All change at the top at Northcliffe

Michael Pelosi

Alex Leys

Northcliffe's top two have announced their retirement today. Managing director Michael Pelosi is to be replaced by Steve Auckland, MD at Metro. Deputy MD Alex Leys, one of the industry's larger than life characters, is also retiring. I have worked with both men who have made their own unique contribution to the industry. Alex was a fearsome character who edited the Leicester Mercury, ran UK News and spawned countless editors in his image. Michael was a thoughtful MD who was keen to reward editorial during difficult times. When I was running a conference for his editors, after they had been through some tough cost-cutting, he told me I wanted an event that both stimulated but was enjoyable. "Without good editorial, we simply do not have a business," he said. And that was always the Northcliffe way. There is clearly an interesting time ahead for the group ... and for the industry. The news comes two days after John Fry announced his retirement from Johnston Press. I wish them well.

  

20 classic tabloid headlines

I have spent the last three weeks in Hull, training reporters to write headlines. There were 80 journalists, from the Hull Daily Mail, Scunthorpe and Grimsby Telegraphs, Lincolnshire Echo and assorted weeklies, all scribbling real headlines to stick on the wall and discuss. We also looked at the 28 rules that govern good headlines. The first is simple: The sole purpose of the headline is to catch the eye, to persuade the reader to turn to the article underneath. If the headline is boring, then it is unlikely to succeed. Avoid dull words. 

We certainly had no problem finding dull words. The list included:

Residents, Boost, Council, Adjourned, Drama, Appeal, Volunteers, Alert, Meeting, Alarm, Accommodation, Project, Services, Centre, Plans, Call to, Bid to, Proposals, Committee, Bonanza, Blueprint, Development, Fund, New, Infrastructure, Facilities, Situation, Crackdown, Local.

We even found some classic bad headlines (not from their own titles I would stress) including: 

At first we thought they were a random collection of words rather than headlines. What all these words have in common is they are non-specific - none of them build a picture in the reader's mind.
The reporters did pretty well and have since written publishable headlines for their papers. At the moment they are writing heads only on shorter stories. But who would bet against that being rolled out? 

These Northcliffe papers are not averse to using the odd pun,  as you can see from the above. But the headlines we were dealing with were, of course, very different from those in the tabloids. That didn't stop us taking time out to look at some of the classics. Here are 20 that might just brighten up your freezing cold November day.

 

 

... and trainee subs

For the last seven years the Daily Mail has recruited trainee subs, sent them to me and my colleagues at Press Association Training, for five weeks intensive subbing training followed by a secondment to a big regional newspaper. If they make the grade, which the vast majority do, they land a sub's job at Northcliffe House. The scheme is running again this year and the Mail is recruiting now. The advert was in The Guardian on Monday Mail training scheme. The closing date is March 5. The reporters training scheme, which began two years ago, is also running again. 
Details soon.