Sands Media Services

The challenge: Quality content at reduced costs

2012-01-30T17:27:00.000Z

"There are two things guaranteed in regional newspapers in 2012. Editorial costs will decline further and readers will be increasingly bombarded by content from all directions. If regional papers offer dull filler material, they will continue to alienate readers and the downward spiral will go on. Ultimately, if nothing changes, everything stays the same. And for regional newspapers, that will mean their demise edges ever closer."

This is the thrust of my latest article for InPublishing magazine. Should you be minded, you can read the whole thing here.

A ripping yarn ...

2012-01-28T14:34:00.000Z

Just been sent this story from the Napier Mail in New Zealand by my old pal David Barrie. I have been banging on recently about the lack of humour and fun in regional papers ... so he sent this to say the Kiwi papers didn't have the same problem. It certainly made me smile. One of those rare tales where you really do read until the end? Schoolkids' essays and speeches - could be a rich source of content.

If typography was a sport ...

2012-01-28T10:50:00.000Z

Never mind the Olympics, why not enter the 2012 Typography Games? This Olympic style contest for designers looks like a challenge more suited to most of the people I know. You have to design a typographical poster about sport using the phrase 'it's not what you win but how you conquer it'. Even if you don't fancy taking part, the launch video is definitely worth watching.

Over to you Paul ... enjoy it as much as I did

2012-01-27T07:57:00.000Z

The team from The Irish News, winners of Newspaper of the Year, with host Nick Ferrari at last year's awards

Start putting together your best work from last year - the Regional Press Awards are back. The awards lunch will be on Friday May 25th at Savoy Place in London, so make sure you keep the date clear. It is with some regret, though, that I am standing down as chairman of the judges this year. My decision is partly because I don't have the time but mainly because I have taken a non-executive director's role with Northcliffe Media, so can no longer strictly be regarded as an independent. The job will be in safe hands with former Manchester Evening News editor Paul Horrocks taking over. Good luck to him. It was a real honour to have been chairman for the last six years. I have seen the awards run by the Press Gazette, the Wilmington Group, killed off for a year, and then resurrected by the Society of Editors last year. But through all the changes, the constant has been the high standard of journalism. Despite the economic ravages and the cuts, and against a backdrop of some elements of the Press being vilified, there are still regional journalists going the extra yard, delivering great stories, campaigns and investigations that really do change communities. My view has always been that the industry should throw its weight behind these awards. If we don't celebrate the excellence that runs through our newspapers, who will? That is why I took the chairman's role in the first place and why I will continue to help Paul, Bob Satchwell and the Society as they strive to make the awards a success. I hope the industry supports them too by encouraging its editors and journalists to enter. The entries will open on February 13 and details will be posted soon on www.theregionalpressawards.org.uk.
I will still be around on the day to catch up with old friends and colleagues, buy drinks and save tipsy editors from walking in front of cars - but this year I won't have to field the polite and not-so-polite bar-room questioning over 'why didn't we win.' Over to you Paul.

The Hull Daily Mail table celebrates winning daily Newspaper of the Year (over 25,000) at the 2008 awards

Daily Mail looking for subs and reporters

2011-12-13T08:40:00.001Z

The Daily Mail is once again looking for trainee subs and reporters. The paper begins its search this week for bright wannabe journalists to join its highly successful training scheme, run by Press Association Training. The subbing course has been running since 2003 and the reporting course is in its fifth year. The Mail's newsroom is now staffed by many of those who completed the training including deputy sports editor Mark Alford, sports journalists Alex Kay and Laura Williamson, backbenchers Jayme Bryla and Chris Roberts and current Young Journalist of the Year, the Mail on Sunday's Matt Sandy.
If you are interested in applying send your CV, 200-words on why you want to be a Mail journalist and six pieces of your work to sue.ryan@dailymail.co.uk by February 10. You should specify your preference, if you have one, for the subbing or reporting course. They are separate schemes which will start next September. The reporting course will be held in London and the subbing course will be held mainly at the PA's Manor in Howden, East Yorkshire. For the first time there will be one combined week with subs and reporters getting together at Derry Street. It is likely that the successful applicants will have completed a post-graduate journalism course or have newsroom experience. Shorthand and a driving licence will be an advantage for the reporters. If you are applying it is worth reading my piece on what the Mail is looking for here. If you get invited for interview, I look forward to seeing you in February. Good luck.

It's all going pear-shaped ...

2011-12-10T08:52:00.001Z

We have had the dog that injured its nose, the woman who couldn't find a tin of custard and one of my favourites ... the straight banana drama. Now I am grateful to Daily Telegraph sub and fellow Newcastle United supporter @laurieallsopp for alerting me to, wait for it, the man who stumbled on a rather large pear in Sutton from the Sutton Guardian. Don't you just love the use of the word 'rather'.
BBC journalist @JonMWelch, who flagged up the story of the Diss Christmas tree falling over in the wind, asks if editors are publishing this type of story for 'ironic website hits'. It's certainly a possibility. The dog that injured its nose led to 130,000 people logging on to the story on the Salisbury Journal website in a single day. Indeed the editor wondered whether the tale broke the record for page impressions per word anywhere on the web. As I said at the time, in this upside down world where hits on the website and driving digital audiences are critical, there is perhaps method in the Journal's madness. It will be the bizarre, the offbeat, the mistakes, the funnies and the downright bad that will get the biggest followings. If nothing else such stories add much-needed humour to regional papers. They have also led to the publication of the book Whitstable Mum in Custard Shortage. One for the Christmas stocking ...

Well done Newcastle ... officially the best

2011-12-09T23:00:00.000Z

I raised a glass with colleagues at Press Association Training this week after the Newcastle journalism foundation course was named the best in Britain. The training centre, based in the Journal and Chronicle offices, was awarded the top spot ahead at the NCTJ's annual Skills Conference at Belfast City Hall. Trainee journalists on the PA course achieved an impressive and unprecedented 92pc exam pass rate. It's the third time in four years the course has clinched a top place, but the first time it has achieved the overall number one spot. None of this comes as any great surprise to me. The course has always been first rate, mainly because it sticks to the following tried and tested principles:
i) The centre is run as a newsroom with the same disciplines, dress code and long hours.
ii) All of the journalism training is carried out by professional, working journalists.
iii) The course concentrates on the basics - shorthand, writing, bringing in stories and law.
iv) The trainees are given detailed feedback on all of their work.
v) As the centre is in a newspaper office the trainees get experience working for big city dailies.

Former trainees include the Andrew Marr, James Naughtie, Financial Times editor Lionel Barber and The Sun's political editor Tom Newton Dunn.
Ultimately, of course, training is only as good as the people who deliver it. So well done to Paul Jones, Pat Hagan, Garry Willey, David Banks, Sue Nixon, Shirley Kelly and, of course, head of PA Training Tony Johnston. Richly deserved. If you are want to know more, the course's details are here.

Big-bellied chimney frequenter is coming to town

2011-11-28T23:32:00.000Z

Here's a few elegant variations for Father Christmas from former trainee, now health correspondent at Archant Norfolk, Kim Briscoe. Last year Kim referred to Santa as 'the bearded icon' in her round-up of Christmas grottos. This year, with tongues in cheeks, Kim and her colleagues have so far offered:
Big-bellied chimney frequenter
Reindeer-keeping present giver
Ubiquitous red-suited gentleman
and, somewhat unfairly,
Burgeoning, white-bearded fraudster.
They are now suggesting a competition to find the best. I'm not sure I should be encouraging this sort of thing, but killing time on a crowded train from London tonight I mused over:
Hirsute ruby-suited philanthropist
Whiskery seasonal gift distributor
Jocular overweight elf supervisor
Rotund sleigh-riding altruist
Giles Coren would be so proud. All of this nonsense was brought to my attention by Kim's husband, and David Powles, senior content editor at Norwich, who is on the Modern Editor's course I am running at PA in London this week. So while David was ploughing through strategic planning, cost analysis, budgeting, radical revenue streams, entrepreneurial journalism and the future of print, it's nice to know at least his missus was having fun back in the office.
If you have any more elegant variations for Santa, let's have them and I will forward them to the Norwich newsroom.

The power of a single image: 45 stunning photos

2011-11-25T10:16:00.000Z

I have spent a couple of days this week talking about design with Middle East journalists from the newspaper Al Watan. We have been concentrating on the power of a single image or 'bull picture' on a page. This isn't something that their paper does often. Anyway, in discussion we stumbled across the National Geographic's Photo Competition. We looked at 45 stunning images in the People, Places and Nature categories. Take a look here. If anyone ever doubted the power of a single image, they couldn't fail be to be persuaded by these shots. If you want to enter (the closing date is next Wednesday) or just want to look at more amazing pictures, the details are here.

From Fenton to Leveson - the week in clips

2011-11-24T08:27:00.001Z

My advice to journalists to have "good taste and a dirty mind" so that they can keep innuendo and double-entendres out of the newspaper also, of course, applies to broadcasters. It's a lesson that might have benefited Jane Garvey and author Aileen Ribero admiring the work of chef Giorgio Locatelli on Radio 4's Woman Hour on Tuesday.

This is an edited version, courtesy of Tim Johns, and is made up of three separate clips, but you can catch the whole thing on iPlayer here.

There were a couple of other clips trending on Twitter this week, one which I found funny, the other less so. The rogue dog Fenton (some say Benton) chasing deer in Richmond Park was watched by 750,000 people on Youtube. It was filmed by 13-year-old Jake Goodyear (listen to his Mutley snigger at the end). People with far too much time of their hands have since created a raft of mash-ups. Here's the Jurassic Park version and there are many others too. If you have the time or inclination the Guardian's Media Monkey lists some of them here. Meanwhile the newspapers are still hunting for Fenton's owner.

One of the other big trending subjects of the weekly came, remarkably, out of the grim and sombre Leveson inquiry into phone hacking. Barrister Carine Patry Hoskins became known as the #womanontheleft for smiling at Hugh Grant's cricketing joke on this Sky News clip.

She became an internet sensation, but for what reason exactly? I tend to agree with the New Statesman's Helen Lewis-Hastley on this one.

The most shocking thing that came my way via Twitter this week though was from India's Got Talent. Britain's Got Talent, boring. The X-Factor, a banal karaoke show. But this I would stay in for. The video is not for the faint-hearted.

Death on the front page: Right or wrong?

2011-11-20T22:19:00.000Z

My comments on the pictures of Gaddafi's death on the front pages led to some differing views on the ethics and taste of splattering a bloodied corpse all over the news-stands.

I argued that the pictures were brutal but justified. If newspapers had photographs of the death of Hitler, would they have used them? Of course they would.

Simon Ricketts

One esteemed journalist who disagreed with me, and the position of his paper, was Guardian backbencher Simon Ricketts (@SimonNRicketts). He subbed the Gaddafi story that night but batted against the use of the picture. He tweeted: "I would have gone for a symbolic picture. Not a generic 'rebels celebrating' but an 'empty chair' type thing. Something smart."
My old Evening Despatch colleague John Lewis (@Johndlewis54) was even more incensed. He wrote: "Fleet Street showing that killing people is OK so long as you kill the right ones. SICK!"

My argument was that the pictures were irresistible, that they captured a crucial moment in history, that they told the story. Simon on the other hand felt a line had been crossed. This led us to other deaths that had been used explicitly on Page 1. Most memorable for me was the picture of the people crushed against the fences in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. I was on The Northern Echo and we used it across Page 1 under the headline Never Forget. It was a shocking image and one I can't justify using here. The Daily Mail, though, still uses it on its website here. Be warned ... it is a disturbing picture.

The photograph arrived on the wire on the Sunday afternoon, 24 hours after the deaths. The people were dead or dying and that was clearly shocking. The story had been all over the Sundays but this photograph was new. We gave a print to each head of department and asked them for a view. They were split 50-50 as to whether we should use it. The parents among them, including the features editor who was an ex-Sun man, were against.

In the end the journalistic instincts to publish took over. For me the picture told the story and identified perfectly what the problem was. As a result football fans are not allowed to be caged in - and if anyone thinks they should be, just show them this picture. The headline, Never Forget, tried to justify its use.

There were 75 complaints (considerably fewer than when I moved the BMDs from Page 4).

Simon was shocked when I showed him the Hillsborough picture, which he had not seen before.

He said: "I would have been on the 'no' side of the camp but I cannot say I would not have run it if I was editor. I completely understand why you did."

It was certainly a tough call.

The Daily Sketch shows the moment Jack Ruby
shot John Kennedy's killer Lee Harvey Oswald

There are many other examples of dead bodies used in newspapers. Lee Harvey Oswald shot dead by Jack Ruby, the charred body of an Iraqi soldier on the road to Basra, Che Guevara's body displayed to prove he was dead, the Vietcong soldier being executed and others. They all feature in Harold Evans's Pictures on a Page where he argues the case for the power of the single photograph. Of the picture of the charred body on the road to Basra, which I also used in The Echo,

Evans wrote this: "The photograph shocked in the first instance for this very reason. It was a solitary individual in the transfixion of a hideous death. In the absence of a photograph of this power, it had been possible to enjoy the lethal felicity of designer bombs as some kind of video game."

The true horror of war: Kenneth Jarecke's
shocking road to Basra picture

And for me that was the point. We had lots of gung ho pictures of Tornado jets and brightly lit skies, but this was the true horror of what was going on. We had a duty to show that to our readers.

As Evans went on to say: "Anyone who saw that still photograph will never forget it."

Execution of a Vietcong prisoner by
Eddie Adams, Associated Press

Here's Simon's view:

"I think there are two parts to this. 1) The image of a dead or dying person 2) The front page.

"On the first issue, yes, there are images of dead or dying people used. "Sometimes because it captures the news in such an immediate way that nothing else will do. Other times it's symbolic of the wider issue. (I think the Vietcong picture is an example of that).

"Does it matter if it's a recognisable person? I think it does. The picture of an anonymous burnt Iraqi on the road to Basra captures the news, without the added horror of seeing a person's expression.

Che Guevara's body on display

"Another factor - if the person's well-known. Oswald comes into that category. So does Guevara. However, the Oswald picture is not horrific in its nature. The Guevara one came at a time when identification WAS important and mainstream news outlets were the only way to spread the news.

"2) The front page. We still live in a world where front pages are powerful. And when every single front page of the newspapers had a bloodied picture of Gaddafi, the news-stands looked more like a butcher's shop.

"My point was that we could tell people Gaddafi was dead on the front page - but they didn't have to SEE it. By all means have a smaller picture on the inside. "A picture of a dead Gaddafi has a strong message for all across Libya and the Middle East - and identification was a small issue. But not on the front.

"For me, a "smart" front page, with an empty chair, or a graphic of Gaddafi's face, or a poster of him riddled with bullet holes, would have told the story equally instantly, and the inside page could have a smaller picture of him dead.

"I was astounded that the Indy used a picture of him dead on the slab TWO days afterwards. That was baffling.

"I think - and I may just be getting old - that the rush of online pressure to publish/be first and the fact that media can be spread quicker and wider than ever before, leads people to sometime publish things because they CAN and not because they SHOULD.

"That's my tuppence - and I had to think hard about it."

So, were the papers right to use the Gaddafi pictures? I reckon they were, Simon, John Lewis and many others disagree. But, as I have said so many times before, when all journalists agree on what is right and wrong, when all front pages look the same, it will be time for me to pack it in and run a bar in the South of France. What do you think? All views, as always, are welcome.

A week in Beijing with China Daily journalists

2011-11-13T17:39:00.003Z

I have been suffering withdrawal symptoms from Twitter as my wife, Pam, and I have been working in Beijing with the editors of the China Daily. Western social media sites are banned in China. There are ways around it ... but not on our hotel LAN line. Instead everyone uses the Chinese equivalent, Weibo, which has 140 million users. No good to me though and I soon discovered how Twitter-dependent I have become. It is certainly a relief to be back and able to get my daily fixes again.
I was running an editorial management course on behalf of Press Association Training, looking at newsroom structures, leadership and performance management. It was a one of the most challenging things I have done but a fantastic experience.

The mainly young journalists are really keen to learn, eager to expand the title into new areas and continually exploring creative ideas. The English language paper, circulating in China, Europe, America and selling a total of about 500,000, is looking to attract more international readers. With its smart-design and a more liberal outlook than most Chinese newspapers, it is an interesting read and increasingly Westernised. It is state-owned so has controls on its content and stance but the editors are working hard to report as objectively as they can. There is an interesting difference in outlook from the journalists though. Whereas we place the highest value on freedom of speech, they believe citizenship and responsibility are more important. Another key difference is, as a state-owned paper, China Daily has none of the commercial difficulties facing most Western newspapers. Don't be surprised if you receive a copy of the weekly European edition and an offer of subscription ... the paper is making inroads in the UK and is increasingly looking at content that will interest Western readers. With China now playing such a pivotal role in the West's economy, there's plenty of content for it to go at ... beyond the usual food, medicine, travel and feng shui. Anyway, here are ten things that I learned from Beijing.
i) Whatever culture we belong to, newsrooms are broadly the same. Passionate journalists working long hours and trying to juggle their time between management issues and journalism.
ii) China Daily recognises that not all good journalists make good managers and has introduced a structured career path that allows people to progress without having to take a desk job.
iii) There are opportunities for Western journalists who fancy a cultural change. Whereas most of the staff are Chinese there is a smattering of foreign editors helping with the language and copytasting.
iv) All pages are red-penned by the editors and put on the newsroom wall ... every day. Great feedback.
v) The paper does not sack anyone or make any staff redundant ... ever.
vi) Beijing, with 20 million people, is a sprawling metropolis with traffic jams, pollution and few quiet spaces.
vii) Traffic is such an issue that you can only drive every other day. If you take your car out on your banned day it is a £20 fine every time you drive past one of the many cameras.
viii) Beijing may be a cosmopolitan city but, apart from at the Forbidden City and Great Wall, we rarely saw a Caucasian face. On our trip to the Great Wall we were accompanied by seven wild members of Spanish band Lapegantina who were on tour. There is some great footage here.
ix) The food is very special - and very cheap. A six-course meal for four people won't set you back more than about £14 in total. I don't think I will be able to eat Chinese food in the UK ever again. In China it is fresh, spiced and delicious. No coffee or tea for breakfast though ... just soup. Special bonus was we did manage to find a bar, Laker's, which served free beer from 9-11pm each night. And among the gifts we came back with was a pack of our favourite green tea. Thanks Ying Xiong
x) The people couldn't be more friendly and hospitable. Special thanks to our hosts Dr Yuan Zhou and Ying Xiong aka Anastasia. They helped make it a very special week.

The Gaddafi front pages: Brutal but justified

2011-10-21T00:41:00.002+01:00

The death of Muammar Gaddafi is one of those rare stories that makes me wish I was still drawing up pages for a morning paper. It has all the fascinating ingredients - shocking if poor quality pictures, worldwide reaction, masses of political soundbites, headline opportunities galore, huge international ramifications, more analysis and comment than you could ever print and questions of taste to be considered. The key question though is how comfortable will your readers be with pictures of a bloodied dead body on their breakfast table, even if it is that of man with masses of blood on his hands? Well, if you'd had pictures of Hitler's death would you have used them? Of course you would. Today's front pages certainly don't shy away from the task. Thanks as always to @suttonnick.

The Daily Telegraph has no qualms about using a graphic picture of a dead body. The paper may be one of the last remaining broadsheets but this is classic tabloid treatment. A shocking eight-column picture with a big banner headline using a play on 'mercy' and 'merciless' and with blobbed subdecks. The Sun and Mirror were coming in for some Twitter stick last night on grounds of taste but this is as bold and in your face as it gets.

And those worried about the tabloids, should take a look at the straight-laced Guardian. The picture is a bit grainier, the headline straighter and there are plenty of serious words ... but it's just as graphic and powerful.

The Times uses an unusual crop. At first glance you miss Gaddafi and see a picture of the rebel. Is it on grounds of taste perhaps? The picture certainly has a news context ... showing what happened. But I would have made the main player centre stage.

The Daily Mail is arguably the most harrowing. It's a moment in time ... and far more newsy than the corpse pictures. The obvious choice of photograph might have been the dead body but the final seconds of Gaddafi's life, the panic in his eyes with a headline that is almost a speech bubble is gruesomely powerful. Pleased to see there is no glitzy blurb ... although I would certainly have dropped Free Duvet on this occasion.

The Mirror is also pretty disturbing ... and some say the most outrageous. I do wonder whether a bloodied corpse across the front will do much for casual sales - but there's no denying its impact. It was pulled from the Sky News paper reviews last night for being too graphic - but having watched the video Sky showed I find that hard to believe. It's a dead body - supposedly too gratuitous - but what is the difference between that and the Telegraph? A pretty thin line. I recall plenty of dead body pictures - remember that of Che Guevara? The headline, the same line as the Mail's, captures Gaddafi's desperation and panic. For once, the exclamation marks are justified. It would, of course, have had more impact without the column off and the blurb.

The Sun brings it all back to home ground with a splash headline aimed at getting its readers cheering - a modern day variation of Gotcha. The subdeck and strapline are very powerful too. Unusually the Sun didn't take the picture across six columns - perhaps concluding it would have broken up. Given the Telegraph and Guardian treatment it could have gone bigger, but it is still a classic Sun lesson in how to make an international incident relevant to your readers.

The Independent and its sister title i can't resist the sequence which is usually a good call when the best pictures are grainy and low-resolution from a mobile phone. The i goes for six, the Indie for four and both adhere to the basic rule, using all the pictures the same size. But the readers could do with a bit of help - captions telling what is happening step by step. The Indie makes an attempt but the i leaves us wondering what is going on. The pictures are in different order, so are they really sequences? The other papers had the confidence to go bigger with the pictures. Maybe it wasn't the right call after all.

They all contrasts with the American view. The International Herald Tribune goes for a celebratory picture - and relegates the dead Gaddafi picture to a two-column down page position.

A remarkable set of front pages ... a moment in history captured with confidence and impact.

Final newsquiz - Lottie's amazing 18.5 to beat

2011-10-20T21:08:00.000+01:00

The Mail and Telegraph trainees left Howden this week and now embark on their regional placements. Good luck to them all. They are among the liveliest bunch of young journalists you are likely to meet. Congratulations to the Mail's Lottie Young and the Telegraph's Jess Winch who won the overall newsquiz for each paper. Jess won this week's Telegraph quiz with 12 points out of 22 to finish with 80.5 points over seven weeks, 7.5 ahead of second place Tom Rowley. Lottie scored an astonishing 18.5 out of 22 to win the Mail quiz and finish with 72.5 points over five weeks, 12 ahead of second place Kirsty McEwen. The top averages were Lottie with 14.5, Kirsty with 12.1, Jess with 11.5 and Raj Rai with 11.2.

Quiz queens: Jess and Lottie with their prizes

Jess and Lottie collected a scratchcard and a bottle of toffee vodka for their efforts. That's it for the newsquiz for another year (although I might drop in the occasional one just to keep you on your toes). Try your hand at this week's. You have Lottie's amazing 18.5 to beat.

1. Who was under fire for detaining five children a day?

2. Why was Alan Billis in the headlines?

3. Who is wrestler Stacy Keibler's lover?

4. The Hillsborough disaster has been back in the news. It was a tragedy for Liverpool and Sheffield but what was the third city involved?

5. Round the world sailor Stefan Ramin was allegedly eaten by a cannibal on which remote Pacific island?

6. Dan Wheldon died during which motor race? Full name please, four words.

7. Which children's YouTube channel was hit by hackers?

8. What position does Justine Greening hold in the Cabinet?

9. What will Blackberry users get as compensation for the loss of service last week?

10. Which letter went 'missing' during the World Scrabble Championship?

11. Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was released after being held for five years by Hamas. What was his rank?

12. Former Commons researcher Katia Zatuliveter is facing deportation after being accused of spying. She was an aide for which Liberal Democrat MP?

13. Wootton Bassett has been given the Royal prefix. How many servicemen/women has the town paid its respects to in the last four years?

14. Betty Driver passed away last weekend. She was well known for her part as Betty Williams (Turpin) in Coronation Street but which character did she originally audition for?

15. Fauja Singh started running marathons 11 years ago, at what age?

16. The Governor of the Bank of England said this week that time is running out to solve the world economy crisis. Who is the Governor of the Bank of England?

17. Who left Brown for Oxford?

18. Who received an apology from the BBC for "being written out of history"?

19. Robbie Savage and Orla Jordan performed the tango at half-time during which football match?

20. Which author won the 2011 Booker Prize this week? And, for a bonus point, name the book.

21. The Daily Mail this week had to pay out undisclosed libel damages to which Lady?

How did you do? The answers are here.

Telegraph trainees Jess Winch, Jenny O'Mahony, Ben Bryant,
Lucy Kindle, Tom Rowley, Thomas Pascoe and Alice Philipson

Mail trainee subs Lyle Brennan, Libby Galvin, PA Finance Director Steven Brown,

Alys Denby, Tom Clarke, Raj Rai, Talal Musa, Kirsty McEwen,

my refined pate, trainer Mike Watson and Lottie Young

Telegraph now recruiting trainee journalists

2011-10-18T13:26:00.000+01:00

I am with the seven Telegraph trainee journalists this week, the final stage in their training at Howden before they go off to regional newspapers or the Press Association to cut their teeth. They will then begin work at the Telegraph next spring. Recent graduates of the the scheme, run by Press Association Training, include:

Jon Swaine now the paper's New York Correspondent and previously a member of the MP expenses's team.

Heidi Blake investigative reporter who was nominated for Young Journalist of the Year and Scoop of the Year in the 2010 Press Awards.

Rowena Mason who writes on energy issues and was also nominated in last year's awards.

Graham Ruddick who is on the City desk covering healthcare, property and sports industries.

Rachel Cooper who is also on the City desk covering pharmaceutical and service companies.

Harriet Alexander who is on the foreign desk at the Sunday Telegraph.

Jonathan Liew who is on the sportdesk covering football, cricket and golf.

There are many others, including the six trainees who began the scheme last year who are now all back at the Telegraph after their regional secondments.
The Telegraph is now looking for next year's intake. If you are interested you can apply here. If you are graduating next summer or you are on a journalism post-grad course, you will be perfectly placed. The scheme will start in September/October next year. The closing date is November 26. It is, trust me, too good an opportunity to miss. And, if you lucky enough to land an interview, here are some things to think about that might just help.

Contender for headline of the week

2011-10-18T09:25:00.000+01:00

Here's an early contender for headline of the week from the Medway Messenger - Hearse joyrider had meat cleaver down trousers. It certainly fulfils the criteria of building a picture in the readers' minds and encouraging people to read on. Haven't most newspapers banned 'joyriders/joyriding' though? And given the short last line why not 'jogging bottoms' instead of trousers? Still, a cracking headline.
Hat-tip to @danbloom1

Kylie: Not a "diminutive Antipodean chanteuse"

2011-10-17T18:51:00.000+01:00

We were discussing elegant variations here last week, so it was timely to see an excellent addition to the list from Giles Coren in an article in the Independent on Sunday yesterday. Coren is quoted as saying:
When I started as editor of the Times diary (diaries are always the worst for cliché, as they're staffed by over-educated public schoolboys desperately trying to be noticed), I wrote up a list of words and sentences I would not stand for. At the top was, "diminutive Antipodean chanteuse", which used to feature practically weekly in the diary of my predecessor. What Kylie Minogue is, I told my dribbling, pink-faced underlings, is a short Australian singer. If you think people need to be told that, tell them. That is not a cliché. That is just language. "Diminutive Antipodean chanteuse", however, is just bollocks. Indeed, it is bollocks on stilts (to use a cliché I have always rather liked).
The longer version of Coren's quote is blogged by John Rentoul who has written a book called The Banned List: A manifesto against jargon and cliche. I have already added it to my Christmas list - and suggested to the trainees they do the same. And if you have regular 'transactional behaviour' with any politicians, you now have the flawless Yuletide donation notion (or, for all you simple souls, the perfect Christmas gift idea).

Hat-tip to @Petercampbell1

The newsquiz - it's a toughie. 13.5 to beat.

2011-10-15T09:13:00.003+01:00

The penultimate week for the Mail and Telegraph trainees this week, so the penultimate newsquiz. It was clearly a bit harder as last week's high scores of around 16-17 slipped back to around 12-13. This week's scratchcards went to the Mail's Lottie Young with 13.5, narrowly beating Kirsty McEwen with 12.5, and the Telegraph's Ben Bryant with 12. Next week, the overall winners will be presented with something more interesting than a scratchcard. At the moment Jess Winch leads the Telegraph pack, 2.5 points ahead of Tom Rowley. The Mail's Lottie will take some catching, 5.5 points ahead of second place Kirsty.

See how you do. There are a possible 22 points as there is a bonus on question 21.

Summing it up: Shevell and Fox (Q1). Pictures by the Press Association.

1. Nancy Shevell and Liam Fox were the headline grabbers this week. What is their combined age?
2. Where did Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell get married?
3. One of the bridesmaids was McCartney's daughter from his marriage with Heather Mills, what is her name?
4. An investigation is taking place at a school after teachers allegedly had Facebook conversation in which they described their pupils as 'inbred' and 'thick'. Name the school and the city (half point for each).
5. Grandmother Sally Hodkin was stabbed to death in a busy high street in which London district?
6. Whitehall's chief mandarin, the Cabinet Secretary, announced he is to retire at the end of the year. What is his name?
7. Where did Vincent Tabak go shopping after he allegedly murdered Jo Yeates?
8. The former Prime Minister of which country was jailed for seven years after being found guilty of exceeding her authority?
9. According to Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli, contestant Nancy Dell'Olio looked as though she had inhaled what? I am looking for the exact five-word answer for 1pt - if you get three words correct you get a half a point.
10. The European Championship qualifiers were completed this week with two teams going through with a 100% record. Name the two teams (half point for each).
11. Blackberry has suffered major network problems this week. Blackberry is owned by RIM, what do the initials stand for?
12. Sir Bruce Forsyth collected his knighthood from the Queen. How old is he?
13. Downing Street breaks with tradition this weekend by doing what?
14. According to all the bookmakers who is the favourite act to be eliminated from the X-Factor this coming weekend?
15. Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre and columnist Kelvin Mackenzie both appeared at a seminar arranged by which judge?
16. Geoffrey Boycott is involved in a legal wrangle over a property in which millionaires' resort?
17. BP and its partners have been given permission for a £4.5 billion oil project to the west of which islands?
18. Who, in the headlines this week, shared the same surname as her partner, even though they weren't married.
19. The Telford Junior Football League announced it was going to record all wins in its league by which score?
20. Another of Rupert Murdoch's papers is in the headlines ... this time for apparently buying thousands of its own copies, misleading readers and advertisers about the title's circulation. Name the paper.
21. Liam Fox's friends described Adam Werritty as being similar to a fictional character. Name the character - and, for a bonus point, the writer who created him.
The answers are here

Don't point that fireman at me ...

2011-10-11T08:21:00.000+01:00

This story from the Roscommon Herald, about a DJ dressed as Osama Bin Laden pointing a gun at two men tending sheep in a field, raised a smile. It certainly succeeds in building a vivid picture in the readers' minds. But it gets even funnier in column 2. The policeman who made the arrest told the court. "He said he hadn't a licence for the gun. It looks extremely real and, in terms of weight, it felt like a fireman." A fireman? Blimey. How, I wonder, does the garda know what a fireman feels like. I think we should be told.

The strange case of the cutting-edge valise

2011-10-10T18:39:00.000+01:00

The Mail trainee subs had a good afternoon with executive night editor Andy Gregory. Andy, once a Northern Echo colleague, gave a real insight into the way the Mail subs desk operates. He also touched on elegant variations. The phrase was coined by Fowler in his Dictionary of Modern English Usage, to refer to unnecessary synonyms. Fowler said: "It is the second-rate writers, those intent rather on expressing themselves prettily than on conveying their meaning clearly and still more those whose notions of style are based on a few misleading rules of thumb, that are chiefly open to the allurements of elegant variation. The fatal influence is the advice given to young writers never to use the same word twice in a sentence or within 20 lines or other limit."
Newspaper subs regularly encounter writers who don't like to use the same word twice, so seek elegant (or as the Americans call them, inelegant) variations. Some subs desks refer to them as povs, which stands for popular orange vegetable, a phrase supposedly edited out of an article about carrots. I have a story about a cow causing chaos on a motorway which I often give to trainee subs as an exercise. It is fascinating to watch the cow change into an animal, a beast and finally into a farmyard creature. In Andy's 30 years of subbing he has been collecting the examples that have crossed his desk at both the Express and the Mail.
He shared some with the trainees today. See if you can work out what they are:
The popular fish-eating mammal
The tin-legged flying ace
Single-lens accessory
Love-it or loathe-it condiment
One of the world's best-loved insects
Red leather orb
Tasty bread-based snacks
The cutting-edge valise
Fantastic. They would make a great stocking-filler book. The answers are below. If you have any more examples, I would be delighted to receive them.
Answers: Otter; Douglas Bader; monocle; Marmite; bee; cricket ball; sandwiches; suitcase on wheels.

Amos made 'bigger impact' than Sir Harry Evans

2011-10-09T21:42:00.001+01:00

I have just about recovered from Mike Amos's retirement party at the weekend. Peter Barron, editor of The Northern Echo, said Amos had made a bigger impact on the Echo than any other journalist - including former editors WT Stead and Harold Evans. High praise indeed. My musings on the weekend are here.

Steve Jobs: Tributes and memories

2011-10-07T09:41:00.001+01:00

Inevitably there are hundreds of tributes to Steve Jobs kicking around this week. Here are some that caught my eye.

The Sydney Morning Herald uses an iPad frame

There have been lots of adaptations of the logo. This is one of the best.

Sums up one of the issues nicely

Here is PA's interactive timeline on Apple's history from its inception in 1984 to this week - with a close look at what happened to its share prices.

I can't claim to be a Mac User since 1984. I first dabbled in 1988 when I used to stand in for Mike Brough, the graphic artist at The Northern Echo, on his day off to change the weather map and football chalk boards. This video on how it all started brings it all back. And if you never tire of hearing the Jobs' philosophy this is worth a watch (and not just because it's a CEO delivering a keynote lecture in shorts). The advert on the crazy ones is particularly pertinent.

And finally, here's the cover of Time, simple but effective.

Hat tips to @K1989B @charlesapple and @parkgraeme
Selection of quotes and tributes also on @TomDavenport website

Have a crack at the newsquiz - 17.5 to beat

2011-10-06T20:54:00.004+01:00

In Howden again this week and, apart from doing headlines, layout and design with the Telegraph trainees, I found myself refereeing a game of football in the park and in the dark. It was a competitive match with tackles flying in. The Daily Mail, with two sports trainees, were determined not to lose to the 'broadsheet lot'. And so it proved ... the Mail (plus international guest) beat the Telegraph (plus international guests) 5-3. Despite some robust challenges there were no major injuries, just a ball in the face for one of the girls and lots of aches and bruises the next day. As the Telegraph trainees are off to the law courts in Newcastle tomorrow, we had to do the quiz earlier this week. It was the highest scoring week so far with the Telegraph's Jess Winch edging it with 17.5 and three others (Jenny O'Mahony from the Telegraph and Lottie Young and Tom Clarke from the Mail) all on 17. Is it easier this week or is it, as I prefer to believe, that everyone is paying closer attention to the detail in the news stories?
There are a possible 21 points. See how you get on:

1. Who said: "You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new."?

2 Why was Maya in the news?

3. Which country has introduced a 'fat tax'?

4. Jessie J won four categories at the MOBO awards. What does MOBO stand for?

5. How much is a dog licence?

6. The London based Irish Post will be back on the streets after being bought by Elgin Loane. Loane owns which other publication - which he bought from the Daily Mail and General Trust last year?

7. Soham killer Ian Huntley was attacked in prison. Give the name of the prison and the city in which it is based (half a point for each).

8. Portsmouth Pub landlady Karen Murphy won a European Court of Justice ruling that allows her to air Premier League football without subscribing to Sky. What is the name of her pub?

9. Amanda Knox is now back at home in which American city?

10. The Daily Mail and Sun online were among those who wrongly published that Knox had been found guilty of murder. The confusion apparently arose as Knox was found guilty of another charge. What was that charge?

11. Charlie Gilmour says he didn't realise he was swinging from what?

12. Which singer has been forced to cancel a US tour due to illness

13. Why was Jessica Palmer in the headlines?

14. The Defence Secretary has been accused of putting national security as risk by allowing a former flatmate access to the MoD. Who is the Defence Secretary?

15. The Great British Bake Off - the TV series which has become a big hit for BBC 2 - caused a stir by showing an explicit picture of what?

16. If England beat France in Saturday's Rugby World Cup quarter final they will meet the winners of Quarter Final One in the next round. Name the two teams (that they might meet in the semi-final). Half a point for each team.

17. Who, according to the Palestinian leadership, has 'become of no use at all'?

18. What do Israeli Professor Daniel Shechtman, Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer and US physicist Saul Perlmutter have in common?

19. Michael Le Vell has been arrested on suspicion of a sexual offence involving a young girl. What is the name of the character he plays in Coronation Street?

20. Boris Johnson impressed many journalists with his performance at the Conservative Party conference and on Newsnight this week. Johnson is, of course, a journalist himself but which magazine did he edit from 1999-2005?

And for a bonus point, which magazine does his younger sister, Rachel Johnson, edit?
Answers are here.

Valedictory columns mark Mike's final week

2011-10-04T23:18:00.001+01:00

I am really looking forward to Mike Amos's retirement bash at Hardwick Hall in Sedgefield on Friday. We have been promised lots of old faces, real beer and Taylor's pies and then it's off to Shildon versus Bishop Auckland on Saturday. As he counts down his final days as a staffer, after 46 years, the Echo is running a series of valedictory columns. Lovely stuff ... an enjoyable read for anyone who worked the North-East patch or, indeed, anyone with fond memories of the way newspapers used to be.

A rule would have helped ... but not much

2011-10-04T15:21:00.000+01:00

I was talking to the Daily Telegraph trainees about the perils of placing headlines next to unrelated photographs yesterday. Libel by juxtaposition is rare - it is more likely your page will be pinged around on Twitter and widely ridiculed. So I am grateful to @subedited for drawing my attention to this front page from Canada's Sudbury Star. Very timely. A rule might not mean much in law, but it would have helped a little ... and don't get me started on the headline shape. Today the trainees are looking at pictures and captions - any contributions gratefully received.

Tom wins this week's newsquiz - 15 to beat

2011-10-01T10:10:00.001+01:00

Another good week for the Mail and Telegraph trainee journalists in Howden. Trainers this week included Mike Brough, Brian Page, Andrew Glover, Chris Gregory and Lindsay Hodgkinson from the Mail legal department. As usual we finished with the newsquiz. Congratulations to Telegraph trainee Tom Rowley who is this week's winner with a very impressive 16 points out of 21. Question 21 was a local one that only the trainees would know, so I have only included 20 here. If you get 15, it would be impressive.

Ed Balls and Andy Burnham line up a free kick against the lobby journalists - but what was the final score (Q4). Pic from TheFA.com

1. Which city hosted the last bullfight in the Catalan area of Spain?

2. Yvette Cooper's conference speech impressed many (including the Daily Mail's Quentin Letts). What is her position in the Shadow Cabinet?

3. Yvette Cooper's husband Ed Balls led his Labour Party team at the annual Labour Conference game versus the lobby journalists at Liverpool Soccer Centre. What was the score?

4. It's the turn of the Conservatives to hold their party conference next week. In which city?

5. What is the name of Michael Jackson' personal physician who is on trial accused of killing the star with an overdose?

6. England and Manchester United footballer Rio Ferdinand lost his High Court privacy action against which newspaper?

7. The Communities Secretary has announced a £250m fund to ensure local councils restore weekly bin collections. Who is the Communities Secretary?

8. A miner died at Kellingley colliery near which North Yorkshire village?

9. Who did Alan Graham tell to cover-up?

10. Which Premiership footballer has been suspended by his club while allegations of sexual assault and drugs possession are investigated?

11.Which TV programme is celebrating its 50th birthday?

12. The Government is proposing to to increase the speed limit from 70mph to 80mph. When did it increase from 60 to 70mph (1pt if you get it spot on and half a point if you are one year out)

13. An inquest was told that 17-year-old schoolgirl Grace Ford fell to her death from a window after trying to climb into a hotel room in which resort?

14. Which country was denounced by the UN Security Council for "the continued grave and systematic human rights violations" by its authorities?

15. Why was Michael Cohen in the headlines?

16. Who is the outgoing chair of the Press Complaints Commission?

17. Mark Bradford allegedly throttled a 13-year-old boy after being beaten by him in an online PlayStation game. What was the game?

18. Christine Hemming, on trial for burglary, claimed in court this week that her MP husband had been unfaithful at least how many times?

19. The creator of the television comedy Dad's Army died this week. What was his name?

20. According to researchers from the University of California, doing what means you are trustworthy?

How did you do? Check the answers here.

Headline and picture of the week

2011-09-30T16:02:00.000+01:00

Here are my contenders for headline and picture of the week from the regional papers. It's not every day that you can get bouncy castle into a sans caps front page headline ... but the Daily Post in North Wales managed it. It certainly builds a vivid picture. I love the subhead too - don't you just want to know what is so serious about an breaking an 'inflatables ban' that forces someone to flee to South Africa? Thanks to the Daily Mail's Peter Campbell for sending me a copy.

Meanwhile the Hull Daily Mail made the most of a huge firing squad shot by using it as a very powerful wraparound. It shows 700 workers threatened with redundancy at BAE’s factory in Brough. Deputy editor Paul Hartley says: "It brings into focus the human face of these job cuts. It’s also a brilliant example of how a good photo can be worth a thousand words."
"The idea for the photo came from Sports Editor Paul Baxter and Assistant News editor Natalie Murphy. We then enlisted the help of the shop stewards to rally the workers by email, text and word of mouth for the photo call. Picture Editor Jim Mitchell took the pic from the top of a ladder leaning against a lamppost. It was our exclusive."
Good headline too. Excellent execution - and a further example of how creative and effective regional papers can be.

Please send me your contenders for best headline/picture/intro and I will post the best here.

Mail trainee Larisa gets splash in second week

2011-09-30T14:53:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to trainee Larisa Brown on her first national newspaper splash today. Larisa, a graduate of the Press Association foundation course, spent the summer working as a journalist in Kenya before joining the Daily Mail training scheme earlier this month. It's only her second week on the Mail. Impressive stuff.

This week's news quiz - let's hear it for the girls

2011-09-23T13:52:00.002+01:00

Howden has been buzzing this week with three separate courses running at the Manor. Press Association Training is entertaining a group of international journalists for the next 13 weeks. At the same time the Daily Mail subbing diploma began, with eight wannabe sub-editors spending five weeks learning how to sub, write headlines and draw pages to national newspaper standards. The Daily Telegraph also has seven trainees on a seven-week course. It means that there are 27 students in the Manor as well as a steady stream of trainers and speakers, including Linda Christmas, David Banks, Paul Jones, Mike Watson, Tony Johnston and the Telegraph's Richard Preston. Over the next few weeks there will be sessions my many other big-hitters including guest speakers from the Mail and Telegraph.
As usual we finished with the newsquiz to ensure all are reading the papers properly. This week's joint winners are the Mail's Lottie Young and the Telegraph's Jennifer O'Mahony with 11.5pts out of 21. They narrowly beat the Mail's Kirsty McEwen and the Telegraph's Jess Winch who both got 11. No men in the top four! See how you do - although I will be astonished if you can answer question 20.

1. Why is it the end of the world as they know it for Michael Stipe and Pete Buck?

2. The Liberal Democrat party conference was held in Birmingham this week. Next week it's the turn of the Labour Party - but in which city will its conference be held?

3. Nick Clegg sported a sombre grey suit for his speech but his wife wore a bright yellow Topshop dress. What is his wife's full name? (three names needed for 1pt, 2 names gain half a point)

4. Why were Lesley Norris and Bruce Scott in the headlines?

5. Kate Winslett gave a gushing speech at the Emmys after she won the leading actress award. But who won best supporting actress?

6. Where was a cage fight between two boys held? For a bonus point, the Culture Secretary described it as very barbaric. Who is the Culture Secretary? (1pt for each answer)

7. Troy Davies was executed in which US state?

8. Why was Vincent Cooke in the headlines?

9. Former newspaper tycoon Eddy Shah was arrested over under-age sex allegations. Which national newspaper did he launch?

10. Johnny Vegas has recreated a famous Demi Moore pose - in which magazine did the original photograph appear?

11. Which football club closed its doors to men and had women and children only in attendance?

12. Geri Helliwell graced the pages wearing what looked like a wedding dress. She was attending a gala event for which charitable foundation?

13. Conjoined twins Rital and Ritag Gaboura were successfully separated by surgeons at which hospital?

14. The unfinished portrait, called Portrait of the Hound 2011, is to go on public display next spring? Who is the artist?

15. The FTSE 100 plunged by 4.7pc on Thursday, the biggest drop in 30 months. What does FTSE stand for?

16. Diplomats walked out of the UN General Assembly during a speech by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He is president of which country?

17. Which newspaper carries the slogan The World's Greatest Newspaper on its front page?

18. Simon Day died of a heroin overdose an inquest heard. Who was his grandfather?

19. The mayor of which city has rejected an electric car in favour of a Jaguar?

20. What is the name of the hairdresser's salon on the corner in Howden, the last shop before the entrance to the Manor?

How did you do? Check the answers here.

Nice to see a contents bill ...

2011-09-19T16:38:00.000+01:00

... that uses the apostrophe correctly. Thanks to @andydrinks for sending this. It must grieve him as much as it does me.

Rosie wins the Mail news quiz

2011-09-16T15:13:00.004+01:00

The Daily Mail trainees have finished their two weeks at Derry Street and are now off to placements at the Standard, the Mail in Scotland, Liverpool Echo, Yorkshire Post and Manchester Evening News. This week they had fascinating practical sessions on investigative and foreign reporting by chief reporter David Williams and Christian Gysin, an interesting insight into the celebrity world from Katie Nicholl, a do's and don'ts talk from sub Jayme Bryla and a glimpse of what their first year is likely to hold by one of last year's trainees, Peter Campbell. There was a good night with trainees old and new in the Builders Arms last night. Today we finished again with a quiz of the week (just to get them into the habit of the reading the paper's properly). Congratulations again to Rosie Taylor who got 13.5 points out of 22, once again narrowly beating Adam Shergold, to collect the scratch card and a bottle of wine. Try your hand and see if you can beat Rosie's total.

Mail trainees (from left to right) Adam Shergold, Sam Cunningham, Giles Lucas, Larisa Brown, Rosie Taylor (with the wine), Lucy Osborne, Laura Cox, Mario Ledwith, Martha Kelner and Emine Sinmaz

There are a possible 22 points this week as questions 4 and 13 have two points each.

1. Who won Celebrity Big Brother?

2. A controversial book has claimed that Sarah Palin had an affair and used cocaine. What is the name of the book?

3. Unison has named which date as a day of action?

4. The new Westfield shopping complex has been given its own postcode, what is it? And for a bonus where has the code been previously used?

5. Who has been named as the new captain in England's Twenty20 games?

6. Sophie Dahl launched an appeal to raise money to renovate her Grandfather's shed where he wrote many of his famous novels. How old would he have been this week?

7. David Tebbutt was murdered on holiday in a paradise location on Kenya. He was a finance director for which company?

8. Who did Bernard Hogan-Howe replace this week as Metropolitan Police Commissioner?

9. Where is the Greenacres travellers site that police believe men were held as slaves?

10. According to official figures what is the current number of unemployed in the UK?

11. According to research by Roehampton University what should you do if you want to be happier, healthier and slimmer?

12. Why was Katherine Goldberg in the headlines?

13. Two Tory peers were released from prison this week after serving only a quarter of their sentences for expenses fraud. Name them. (One point for each).

14. Journalist Adam Macqueen has a book published this month celebrating 50 years of which publication?

15. What is the name of the Swansea Valley colliery where four miners are trapped?

16. Kweku Adoboli is accused of losing £1.3bn while rogue trading. Which Swiss bank was he working for?

17. Helle Thorning-Schmidt became Denmark's first female MP. Who is her father-in-law?

18. The film version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy opened in UK cinemas this week. Who plays the role of spy George Smiley?

19. Political leadership in Washington and Western Europe has suffered "paralysis" in the face of the financial crisis, Kenneth Clarke said this week. What is Clarke's Cabinet position?

20. Now that the News of the World has gone, which is Britain's biggest selling Sunday newspaper?

How did you do? The answers are here

Test your news knowledge in this week's quiz

2011-09-09T17:29:00.003+01:00

I spent this week in the company of bright trainee journalists on the Mail diploma at Northcliffe House in Kensington. It's been a good week - writing stories, looking at the papers in detail and we have had a stream of doyens including columnist Quentin Letts, head of news Neil Darbyshire, city editor Alex Brummer and managing editor Alex Bannister offering advice. At the same time the Daily Telegraph diploma is being held in Howden, East Yorkshire, and I will be joining them next month. The Mail sub-editing course starts in Howden on September 19, so I will be up there for that too. I have been involved in these courses, run by Press Association Training for eight years. As some of you may remember, at the end of each week we run a newsquiz. I will be posting the questions here each week. It's a bit of fun but the serious side is to ensure the trainees get into the habit of reading the newspapers in detail, rather than just as scanning the headlines. A scratch card went to Rosie Taylor from the Mail who was top this week with 12.5 points out of 20. She narrowly pipped Adam Shergold with 12. But although the Mail had the highest scorer, the Daily Telegraph had the best average. I am expecting improvement all round next week. Try it - no cheating - and see if you can beat Rosie's 12.5.

George Osborne (Question 7) with Christine Lagarde (Question 13)

1. What will not restart as soon as it has finished?

2. Rebecca Leighton was released without charge after six weeks in custody. At which hospital does she work?

3. P J Harvey won this week's Mercury Award - what do the initial stand for? (Half point for each correct name).

4. How many Free Schools are opening this year?

5. Who came face to face with a toad?

6. Who is the oldest contestant in this year's Strictly Come Dancing line-up?

7. George Osborne used which inappropriate word in a joke he told at the GQ awards?

8. A vet is someone who looks after your pet - but spell the word that it is short for.

9. The Rugby World Cup starts this weekend. Who are are the overwhelming favourites to win it?

10. Which will be the first place where you will have to include the area dialing code instead of just the six digit number when making a local call?

11. Who is the editor of The Times? (Half point if you only get the surname; nothing if you get only the first name)

12. Name the Red or Black winner who caused a stir when it was revealed that he beat up his lover.

13. What does Christine Lagarde head up?

14. Which council paid £2,475 to hire security guards to protect members at a town hall - but only ten protestors turned up?

15. The Attorney General said there was a big question mark over allowing cameras into court. Who is the Attorney General?

16. Who are Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and what happened to them this week (Half point for each answer).

17. Why did Rowan Atkinson say he would probably never play the part of Mr Bean again?

18. Stuart Bell was branded Britain's laziest MP after not holding a surgery for 14 years. What is his constituency?

19. Who was laid low with Thames Tummy?

20. What happened to 23-year-old Jeni Anderson this week?

How did you do? The answers are here

Where's the meat?

2011-09-01T09:02:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Mike Lowe for this addition to the ever-growing list of non-stories in regional newspapers. It has the added bonus of being the splash, which makes it a bit special. I use a copytasting yardstick for trainees which is "if someone told you the story in the pub would your ears prick up or would you move to another table". A 22-year-old woman moaning about a cheap pasty that was three days out of date might have me looking for a new pub. I wonder if the Folkestone Herald hasn't missed an angle or two here eg what modern mothers think is a suitable diet for their two-year-olds. Or maybe they should use a bit of shoe-leather investigating what these 'sell by' and 'use by' labels really mean.

John North goes South

2011-08-25T12:05:00.000+01:00

So the enigmatic columnist John North has finally shuffled off his mortal coil. Today his last column appears in The Northern Echo. Writer Mike Amos (above) is retiring JN before his own retirement in October. The column, described as "a quirky view of the region's people and places", has had many guises. When I joined the Echo in 1979 it was written by John Simkins who went off to the FT. He was replaced by Bill Hearld, later deputy editor of the Yorkshire Evening Press. Others included Stephen Brenkley, the Independent's cricket correspondent, and Terry Ramsey who became TV editor of the Standard. When John North was on holiday there was an occasional woman's perspective by Jane North. But the column mainly belonged to Mike, who celebrates 46 years at the paper this year. He relinquished it while he was the Echo's news-editor but came back to it as a weekly column years later. In its heyday the column was daily. It was a full-time job and the brief was to be out there picking up the interesting snippets, the oddities, the grassroots stories that were peculiar to the North-East. The JN chair in the office was always empty. It was also one of the most high pressure jobs in the business. Every day JN had to find fresh, compelling material and, unlike the national columnists, he was on his own. There was no team of researchers, no juniors or back-up staff. And Mike, who doesn't even drive, delivered day in day out. In these austere times there are few regional papers who can afford a full-time, off-diary writer. But there was no doubt JN brought in readers, gave the paper an essence and a unique voice. There are many reasons why regional newspapers are in decline but I am certain that one of them was the whole 'value for money', high story count policy peddled by the beancounters. Legs of briefs on car boot sales and choir rehearsals may be easy pickings but they are of no interest whatsoever to the general reader. What JN offered, and what all newspapers need, was a reason to buy the paper every day. So RIP JN, he will be missed. But I wouldn't be surprised if, somewhere down the line, he doesn't make a comeback.
Hat-tip to Neil Hacking
Mike Amos picture http://theshrineofstbruno.yolasite.com

Farewell to the Irish Post

2011-08-20T08:27:00.001+01:00

It may have slipped the radar in the current newspaper turmoil but the London-based Irish Post closed yesterday. It is always sad to see a newspaper go under, especially when you have a personal association with it, but I can't say I am really surprised. The Irish Post had been losing money and, with its parent company TCH facing its own economic challenges over the water in Cork, its closure has looked inevitable for some time. Perhaps the short life of the Post is an illustration of what is happening to many, longer-established titles. It started in 1970 as a voice for the Irish in Britain when emigration was at its height. It was the brainchild of journalist Brendán Mac Lua and for years provided the Irish communities, particularly in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, with news from back home and in the UK. Its mission statement was 'If it's Irish in Britain, we've got it covered.' For years it ran the prestigious Irish Post Awards. But as the second and third generation Irish became absorbed and as the internet allowed instant access to news from home, it became less relevant. Distribution was also enormously difficult. In 2003 the paper was selling almost 32,000. When it closed yesterday it was about half that.
In 40 years the paper's raison d'etre simply disappeared. Its audience changed and technology made it surplus to requirements. Sound familiar?
It was a great institution though, a place full of characters. I first redesigned it in 1996, when Doug Baxter (now married to the actress Victoria Smurfit) was the chief executive and the late Donal Mooney was the editor. I then put in a consultant editor, Brian Page, while we helped to recruit a new full-time editor Norah Casey. In 2005 we redesigned it again. Last year I met the editor Mal Rogers, an award-winning travel writer, on the editor's chair course that I run for PA Training. We discussed the paper's strategy, its long term ambitions and the size of the task became clear. He was passionate about the Post and it is a real shame its closure came on his watch. I wish him and his team well.

The way all newspapers could be produced ...

2011-08-19T09:43:00.000+01:00

Here is the cover and my Newcastle United preview from the Irish Examiner's 40-page pre-season football supplement. It was published last Friday and includes a page on each club, predictions, betting, analysis and some great writing from the likes of Ben Lyttleton, Adrian Clarke and Iain Spragg. I produced it while sunning myself on the family summer holiday on the Med. I was aided by Paul Wick and Mike Brough who are based in Darlington. It was printed and published in Cork. We have done this for years. We receive a flatplan from the Examiner, they provide some of the material and we commission and write the rest. We then edit the copy, write the headlines, select the pictures, layout the pages, proof-read them and send them to Ireland. They email any changes, we carry them out and send them hi-res PDFs to put directly on their system. It works and it's cost effective. Three people producing a 40-page paper at a rate per page. In May the Full Time supplement we did in the same way was 56 pages. I have long advocated that this is how newspapers should be produced. Subs can work from anywhere - in their bedrooms or in the South of France (indeed, the Evening Herald in Dublin is produced entirely at Castres in the South of France). Subs don't all have to be in the same room, the same building, the same town or even the same country ... which is why all the fuss in regional newspapers about moving production sites from one city to another struck me as nonsense. In future I reckon all newspapers will be produced this way. Who needs complicated management systems? Bedroom subs armed with a computer, a set of stylesheets, the right fonts, broadband, a piece of software (doesn't matter if it's Quark or InDesign) and Distiller will be contracted to do so many pages per day to deadline. And where would you rather work ... in a pokey office in an industrial estate or in your own back garden or, perhaps, in the South of France.

Is the 'hat up a tree' story real?

2011-08-06T10:19:00.001+01:00

This story has been doing the rounds on Twitter ... and looks like a very good addition to the growing collection of non-stories. But I have doubts whether or not it is real. First, nobody has said which paper it is from; second, why has it appeared now when the month mentioned in the story is April and third, not even the hardest pressed newsroom could really believe this is a story. I reckon it's probably a Framley Examiner-type spoof. Even if it is, 'the woollen head garment which is red and has a bobble' is just genius. If anyone knows anything more, please tell.
Update: @helenlewis has just Tweeted to say it's an April Fool. Makes sense (although not a very good one). And @Findus_Dinner has pointed me in the direction of another lost hat story, this one is real and it's from the Norwich Evening News. He also draws attention to the slightly less wholesome 'man defecated on hedgeghog in street' story. Bizarre .. but doesn't really fit in the non-story category. Keep them coming.

A step back to the newsrooms of old

2011-08-06T09:52:00.000+01:00

A question for all of you who, like me, remember pre-computerised newsrooms: Would you go back? Would you swap the ease of on screen make-up for the glue-pot, the casting off, the picture wheel and the terrific rows with the stonehands. Probably not. But this fascinating exercise by Journoterrorist might just tempt you. It involves making trainees produce a newspaper using typewriters and paste-up. Should stir up some ghosts ...
Hat-tip to @NoelRock

Kitten that looks like Hitler - a classic bill

2011-07-31T09:01:00.000+01:00

Here's another newspaper bill to add to our collection, courtesy of Wherryman's Web. It's a cracker too ... I would defy you not to have bought the Cambridge Evening News on that particular day. You might be disappointed with the pictures though. Unless I'm missing something, it's just a cat with a black nose.
Previous newspaper bill items can be found here, here and here.

Going weekly may be the answer for more dailies

2011-07-25T10:26:00.001+01:00

The Torquay Herald Express's move to a weekly paper this weekend has been a big success. It weighed in at 192 pages, was packed with local content and, judging by the adverts, made some decent money. On Friday the sales department was considering an extra print run as the paper rapidly sold 30,000 copies. Its average sale as a daily was 21,112. It's an impressive first issue. The content is neatly structured with dedicated sections on News (30 pages), People, What's On, Nostalgia, Business and 13 pages of Sport. The red meat comes in the form of letters and opinion, ten pages of letters, columnists, readers' pictures and platforms for local people. The daily breaking news and sports service for Torbay still exists ... on a revamped thisissouthdevon website. Congratulations to editor Andy Phelan and his team. I was happy to lend a hand on the design, marketing and strategy but the real work was done locally. They created a paper they believed in, that they knew would work for their community - and it has paid off. It's early days of course and they will have to sustain this quality each week but they are a professional and committed outfit, so no reason to suggest they won't.

The Scunthorpe
Telegraph announces its
weekly intentions

Next up is the Scunthorpe Telegraph, which will make the change to weekly on August 18. Editor Mel Cook is preparing a 140-page first edition. The early dummies suggest it will be a stylish newspaper rammed with local content. One thing is certain. The Scunthorpe Telegraph won't be the last ... and nor should it be. In my outlook for 2011 in InPublishing magazine in January, I predicted there would be fewer evening papers by the end of the year. I wrote: "A weekly analysis of events, complementing a comprehensive, hyperlocal digital news service, is more relevant than a daily print offering out-of-date news." Great prediction? Not really; it's glaringly obvious. The only surprise is that, when the Bath Chronicle successfully turned weekly in 2007, more newspapers didn't follow suit then. In the current InPublishing, Steve Dyson lists evening titles that he believes are ripe to go weekly. The industry is certainly watching the changes at the two Northcliffe papers with interest.

The transition, of course, is not without cost. There have been job losses and some people will miss their evening paper (although 'evening' became a misnomer some years ago). But the halcyon days when each medium-sized community in the UK might have justified its own daily newspaper, days when advertisers and readers had nowhere else to go, are gone.

The change to weekly is really about longevity. It's about turning evening newspapers that are losing sale and revenue at alarming rates into viable long-term businesses before they crash to earth. It is inevitable that in some smaller communities, six-day-a-week publications will become increasingly less viable. But the key to any change to weekly is that the new paper has to be substantial and of real quality. Filling a fatter paper with rewritten Press Releases and overblown what's on entries will just accelerate its decline. Think of the Sunday model, rather than the local shopper. It's also important to stress that this isn't a one size fits all solution. In some places the daily model still has legs. But I would be surprised if the managements at all daily papers selling under 25,000 aren't seriously considering the weekly option.

The first weekly
Herald Express
launched on Thursday

Fancy subbing in the Med?

2011-07-16T11:08:00.003+01:00

I have spent the last couple of years working with the Times and Sunday Times of Malta, helping them to restructure their newsroom. As part of this they are now looking for a chief sub to head up their new production department. It's a great job for an experienced newspaper production journalist. If you fancy it, you will need to be able to supervise and train a new team of subs, manage the workflow - and lay out and sub pages. You will also need a grasp of English and grammar that is second to none, as much of the copy is written by people who do not have English as their first language. You will be working for the daily Times of Malta, the Sunday and the website.
It is a demanding job - with long and flexible hours - but with great rewards. These are serious newspapers and you will be working alongside a professional and committed team. Malta is also a great place to be - fantastic weather, great restaurants and stunning historical sites. The package includes help with relocation. Details of how to apply can be found on HoldTheFrontPage and interviews will be held in London in early September.

Forget the news ... let's write about romance

2011-07-14T22:17:00.001+01:00

Back to this summer's topic ... drop intros. I have examples of good ones, bad ones and ones that just miss the mark. But I have never seen one quite like this before. I initially thought it was terrible but have concluded it is genius. You might have been tempted to write that 'A jilted boyfriend armed with a knife threatened to kill himself by jumping from a block of flats ..." But that is so yesterday, so News of the World, so easy. This story, from the Cannock Chase Post, is about unrequited love. And for all of you who doubt its brilliance, ask yourself what is the test of a great intro? To make the reader read on. I defy you not to.

Hat-tip to Mike Lowe and Joanne Goodwin

Redtops in 'lowlife' dogfight

2011-07-12T09:06:00.000+01:00

The Irish Daily Star - a robust red top based in Dublin - certainly has no empathy for its tabloid rival the Irish Sun. The Star's front page hamper about the News of the World closure denounces The Sun as a 'lowlife Brit sister rag.' But I can't help wonder if the Star's indignation about the 'lowlife' Sun have a touch more credibility if it hadn't led on a woman dying from an allergic reaction after having sex with an alsatian.

10 observations about today's News of the World

2011-07-10T12:42:00.003+01:00

Rogue politicians, celebrities and crooks will rest easier in their (and their lovers') beds from today. Whatever the rights, wrongs and political positioning, there can be no doubt that the closure of News of the World leaves a massive gap in British journalism. I enjoyed today's final issue which will be added to my burgeoning pile of old newspapers (I will need a bigger study soon). Here are ten random observations about the souvenir edition.

Must Read: Andy Dunn's excellent and passionate sports piece is a compulsory read for all wannabe sports journalists. Here is his response to former BBC director Greg Dyke's comment that NoW hacks 'are not journalists in the way we are.' Dunn writes: 'No, thankfully, we are not. Otherwise we would all be talking about chocolate cake, comparing MCC ties, feathering our own nest, revelling in middle class snobbery, looking down our noses at the punters who pay hard-earned pounds to watch the game. And we would all be ignoring any cancer in cricket, pretending it didn't exist, pocketing pounds for platitudes. We would all have some Kipling-esque boarding school vision of the sporting world. Tell me. When was the last time the Beeb actually broke a sports story of any note?' Sizzling stuff.

Falling on the sword moment: I see a lot of the Twitterati are saying the paper has never apologised. They clearly haven't read it. In the leader on Page 3 it says: 'Quite simply, we lost our way. Phones were hacked, and for that we are truly sorry. There is no justification for this appalling wrong-doing.' Can't get much clearer than that.

Putting the closure in perspective: My old colleague Carole Malone summed it all up passionately in her column: 'It can never be denied that this red top monolith has been a life force in British journalism and - love it or hate it - no politician, no crook, no pervert, no celebrity, no corporation has ever been able to ignore it.' Hard to argue with that.

Best headline: They think it's all over ... it is NOW. Should have thought of that on Thursday night. The Northern Echo did use Apocalypse Now, which comes close.

If only: The claim 'the World's Greatest Newspaper' that adorns today's issue is nicked from the Daily Express, which carries the slogan every day. But which is really the world's greatest? There's only one way to find out. Fight. Richard Desmond v Rupert Murdoch. Who wouldn't buy tickets for that?

The missing decade: What happened to the paper in the 70s? There are special front pages from the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 80s, 90s and the 2000s - but not a single one from the 1970s. The editors then were Cyril Lear, Peter Stephens and Bernard Shrimsley. Maybe it was just a bummer news decade.

Sweetest moment: It was a sad day all round at Wapping yesterday - but using the front page of Question Time's Hugh Grant's indiscretion must have brought a collective smile around the newsroom.

Pedant's corner: There are a few mistakes in the dates and headlines on the souvenir pages - 'Sophie: the Tapes' was in the year 200, 'Crouch beds £800 teen hooker' has the date running over the headline and why is the Robin Cook page out of sequence? It's from 1997 but comes after the 1998 and 1999 pages. (Sorry, once a sub, always a sub). Guess it was put together quickly ... and maybe they were corrected for later editions.

Spare a thought: There are a lot of losers in the closure, not least the journalists. But there are others who will miss out too, such as the people at uniquehomestays.com who gave a free holiday to columnist Ian Hyland and were hoping for a nice positive write-up next month. Oops.

Best crossword puzzle clue: 24 across in the Cryptic crossword is 'Woman stares wildly at calamity'. Answer: 'Disaster'.

And finally, those who are rubbing their hands with glee at the death of a newspaper, should read Sara Payne's piece on Pages 6 and 7. 'Like all good friends they have stuck with me through the good and the bad and helped me through both.' Whichever way you look at it the News of the World was a paper that got things done. Whether a seven day Sun emerges or not, it will be missed.

You can see all the souvenir pages here.

Read all about it ... News of the World

2011-07-08T00:10:00.007+01:00

Here are today's front pages, courtesy of @suttonnick. There's nothing quite like a dog eat dog story to inspire the headline writers. The Telegraph and The Northern Echo are both well done (although the latter could do with a bit of kerning). Hacked to death by The Times and the Mirror is a nice line - if slightly diminished because it was used as a joke by Hugh Grant on Question Time. End of the World and World's End are the obvious ones. The Mail brings its indignation to the table, while The FT and Guardian play it straight. The Star tries hard to contrive a between link the two stories of the day - but Emma Watson was always going to win over Rebekah Brooks. The picture of Brooks is powerful and used well in The Echo, Guardian and Mail. But the archive photograph of Murdoch with the old News of the World - the first paper he brought in Britain 42 years ago and one that was particularly special to him - is pretty poignant. Strong pages on a sad and damaging day. There is plenty of hand-rubbing by the paper's detractors but nobody should feel any joy in seeing a 168-year-old institution closed down and some excellent (and blameless) journalists thrown out of their jobs.

Astonishing drop intro at the News of the World

2011-07-07T18:06:00.000+01:00

On the subject of drop intros, here is a stunning example from James Murdoch to NotW staff today. The story is in the 19th paragraph. Terrible news for some excellent staff there and, despite the glee from its detractors, there should only be sadness that a 168-year old title with an amazing history should end this way. PS: I hear the Sunday Sun is being mooted ... think Trinity Mirror might have something to say about that.

Message from James Murdoch

I have important things to say about the News of the World and the steps we are taking to address the very serious problems that have occurred.

It is only right that you as colleagues at News International are first to hear what I have to say and that you hear it directly from me.

You do not need to be told that the News of the World is 168 years old. That it is read by more people than any other English language newspaper. That it has enjoyed support from Britain’s largest advertisers. And that it has a proud history of fighting crime, exposing wrong-doing and regularly setting the news agenda for the nation.

When I tell people why I am proud to be part of News Corporation, I say that our commitment to journalism and a free press is one of the things that sets us apart. Your work is a credit to this.

The good things the News of the World does, however, have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong. Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our Company.

The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself.

In 2006, the police focused their investigations on two men. Both went to jail. But the News of the World and News International failed to get to the bottom of repeated wrongdoing that occurred without conscience or legitimate purpose. Wrongdoers turned a good newsroom bad and this was not fully understood or adequately pursued.

As a result, the News of the World and News International wrongly maintained that these issues were confined to one reporter. We now have voluntarily given evidence to the police that I believe will prove that this was untrue and those who acted wrongly will have to face the consequences.

This was not the only fault.

The paper made statements to Parliament without being in the full possession of the facts. This was wrong.

The Company paid out-of-court settlements approved by me. I now know that I did not have a complete picture when I did so. This was wrong and is a matter of serious regret.

Currently, there are two major and ongoing police investigations. We are cooperating fully and actively with both. You know that it was News International who voluntarily brought evidence that led to opening Operation Weeting and Operation Elveden. This full cooperation will continue until the Police’s work is done.

We have also admitted liability in civil cases. Already, we have settled a number of prominent cases and set up a Compensation Scheme, with cases to be adjudicated by former High Court judge Sir Charles Gray. Apologising and making amends is the right thing to do.

Inside the Company, we set up a Management and Standards Committee that is working on these issues and that has hired Olswang to examine past failings and recommend systems and practices that over time should become standards for the industry. We have committed to publishing Olswang’s terms of reference and eventual recommendations in a way that is open and transparent.

We have welcomed broad public inquiries into press standards and police practices and will cooperate with them fully.

So, just as I acknowledge we have made mistakes, I hope you and everyone inside and outside the Company will acknowledge that we are doing our utmost to fix them, atone for them, and make sure they never happen again.

Having consulted senior colleagues, I have decided that we must take further decisive action with respect to the paper.

This Sunday will be the last issue of the News of the World.

Colin Myler will edit the final edition of the paper.

In addition, I have decided that all of the News of the World’s revenue this weekend will go to good causes.

While we may never be able to make up for distress that has been caused, the right thing to do is for every penny of the circulation revenue we receive this weekend to go to organisations – many of whom are long-term friends and partners – that improve life in Britain and are devoted to treating others with dignity.

We will run no commercial advertisements this weekend. Any advertising space in this last edition will be donated to causes and charities that wish to expose their good works to our millions of readers.

These are strong measures. They are made humbly and out of respect. I am convinced they are the right thing to do.

Many of you, if not the vast majority of you, are either new to the Company or have had no connection to the News of the World during the years when egregious behaviour occurred.

I can understand how unfair these decisions may feel. Particularly, for colleagues who will leave the Company. Of course, we will communicate next steps in detail and begin appropriate consultations.

You may see these changes as a price loyal staff at the News of the World are paying for the transgressions of others. So please hear me when I say that your good work is a credit to journalism. I do not want the legitimacy of what you do to be compromised by acts of others. I want all journalism at News International to be beyond reproach. I insist that this organisation lives up to the standard of behaviour we expect of others. And, finally, I want you all to know that it is critical that the integrity of every journalist who has played fairly is restored.

Thank you.

James Murdoch

Deputy Chief Operating Officer

Chairman and CEO, International, News Corporation

The Dryden shootings: 20 years on

2011-06-20T18:28:00.002+01:00

Anyone who has ever been on one of my courses will be familiar with the story of the murder of planning officer Harry Collinson in Butsfield, County Durham. It was the most remarkable day during my time as an editor. The story revolved around a bungalow that had been built, without planning permission, by an eccentric maverick called Albert Dryden. Derwentside District Council decided that the bungalow had to be demolished and Mr Collinson turned up to oversee it. While the bulldozer was preparing to break through the fence, Dryden went off to a caravan and returned wearing a gunbelt and holster with a First World War revolver. He walked up to the fence, took the gun out of the holster and shot Mr Collinson dead. He also shot and injured BBC reporter Tony Belmont and PC Stephen Campbell. Northern Echo photographer Mike Peckett took an astonishing set of photographs, recording the whole event on film. We ran them across Page 1 in a sequence (above left). It happened exactly 20 years ago today but the pictures are still as shocking now as they were then. The news-editor of The Northern Echo that day was Peter Barron, and he clearly hasn't forgotten it either. He is now the paper's editor and today ran an interview with Mr Collinson's brother (above right) and a first person piece by Mark Summers (below), the reporter who covered the story for the Echo. It's a considered and sensitive article that tells the shocking events of the day in detail. It all vividly brings back the way the day unfolded and the decisions we made. And if it sends a chill down my spine, I can't begin to imagine what effect it has on those who were there ... or on Harry Collinson's family.

Make mine an Oxford Mail ....

2011-06-10T17:19:00.000+01:00

Here's a nice one to end the week on. Juxtaposition in newspapers is a regular occurrence but I don't think I have seen seen two bills causing a problem before. The Abingdon Herald wins on moral grounds of course - but I know which one would make me buy the paper. Speaking of which ...

Only walk of life where the orgasm comes first

2011-06-04T12:17:00.000+01:00

And so to drop intros. I remember the earliest advice I was given on intros by my first editor, the inimitable Robin Thompson. On my third day as a trainee at the Shields Weekly News I walked into the newsroom, sporting my shiny new John Collier suit, to see one of my intros hand-written on a flipchart. It was 47 words of English graduate prose. Any hope that it was there as an example of sublime writing evaporated when the editor subbed it in front of me and, horrors, my colleagues. "Aye, Peter ... it's bloody rubbish," he began in his broad Geordie before publicly crossing out the source, the bureaucratic language, the subordinate clause and the duplicated words. The result was a pithy 16-word summary of my story. "Remember Peter, this is newspapers," he advised. "The only walk of life where the orgasm comes first."
Great advice which has stayed with me forever.
Of course occasionally there is another way of telling a story. The drop intro, or delayed drop, once used almost exclusively in features, now often (in many American newspapers, too often) finds its way into news stories. The intention is to create a little suspense, dramatic effect or even humour by having the twist in the third or fourth sentence. I find myself teaching people to write drop intros more and more - not least because I help run the trainee reporters' course for the Daily Mail, one of the biggest exponents of drop intros (here's an example). The best advice, though, is to use them sparingly. A good drop can be very effective on the right story but too many are forced, particularly on hard news stories. You cannot began stories with: "When Peter Sands left home for his routine drive to work yesterday morning, little did he know what lay ahead ..." and then have some enormous tragedy in paragraph four. But you would be surprised how many trainee reporters think they can.

Anyway, I am always on the look out for good and bad examples. So it was nice to hear from old colleague Alan Cleaver (above), erstwhile editor of the Hampshire Chronicle and deputy editor of the Whitehaven News, who dropped me an email this week saying: "I stumbled across the best 'drop intro' of all time last night while doing some local history research. It concerns a small fire in a photographer's studio in Whitehaven in 1923."

The Whitehaven News, Thursday June 21, 1923
Whitehaven Studio Destroyed
Like the anguished wail of a tortured soul, only more so, the Whitehaven buzzer suddenly shattered the midnight silence of Friday night into innunmerable fragments, more or less. Its eldritch screeches eddied and swirled in the innocent ether; echoing and ricocheting from a thousand chimney pots, snarling their strident summons, bidding the dauntless fire-fighters to their nocturnal task.
Mingling with its brazen clamour varying from a hysterical crescendo of command to an almost sibilant sob of appeal, came the sudden monotonous "tap tap" upon the pavements of a myriad steel-shod clogs
while the softer stamp of hurrying leather-clad feet, and the quiet swish of unfastened laces formed a piano accompaniment to this pedestrian cacophony.
(and so it goes on, but I won't!)
Simply brilliant! All good or bad examples gratefully received on petersands@mistral.co.uk.

International Herald Tribune revisited

2011-06-04T10:07:00.001+01:00

Sixteen years ago my old company the Editorial Centre did some design work for the International Herald Tribune in Paris. We added white space, colour, factfiles and graphics to the business travel section, only to be told it was 'too interesting'. It was out of step with the rest of the paper and we did a second set of pages that were basically long text reads, tight typography and small black and white pictures. So it was interesting to pick up a copy recently and see a fresh design with white space, artwork, lots of entry points, graphics and strong images. I guess we were just ahead of our time. The new design was actually carried out a year or two ago by Miguel Buckenmeyer. Very stylish. Take a look at it here.

Two excellent anniversary ideas

2011-05-28T10:41:00.000+01:00

What a great idea to celebrate The Guardian's 190th anniversary. The news stripped bare and all on one page, just like my Tweetdeck. Have we come full circle in news presentation? Could catch on. I see a rich vein of design consultancies ahead. Meanwhile there's another great anniversary idea over at the Independent. Ninety Prince Philip gaffes to celebrate his 90th birthday. Laugh out loud stuff.
A couple of examples: "It looks as though it was put in by an Indian." The Prince's verdict of a fuse box during a tour of a Scottish factory in August 1999. He later clarified his comment: "I meant to say cowboys. "I just got my cowboys and Indians mixed up."
"If it has four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it." Said to a World Wildlife Fund meeting in 1986.

Stop press - cat hops into delivery van

2011-05-24T14:37:00.000+01:00

Thanks to David Bailey @surferdwb for sending me this bill from Norwich and for asking "I wonder how many extra copies of the paper this sold?" If the non-story theory works on print as well as on the web, it probably sold thousands. For more weird and wonderful bills and my tips on how to write good ones have a scroll through the training tips here.

Footballing weekend pays off

2011-05-24T11:09:00.000+01:00

It's been a real footballing weekend for me ... working with Allan Prosser, Mike Brough and Paul Wick to produce a 56-page Champions Full Time supplement for the Irish Examiner. It is published today, free with the paper. Great fun to do but I could have done without the relegation issues on Sunday. I had taken a gamble that Wigan would go down and Birmingham would stay up, so apart from updating every Premier League club's page I had to set about on two major rewrites. Then Carlo Ancelotti was sacked. We made the deadline though. It marks another fantastic commitment by the Examiner to sports coverage. The supplement includes a club by club analysis, the best quotes, the top 20 goals, the worst fouls and howlers and a 12-page Champions League preview. It's a great read. Above are a few pages, including the cover and my review Newcastle's season. If you are a footballer fan, try to get hold of a copy. I can guarantee it will be worth it.

Book to 'celebrate' quirky local paper stories

2011-05-15T09:07:00.001+01:00

Local newspaper editors have been receiving letters from Viking Books in the last few weeks asking for permission to use their 'quirkiest, oddest and most locally-specific headlines and articles'. The idea, says Viking, is to celebrate the most 'local' side of local journalism in all its glory. 'The tone will be warm and even reverential rather than mocking.' Of course it will. The title is Whitstable Mum in Custard Shortage - after the excellent non-story highlighted here last year. Also included is Mattress falls off truck into Kidderminster Road. I hope they have tracked down the Harrogate Advertiser's Straight banana drama. Another contender emerged this week concerning the owners of a parrot called Seve Ballesteros paying tribute to the golfer following his death. It looks like the publishers have found some crackers we haven't seen before - such as 'Man found nailed to bench,' 'Tributes as popular Lichfield cat dies' and 'Mass poisoning in donkey soup war'. The book is out on October 13 and costs £9.99 in hardback ... although you can pre-order from Amazon for £8.99. One for the Christmas list.

Can you read the bottom line?

2011-05-15T00:31:00.001+01:00

Thanks to Andy Cooper, editor in deepest Devon and Cornwall, for this addition to our bill collection. Clever. A slab serif too, close to the original Snellen chart.

If fonts were dogs ...

2011-05-15T00:01:00.001+01:00

Ha! Comic Sans getting more stick (previous post). Thought this was quite clever though ... made me smile. Originals here and here.

Ten thoughts about the Regional Press Awards

2011-05-13T23:17:00.001+01:00

I have returned, slightly bleary-eyed, from the Regional Press Awards. It was, as always, a very enjoyable event, the one chance a year where most of my colleagues are in the same room. Well done to Bob Satchwell and his team at the Society of Editors for resurrecting the awards and making sure they were run for the industry by the industry. I saw first-hand the work he put in and it really was phenomenal. As I said yesterday, if we don't celebrate the excellence that runs through our newspapers, applaud the journalists who go that extra yard, recognise the editors who invest in off-diary work and innovation … then who will? Anyway, well done to all the winners and indeed to anyone who was shortlisted The full results and pictures can be found on the Regional Newspaper Awards website and there are reports on HoldTheFrontPage, Journalism.co.uk and the Press Gazette.

In the meantime, here are my ten thoughts on yesterday's awards:

Ready to celebrate ... The Irish News arrive mob handed to collect their award from Nick Ferrari

i) There is certainly life in Irish regional newspapers - they won six of the 23 awards and collected some highly commendeds too. It was nice to see The Irish News picking up the Newspaper of the Year award. As an independent newspaper, owned by the Fitzpatrick family, it has long been a purveyor of quality and often courageous journalism. The judges were also impressed by its sales performance which is better now than it was 20 years ago. It is also a paper which has steadfastly refused to give away its content online. There are no doubt lessons to be learned from our friends across the water.

ii) Well done to Nick Ferrari, hosting the awards for the third time. The LBC radio breakfast presenter strikes a neat balance between the seriousness of the event and the fact that 350 hacks need to be kept in check and entertained. He gave his services for free, supporting the industry where it all started. He has edited the Sun's Bizarre, the News of the World's Sunday magazine and Sky News. He was also the man who gave the world topless darts, the news bunny and the weather read by a dwarf on a trampoline. But his roots are very similar to ours ... covering cake sales and funerals for the Kentish Independent. Best line - "We have to rattle through these awards as the room is booked by the hour. Which is how Bob Satchwell usually does it."

A congratulatory hug for Alan Geere from Nick Ferrari

iii) The liveliest recipient was the Essex Chronicle's formidable editor-in-chief Alan Geere, who sprinted on to the stage impersonating a jet plane and threw his arms around Ferrari. His animated Magnus Pyke impressions continued afterwards in the splendid Rose pub, resulting in a pint of beer being poured over my suit. The cleaning bill is on its way.

iv) The collection boxes on the tables raised a healthy £1,400 for the Journalists' Charity.

v) It was nice to catch up with the Evening Chronicle's John Gibson, the man who inspired me to be a journalist. When I was a paperboy in Whitley Bay I used to stop on my round every day to read his reports on Newcastle United. It was then that I decided if I was never going to wear the No 9 shirt, the next best thing was to write about it. Years later, while editor of The Northern Echo, I gave a speech at the retirement of the paper's esteemed Middlesbrough FC reporter, saying "When I was a boy I always wanted to be a football reporter like (pause for effect) ... John Gibson." As I was at Ayresome Park surrounded by 'Smoggies' it went down like a lead balloon. I'll have that on my epitaph, Gibson said yesterday.

vi) The debate about whether there should be multi-media journalist and website categories rumbled on at my table. The argument against is that we are fully integrated. Journalist of the year covers all their work, print and digital. Most websites are also templated. But as someone said yesterday if you have a supplement of the year, shouldn't you also have a website of the year? Good point. The other main discussion is whether there should be a free newspaper category. This was dropped when newspapers began dabbling with the free model. The Manchester Evening News was part-free as were other newspapers. In the national Press Awards there isn't a separate category for free newspapers ... if there were the Evening Standard and Metro would have a field day. The argument is that it's about the standard of journalism, not the business model ... but we are open to all suggestions and thoughts. You can send any feedback on any aspect of the awards to me at petersands@mistral.co.uk.

vii) Many of those who collected awards had been there before. Jon Colman, described as the best sports journalist Fleet Street never had, is a regular recipient of sports awards. Hull Daily Mail Designer of the Year Ian Bond collected the same award two years ago and the Sheffield Star's Colin Drury, although only 28, has twice been named Columnist of the Year. As there were many new judges this year, I guess it can only mean that these winners really are exceptionally good.

viii) Nice to see the independents so well represented but inevitably the most awards still went to the big groups. Top were Northcliffe who picked up six awards and second were Trinity Mirror who collected four, along with four others who were highly commended.

ix) I have never heard a crowd of sceptical journalists cheer a sponsor before but that's exactly what happened when the man from Asda took the mic. Mind you, he did say they were about to spent £2.5m on local newspaper advertising .. and that he would be picking up the tab for all the wine on the tables. Now that's the sort of sponsorship journalists can relate to.

x) The prize for the person on stage who looked least like their brochure or screen picture initially went to the Sunday Mercury's Jeanette Oldham. However the bearded recipient, who turned out to be editor David Brookes, was quick to point out that he was 'not Jeanette'. 'That's the sort of perceptive qualities that make the regional Press, so special,' observed Ferrari. The person who collected the daily and Sunday sports journalist award, however, really was the News and Star's Jon Colman and not his hippy brother.

The brochure Jon Colman

The on stage Jon Colman

Thanks again to everyone who supported the awards: The sponsors, Camelot, Asda, HoldTheFrontPage, UK Power Networks and the Press Association. Nick Ferrari and photographer Glyn Genin both gave their services for free as, of course, did all the judges. Lyn and Paul at Magstar did the AV presentations and the brochures and Kate McMillan organised everyone with superb efficiency. It wouldn't have been possible without the Newspaper Society (particular thanks to Lynn Anderson and president Georgina Harvey) and the Society of Editors team, Bob Satchwell, Sue Ryan, Angela Varley, Sharon Nall, Samina Khan and Elena Tulenkova. And of course without all those who took the time to enter, there would be no awards. A great job ... I'm already looking forward to next year.

Graphics - the good, the bad and ugly

2011-05-09T22:53:00.004+01:00

Here is a great collection of infographics from Graphic Gibbon and Visual Journalism showing how the world's Press illustrated the shooting of Bin Laden. They range from the excellent to the appalling, the almost-accurate to pure flights of fantasy.

This is the Daily Telegraph's offering.

And here's a different approach by The South China Morning Post.

This one from Clarin in Argentina attempts to tell the story based on facts rather than an over-vivid imagination.

At the other end of the scale is this from UOL in Brazil.

And also from Brazil, this utterly absurd and inaccurate, drawing from O Dia.

This detail from El Mundo in Spain (where the Seals look in grave danger of shooting themselves) also looks short of style and accuracy.

Some of these reminded me of the days I used to run courses with colleague Mike Brough on how to create infographics for newspapers. The programme was devised in the early 90s when Westminster Press believed the future was telling the story visually. Alan Gilliland, head of graphics at The Daily Telegraph, was one of the guest lecturers. We taught Illustrator, FreeHand, typography, colour, research and how to spot the stories that lent themselves to a graphic format. We showed delegates the best and the worst graphics from around the world. And there were certainly some bad ones.

This one, for example, from the front page of the Bucks Free Press, has aliens and cutout cars to illustrate a fatal crash.

This looks like a good idea from the books page of the late Today. Which book would last you the distance of a long-haul flight? The only problem is the key does not match the graphic. Book No 2, Moon by James Herbert, would take you 5 hours 35 minutes to read, so you could settle down with it if you were off to Dubai. But on the illustration, route No 2 is close to Tokyo. No 5 is Hold The Dream by Barbara Taylor Bradford which would take 12 hours and 50 minutes to read and get you to Rio. According to the graph Rio is located on the East coast of Africa. Every single one of them is wrong.

Back to the Bucks Free Press and its explanation of where the £400 poll tax would be spent. Not only are the segments of the pie chart out of scale ... they add up to £471.
We haven't run the course for a few years now. I thought that was because regional newspapers had decided graphics were no longer part of its armoury and the nationals were on top of their game.
But maybe there are opportunities emerging again. Must dust down my Barbara Taylor Bradford collection ... Rio here we come.
Footnote: I'm not alone in thinking some of these shoddy pieces damage the name of newspapers. A checklist for graphic artists has been created by Juan Antonio Giner and Alberto Cairo as a result of the Bin Laden illustrations. Read it here.

70 years on ... the paper that never was

2011-05-06T16:01:00.001+01:00

Here is a powerful front page from today's Hull Daily Mail ... the names of the 1,241 men women and children who died in the bombing raids on the city 70 years ago. The Luftwaffe razed the city to the ground on the nights of May 7th and 8th but wartime censorship prevented any of this being reported. Hull was referred to only as a 'north-east coast town' - even though it was the most bombed city outside of London.

More impressive than the front page is the eight-page broadsheet. This isn't a replica from the archives ... it has been written and designed by the journalists as though the raids took place last night. Acting assistant news-editor Allison Coggan trawled the city archives, tracked down personal diaries and interviewed survivors (who were children at the time). Head of photographic Jim Mitchell sourced the names and previously unpublished photographs. Then designer Ian Bond put it all into an eight-page broadsheet in the same style of the paper in 1941. John Meehan, the editor, is justifiably proud. “It is a potent statement – if one is needed – of the enduring power and impact of newspapers. No other form of media could rival what we have been able to achieve today". Can't argue with that ... cracking stuff.

The Times gets the wedding bouquet

2011-04-29T23:16:00.009+01:00

Here we go. The Times wins it hands down, a great decision and fabulous wraparound. It was the surprise and most natural image of the wedding. The kiss is a great picture too. It may be a bit safer, predictable and we've seen it before but, hey, it's an iconic image and this is all about thinking souvenir. The Northern Echo, Daily Mail, FT, The Sun, the Evening Gazette in Teesside, the Daily Express and the Daily Telegraph took that option. The Star's crop is on the tight side with the headline obliterating the dress. I like the Mirror's decision to leave in the bridesmaid too. I know she detracts a little from the main image but she does raise a smile. The Guardian left in two bridesmaids ... they balance the picture but the girl on the right adds nothing. And the FT cropped the wrong bridesmaid off. The Echo had a dilemma between the kiss and the car and went front and back. Good solution. As for the Independent, what can I say? Different, brave, original, not pandering to the mass hysteria, intelligent ... but really, what were they thinking? Pleased they scrawled The Kiss on it though, otherwise we might have struggled to know what we were looking at.

Thanks to @suttonnick http://twitpic.com/4r4ny4 @EchoPeterBarron and @aforjack

Did you get an invite ... or an invitation?

2011-04-29T09:00:00.001+01:00

Lots of smiley pictures on today's front pages ... mainly of Kate Middleton, although bit-player Prince William does appear in half of them. Even the Independent, which could traditionally be relied on to take a cynical view of such extravaganzas, has taken the royal shilling. It's easy to see why the pictures made their way on to every front page ... but what a dull set of headlines. Celebrate our happiest day, A couple smiles for the world, Happiest day of our lives ... they all sound like lines from a boring bridegroom's speech (perhaps they are). Of course it is always hardest to write headlines on stories where nothing has happened. At least The Guardian had a stab at a news angle while the Independent, quite sensibly, chose not to bother with a headline at all. While we are on about wedding headlines, here's my greying sub gripe of the day. When did the word 'invite' become a noun? I know the tabloids can justify a bit of colloquialism to make it fit but even the BBC, The Daily Telegraph, Independent and the Daily Mail have decided you receive an invite rather than an invitation. I much prefer Ian Hislop's reference to a wedding 'ticket' than the ubiquitous 'invite'. At least The Guardian appears to be fighting a grammatical rearguard action. Anyway, enough of that. I am off to lunch today ... to the Plough with Harveys' Olympia ale, local wild boar on the menu and no TV. Anyone care to join me? No invite, invitation or ticket required.

Life after editing

2011-04-25T16:48:00.000+01:00

Derek Holmes, right, receives the NS's Newspaper
of the Year award from Joanna Lumley in 2006

I was saddened to see that Derek Holmes has left as editor of Newsquest's Oxford weeklies after 20 years with the division. Despite carrying the burden of being a Manchester United fan, he always struck me as an excellent journalist and editor. I helped him with the redesign of the Oxford Times in 2006. The OT went on to win the NS's Newspaper of the Year that year and, ever gracious, Derek took the time to drop me a note which said: "One of the key things the judges pointed to was the redesign that you did for us. Thanks once again for what you did. The paper is looking great, and I know that played a very important part in us winning this award." In our busy and pressurised industry, it is understandably rare for editors to make such an effort. If there is consolation for Derek, his departure is clearly nothing to do with his ability or performance. As the business changes radically over the next year, there will be other good people who will leave too. And although it seems like the sky has fallen in at the time, there really is life after editing. It is 18 years since I left the editor's chair at The Northern Echo. Since then my career has been every bit as stimulating and rewarding - and I am certainly not alone in this. Below is a piece I wrote a couple of years ago for the Press Gazette. It is, perhaps, as relevant now as it was then.

Life after editing

When I took my advanced driving test the instructor kept asking me: “If that bus or lorry came at you now, what would your escape route be?” It is a question that may be relevant to many of today’s editors. Editing is probably the pinnacle of your career. If you are doing it right, your time and energy will be devoted to setting and communicating a vision. So it is hardly surprising that few new editors give any thought to what happens next. But what if it doesn’t work out? What if you burn out? Even if you love every minute, can you really expect to be still there in 15 years? Some editors – Peter Barron at The Northern Echo, Chris Bright at Jersey - have been in situ for more than a decade. But nowadays editors more often leave with the same regularity as football managers. And being talented and hard-working is no guarantee. Dozens of editors have been fired for financial reasons, because their faces no longer fitted or because they were “too difficult”. So here are some tips to help you be prepared for the ten-ton truck that comes out of nowhere:

i) The next job should be one you really want. Keep a constant eye on the market – not just media jobs. Your skills in communication, technology, strategy, leadership and man-management are transferable to most industries.

ii) Keep your skills up to date. How good are you (honestly) at web-building, video, PR, strategy, public speaking and page planning?

iii) If the axe falls don’t be tempted to take the first bolthole that comes along. Don’t undersell yourself. Would you have applied for this job if you were still editor? If not, it is probably the wrong move. Buy time through freelancing and short-term contracts.

iv) Call in your contacts. You will have met people in publishing, business, education and politics who could benefit from your know-how. Tell them how.

v) Look abroad. English publications, particularly in the Middle East and India, are often on the look-out for UK executives.

vi) Set up your own business. Many ex-editors run successful PR, training and consultancy companies. Gareth Weekes, whose editorship at the Daily Echo in Bournemouth, came to an abrupt end 13 years ago, now runs Deep South Media with seven other journalists. He describes them as hacks who have become entrepreneurs. Weekes says: “Apart from missing my newsroom colleagues and the adrenalin rush of running a newspaper, losing my editorship was an entirely positive experience.

“The skills journalists take for granted are highly marketable. Organisations are willing to pay for good communicators. They have a respect for our direct style of writing, and our knack of asking the right questions.

“I still smart when I remember how I was wrenched out of the editor's chair. But nobody should do that job for too long and these days I get another kind of buzz. Building a business is every bit as creative as being an editor.”

Of course in these troubled times, all of this is much harder. Perhaps your best bet is to catch up with the things you have been putting off – travelling, learning new skills, decorating the spare bedroom – until it blows over. To do this you need a financial cushion. So one last tip: When you sign the editor’s contract make it as difficult as possible for them to get rid of you. I know one editor who moved his family from London, bought a house - and then got the bullet. When he checked his contract he was entitled to just three months’ money. It might seem like an odd thing to do when taking over a high-powered and exciting job … but it’s never too early to start thinking about your exit.

Farewell to Priestgate, Fleet Street of the North

2011-04-10T10:28:00.001+01:00

I spent 14 years working in newspaper offices in Priestgate in Darlington town centre. I first crossed the threshold as a newly qualified trainee and left as the editor of The Northern Echo. I worked the night shift on the Echo and the day shift on the late Evening Despatch. In many ways the office defines a huge slice of my life. With people who were to become lifelong friends, we covered four general elections, the disasters at Lockerbie, Zeebruge, Heysel, Bradford and Hillsbrough as well as the Falklands war, Margaret Thatcher's resignation and the Ripper's arrest. We watched Priestgate change from a hot metal rabbit warren with its own Press to a computerised open-plan office. But it was always our Fleet Street, the hub around which our lives revolved. We strolled out from time to time to go to the Red Lion, the Britannia, the Flamingo and even home, but we were never very far away. Some great newspaper characters have stalked the corridors of Priestgate. W.T. Stead, Harold Evans and David Yelland are among the most famous but you would be hard pushed to go into any newspaper or broadcasting office in the land and not find someone who had cut their teeth in that Victorian building on the corner of Priestgate and Crown Street. My 14 years pales into insignificance, though, compared with the tenure of award-winning writer Mike Amos, MBE. He was the news-editor when I arrived in 1979 and is still there today, having racked up 45 years. This weekend it was announced that The Northern Echo and Darlington and Stockton Times are to leave the building after 150 years. It will be consumed by the shopping centre and probably become Debenhams. Who can blame Newsquest from selling it? It is no longer necessary to have such a huge town centre building to produce a newspaper. And if I was sitting on a multi-million pound asset that was surplus to requirements, I would cash it in too. But that doesn't mean it isn't a sad day and that a big chunk of North-East history will disappear with it. On hearing the news one of my old colleagues, Red Williams, summed it up in an email: "A sad day not just for the likes of us but also for the people of Darlington, a genuine North-East powerhouse of news and sport moves on...brings a tear to the eye mate."
Read more here and on Peter Barron's blog.
Picture courtesy of www.freefoto.com

Ten things to take away from the Press Awards

2011-04-06T23:54:00.011+01:00

Matt and Matt ... winners Cardy and Sandy

I'm just back from a long but cracking night/early morning at the Press Awards. I was particularly pleased to see two former trainees collecting awards. Matt Cardy, from Getty Images, was a photographer with the Bath Chronicle who was sent to the Editorial Centre in Hastings in 1999 to learn journalism. He did well too, even passed his shorthand! How many photographers do you know with 100wpm? It clearly put him in good stead as he collected Photographer of the Year. Then there was the Mail on Sunday's Matt Sandy who was voted Young Journalist of the Year. Matt won his place on the Press Association course in Newcastle in 2006 after being named best student reporter in the National Student Journalism Awards. I also came across Matt when he was on the Daily Mail trainee scheme. A couple of our other ex-trainees, the Telegraph's Heidi Blake and Rowena Mason, were also shortlisted. Well done to all of them. It's always nice to catch up with (increasingly) old faces and at one point, with Mail online editor Ted Young and Times' head of news David Taylor, we had a mini Northern Echo reunion at the pre-awards reception. Anyway, here are my musings on the night.

i) Bob Satchwell, the Society of Editors executive director, really ought to be executive director of the UN. With The Guardian and News of the World both nominated for newspaper and scoop of the year (the Guardian for its phone hacking revelations) on the day that two NOTW journalists were arrested, all of his diplomatic nous was required. To have both papers leaving more sweet than bitter was a triumph. It was down to the judging of course ... but either the sun shines on the righteous or the devil looks after his own. Take your pick.

Caitlin Moran ... adding colour to the proceedings

ii) The Times' Caitlin Moran, who was celebrating her 36th birthday as well as her awards for critic and interviewer, was the turn of the night. In a room full of black suits and dresses she brought some colour and a smile. She also made the best acceptance speech. "I am quite aware that if you win an award for going to a sex club with Lady Gaga and ending up in the toilet with her and her doing a wee-wee in front of you, without even taking off her pants and doing it through her tights, that you may well have peaked in terms of your interview. Unless I interview Madonna and she does a poo in a crisp bag round the back of HMV Megastore on Oxford Street I am not going to top it, so I'll happily take this now and retire." Watch it here.

iii) It's all about the story. The Daily Telegraph, which swept the board last year and deservedly won Newspaper of the Year for its expenses revelations, only took home a couple of Highly Commendeds this year. It's not been a bad year for the Telegraph at all - the David Laws and Vince Cable stories were very powerful - but they didn't have WikiLeaks or an international cricket scandal. The newspaper industry, probably rightly, clearly still focuses on big exclusive stories.

iv) I feel a bit sorry for The Sun. The biggest selling daily paper in Britain didn't collect a single award. How can that be? The difficulties of comparing red-top story-getters with the writers, analysts and database researchers of the heavies perhaps? Anyway, it might have thought it had a decent shout in Front Page of the Year for its World Cup front page, a lesson in how to make something out of nothing, but even that went to its red top rival the Mirror. The Sun hasn't won Newspaper of the Year in more than a decade.

v) Although all eyes were on the polarised positions of the News of the World and The Guardian, it was actually The Times who collected the most awards. The full league table was:

Times 5
The Guardian 4
News of the World 4
Evening Standard 2
Mail on Sunday 2
Daily Mirror 1
Financial Times 1
Getty Images 1
Mailonline 1
Sunday Times 1

It has been suggested that the method of voting for newspaper of the year - 120 judges in a secret ballot - might need a review. Journalists clearly tend to gravitate to the heavier papers - the last seven winners are The Guardian (2011), The Telegraph (2010), The Times (2009), The FT (2008), The Observer (2007) and The Guardian in 2006. When the Observer won in 2007 it didn't win any other award. Maybe the answer is that the paper which wins the most awards should collect the Newspaper of the Year crown. Just a thought.

vi) That isn't to say The Guardian wasn't a worthy winner. It was WikiLeaks what won it ... but what was the most memorable headline from the story? A straw poll round the table suggested that the claim that the Saudis had asked America to bomb Iran edged it. Although the most commonly-held view was that WikiLeaks itself had become the story. The real global effect of WikiLeaks though, as Alan Rusbridger said in his speech, might not yet be felt. No argument with that, or the award.

vii) In case you hadn't guessed it Sky TV's Anna Botting, just back from reporting on the Japanese tsunami, has many formidable and professional qualities ... not least stamina. She was still there at the end of play when the Savoy shuttered up its bars. I can also reveal that she declined a fee for presenting the awards ... instead it will go to the Journalists' Charity. Anna, amazingly, is 43. I can only guess she has an ageing portrait of herself in the attic.

viii) The days of drunken and raucous nights with the odd stand-up spat are long over. It's far more sober (which at Savoy prices, is perfectly understandable) with just a smatter of simmering resentment these days. All credit to News of the World managing editor Bill Akass though. He strode up to the bar afterwards and ordered several bottles of Champagne ... 'to start with'.

ix) The emailed invitation to the awards advised that 'the reception starts at 7pm with dinner at 8pm and carriages at 1am'. An executive of one the more serious-minded papers rang the organisers to ask if any of the "carriages" would be prepared to go as far as Surrey? Not sure what he was expecting? Hansom cab to Dorking, perhaps?

x) While the night was about celebration, there are journalists worldwide who have weightier things to occupy themselves - such as oppression, imprisonment and death. The Foreign Press Association's president Hosny Emam and its charming vice president Nazenin Ansari were on my table and offered a fascinating insight into the FPA's work. A reminder that we should count our blessings that we were there at all ... let alone able to celebrate a vibrant, robust and free Press.

And finally ... a collection around the tables raised £3,000 for the Journalists' Charity. Well done all round. It was the first time the Society of Editors had organised the awards, and it made a great fist of it. You can see it all in glorious video and photographs here. Now on to the regionals ...