest Christmas, then I've been been enjoying them all my life.

2010-12-23T14:37:00.000Z

Falling out of love with The Daily Telegraph

It may be my daily newspaper of choice. And I may well approve of journalists using a certain amount of subterfuge to get a story. But I'm afraid The Daily Telegraph has, in my view, overstepped the mark with their undercover activities concerning Lib Dem ministers.

It is clear that this is not investigative journalism designed to uncover some wrong doing. It is mischief-making pure and simple. Why? Because many of the Telegraph's senior staff and readers are dyed in the wool old school Tories. "Sharing" is a not word in their vocabularies.

But the fact is that the electorate voted in such a way that demands that our politicians share power and work together.

Back in May the Telegraph welcomed the coalition - albeit with a slight reservation. But now it has taken against the idea. Perhaps because it is working. Deep down right wingers such as Simon Heffer probably hoped it wouldn't work. But it has.

So what to do? Destabilise the coalition by waging war in an underhand way on the Lib-Dems. Does the Telegraph really think the Lib Dems will fold their tents and steal quietly away into the night and leave the Tories to run the country alone?

One thing the Telegraph has overlooked. If we the people had wanted a Tory government we would have voted in such numbers as to put one into power.

Now the big question is what paper do I change to for my daily read?

2010-12-17T17:41:00.024Z

Oh, what a pun time we're having!

When teaching how to write a news intro, I offer students a selection of different styles they can utilise. One is the punning intro.

(a) Alesha Dixon waltzes away from Strictly's ballroom to have a ball on the beach.

(b) Brits face mayhem on icy roads today as the country slides back into the Big Freeze.

(c) When 21 budgerigars were stolen from an aviary and a champion stamped to death, the flutter it caused went far beyond the quiet world of bird breeding.

See they all do it But the question is from which papers do these intro come?

(i) = Daily Mirror; (ii) = The Sun: (iii) = The Daily Telegraph

2010-12-15T14:03:00.000Z

Great minds think alike...fools seldom differ

So the Midlands of England are the obesity capital of the UK. Not a fact that taxed the headline writers of The Sun or the Daily Mirror. They both came up with the same headline for this story today:
Does my Brum look big in this?

2010-12-08T15:50:00.001Z

Can you remember what you were doing when you heard that John Lennon had died?

It didn’t happen 30 years ago today. It was early on the morning of Tuesday 9 December 1980 that I was woken by the phone ringing in my flat in Dalkey, on the outskirts of Dublin.

Calling me was my friend Paddy Murray, who was newsediting the Evening Herald in Dublin. Before I could speak, he spoke:"You met John Lennon, didn't you?"

"Yes," I replied, "once".

"Can you do us eight or 10 pars on what he was like?"

"Why, what's happened?"

"He's dead. Shot by some bastard in New York."

Once I got over the initial shock and checked out the TV and radio, I set about writing my short tribute piece to the man who played such a pivotal part in my youth. And that of many millions of others around the world. Where do you start to write a piece that has such an emotional charge for you? Every opening sentence seems wrong... even inadequate.

To this day, I have no idea what I wrote. I didn't keep a copy and typewriters had no memory or hard drive in those days! But I guess I recalled my one and only meeting with my favourite Beatle.

Toward the end of 1970, he and Yoko Ono were publicising the re-issue of her book Grapefruit. I had been lucky enough to be invited to a reception for them thrown by Yoko's publisher.

It was a crowded room and I could see Lennon and his wife at the far end. I elbowed my way forward and soon found myself standing face to face with John Lennon.

"Hi, have you got a copy of Yoko's book?" he asked.

"Err, no."

"You gotta get one, man."

I was lost for words. I hadn't come along to see Yoko or her book. He was the draw.

"I'll do that," I said eventually. "Do you and she write lyrics together?"

"Yeah, we're doing that. We've got some stuff out coming out that we wrote together."

"What about The Beatles? Do you still write with Paul?"

"I didn't really come here to talk about The Beatles, man. And Paul and I haven't written together for years. Tonight is about Yoko's book. What paper are you from?"

"I'm just a freelance from Dublin. I try and get stuff in papers over there."

"Well, write that people should buy Grapefruit by Yoko Ono. You got that, folks in Ireland, buy Grapefruit."

"Do you still go to Ireland?"

"Not a lot, but we still have the island. Maybe we'll retire there and grow potatoes."

I never did find out anything else. The PR from the publishers elbowed his way in an spirited my hero away to talk to other journalists.

On my way out, I picked up a copy of Grapefruit. It was only when I was on the Tube home that I flicked inside it and found it had been signed by John and Yoko in red felt pen. So the dream wasn't over, it had actually happened - I'd met my Beatle hero.

How much of this I shared with the readers of the Evening Herald, I can't recall. But today, 30 years after his murder, I have the day I met John Lennon as a fond memory.

* Read BBC's North-East Wales correspondent at the time, John Shone's, memory of 30 years ago.

2010-11-26T12:28:00.000Z

The day nothing happened

Today's papers all carry the story about the scientist who fed more than three million pieces of information into a computer and came up with the startling conclusion that 11 April 1954 was the most boring day in history. Nothing happened. Well, almost nothing...apart from a general election in Belgium and the passing of ex-journeyman footballer Jack Shufflebotham, and the birth of a Turk who became an analogue and microwave electronics expert, according to the papers.

If a student or a reporter came back to me and said they had no news because "nothing happened", I'd have their guts for garters. No news is not good news when you're trying to fill a newspaper.

So determined to see what I could find happened on 11 April 1954, I did some digging. Hmmm. it seems not a lot did happen. One thing that did but which today's papers missed was the death of Kirk Douglas's (already a well-known film star in 1954) father, Harry Demsky.

But 11 April 1954 was not the only day there was no news. The Daily Mail recalls another day during the 20th century when nothing happened. It reports today: "According to BBC Radio, April 18, 1930, was the dullest day of the 20th century after an announcer informed the nation at the 6.30pm bulletin: ‘There is no news.’"

It was also the day the Kenya authorities announced that negotiations with Mau Mau terrorists for a mass surrender had broken down and had been abandoned.

But apart from that, little does appear to have happened. Maybe a trip to the British Newspaper Library in Colindale, London would throw up some news stories of the day.

Also on 11 April 1954, Bill Haley and the Comets were travelling by ferry from Philadelphia to New York. The ferry got stuck on a sandbar en route and Haley and his band nearly didn't make it to Pythian Temple studios, 135 West 70th Street, New York City where the next day - 12 april - they recorded Rock Around the Clock.

Rock'n'roll was born and news started rolling again.

2010-11-11T12:57:00.001Z

More headlines

I am sure I must said this before but sometimes I feel like headlines are like the number 159 bus. You wait ages for one then three come along together. Today would appear to be such a day. Well actually five came along...even the number 159 doesn't do that.

The Sun carries a story, with pictures, of one-time soccer legend Paul Gascoigne vomiting out of a car window as he was being driven down the M1 by his manager. The headline, which his fellow Geordies will understand even if no one else does, is: Howay the lunch.

Also in The Sun, a story about a tiger who snatched a photographer's camera off the Bahamas is headlined: Burgle Sharkey.

Remember the 25-year-old man, Keith Macdonald, exposed by the papers a few months as having 15 children by 14 different women? He's back in the news today. Not because he has three more children on the way (which he was) but because he's been hunting for a girlfriend online. The headline? Browser Snake. Okay, it lacks a verb but it made me smile.

But headline of the day must be the story on page 23 of The Sun. A former Methodist church - complete with stained glass windows - has been converted in to a branch of Tesco Express. The headline: Sell us this day our daily bread.

Sad to see that The Daily Telegraph has at least three weak headlines today. Not only sad but surprised. The first is over a story about a teacher suspended for allowing pupils to wear make-up and listen to iPods in class. Today's lesson...iPods and make-up. No verbs and doesn't really tell us what the story is about except in the most general way.

A town council meeting in Dorset voted to scrap a children's playground because the wording on the agenda was misleading, The Daily Telegraph tells us. In paragraphs nine and ten of the 11 par story, we read a quote from a local youth club chairman. "The meeting resembled an episode of The Vicar of Dibley.

"All that was missing was for one of them to say 'No, no, no, no...yes'." This prompted a sub to write this obscure headline - well, obscure to non-watchers of The Vicar of Dibley, No, no, no, no ... yes: the Dibley bunglers".

Elsewhere The Daily Telegraph informs us "Britain is the cocaine capital of Europe after use among young adults increased by 50 per cent in five years". So what reader-grabbing, verb-including, non-punctuated headline is over this story? Britain, the cocaine capital.

I don't mind sub breaking the rules to come up with a clever headline but this just isn't one.

2010-11-10T00:24:00.001Z

Where I get my energy

I was thinking yesterday morning, as I made my way to the gym, that I find certain pieces of music energising. But which one would I take to my desert island if I could have only one. It's gotta be this one:

2010-11-07T23:39:00.000Z

Thank you for the Ray

There are days when I wish I was still working as a music journalist. I gave it up when I hit 35 as I thought it was a young person's game. In fact, I was wrong. But other avenues opened up and I never did get around to it again. Besides, I'd interviewed all my heroes (well, almost)...and some who weren't.

My proud boast is that I am the man who wrote in 1978 that U2 should stick to their day jobs in the hardware shop in Dublin as they were unlikely to make it. Well, Bonio got right my nose when I interviewed him and his fledgling band. Imagine calling yourself after a dog biscuit when you have a perfectly serviceable name!

But old habits die hard and I still enjoying listening critically to new bands and CDs. But there's many good tune played on an old fiddle, as we say in Ireland. I have been listening to an old fiddle today. That is if Ray Davies doesn't mind being called an old fiddle.

Today (Monday 8 November), the genius behind The Kinks releases a new record. New in the sense that the songs are old but the recordings are new and feature an impressive list. Among Ray's guests are Bruce Springsteen (Better Things); Lucinda Williams (A Long Way from Home); Amy McDonald (Dead End Street); Jackson Browne (Waterloo Sunset); and Alex Chilton, who accompanies Ray on a great version of Till the End of the Day.

These are great songs played by their creator. The guest artists give them a freshness. Davies is so underrated - or has been for the past 30 years. He seemed to enjoy a bit of a revival these past two years. This album shows he's still top of his game.

My only regret is that I never got to interview him...yet.

2010-10-17T19:01:00.000+01:00

Online misprints

Misprints in newspapers are relatively common. Most of them are harmless and not worth a second glance. But some are funny, embarrassing and even libellous. And permanent. They are archived for others to view forever...or for as long as a copy of the paper exists. Thankfully the British Newspaper Library ensures that will be for a very long time.

(Somewhere in the library's collection in Colindale is a copy of The Times containing a classified advertisement offering for rent a house in the country - but with the 'o' missing from country. That gem was published sometime in 1976. Good luck to you if you try to find it.)

Less easy to find after a period of time are misprints on the internet. The instant nature of publishing online is that changes can be made easily and quickly. So should you see such an error, it is wise to take a screengrab of the mistake before alerting the publisher to the cock-up.

That's what I have done with the gem on today's (Sunday) People website. The story is that Calfornia Gurls (sic) singer Katy Perry and British funnyman (sic) Russell Brand may have to call of their wedding planned for tomorrow. The headline says different!

Now the two men concerned are difficult to mix-up, surely?

2010-07-01T22:52:00.000+01:00

Adventures in the land of the delayed drop intro

Oakland CA: My host brought in the newspapers from the front porch as we breakfasted and offered me a choice of the San Francisco Examiner or The New York Times.

Two stories on the front page of the NYT had intros of more than 40 words. Yes, they made sense but I've spent too many years banging on to journalism students of the importance of a short, sharp and punchy intro of no more than 25 words to let that go without comment.

They had lived for more than a decade in American cities and suburbs from Seattle to New York, where they seemed to be ordinary couples working ordinary jobs, chatting to the neighbors about schools and apologizing for noisy teenagers.

A 39-word intro and I still still don't know what the news angle is meant to be. Maybe it'l be in the next paragraph.

But on Monday, federal prosecutors accused 11 people of being part of a Russian espionage ring, living under false names and deep cover in a patient scheme to penetrate what one coded message called American “policy making circles.”

Ah, yes, it is. So as I suspected: "Federal prosecutors have accused 11 people of being Russian spies."

The New York Times' news section is about 28 pages long. The Daily Telegraph is almost twice the size and being a true broadsheet is larger in format too. Telegraph intros can be long, sometimes, but usually abive by the 25-word rule. It must be fair to conclude then that the the UK paper has more news than its US counterpart.

Given the latter's slogan "All the News That's Fit to Print", does that mean the Telegraph has that and more?

The news section of the San Francisco Examiner runs to a mere 14 pages - or did yesterday - so the same question is even more pertinent. It all begs the question how well do US newspapers serve their readers. I'm going to try and establish that over next two weeks, so stay reading.

2010-04-28T14:55:00.000+01:00

Independent's new look leaves me confused

A change of typeface, fewer pictures, longer features - these are the ingredients of the new look Independent. I've lived with it for a week now and I'm confused about the changes. I know why they were necessary: desperation. But have they achieved what they set out to do: arrest a falling circulation? I don't think so.

There appears to be more wordy articles in the paper now. This goes against the accepted wisdom of the day - that readers prefer shorter, tighter features to long, rambling ones.

Whether the change will halt the decline, I don't know. But I shall keep an eye on the paper anyway. The other eye, I'll let sleep.

2010-04-27T12:58:00.005+01:00

Bread & Butter magazine serves up a journalistic feast

One of the joys of working in a university, teaching journalism, is that you get to see many publications that never see the light of day as far as the public is concerned. Frankly some of them are so bad (the magazines that is, not the public) that they should never be seen by people of a nervous disposition. But not Bread & Butter magazine.

Produced by the MA Magazine Journalism students at City University London, Bread & Butter is straplined "The Voice of independent British food". This is a magazine about food that is bright, lively, intelligent and informative. (The magazine that is, not the food.)

The layout is crisp, easy to navigate, and bright. The use of colour is excellent and that's not something you can say about all student journalism magazines. Bread & Butter has all the hallmarks of a good B2B magazine as well as a consumer title: news pages (or "News Feed" as the team have wittily called them) at the front of the book and features following up the rear.

The features would sit just as easily in any of the "professional" food magazines. (I put the word professional in quotes because I wouldn't want you to think that Bread & Butter is not professional - it is.)

Writers Dolly Alderton and India Sturgis give an insight to the chocolate business. Clare Voogt talks to a Caerphily cheese maker. James McIrvine shows us around the food stalls of Hackney market. Rachel Smith explains how the humble bumble bee plays and important role in the food chain. And Bread & Butter production editor Jonny Garrett samples some British beers made in microbreweries. It's a tough job but someone has to do it. Nice to see a production editor leading from the front.

Garrett actually included a beer I have had the pleasure of sampling in its South London microwery: Meantime's raspberry beer. Other culinary delights Bread & Butter feature include a focus on the food Lincolnshire. Just the picture of Myers bakery brought back memories of their fabulous Lincolnshire plum loaf. I first tasted this at lunch in Mortons Media, a publisher of many fine magazines in Horncastle. They have it everyday for lunch!

It seems wrong to mention just some of the Bread & Butter team so let's have a round of applause for those already mentioned plus Daniel Tapper (editor), Rachel Smith, Sarah Simpson, Estella Shardlow, Mike Kielty, Jennifer Lucy Allen, Caroline Gosney (anything to Jerry?), Jessica Bunden, Jessica Pike, and Gabrielle Matola. (I suspect you'll see these names again on the flannel panels of many magazines to come.)

Bread & Butter must be a contender in the next PPA Magazine Academy awards on 19 October. I wish it well and will be rooting for it.

If I were the publisher or editor of Waitrose Kitchen, Sainsburys Magazine, Olive, BBC Good Food or any other food and drink magazine, I'd be beating a path to the door of Bread & Butter's editorial team with offers of employment. See the magazine website to see the team's email addresses.

2010-04-26T14:26:00.000+01:00

Sun censors good poll result for Nick Clegg

As if to prove my point about Murdoch, The Independent has revealed that The Sun censored a YouGov poll that showed a Nick Clegg government is less feared by the electorate than one by either Brown or Cameron.

2010-04-25T22:50:00.004+01:00

Nick Clegg and the Lib-Dems

Nick Clegg and the Lib-Dems are getting a raw deal from Conservative-backing Rupert Murdoch. In my time I have taken Rupert Murdoch’s shilling in various forms of employ for and in his empire. Equally, I have regularly - and still do - contribute to his millions through the purchase of his newspapers and Sky television operation. But the treatment his organisation is dishing out to Nick Clegg and the Lib-Dems is unfair. (Nick Clegg and the Lib-Dems sounds like an Irish showband name from the 1960s, doesn’t it?)

Anyway back to Mr Murdoch and his treatment of the Lib-Dems. Within minutes the second television debate featuring Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, Sky News were quoting a poll conducted by YouGov on behalf of The Sun (prop R Murdoch) and Sky News (prop R Murdoch). David Cameron was the winner of the debate the poll decided.

Later polls released within the hour told a different story. But the gist of them was that the final winner of the debate was too close to call - but Nick Clegg had performed very well.

The Times the next morning stuck with the Murdoch line saying “Call me Dave” had been the star of the debate. The Sun had the headline “The Cam-Back Kid”. This is not the debate I watched. It’s one thing for a proprietor to state his/her preference but it’s another for journalists to distort the news to please their employer.

I hold no brief for any party. I agree with Dame Ann Leslie, who said on this week’s Question Time that journalists should not be members of political parties. I too belong to no political party. Nor will I ever join one. I vote on the issues of the day and who I believe to be the best candidate on offer to me. This has meant that over the years, I have voted for all three of the main parties, the Greens and, on one occasion, the Monster Raving Loony Party. (There really was no serious candidate I could support that year.)

But I recognise fair play when I see it. Or not as the case may be. And there is no fair play being given to Nick Clegg and the Lib-Dems by most of the Murdoch press and others. The sad thing for the press is that I am convinced voters have become more sophisticated since the last election and recognise that many newspapers are trying to manipulate them. The rise of social media has done a lot to open free debate. So too have the televised debates. The BBC, ITV and Sky cannot deny those whom their bosses do not favour air-time. Newspapers can deny column inches or offer biased coverage but broadcasters have no such freedom.

Does this mean newspapers are losing their power? Imagine waking up on 7 May to the headline “It’s Twitter what won it“. Now there’s a thought.

2010-03-27T10:24:00.000Z

Headline and byline gaffes worthy reading

Two gems came to my attention this week. A piece in The Times about the Catholic Church and its current troubles had an unfortunate byline. The story was headed Vienna Boys' Choir caught up in sex abuse scandals and carried the byline of Roger Boyes.

Meanwhile over at The Daily Telegraph a story about the Hadron Collidor contained an unfortunate transposition: Large Hardon Collider breaks energy record

A quick Google search reveals a load more:

Gay Guardsman Still Drills With Unit

Tiger Woods plays with his own balls, says Nike

Man executed after long speech - The Boston Globe

Man Killed After Motorcyle Hit By Train was followed by the sub-heading
Autopsy to determine cause of death - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

2010-03-26T17:06:00.002Z

"Bring me The Bill" sadly means the feast is over

The news today that ITV are to drop The Bill is a sad one. But not surprising when you think how the broadcaster treated the show. Over the past few years, The Bill has been sidelined for live soccer, tv awards programmes, and reality shows.

Hard to build up and keep an audience when the programme kept disappearing from the schedules.

2010-03-15T19:26:00.000Z

Sun shine dulled today

It wasn't the greatest day in The Sun's headline writing history. Maybe it's me but I found of their headlines a bit contrived today.

A story about the biggest bra ever - a K-cup - being made available in High Street stores brought forth this offering Monster K Cup is Biggest Bra None. Sorry guys it doesn't work.

A man who cannot stop buying mobile phones following the brain damage caused by a stroke gave birth to Phone a Frenzy. Better but not their greatest.

When pensioner Margaret Haverson went missing on a cold day in October 2008, her dog found her in time to save her life. The Sun subs thought Lost 'n Hound a suitable headline. It's an improvement on the previous two.

Orangutans, who are to be released into the wild after being shown how to swing from trees and forage for food after a life of abuse, inspired this: Orangutan a ding dong. I don't get it.

Well, there's always another day to look forward to. Like most of the nation, I hope The Sun shines tomorrow.

2010-03-14T23:08:00.001Z

There's one for every reader - the great chocolate swizz

Saturday's Daily Telegraph carried a teaser for the following day's paper promising a free box of Thornton's chocolates for every reader. Take note of that "for every reader" phrase, we'll be returning to it.

Roll on Sunday and that day's Telegraph. Sure enough splashed just under the masthead: "Free Thorntons Chocolates - Pick up today at Debenhams." Hold on, there was no mention of the necessity to go to Debenhams in Saturday's paper.

What happens if you don't live near a branch of Debenhams? They are only in approx 150 cities and towns in the UK. Some towns in the UK have two branches but I'm counting them in the 150 and besides if you can get to one in those towns, you can probably get to the other. Of those 150, 13 are in London so that brings the number of different cities and towns down to 140.

In the Republic of Ireland, also included in the offer, the chain store has just 11 stores in about seven towns and cities. I am counting the Dublin area as one, and Cork has two stores.

So if you are a Sunday Telegraph reader with a sweet tooth who doesn't have a branch of Debenhams nearby, this offer is no good to you. You are excluded by distance - something The Sunday Telegraph should have thought of.

Now here's another thing. Remember the phrase "for every reader"? It is significant because the number of readers a paper has is higher than the number of copies it sells. And the advertising sales are not slow at telling potential clients that the publications reaches a number far in excess of the copies sold.

Looking at ABC figures over the past two or three years, it appears that The Sunday Telegraph has three readers for every copy sold. As the circulation figure for early 2010 has The Sunday Telegraph selling 527,742 copies then we can deduce that the paper has more than 1.5 million readers - each of whom are entitled to a free box of Thorntons chocolates according to Saturday's paper.

But the conditions laid down in Sunday's paper are one box per coupon. And there is only one coupon per copy of the paper. Two of the three people who will read that copy will not get their chocolates. But three readers per copy is an average figure. There may some copies read by 10 people and some by only one. In that case a higher number of people will not have the opportunity to get their free box.

The phrase "for every reader" is one of the most disingenuously used in newspapers and magazines. They trick you into buying their publication with an offer they have no intention of honouring to the letter.

As words have meaning and newspapers and magazines deal in words, publishers should be prevented by law from misleading their readers. Free offers should have their conditions clearly spelt out before purchase.

The Sunday Telegraph is not alone in the practice of misleading readers. There are a large range of newspapers ad magazines who do the same.

A favourite trick is to offer a free gift and shout it from the rooftops with large type and the use of colour and images. Only the eagle-eyed reader will spot the catch written in small type - "P&P extra" or "Token collect".

Editor and publishers, you need to start using words correctly. The Thorntons offer should have been stated in Saturday's paper as being one box per copy of the paper and to be collected from Debenhams. Spelling the conditions out on the day is little good. People may have already decided to buy the paper. Children will have seen the free and pressurised their parents to buy the paper.

Maybe the Trading Standards Office should take a look.

2010-03-14T16:21:00.002Z

Who has suffered in a relationship like this? Let's go through the keyhole

Just a musical interlude. Not my usual type of music but it had a catchy chorus and I love the repetition of words.

2010-03-14T15:18:00.001Z

Who edits a show like this? Let's go through the keyhole

I grow increasingly frustrated with The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One every Sunday at 9.00pm. The true name of the programme should be "Breakfast with Marr" because for all intents and purposes, the format is exactly the same as Breakfast with Front.

Even the bank of people they draw upon to review the papers are the same as David Frost's. The only exception being that Marr never refers to the two chosen critics of the day as "the dream team". Neither does he introduce the weather with the words: "What sort of weather can we expect today? In the weather studio the one, the only..."

And, of course, from time to time we are treated to the voice of them all, Rory Bremner - the comic who thinks he's a political commentator of some depth.

But perhaps the really galling thing is when Marr takes a look at the front pages. He never misses out The Sunday Times, The Observer and The Sunday Telegraph. The paper of which Marr himself was once editor, The Independent on Sunday, gets an occasional look in. So too does The Mail on Sunday. But only once in a blue moon does he hold up the front pages of the News of the World, The People, Sunday Mirror or Sunday Express. (He will sometimes mention their lead stories but not show the front page.)

Granted there are some Sundays when those papers front pages carry an image not for family viewing or may even carry a libel. (Not that I believe families gather around the set en masse to watch this show.) But there are many Sundays when these front pages could be displayed. It doesn't necessarily mean that the likes of Charlie Kennedy, Maureen Lipman, Amanda Platell, et al have to discuss these stories.

This morning's News of the World claims that Jack Straw is to drop criminal proceedings against the man only known to use as Jon Venables and simply just send him back to jail without a trial. I would thought this unprecedented action was worthy of comment. Can the Justice Minister just overrule due process? And if so, should he be allowed to do so?

While the topic of Venables is almost run its course, the actions of the Jack Straw have not. Does anybody actually know what the Justice Minister does that the Home Secretary is not capable of doing - and which successive Home Secretaries of both parties did for many years.

Don't get me wrong I'm a news junkie and I love political news but some Sunday morning I wake to find Marr saying "Let's start with politics..." He must know there are other things going on in life.

But David Frost did the same, so isn't he to blame? Up to a point, Lord Copper. The man who is common to both programmes (I really must stop thinking of them as two different programmes but rather as the same programme with a different permanent host) is its editor Barney Jones. It's his name at the end of the credits and the word "editor" means he is captain of the ship. He carries the can.

And I guess he dictates the format. Jones is a journalist with a distinguished reputation. His profile on the BBC's website states: "Career highlights include setting up a joint interview with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, getting Elton John into the studio the morning after he played Candle in the Wind at Princess Diana's funeral, and getting Nelson Mandela dancing in the studio at the end of his interview."

But come on Barney, try adding some new items to the programme. How about looking at what some of the major news blogs are saying the web? Or some new faces for the paper review? How about some new guests? How often has Mandelson appeared in 2010? No doubt Mr Jones can give me chapter and verse and that it hasn't been as often as I think. That isn't the point. I feel he has appeared too often. Others who appear to be free on a Sunday morning are Menzies Campbell and Ken Clarke - to name just two. So it's a cross party thing.

I have tired of "Breakfast with Marr" and find myself not switching it on. I'm guessing I'm not the only one. Freshen it up, Barney.

2010-03-13T00:29:00.003Z

Who lives in a house like this? Let's go through the keyhole

The residents of a cul-de-sac in Broughton, Milton Keynes are whinging about Google's Street View service showing pictures of their boring little bourgeois modern red brick houses on the internet, reported The Daily Telegraph on Friday. They think they'll all be burgled and killed in their beds. But if you take a look at their houses, who in their right mind would want to rob them?

Thames Valley police say there is no evidence to suggest that Google's Street View has caused an increase in burgalries. Be told, people of Broughton.

This is just another case of middle Englanders wanting to pretend they are not part of the world. This strange English obsession with privacy. There is no right of privacy in the street.

Local councillor Edward Butler-Ellis claims to live in the cul-de-sac and is raising his voice in opposition to the Google Street View. If he does live there then the street is not called London Road, as reported in many papers. (What a strange name for a cul-de-sac anyway!) It's more likely to be Swanwick Lane in Broughton, if the electoral roll is to be believed.

If you really wish to find out, why not give Councillor Butler-Ellis a call. He gives his mobile number on the Milton Keynes Council website as 07952 153941. Email: edward.butlerellis@milton-keynes.gov.uk.

My guess is that the objectors' real motive is that they don't want anyone to know they live in Milton Keynes.

2010-03-10T23:10:00.000Z

Colindale is one of London's greatest hidden treasures

I took a group of students to the British Newspaper Library in Colindale today. I haven't been there since December 2008 and had forgotten what an excellent resource it is. I think a day there should be compulsory on every journalism course.

It now has wi-fi so bringing a laptop becomes a worthwhile exercise. They have also installed 52 extra electrical sockets since my last visit so plugging in the laptop is even better.

I have to confess that I never really came to terms with the integrated catalogue last time I was there. But today, thanks to the very helpful staff, I mastered it. Oh joy, I found they have more newspapers from abroad than I first realised. As well having pretty much every newspaper (national, regional and local) published in the UK and Ireland, the library also has loads from the USA, Canada, Australia, and a load of other countries.

Something I never realised is that the library also holds a greater number of copies of magazines than I imagined. I wish I had known that when I started on my book Magazines: A Guide to Critical Practice (ISBN 978-0-415-55725-2) due out later this year. (Amazon are taking orders now but I think they have the price wrong - it's cheaper than they say.)

Still, as I put the finishing touches to the book (have I mentioned Amazon are already advertising it?) I may have reason to consult the library's magazine stock.

But back to Colindale. Today I thought the students would not be impressed as they haven't shown much interest in reading newspapers so far but I was pleasantly surprised with the enthusiasm they showed. I have never taken a group of journalism students there that haven't had their minds blown at this amazing facility.

There are days when I think it should be in every guide book but on reflection I think it's better that it isn't. The facilities are adequate for the serious researcher but don't want a bunch of tourists turning up.

Let the British Newspaper Library remain one of London's hidden gems. At least until 2012, when sadly it moves to the wilds of Lincolnshire and settles in Boston Spa. Then we can access its goodies at the main library in St Pancras. It just won't be same without that that power-station-like red-brick building in NW9.

2010-03-08T00:30:00.002Z

Letter to the Daily Telegraph

Sir,

In her efforts to hang on to the taxpayer funded privilege of first class rail travel Ann Widdecombe MP said at the weekend that she was able to two write two books while travelling is her desired manner. The only books I can find that list her as the author of her four novels. Other publications bearing her name were written about her or edited by someone else. Since when did novel-writing become part of an MP's duty.

Brendan Martin
8 March 2010

2010-03-07T16:58:00.001Z

Greedy MPs still travel first-class on the gravy train

The Sunday Telegraph has another story to send my blood pressure up: MPs are refusing to give travelling first class on trains. They claim they have to do work on the train. One even says he has long legs. Neither point is limited to MPs. I have long legs and work on the train and often have to work on the train. I manage that in second-class except when I choose to travel first-class at my own expense..

If I am travelling at someone else's expense and feel the desire to travel first-class, I pay the difference. MPs should be reimbursed for second-class travel and they can upgrade at their own expense if they wish.

These greedy bastards forget they are just members of the public elected to do a job on behalf of the rest of the public. They are no better than us; no more important than us; and not authorised to squander our money.

They forget where they come from. Mind you, when you see headmasters, council officials, police officers and every other lickarse in society brown-nosing MPs, it is little wonder they start to believe in their own importance.

What we need is a system whereby a person who is elected to the House of Commons may serve only two terms before having to step down for at least one term after that. If they had return to doing a proper job they might remember who they serve.

2010-03-07T10:41:00.001Z

Council newspaper scrapped after no-one read it

A council newspaper in North Yorkshire has been scrapped after the authority's leader admitted no-one read it, reports Hold the front page.

The Conservative-run Richmondshire District Council decided to cease publishing the twice-yearly newsletter The Curlew as it was costing £11,500 a year to the taxpayer but research showed that no one read it.

The problem with Council-produced newspapers is that they are rarely - if ever - objective journalism. Not surprisingly the papers carry the Council's good news message and little criticism. The many I have seen, while professionally produced, are nothing more than glorified PR handouts.

They cost the taxpayer. And they cost the local newspaper publisher. Advertising revenue that could go to support an independent local paper can be spent with the council's offering.

In my view local papers are one of the treasures of the UK. Many are often lacking in great design. But many are well-presented. What makes a local newspaper valuable is that whatever the presentation, they communicate to people what is happening in their area. They become a part of the community.

If we lose the local newspaper in Britain, we lose a very valuable part of our democracy. Instead of cutting back on funds for local newspapers, publishers should be pumping more money in so as to improve their look and more importantly the strengthen their reporting teams.

Meanwhile the Conservative party is promising to do its bit should it form the next government. The Tories' shadow local government secretary, Caroline Spelman pledged to tighten the rules on local authority publicity to ensure council newspapers do not compete for advertising with the local press.

She told the Newspaper Society recently: "We need to take a long hard look at taxpayer-funded media and communications. Whether it's nationally or locally it can't be right that public money is used in a way that drives independent media outlets to the wall.

"In line with our commitment to greater transparency, we will require councils to publish online exactly how much they are spending on town hall newspapers."

Many journalists and publishers feel that real newspapers are hit hard by council-funded publications. Other cite the saturation coverage supplied by BBC local news services and the internet are also to blame.

Whatever the cause, the local newspaper needs to be saved. It is an important part of the community.

2010-03-07T00:43:00.002Z

Jack Straw is no friend of free speech

A report in today's Observer (6 March) claims that The Sun was injucted on Friday to prevent it from revealing the reason Jon Venables has been returned to prison and details of his alleged offences.

No doubt the hand of Justice Minster Jack Straw is behind this injunction. Unlike his colleague Home Secretary Alan Johnson, Straw wants to keep the public in the dark about Venables' actions. Straw has said that revealing Venables' alleged offences would "undermine the integrity of the criminal justice system".

All that is undermined is the integrity and reputation of Jack Straw. Fair enough, if he wants to instruct his departmental staff and those in the prison service to keep the matter secret. That is his blinkered decision.

But when a newspaper find out the facts by its own resources it should be allowed to publish them. But Straw is one of those people who doesn't believe in being open. He wants us kept in the dark. Makes you wonder if he is deserving of our votes come the next election.

Straw likes to think he knows better than the rest of us. It's okay for him and a selected few to know the facts but not the rest of us. Justice in this country should always be open. But sadly in the last few years we have seen more and more incidents where secrecy has defeated free speech.

It is something that we as journalists should become more vigilant about and make more noise about.

2010-03-02T23:51:00.000Z

Little known Elvis Presley anniversary remembered in Scotland

Fifty years ago tomorrow (3 March) a US Air Force plane landed at Prestwick Airport near Glasgow in Scotland. An American GI alighted the plane and spent two hours on British soil while his plane refuelled. But this was no ordinary GI; this was Elvis Presley.

He spent the time chatting to fans, who somehow found out that Sgt Presley was landing in Scotland, and giving a short press conference. Some of the top brass at a nearby US Air Force base took time to greet the King of Rock'n'Roll and have their pictures taken with him.

And soon it was all over. He board the plane and left. He never returned to the UK.

Some of those who were there on that day 50 years ago, will return to mark the day they met Elvis. According to the Scottish daily paper The Herald: "The Elvis effect is keenly felt in Prestwick, where a plaque presented by two members of Elvis’s band, Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana, was unveiled in 1993, and where you can sup a pint in a bar named Graceland.

"Next Wednesday, Prestwick Airport’s 16-hour day of celebrations, with proceeds going to children’s charity Clic Sergeant, include a best dressed Elvis competition, unveiling of another plaque and music from The MacDonald Bros.

"Airport managing director Iain Cochrane said: 'This is an opportunity to mark a milestone as well as promoting Ayrshire and bringing together the travelling public, local people and fan clubs worldwide.'"

2010-02-28T22:10:00.000Z

Sunday Times survey changes in dead of night

Ex-BBC DG Greg Dyke caught The Sunday Times out in a little bit sleight of hand this morning on The Andrew Marr Show (BBC1). Reviewing the papers, Dykey spotted that the paper had changed it hamper story (the one top of the page above the main splash) for the late editions. Nothing strange about that, newspapers do that all the time.

But what the eagle-eyed Greg spotted was that the news story (Brown on course to win election) was backed up by a YouGov poll conducted for The Sunday Times the previous Thursday. In the early editions the poll had the Conservative (38) four points above Labour (34) but in the later editions the gap had narrowed so that the Tories (37) now had only a two point lead over Labour (35).

Same survey conducted on Thursday but two different results. Obviously a case of changing the facts to fit the story. Well spotted Greg!

2010-02-25T15:30:00.003Z

Royal stockings and high-flying underwear

There is a lot of underwear stories in today’s papers. The Daily Telegraph reports on Queen Victoria’s silk stockings, which are now up for auction. The subject is so important to the Telegraph that it carries a leader on the royal stockings.

While over at The Sun, it’s knickers to BA management. Well, actually it’s a story about pictures of BA cabin crew girls who were fooling around on aircraft. “Fooling around” in this case was taking pictures of each others bare bums, sexy knickers and lacy underwear.

The Sun tells us under the headline ‘British Bareways’, someone posted the pictures on a porn site on the web.

But the story I like best is a nib, also from The Sun.

Under the headline, ‘Undie Achiever’, the paper reports:
Cary Craig, 51, aims to break a world record by wearing 200 pairs of pants at once for charity in Whitburn, Tyneside.

And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

2010-02-24T23:29:00.000Z

You couldn't make it up

One of the joys of local papers is seeing the howlers the hard-working subs, editors and writers produce in their pressure-filled days. Last October one of my local papers the Welwyn and Hatfield Times, brought a smile to people's faces in the area with their bill for a story about the discovery of a body in a local amenity.

The bill read: Dead Man Found In Graveyard.

The Times has now won an award from the website Holdthefrontpage.co.uk for their bill. Well done.

2010-02-24T00:11:00.000Z

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee report on the press published

A group of MPs made a raft of recommendations today to curb the "chilling" effect of libel actions on newspapers.

The anxiously awaited report by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee's on press standards, privacy and libel is published today. It makes recommendations to beef up the powers of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), which it criticises for not taking firmer action over "false and damaging" newspaper coverage relating to Madeleine McCann's disappearance. Self-regulation in its present form has not worked, says the MPs’ report, and feels the PCC should be given more teeth.

The PCC should be re-named the Press Complaints and Standards Commission, with powers to fine members and suspend printing in the cases of the worst rule-breakers, to reflect its role "as a regulator, not just a complaints handling service".

But of more concern to reporters may well be comments by the committee’s chairman, John Whittingdale, who says that there is also serious concern over the "increasing evidence that in recent years investigative journalism is being deterred by the threat and cost of having to defend libel actions...

"This report's recommendations are therefore designed to reduce the cost of libel actions and to correct the balance which has tipped too far in favour of the plaintiff.

"At the same time, we want to see the self-regulatory system under which the Press operates strengthened in order to increase its credibility and ensure that standards are maintained."

The libel laws in the UK have been in need of revision for some time now. Apart from being weighted in favour of the plaintiff, the UK’s defamation act has encouraged “libel tourism” - the practice whereby litigants from abroad choose to sue in an English court because they believe they have a better chance of winning.

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee recommends that libel tourism be curtailed. Where the UK is not the primary home or place of business of the claimant or defendant, the claimant should face additional hurdles before being allowed to bring a case, say the MPs.

The libel laws are a delicate balance of the right to free speech and the right to a good name. In the USA, laws have been created to protect their citizens from the enforcement of libel settlements in foreign countries. Mr Whittingdale said it should be a matter of "profound concern" that the UK is regarded as the jurisdiction of choice for libel actions to be brought, even when there was no obvious UK connection.

Another area that the committee’s report address is the practice of "no win, no fee" agreements between lawyers and clients. As the vast majority of cases brought on this basis are won, there is a great cost incurred by the defendant (usually a publisher or broadcaster). The report recommends that the amount paid to winning lawyers by the losing party "should be limited to no more than 10%, leaving the balance to be agreed between solicitor and client".

The high cost legal fees can deter publishers and broadcasters from defending an action they might win but as that cannot be assured, they opt to settle out of court. Had they had their day in court, they might well have successfully have defended the action.

"Until libel costs are addressed, it will continue to have a stifling effect on press freedom and the Government should now act swiftly," John Whittingdale said.

Other issues the committee looked at were the balance between privacy and press freedom and the increasing use of injunctions and "super-injunctions".
As well as the coverage of the McCann case it looked at reports into Max Mosley’s privacy battle with the News of the World; the suicides in Bridgend, South Wales; and The Guardian's reports last summer into phone hacking and blagging.

The MPs decided that it is not appropriate to legislate on privacy at this time. Instead it recommended the PCC amend its code to require journalists to notify the subjects of their articles before publication, with exceptions for cases in the "public interest". The suggestion of pre-publication notification and possible right of reply were points advocated by Max Mosley at the time of his privacy case against the News of the World. When weighing up any subsequent damages failure to notify the person concerned before publication could be seen as an “aggravating factor”, the report said.

Other recommendations by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee include:

fast-tracking procedures for a final decision in cases where interim injunctions banning publication of a story had been granted or refused by the courts
a one-year limitation period on action being brought over internet publications, which could be extended if claimants showed they could not reasonably have been aware of the articles
a statutory public interest defence to libel for responsible journalism
some of the burden of proof - now totally with the defendant - should be reversed for cases where companies and corporations are the plaintiffs. A corporation should have to prove its business has been damaged, or that there has been malice or recklessness, before an action can be brought
a way is found to limit the use of super-injunctions as far as is possible and to make clear that they are not intended to fetter the fundamental rights of the Press

Liberal Democrat MP and chairman of the Parliamentary Campaign for Libel Reform Dr Evan Harris said: "The committee's recommendation that there be a statutory public interest defence to libel for responsible journalism is a clear sign to the political parties that there is Parliamentary, as well as public appetite to protect responsible free speech.

"In addition, the recommendation that corporations should have some of the burden of proof put on to them is very significant, and will be a real boost for investigative journalism.

"I welcome the particular reference made by the committee to the concerns of the scientific community about the way in which peer-reviewed scientific publications are becoming embroiled in libel actions."

"The coalition of writers, academics, scientists and performers calling for change has now been joined by Parliamentarians, and the momentum in favour of reforming our libel laws seems unstoppable."

The report supports self-regulation and responsible journalism. This is surely to be welcomed by all who wish for high standards in the media.

2010-02-23T23:08:00.000Z

Former News of the World editor and ex-Hastings trainee Andy Coulson cleared of phone hacking

It’s good to hear that a committee of MPs has found "no evidence" that former News of the World editor Andy Coulson knew phone hacking was taking place at the newspaper. However, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee did say that Coulson, who learned his journalism as a trainee at the old Westminster Press training centre in St Leonards, Hastings was right to resign as editor.

The committee said there was no evidence Coulson, now the Conservative Party's communications chief, knew hacking was happening.

But, it added: "However, that such hacking took place reveals a serious management failure for which as editor he bore ultimate responsibility, and we believe he was correct to accept this and resign."

So whoever tapped the phones of celebrities and politicians was treading a fine line between being an intrepid reporter and a criminal.

2010-02-18T17:14:00.000Z

Time to start charging for the Evening Standard again

The London Evening Standard, which became a free sheet in October 2009, is charging some customers in north-west London to buy the paper, The Guardian reported on Tuesday (16 Feb).

Since it went free the paper is more difficult to distribute in the outer areas of London. The new Standard has been criticised for not offering cross-town distribution, as the older version did. So the paper is now being distributed to newsagents in north-west London to test the demand for it. It is being sold for 2p a copy to newsagents, who are free to charge whatever they want for it. Some are selling it for 20p other are really milking it by charging a whopping 50p.

I would like to pay 50p for the Standard every evening. As it is I rarely see the paper I once bought on a daily basis. By the time I reach my station in the City of London, they are all gone. People who would never put their hands in their pockets now greedily grab their nightly copy.

With the two free evening papers (Standard Lite and The London Paper) now gone it is time for the Standard to think about reintroducing a cover price for us all. It's the only their loyal readers of many years will get their copy.

2010-02-17T00:54:00.021Z

Who will save Abbey Road for musical history?

EMI studios at up for sale. The list of names who have recorded there is longer than just The Beatles and Pink Floyd. Sir Edward Elgar conducted the London Symphony Orchestra at the opening of the studios in 1931. That was 100 years after the building was erected as a Georgian townhouse.

During the mid-1900s the studio was extensively used by leading British conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent, whose house was just around the corner from the studio building. Another person who lives almost around the corner is Sir Paul McCartney, who has used the studios at Abbey Road since 1962. In 1969 when The Beatles released Abbey Road, the building was just called EMI studios and were only renamed Abbey Road Studios in 1970 - a year after the Fab Four made the name world famous.

If these historic studios are not to fall into the hands of developers intent on raising the building in order to build a block of flats, would local resident Sir Paul consider acquiring them? It may not be going for a song but surely his have earned him enough to allow him save this building.

Sir Paul told BBC's Newsnight that he hoped the studios could be saved and said some interested parties were hoping to put a deal together. But as the price is expected to be £30m, couldn't the ex-Beatle just buy it outright with his small change. According to the last Sunday Times Rich List, McCartney was estimated to be worth £440m in 2009.

2010-02-16T21:09:00.001Z

Making that caption defamation free. The Telegraph shows how

Cambridge University students annoyed residents of the seat of learning recently when they staged a "sexy circus" pub crawl. The Daily Telegraph (16 Feb) carries a report of how scantily clad students staggered around the city after taking strong drink. The vomited. They simulated sexual intercourse. And some even did both.

To illustrate the story the Telegraph has pictures of scantily clad students taking part in the pub crawl. The headline over the picture story reads "Blue Cambridge: Sex games and binge drinking on varsity pub crawl".

But careful not to libel the pictured totty, the Telegraph's caption reads "Students take part in the pub crawl. There is no suggestion that those pictured misbehaved".

Shrewd move on the part of the subs. Let's hope those reading the story read the caption too.

2010-02-16T00:07:00.001Z

Winning that £56 million in the Euro lottery.

Hearing the news that a British couple had won £56 million in the Euromillions, I thought "good luck" to them. I was delighted for them. I've never met them but I was pleased for their good fortune. But then I learnt that one is an estate agent.

2010-02-15T23:54:00.012Z

Revolver is the Pope's favourite album - it's official

The Beatles album Revolver has topped the Top 10 albums as named by L'Osservatore Romano, the official journal of record of the Vatican.

Described as "semi-serious" by the Vatican, the list includes Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Oasis and, of course the band lead by that friend of Popes, Bono, U2.

On the day 24 bishops are summoned to Rome by the Pope to account for the consistent child abuse that took place in Ireland, it's not gone unnoticed that The Who's The Kids are Alright is missing from the list. But Michael Jackson is included.

The Vatican's Top 10 Rock Albums

1. Revolver The Beatles
2. If I Could Only Remember My Name David Crosby
3. The Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd
4. Rumours Fleetwood Mac
5. The Nightfly Donald Fagen
6. Thriller Michael Jackson
7. Graceland Paul Simon
8. Achtung Baby U2
9. (What's the story) Morning Glory Oasis
10. Supernatural Carlos Santana

Meanwhile, as if this wasn't a crazy enough story, now we learn that Pope Benedict has been nominated for a Brit Award for the classical album Alma Mater - Music from the Vatican.

2010-02-15T13:42:00.001Z

Free labour has value: Don't give away your work

Young people wanting work experience might now have to pay for the privilege according to The Times last Friday. The body of William Wilberforce was heard spinning in his grave in Westminster Abbey.

Work experience should never be paid for by the person doing it. If the employer wants to pay the "workie", as those doing work experience are affectionately called, that's up to them.

Internships are different to work placements in that they are often longer and must be paid.

In journalism, it is common to exploit young people who want to break into the media. Local newspapers in the UK, put aspiring journalists on two-year "training" contracts. But they often don't provide much training. As trainees head into their second year of their contract, many are often of a standard high enough to be asked to do the work of a senior journalist and, in at least one case, a news editor. Oh, but still pay them as trainees.

Many local newspaper editors subscribe to the view: "Well, I bloody well had to do it, so you will too."

Television production companies also like to get their free pound of flesh. Their tactic is to dangle the promise of a paid job before an aspiring broadcaster. They give them the title "runner" and after a year's free labour let many of them go in order to make space for more unpaid runners.

Magazines are also guilty of some exploitation. But that is usally reserved for the titles that young journalists view as glamorous. One high-profile woman's mag made a workie clean the kitchen, while another magazine had a young journalist collect the editor's dry-cleaning.

However, I still believe the world of magazines gives the young journalist the fairest crack of the whip. Business-to-business (B2B) magazines are, in my view, the fairest of them all. They not only offer the workie a chance to write news and features as well as sub-edit, many will pay for work published.

This is right and proper because no one should write for no payment. If the copy has value enough to the publication to be published, it should be paid for. Dr Johnson put it perfectly when he said: "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money."

I would add a rider to that. A young journalist who feels they need the cutting or want to allow free publication of their work in order to advance their career may ignore the good doctor's advice from time to time. But don't make a habit of it.

The Periodical Publishers Association (PPA), the professional body of magazines, has guidelines for both publishers and workies on its website.

Work placements are two-way traffic. The student should get something from it: mentoring, contacts, even published work; the publication gets an extra pair of hands and, sometimes, publishable copy.

It's a two-way street open to all and not a toll road.

2010-02-14T12:09:00.002Z

Drivers that get my goat

The Press Association report today that the habit of driving too closely to the vehicle in front topped the list of the most-hated road habits, compiled by motor repair company Kwik-Fit.

The 10 most-hated road habits:
1. Tailgating
2. Failing to indicate
3. Dangerous overtaking
4. Jumping traffic lights
5. Hogging the middle lane
6. Last-minute braking
7. Hesitant driving
8. Undertaking
9. Hogging the fast lane
10.Being slow away from traffic lights

Now here's a thing. Tailgating and undertaking (8) are usually brought about by hogging the middle lane (5) and hogging the fast lane (9). In the UK we drive on the left - or are supposed to - but too many people get onto a motorway or dual-carriageway and move straight into the middle or right-hand lane - and stay there. Then they wonder why people tailgate and/or flash their lights at them.

If the lane on your left is empty - use it. You can always move out to the right when you come to a driver in front of you that is slower than you.

I keep saying that one day I'll use the Freedom of Information Act to ask every chief constable in the UK how many people their officers stop, warn or even charge with this form of careless driving. Such drivers are as much a cause of accidents as those who speed, in my view.

2010-02-13T22:38:00.000Z

Tight underpants a breach of human rights

Supplying a man with tight underpants is a breach of his human rights, claims an Austrian count. So today's Daily Telegraph reports.

Count Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly spent seven days in jail when arrested by the Serious Fraud Office detained him while they were investigating a BAE arms deal.

"In the UK human rights are not exactly respected like they are in Austria. I wasn't given underwear that was my size despite asking for it several times," said Count Alfons.

Reminds me of the old joke about Playtex bras that were advertised as being able to lift, support and separate. It was said those very qualities were what made Playtex underpants fail.

2010-02-13T11:09:00.002Z

Ireland can beat the gobby French

France's scrum-half Morgan Parra has joined his team mate, lock Lionel Nallet, in slagging off the Ireland rugby team ahead of today's Six Nations match in Paris. Parra claimed that the Irish side cheat every weekend.

"They have a great defence. Cheating, but intelligently cheating. It's very well done," said Parra. "If we did the same thing, we would be punished each time."

Funny that when you consider that it was cheating by France's soccer team that knocked the Republic of Ireland out of this year's World Cup.

Parra and Nallet are playing the game before the match has even kicked off. They are playing psychological games.

If they think they can demoralise the men in green they may well find that their remarks will serve only to galvanise Ireland. A win over France in Paris is a hard mountain to climb but not out of the question. Hopefully the two gobby French players' comments will be that extra spur to see Ireland claim victory.

Ireland are currently No 4 in the IRB world rankings. With only New Zealand, South Africa and Australia above them, Ireland are the No 1 team in the northern hemisphere. France are 5th and 2nd respectively.

Former News of the World editor and ex-Hasting trainee Andy Coulson cleared of phone hacking

2010-02-12T12:25:00.004Z

It’s good to hear that a committee of MPs has found "no evidence" that former News of the World editor Andy Coulson knew phone hacking was taking place at the newspaper. However, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee did say that Coulson, who learned his journalism as a trainee at the old Westminster Press training centre in St Leonards, Hastings was right to resign as editor.

The committee said there was no evidence Coulson, now the Conservative Party's communications chief, knew hacking was happening.
But, it added: "However, that such hacking took place reveals a serious management failure for which as editor he bore ultimate responsibility, and we believe he was correct to accept this and resign."

So whoever tapped the phones of celebrities and politicians was treading a fine line between being an intrepid reporter and a criminal.

2010-01-04T17:08:00.002Z

Spot the dog's balls
The Daily Mirror is to be bring back the "Spot the Ball" competition, popular with readers in the years leading up to 2000. But then the competition was dropped.
The variation on this theme that I enjoyed used to the 'Spot the Sheepdog' as featured in The Westmoreland Gazette.

2010-01-02T19:30:00.000Z

Does the love of language move with the times?
Prof David Crystal of the University of Wales, Bangor tells us in today's Daily Telegraph that the use of language on the internet is a threat to traditional spelling.

The good professor claims that within a few decades the accepted way of spelling words will disappear to be replaced by shortened and, in some cases, more phonetic versions. "Tomorrow" will become "2moro"; "thanks" will be abbreviated to "thx"; and even "OK" looks set to be shortened to just "K".

But is this such a bad thing? Language is a living thing. It evolves over time. And while traditionalists will reject to the new spellings, they should consider how words we use today have also evolved. We speak of "phone" when we mean "telephone"; we use "among" instead of "amongst"; and in just a decade or two "facimile" has morphed into "fax". These are just three examples of words that have changed over the past few years.

Go back and read an 18th or 19th century novel and you will find even more "extinct" words. So while Prof Crystal has a valid point, one can't help feeling he is a bit like King Canute sitting on the seashore vainly hoping to turn back the tide.

2010-01-01T21:32:00.000Z

Baby please don't go...or even come: Van Morrison's make-believe child
Van Morrison became a father again at 64…but then hours later he didn’t. Someone had hacked into Morrison’s website and posted an untrue announcement of the birth of a child to Morrison and someone said to be his manager, Gigi Lee. The child was reported as being named George Ivan Morrison III. The untrue story was carried by many media outlets - including the BBC.

The truth was, according to Morrison, that no such child had been born and that he had never heard of Gigi Lee.

What this all goes to show that even the BBC sometimes falls short of responsible journalistic practice. All stories should be verified before being reported. The source of the story is important as it goes to the credibility of the story. It is understandable then that the website http://www.vanmorrison.com should be taken as a reputable source for news of the Irish singer.

But as hacking and forging have become more sophisticated, the checking of news stories must become more thorough.

Apart from misleading the reader, viewer or listener, there is also the matter of defamation. Both Van Morrison and his wife Michelle (nee Rocca) probably have a case for libel. He because the story implies he was unfaithful to his wife; she because it implies her marriage may be over.

It seems that because the source of this story was Morrison’s website, it was believed. The thought the site have been hacked didn’t seem to occur to anyone.

Not checking stories is far too commonplace in today’s journalism. I recall I once wrote a story for a newsletter aimed at about 1,000 tenants of an apartment complex in London stating that Prince William and girlfriend Kate Middleton were moving in.

My April Fool’s joke – for that is what it was – appeared in newspapers and websites all over the world within days and can still be found on the internet today.

Get it right: verify everything.

2009-12-28T00:46:00.001Z

My arse or ours
Listening to RTE Radio over the past ten days, I grew increasingly annoyed at the lack of pronunciation house style.

The letter that seems to divide Irish broadcasters is "R". Some pronounce it to sound like "or" and others like "are". Surely, a national broadcaster such as RTE has a standard style for pronunciation. It doesn't matter which version they use but if they had any attention to detail they would choose one and impose it on all who broadcast on its airwaves.

But then sub-editing, house style and proof-reading are not qualities Irish journalists put that much store by. It seems that committing their own opinions to print is more important than the news and proper presentation.

The Irish Times, once regarded by many as the finest newspaper in Europe, showed great sloppiness when it ran a promotion for its Christmas TV and radio guide by stating that it would be available in 24 December. The promo was to alert readers not to miss the supplement in the paper published on that date. What day did I read this inside the paper? Er, 24 December. Oops!

2009-12-26T11:29:00.003Z

A day without newspapers
Boxing Day. St Stephen's Day. The day after Christmas. Call it what you will. I call it the day we get newspapers back after missing them for a day. Hurrah!

2009-09-18T18:57:00.011+01:00

Spare £135 for a cuppa tea, mate

Paul McCartney once made me a cup of tea. He didn't get a minion to make it. He made it himself. In his studio in East Sussex, he boiled the kettle, dropped in the tea-bag and offered me milk and sugar. He also offered me a humous butty.

At first I was overawed but then I thought: "And well he might, after the all the money I've spent over the years on his music."

Last week, I did it again. No, not have a cuppa with Macca. I spent more money on his music. I shelled out a few pence short of £135 on the box set of the Beatles' remastered CDs.

The thing is this is the fourth time I've bought the Beatles' canon. When a teenager I couldn't afford to buy the LPs (as they then were) new so I would pay for second-hand copies from schoolfriends and others.

When I started work, I could afford to replace the well-worn second-hand copies with a brand new set of the same vinyl LPs.

In 1987, there was another chance to buy the same catalogue all over again when the Fab Four released all their UK albums on CD. (It wasn't long after this purchase that Paul made me my cup of tea.)

Now I've bought the whole lot again. Digitally remastered (as the 1987 re-issues were) the music sounds great as you'd expect. The 2009 remasters are better than those of 22 ears ago. The technology has moved on.

There is nothing new on these CDs. There are a few things that you hear better and the whole collection has more body and a more rounded sound. Some instruments come more to the forefront as the quality is improved. Listen carefully to all the CDs and you'll hear stuff that was always there but hardly audible because of the technology of the day. Great stuff.

Now what about another cup of tea, Sir Paul.

2009-08-31T21:52:00.007+01:00

Magazines and their cover versions

Well, September is upon us. I've spent most of the summer looking at magazines and talking to people in the industry. Not much of a holiday, I hear you cry. That's the height of it, I'm afraid.

I am currently engaged in writing a book variously entitled "Magazines" (see link to Amazon on the right-hand side of this blog) or Magazines - A Guide to Critical Practice. (There is a price in pounds sterling as well.) I'm not happy about either name but until I've finished writing the book, I don't suppose there is much point in making a fuss about it.

In my researches I have been looking at a wide variety of covers. But imagine my surprise when I discovered two women's magazines had virtually the same cover. Okay, I am being ironic when I mention "my surprise". But when both magazines come from the same publisher and have very similiar names, you can't help but take notice.

Have a look at these two covers from Woman and Woman's Own

It's like one of those 'Spot the Difference' quizzes in Weekend magazine. Ah, there's a name to remember.

2009-07-10T11:18:00.006+01:00

Kent and Sussex Courier exposes Tunbridge Wells rip-off

Well done to the Kent and Sussex Courier and its reporter Richard Williams. What has he done? Last week Williams wrote the front page lead in the Tunbridge Wells edition in which he detailed how the local council has ripped off its own citizens to the tune of nearly three-quarters of a million pounds over three years. (If you want the exact figure it was £720,228.)

The overpayment goes into the council's coffers who freely admit they include in their annual accounts and rely upon it. But that's the same as a petty thief relying on what he steals from others to top up his income.

Parking in Tunbridge Wells is ticket machine-controlled. The machines charge by the hour - but they don't give change. So unless a motorist has the exact money, they are forced to overpay. Tunbridge Wells Borough Council told the Courier the reason for installing the parking machines was security. This word "security" is the most over-used in British society today. Every abuse of the citizen is excused by the use of the the word "security".

But assuming we accept the council's weak excuse, what is their reason for purchasing parking ticket machines that sell time only by the hour? Wandsworth Council, in south-west London, have the lowest Council Tax in the country but their parking machines sell time by the minute.

If you buy a parking ticket in Wandsworth borough, where parking is £2.50 per hour, with an odd amount e.g. £2.85 you will be given a ticket allowing you to park for one hour and about 14 minutes. No change is given. The machine is secure. There is no need for any local authority to use ticket machines that either (a) don't give change or (b) sell time by the minute.

Come on Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, stop ripping off motorists.

I have no idea of how many other councils and local authorities have ticket machines similar to those used in Tunbridge Wells but if there are 100 all ripping us off for £250,000 a year that £25m per annum that is being stolen from the public by greedy councils.

The only recourse the good people of Tunbridge Wells have is to ensure they always have the correct change and for local traders to let it be known they are happy to give change to those who have not got the correct money.

Well done Richard Williams and the Kent and Sussex Courier. That's what local newspaper journalism is about. We are blessed in this country with an array of local newspapers that, while not always being the most exciting, serve their community and keep their readers well-informed.

2009-07-09T10:36:00.012+01:00

Michael Jackson: The man in the Mirror...and other publications

It was inevitable that so many magazines would feature Michael Jackson on their covers. It all sell copies...they hope. Even Private Eye put him on their latest cover. But pity the poor editor and publishers of Q. Their cover story of Jackson was to mark his tour of the UK. The accompanying copy is now sadly out of date. Such are the vagaries of magazine publishing.

2009-06-28T02:17:00.011+01:00

Ray in the rain

Forty-two years I have waited to hear and see Ray Davies play Waterloo Sunset live. Tonight I achieved that ambition. I stood in the pouring rain (it was too wet to sit) at Kenwood House, North London waiting to hear the opening words “Dirty old river won’t you keep rolling...” And I wasn’t disappointed. There is something so special about that song to me. I remember sitting on the garage roof at the family in the summer of 1967 listening to the song over and over again. The only thing that took me away from The Kinks’ single was Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

But when I die, I want Waterloo Sunset played at my funeral and also when my ashes are tipped into the Thames...maybe even off Waterloo Bridge.

This Song has nothing tricky about it

2009-06-17T13:25:00.010+01:00

On Monday, Let it Roll: Songs by George Harrison was released. Featuring 19 great remastered songs from the late Beatle's solo career, the album is obviously going to have some important tracks missing.

My missing favourite is This Song, the tune George wrote following his defeat in a copyright case in 1976.

Girl group The Chiffons' 1963 hit He's So Fine was written by Ronald Mack, who assigned the rights to Bright Tunes Corporation. In April 1963 the song was a No 1 hit in the USA for The Chiffons. It reached No 16 in the UK in May 1963, ironically, as it turned out, The Beatles were No 1 at the same time in the UK with From Me to You.

On 11 February 1964 The Beatles played their first live American concert. Before The Beatles came on, there were three other opening acts, including The Chiffons who performed He’s So Fine.

On 15 January 1971, George Harrison released his first solo single after the break-up of The Beatles, My Sweet Lord. Within a month, Bright Tunes Corporation started legal proceeding claiming that My Sweet Lord plagiarised He's So Fine.

In February 1976 a judge ruled that George Harrison was guilty of "subconscious" plagiarism. It took a further five years to determine what level of damages George had to pay Bright Tunes. Harrison ended up buying Bright Tunes Music Corporation for $587,000. But the case didn't end there and dragged on for a further ten or more years.

There is an excellent summary of the case on the UCLA website.

As a result of this episode in his life George Harrison wrote This Song, a satirical look at the He's So Fine case in 1976 and included it as a track on his album Thirty-Three and a Third as well as releasing it as a single..

This Song video

The purpose of this story is to illustrate how long and drawn out copyright cases can be. Also, how expensive they can be. Breaches of copyright are something I cover in depth in my media law courses.

One person who might have gained from my media law training is author J K Rowling, who is currently accused of plagiarism by the family of writer Adrian Jacobs. The Jacobs family allege that Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was plagiarised from Jacobs' book, The Adventures Of Willy The Wizard No 1: Livid Land.

I shall be watching this case closely and using in my media law courses.

2009-04-29T15:24:00.006+01:00

Yesterday I received a book in the post. Nothing unusual in that except that this was simply called Fergus Martin. It is the first book by my brother, artist Fergus Martin. He's younger and lighter than me. He ain't heavy, he's my brother. The book is a collection of his work going back to 1996. I am very proud of his book and his work over the past 30 years.

Am I jealous? No. But I am peeved that his book came out before mine! Only joking. Anyway, you can buy Fergus Martin from the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. The ISBN is 1-901702-29-3.

My book? It's not finished yet but it's due in May 2010 and is called Magazines: A Practical and Critical Guide. So watch out for that.

You order the book direct from the Hugh Lane Gallery's bookshop by following this easy link

Michael Jackson magazine covers

2009-03-26T23:33:00.000Z

Now train-spotting is a security risk!

2009-03-24T15:48:00.003Z

The latest bit of paranoid lunacy regarding security in this country comes under attack today by Labour MP Tom Harris. Mr Harris has put forward a motion in the House of Commons praising train-spotters for pursuing their hobby.

According to Mr Harris trainspotters help protect railway stations by acting as "extra eyes and ears for the security services".

A former transport minister, Mr Harris has tabled his motion following an incident at Macclesfield station when trainspotter Edmund Tan was prevented from taking photographs of trains. A Virgin Trains spokesman said at the time: "There were a number of issues around security. They could include things like terrorism or the security of the station."

Mr Harris' motion, which has attracted cross-party support from 30 MPs, "welcomes the presence and activities of railway enthusiasts on the UK rail network" and "acknowledges the potential positive contribution to station security made by railway enthusiasts who are often seen as providing extra eyes and ears for the security services through their activities".

The motion also says the MPs are "concerned" that some trainspotters have been prevented from carrying out lawful activities including photography and "calls on Network Rail and the train operating companies to respect the legal rights of members of the public to pursue their interests at stations".

Just imagine being able to tell a terrorist cell that the 9.35 from Leamington Spa departs on time every day. That's something we'd all like to know happens.

More on Google "spyware" and privacy

2009-03-20T21:46:00.001Z

It is a sad day for freedom when Google gives in to the demands of a deluded bunch of people who think their privacy has been invaded.

Firstly, the Google pictures are taken in the street and usually of the street. No one has an expectation of privacy when they are in the street. That holds true whether they are leaving a sex shop, throwing up in the gutter or just standing in their front garden watching the world go by. If a person can be seen in a public place or from a public place without the use of long-lenses, then they have no expectation of privacy.

Secondly, it is highly unlikely a burglar is going to use a year-old photo of a suburban house when planning a break-in. Statistics show us that most burglaries are opportunist events. Those who protest also flatter themselves that their houses look tempting enough to a thief.

Thirdly, the invasion of privacy that these paranoid middle-Englanders should be concerned about is that perpetrated by the state. Email, travel arrangements, phone calls, bank statements, etc are all routinely recorded by the governemnt. These are the things we should really be concerned about. But few raise their voices in protest when the state gives itself permission to invade our real privacy.

Finally, it is ironic that if you “travel” down Whitehall, you find that the entrance to Downing Street has also been blocked out by Google. Funny that. A government that wants to know so much about us, but it doesn’t want us knowing about it.

I spy with my little Google

2009-03-20T11:59:00.002Z

I saw a picture of my home on Google last night. I wasn't offended, upset, scared, annoyed, perturbed or in any way put out. The fact is the building exists so what is wrong with a photograph of it?

It seems to me that people in the UK have an unhealthy obsession with privacy. An American will happily tell how they make in a year. A Brit would rather be dragged over hot coals before they would reveal that.

They are also funny about being in the phone directory or on the electoral roll. Many opt out of both. What also amuses me is the British habit of not revealing their first names. Many a letter to the newspapers is signed A. B. Smith. What do the A and B stand for? Better still are those people weho when asked their name say "Mrs Smith". What cruel parent gave their child the first name "Mrs"?

The irony of the whole thing is that the UK now has more cctv than anywhere else in the world. But the great British public never utter a word of protest about that. So long as they continue to refuse to become involved and speak out, the government and spooks will continue to spy on us in a far more invasive manner that Google's harmless street pictures.

We're being robbed of our time

2009-02-08T11:40:00.012Z

I have often puzzled about how the governments in these islands contrive to keep us in the dark . I’m not talking state secrets here. I’m talking clocks. Why is it we turn the clocks back eight weeks before 21 December, the shortest day of the year? But we don’t turn them forward one hour until 15 weeks after 21 December?

Let’s look at the evidence. The clocks went back one hour on Sunday 26 October 2008. They are due to go forward one hour on Sunday 29 March.

On 26 October at 2.00am, we put our clocks back one hour. This meant that the sunrise on Sunday was at 6.44 GMT. The day before (Saturday) sunrise was at 6.42 GMT (but we called it 7.42 BST because we were on summertime.) Sunday had 10 hours daylight; the day before it was 10 hours and 3 minutes.

On 29 March at 1.00am, we will put our clocks forward one hour. This means that the sunrise on Sunday will be at 5.43 GMT (but we’ll call it 6.43 BST). The day before (Saturday) sunrise will be at 5.45 GMT. Sunday will have 12 hours and 46 minutes daylight; the day before it will be 12 hours and 42 minutes.

Clearly there are longer days at the Spring changeover than at the Autumn one. So putting our clocks forward takes place several weeks after it could and should.

If we put out clocks forward one hour at 1.00am on Sunday 1 March sunrise would be at 6.46 GMT (but we will call it 7.46 BST). The day before (Saturday) sunrise will be at 6.48 GMT. Sunday will be 10 hours and 55 minutes daylight; the day before it will be 10 hours and 51 minutes.

This means that the Sun rises at about the same time (6.45 GMT) on 26 October as it does on 1 March. It sets on both days at about 5.40 GMT. Both days have 10 hours daylight (Actually 1 March has a 55 minutes more.

So why do we wait until 29 March to change the clocks? I think we should be told.

Leave it out, Five

2009-02-05T10:16:00.006Z

The remake of Minder starring Shane Richie and Lex Shrapnel shows how lacking in imagination are many of our television controllers. It is possibly one of the worse shows ever made.

To start with Richie is too well known as a television host and comedian to be able to convince the audience that he the character Archie Daley. George Cole was Arthur Daley. Despite a distinguished acting career over many decades, Cole never once made you think of any of this other characters while he was playing Daley.

Then there’s the script. It was peppered with contrived malapropisms and just do not sound credible when uttered by Richie.

What I don’t get is why television executives are commissioning so many remakes. They rarely match the original.

The saddest thing of the lot, in my view, is that while the new Minder can be seen on Five at 9.00pm on Wednesdays, the original starring Cole and Dennis Waterman (pictured above) can be seen an hour earlier on the same night on ITV4.

I know which I’ll watch.