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"'I'm convinced that newspapers need to rise up and take responsibility not just for the quality of the news, but for the quality of the conversation,"
This is totally true."
links for 2008-08-04 [delicious.com]
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
A “dangerous question”: Why don’t reporters write headlines?
It’s the question I asked on Twitter yesterday.
Some people found it a perfectly comfortable question to debate, others seemed to find it irritating.
If I am being naive then I would dearly love someone to fill me in.
So far, my thinking is that reporters do not write headlines because of the nature of print production i.e. because they are not the ones that lay the story out on a page and therefore do not know what space they have/what other articles are on there.
It surely can’t be because reporters are not expected to grasp spelling, punctuation and grammar?!
The public responses to my question (or the ones that I could find on Twitter Search) are copied and pasted below in reverse chronological order. (Wouldn’t it be lovely to have an app that collated responses to you on Twitter over a specified period of time.)
Regional newspapers do not produce good journalists…
…or at least that was the opinion of one desk editor from a national newspaper that I met during my London trip.
I had asked him why there were not more regional journalists breaking into the nationals.
His response was that staffing cuts at regional and local newspapers meant journalists at that level were not given the time to develop proper investigative and writing skills.
“We no longer see the regional newspapers as a source for staff,” he said. “We find that training graduates ourselves produces better journalists.”
He added that they had a few regional journalists who were trying to break in to London by working shifts, but they didn’t have the skills the newspaper demanded from someone with a staff job.
This had me reeling.
I had always been told that regional journalism was one of the best ways to cut your teeth in the trade and could – if you wanted it to and were good – pave a way for a career in the nationals.
Now it seems national newspapers may regard themselves as an entirely seperate industry.
Is it really the case that regional newspapers no longer train good journalists?
What every regional journalist needs to hear about their industry…
In this Seesmic post Kevin Anderson, Blog Editor for The Guardian and co-author of Strange Attractor, pretty much covers many of the things I’ve wanted to say, but better:
Kevin Anderson on Seesmic
He is answering a question posed by Birmingham City University’s Paul Bradshaw – with recent job freezes/cuts at UK newspapers, is there any point in universities running journalism degrees training students for the newspaper and broadcasting industries?
links for 2008-07-17
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“There are thousands of business reporters covering hundreds of beats at newspapers across the country. And odds are there’s at least one who would pose a competitive threat to any B2B publication you could name.” (via Adan Tinworth)
London – the itinerary
So, just before I pack my bags and spend a small fortune filling up the car with fuel, I thought I’d let you know what I’m up to during my weekend jaunt to London.
It’s looking busy!
Friday:
Morning: The Tuttle Club – where I am looking forward to meeting some well-known social media types such as Lloyd Davies and Steve Lawson.
Lunch: Meeting up with an old friend and mentor from The Times, who I haven’t seen for years.
Afternoon/Evening: Free. Anyone wanna meet?
Saturday:
Family things
Sunday:
SHOPPING!!!!
Monday:
Morning: Meeting the veritable mine of blogging knowledge that is Adam Tinworth and fellow digital journalist in crime (amongst other things) Gary Andrews.
Lunch: Tour of The Guardian. {muffled squeak of excitement about this one!}
Afternoon/Evening: Off to Trinity Mirror Towers aka Canary Wharf to meet colleagues including über boss David Black.
links for 2008-07-16
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Twitter has purchased search engine Summize, a deal that leaked out last week but didn’t wrap up until the last few days.
People skills
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4OvQIGDg4I&hl=en&fs=1]
Taken from Do Start-ups need Community Managers? on ReadWriteWeb.
links for 2008-07-15
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On WordPress.com it is used to store all images and other web page components from the admin area to the user’s PC, speeding up access and reducing unnecessary web traffic.
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links for 2008-07-14
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I think that employers are definitely in a spot where they might have to consider how their employees work. On one side, the management challenges are huge… On the other hand, there are cost savings to be had
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Businesses are missing out on the huge potential that social networks present, a leading information technology company has warned.