Regional newspapers: 10 things to expect

Here is my article for the latest edition of InPublishing magazine - the ten things that ought to happen in the regional newspaper industry this year. At a glance they are: 

1. Stop the war

Before we rebuild newspapers we have to rebuild the internal relationships between management and staff.

2. Change (the) management

We have lost subs and editors but what about those who are meant to be guiding us through? The industry needs fresh blood and thinking, right up to the very top.

3. Chase the money

We need a radical approach to sales and innovative, skilled people to implement it.

4. Sort out the content

Readers need a genuine reason to buy the paper or visit the website every day. It means original, quality, targeted and real time content. Without it there is no business.

5. Stop doing things that aren't core

Expect cuts in distribution, printing, accounts. It's all about content and sales now - everything else can be sold, outsourced or closed down.

6. Go weekly

A weekly analysis of events, complementing a comprehensive, hyperlocal digital news service, would be more relevant than a daily print offering out-of-date news. There are nearly 30 evening papers selling less than 20,000. Expect there to be fewer at the end of the year.

7. Stop talking paywalls

Regional newspapers need to maintain and grow our audience and they won't do that by excluding swathes of the community.

8. Stop paying lip-service to local 

Newspapers have to genuinely get things done, organise events, become community leaders, be central to the economic fabric and get their reporters out.

9. Stay at home

2011 should be the year when the industry wakes up to the real advantages of home-working and outsourcing.   

10. Think about running a dry-cleaners 

Regional newspapers' best chance will be owners who genuinely care about the titles, work hard to ensure they succeed and know the community they serve. A local business with realistic margins … like a dry cleaners.

I also asked the great and the good of the industry what regional newspapers should be doing in 2011 - and have included their thoughts.   

Take a tour of The Sun's subs room

If you are a beleaguered sub-editor, wondering if your days are numbered, then this is a must listen. It's the BBC's Word of Mouth tour of the Sun's subs room with managing editor Graham Dudman. He describes the subs as "the craftsmen of the English language who make The Sun what it is." Chief reporter John Kay says the reporters are "the foot-soldiers of the paper and what we produce are the nuggets of facts which our wonderful sub-editors then mould into this fantastic peerless prose which appears every morning." He goes on to say that, how ever well reporters think they have written their stories, "our wonderful sub-editors always find a way to improve them". He admits: "I hate to say it but every occasion that they have re-written one of my stories, which fortunately doesn't happen too often, it has always been improved." Great to hear. It is also good to hear subs talking about the importance of rhythm, pace, creativity, turning pictures into words and writing headlines from left field. We ran the subbing training scheme for The Sun and one of our former trainees, Fran Wetzel, talks about her experiences too. There are some classic Sun headlines in the programme. Many you will recognise, but I hadn't heard this one by sub Elaine Roberts before: A prize bull that dies and its sperm is frozen for future breeding. The headline: Pushing up Daisies.

As I have said before, it is not coincidence that the two most successful daily papers in the country, The Sun and the Daily Mail, remain committed to the craft of subbing. Graham emailed the link to me to say: "If I was running a subbing course, I’d be tempted to make it required listening!" Couldn't agree more ...  

The Evening Despatch: 25 years since it died

Here's a walk down memory lane for those who want remember newspapers the way they were. I have recently been in touch with colleagues from my old paper, the Evening Despatch in Darlington, where I was chief sub from 1981-1984. They were heady days when we didn't need to worry about revenues and digital platforms ... just producing a good paper every day. This is a promotional video from the time, featuring the editor Robin Thompson, who went on to be one of the country's leading media law experts and trainer. The exchange with old colleagues has led to a 'where are they now' post. Interesting for those who were there ... and a reminder that even hard-bitten hacks are sentimental when it comes to their memories. The Despatch closed in 1986, 25 years ago this year.  

High flyers about to land in New York

Delighted for six of our recent trainees who are flying out to New York on January 31 to work on the Mail's online operation. This time last year two of them, Mark Duell and Fiona Roberts, were still in college and were applying for the Mail's reporting/subbing schemes. They are currently doing their placements at the Yorkshire Post and Carlisle News and Star and will go straight from there to New York. Fiona said: "I still can't believe it, it feels like I've made it up. It's such a wonderful opportunity. I'm really excited  but also quite daunted to be going straight from sheep to the NYPD... it's quite a jump." They will be joined by four young journalists from the previous reporting course Simon Neville, Amy Oliver, Rachel Quigley and Oliver Tree. Good luck to all of them. I expect regular updates as to how they are getting on. 
The Mail is recruiting for this year's schemes. Details can be found here, here and here.  

Outlining the case for shorthand

Photo: Press Gazette

Two interesting snippets are doing the rounds this week that show shorthand is still thriving at journalism training centres. First there is this quite brilliant short video Why I love Teeline posted by Julie Starr on the Evolving Newsroom and brought to my attention by @danbloom1. Then there is the story of Anneka Masish, a journalism student at Staffordshire University, who has shown her devotion to her craft by having her name tattooed on her leg ... in Teeline.

Shorthand, or more specifically Teeline, has played a big part in my life. First there were my experiences, as a trainee, in Mrs Mawston's sitting room in Whitley Bay every Wednesday afternoon.
Then, when I ran courses in Hastings, gaining 100 words per minute was essential. Some trainees were told by their editors 'don't come back unless you get it.' You can imagine the pressure. The brilliant Sylvia Bennett delivered 75-minute sessions first thing every morning followed by another hour from midday to 1pm. She had a great success rate. She still does, running the shorthand on PA Training foundation course in London as does her counterpart Susan Nixon in Newcastle. But it was shorthand that dominated the last days of the course as the pressure mounted. It was shorthand that caused tears and distress. No matter how good you were at bringing in stories or penning a readable feature, if you failed shorthand your editor would be unhappy. One editor asked me to pass on this message and we put it up on the noticeboard: "If you don't have shorthand you are a liability in my newsroom. I can't send you to court or council and, in a small team, you will need to slope off for extra lessons when you should be out gathering stories. My message is simple. Get your shorthand at Hastings or don't come back." 
It always struck me that some good people were lost to journalism because of this. It is also unfair. National newspapers are littered with big name writers who have never been near a Pitman or Teeline class. Nevertheless, the industry insists shorthand is still an essential requirement. I interview trainees for the Daily Mail and you are unlikely to get over the first hurdle if you don't have  shorthand (and a driving licence). At a student conference last year Graham Dudman, managing editor of The Sun, told delegates: “Number one is shorthand. I want to know that you can write shorthand at 100wpm.”  Apart from being a required tool having shorthand also adds to your professionalism. I recall the judge who, having studied a reporter's shorthand note, advised the jury that this was not a hack but a professional man. Then there was the case of England Football manager Glenn Hoddle being interviewed by Matt Dickinson of The Times. Hoddle told Dickinson that he believed disabled people and others were being punished for their sins in a former life. In the argument that followed Dickinson's professional shorthand note was critical ... both to his reputation and Hoddle's future. 
I know we can use tapes - but not always. Here's Kim Fletcher, chairman of the NCTJ, on the Today programme: “If you have a shorthand note you can find the quote very quickly. You go in with a tape recorder, or a digital recorder, and if you’ve spent an hour in there with your recorder you’ve got an hour of tape to go through, that takes quite a long time.” Journalism is changing rapidly of course and in a world of social media, video, forums, blogs,  and the like - not everyone will need to write at 100wpm.
For now though, if you are studying journalism you should learn to drive, build up a stunning portfolio, pass your law exam and GET YOUR SHORTHAND.            

Arnold Hadwin, an inspirational editor

Arnold Hadwin - urbane, old school editor
 Photo: Press Gazette

I was saddened to learn of the death of Arnold Hadwin, OBE, a former editor of one of my old papers, the Evening Despatch. Although he had left to edit the Telegraph and Argus in Bradford by the time I shipped up in Darlington, I met him a few times. He struck me as an urbane man, always smartly turned out with a real passion for newspapers and a huge supporter of excellent journalism. He was a thoughtful man with plenty to say too. This came over in an interview he gave to the Press Gazette two years ago when he talked about the way newspapers were run today. Here are a few of his choice quotes.  

“The people who run newspapers know nothing about newspapers.”

“They want 18 per cent profit when they should settle for six. Eighteen per cent and 20 per cent is monstrous. At the height of the German economic miracle, they were all prepared to take eight per cent returns on capital."

“I was always opposed to cutting down editorial posts. It’s the easiest thing in the world to sack people - it’s more difficult to become more efficient. If you have got five football matches, you want five people in five places. You can’t rely on donkeys telling you what might have happened.”

“Everyone seems to think they’re capable of writing to the level of a proper journalist. But you can’t just sit down and write the first sort of crap that comes into your head. With journalism, there is a long apprenticeship.”

Many people in the industry will know his daughter Sara who is course director of the MA in International Journalism at Cardiff University and was previously an editor at the North West Mail and Petersfield Post. She has been in touch to say the funeral is on Tuesday February 1 at St Hugh's, Langworth (in Lincolnshire), at 1.30pm and afterwards in the village Memorial Hall. 


There are tributes to Arnold in his old paper the T and A and by Mike Amos in The Northern Echo here.

    

Type comparison 2 - sans headline faces

One of our Irish clients has been in touch, looking to change their sports page headline font from Franklin Gothic. The key question in any such change, of course, is why? Do they want:

• A more economical face (a better count)
• Clearer legibility
• Stronger display
• Something more modern
• A different font from another title or from other sections
• A brand change?

Anyway, in order to help them consider which font they might go for, we have prepared another typechart. This one is for sans display faces for newspapers. There are of course different weights for all those listed, except Impact. If you would like a higher res PDF than the jpgs above, let me know on petersands@mistral.co.uk and I will send you a copy. The previous typechart for newspaper body copy fonts can be found here.

Couple of old chestnuts ...

Here are a couple of links that have been pinging about on the web which illustrate some of our old favourite points. The first, forwarded to me by Tony Johnston, is the most amazing press release ever written. A little bit of satire that has gained worldwide publicity for Pitchpoint Public Relations. It's the same theory as non-stories in newspapers - write something particularly bad and the world and his dog will visit your website. Previous examples include the dog with the injured nose, the Whitstable custard shortage, the Kidderminster mattress chaos and my personal favourite, Irma's banana drama. The lesson is that publishing nonsense can get you noticed and lead to all-important hits on your website - madness or genius? We might have to write it into our training courses for young journalists - bring in at least one non-story a day.

Thanks too to David Bailey of the Sligo Weekender for drawing my attention to this Facebook exchange. When I bang on about grammar and spelling these days, I am increasingly faced with youngsters from the 'lol, OMG, cul8r' generation who ask whether such archaic rules will be relevant in the post-newspaper age. It's all about communication and understanding, they say. It is indeed.