My “speech” to the Society of Editors conference

When is a speech not a speech? I was asked to do five minutes on my thoughts about real-time news as part of the “Covering It Live” session at the Society of Editors conference at Stansted Airport today. Is five minutes a speech or Just A Few Words? Either way, here’s what I had to

The Darlington Experiment 2.0: A case study for newspaper “pride” campaigns?

One of the more contradictory aspects of life in a provincial newsroom is that while it’s ok for those in the newsroom to speak critically of the patch they cover, as soon as someone else does it, they’re often heading for the front page. On one hand, reporters will grumble about the lack of shops/cinemas/parking/people

The picture makes the story: Stephen Shakeshaft’s story

Stunning picture, isn’t it? It’s by the former picture editor of the Liverpool Daily Post and Liverpool ECHO, Stephen Shakeshaft. And it’s one of several dozen on display at an exhibition of Stephen’s photographs currently on display at the National Conservation Centre in Liverpool until early next year. I spent a couple of really enjoyable

A tale of three headlines – and why SEO isn’t killing headline writing

“The internet” is accused of killing many things: Newspapers, the Royal Mail, book shops, the music industry – you get my drift. And to that list of well-known complaints add this one from some prin journalists: “The internet is killing headline writing.” That was basically the point made by columnist Maxwell Cooter in the latest

What’s the value of a first person piece in an online world?

About a fortnight ago,  Jo Wadsworth blogged about some of the age-old traditions in newsrooms, one of which was the old ritual of making the trainee reporter dress up or do something stupid “for the sake of a good read.” Anyone who has progressed through the ranks of a newspaper will know what I’m talking

FOI: Now even councils have to use it to get information from Government

On last week’s FOI Friday blog post, several of the the articles I highlighted had started life thanks for FOI requests made not by journalists but by councillors or MPs. Now it’s not new that the Tories and the Lib Dems have been used FOI to get information out of Government, and then released it

What can the news industry learn from the Meerkats?

Rupert Murdoch tells the world that Google should pay for the content it accesses from his websites. Google responds by saying it isn’t in the business of producing content, it’s just there to help people find it. And then the debate continues about who needs who more:  Do newspaper websites need Google to get an

Has Coveritlive changed online journalism for good?

(Updated Oct 15 to correct link to Manchester Evening News) On Saturday, I was at Manchester Piccadilly. Lots of police were around, asking questions of anyone under the age of 25. The English Defence League were in town, and with the EDL – there to “fight extreme Islam” – was Unite Against Facism, which was

Seven common newsroom myths about online journalism

I was asked the other week by a journalism lecturer about how different I thought life was like for a journalist starting out in a newsroom now than one who started out, say, four years ago. In particular, this lecturer wanted to know what common misconceptions exist among people looking to get into journalism over

What “professional” journalists can bring to hyperlocal

Tweetdeck on my laptop last weekend was dominated by Tweets coming out of the Talk About Local 09 unconference taking place in Stoke. So many great hyperlocal sites, each doing things differently to best serve their community. Then, over the week, it’s been interesting to see the debate continue – largely on Roy Greenslade’s update