The Journoblog

Time to move on

2010-01-24T14:49:00.000-08:00

Thanks for dropping by. But I've moved on to Wordpress. So to catch up with my latest posts, just click here.

Exclusive - that's what journalism has become

2009-09-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

The Unleashing Aspirations report made shocking reading. Journalism has become posher. The report, commissioned by the Government from a panel of experts, said without action future journalists will come from the richest 25 per cent of families. And it found the traditional career route of training in the regional press then moving to the nationals had all-but broken down.This is depressing. Maybe too many editors are recruiting people in their own image. But unless the newsroom fairly represents the audience, how can a title reflect what they care about, are talking about? In the mid 1980s in a Midlands city I worked in a newsroom which was exclusively white. I doubt things are as bad now. But could this be one of the multiple factors behind the slide in circulations? Maybe some titles are simply out of touch with their audiences.
The report also criticised unpaid internships as a barrier to wider access to the industry and proposed a code of practice. Most new recruits are graduates. So they've already got big debts. It's likely that only the wealthiest can afford to take a poorly paid internship, maybe for months, maybe with no pay at all. There is some positive action. For example, the Journalism Diversity Fund, encouraging people from different backgrounds into the business. But more needs to be done. Plenty of titles bang on about fairness and accuracy. It's about some basic fairness was injected into recruitment.

It's crunch time for journalists

2009-07-12T04:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my last post. Meanwhile the credit crunch has blown in like an economic tornado, stripping out titles, closing offices and blasting jobs out of existence. More youngsters see staying in education as a way to postpone entering the job market when vacancies are scarce.
But from where I sit on the inside of the industry, now the dust has settled a little, it's not all bad news. There ARE opportunites around - the turnover in regional press reporters is still going on. The jobs are often just not advertised, so get pro-active and get emailing and letter-writing. With a bit of luck - maybe work experience in the right place at the right time - you can land a job.
Otherwise a journalism course is a good step. I bet course leaders will tell you a lot of their leavers are in jobs, maybe not all their first choice, but still beavering away in the by-ways waiting to make their mark. And while you're learning the trade make sure you make the effort to write and get published. There are more outlets than ever before - in print as well as online. Talent will be recognised.
Consider the specialist and trade media. Some industries are thriving, with lively media serving them. And publishers like Future are always on the lookout for pasionate people who know their subjects - from needlcraft to cycling. Once you're in, it's down to you and your talent how far you take your career. Be inspired, think laterally - from adversity comes opportunity. Darwin was right - adapt and survive.

Educators, take note

2008-05-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

There's a debate raging at the UKPG about shorthand and how useful it is. There seems to be a suggestion that it's a waste of time when there's now lots of kit like video and digital recorders to do the job. Well, that just goes to show the danger of handing over journalism training to academics and new media wonks who don't have a clue what the job actually involves.
Fact: most trainee journalists will be sent to cover a court - and without shorthand, you're in trouble. So is your newspaper, TV station or website, if you mangle the facts in this rapid-fire theatre where the exchanges between judge, lawyers and witnesses have no rewind button.
Recording devices are banned in courts. Some say they can report courts with longhand notes- good luck to you. But why not buckle down and actually put some effort in to learn shorthand? The rewards are great - not least, the satisfaction and confidence of knowing you've got rock solid notes - especially when someone tries to challenge your story. Sure, you can sit down with a recorder plonked on the table for a long interview. Just make sure the batteries are working. And make sure you've got enough time to go through it all again. You'll probably have to transcribe the whole tape just so you know what's on it.
And what about when you've got no recording device? All you need is a bit of paper and a pen, and you're still in business. You learned to drive, learned to type, learned a bit of French - so why not learn shorthand? In my view, it's an essential, especially in the proving ground where good journalists pay their dues - the regional media. Or you can blag, bluster and bullshit your way around it. Your choice.

Reporters are going back to the future

2008-05-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

The need to file stories straight to the web has resulted in a new trend being identified in the United States - reporters actually leaving the office to meet people, interview them, then file copy. As this is the 21st century, this new breed has a name - they're 'mojos' - mobile journalists. Joe Strupp talks about the trend in a special report for Editor and Publisher. To be fair, the new demands of newspaper staff shooting video means they need to be at the scene. And the race to be first now the web is a 24/7 outlet means there's no time for a pie and a pint then a stroll back to the office after picking up your dry-cleaning.
But with slimmed budgets and out of town publishing centres - largely to cut costs and make it easier for deliveries of newsprint - reporters have long moaned about not getting the chance to go out on a job. Now some U.S. papers say most of their reporters work remotely from their laptops. This heralds the arrival of the true multi-skilled journalist - out and about with several thousands of pounds worth of kit, a roving reporter at last freed from the shackles of the office. Any decent reporter should embrace this liberation. And I note that the training providers are sprinting to catch up. The NCTJ has at last stipulated that training courses must include digital skills. But I bet there are some that still teach print skills without an introduction to video. Time to wake up to the realities of the modern newsroom!

Degree or no degree, that is the question

2008-04-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

The Guardian newspaper devoted four pages today to journalism training. Peter Wilby moans that there are now few working class journalists any more, just an old guard of working class heroes who slogged their way up from the slums. Now he says the business is full of middle class ex-public school folk with private incomes. They're the only ones who can afford the huge cost of postgraduate courses to bag the best jobs.
Of course, it was better in the old days you left school at 16 and got a job on the local rag, spent several years reporting flower shows and funerals before packing your belongings in a handkerchief tied to a stick and hitching a lift on a horse and cart for the big smoke, wearing a trilby with a band for your press card. At least then it was a meritocracy, says Wilby, with grit and determination winning through.
As for ethnic minorities, they are drastically under-represented in the business. He has got a point there. But what's the solution to this mess?
Perhaps his London-centric view is distorting his grasp on reality. Outside the capital, with its promise of riches and broken dreams, there are thousands of journalists toiling in the regional media. Most, but not all, are graduates. That's because editors decided they wanted the best on offer, and equated better education with better quality staff.
They have found though that graduates are keen to get trained and clear off, party through ambition, partly to try and up their wages from the measly trainee stipend. Maybe the NCTJ has got some responsibility for this, by locking industry starters into a rigid framework that the media groups are only too happy to sign up to. In fact, there's nothing to stop editors paying trainees more, other than they would have to pay everyone else more.
Meanwhile, you can actually still leave school with A-levels and get on a journalism pre-entry course. And often these journalists stick around longer. They are more likely to have local roots and knowledge and stick around longer, providing a return on the investment in their training. Maybe it's time editors placed more value on that route. And with the explosion of college and undergraduate courses, there could be an answer.
More locally trained entrants, equipped with the necessary skills, but also with local connections, could be on their way to a newsroom near you soon. And this should also address the imbalance in represenation of ethnic minorities. Meanwhile there are a number of schemes offering cash and support for ethnic minority candidates on postgraduate courses, including the Scott Trust, NUJ and Journalism Diversity Fund. See more details on the links section of http://www.beajournalist.talktalk.net/ .
Anyway, as I understand it, you train in the regional media, learn your stuff, then if you want, go to London, get some shifts and if you're persistent or lucky enough, land a staff job. Or carry on with shifts, go into PR, or decide you want to do something more useful or worthwhile. The options are there for the best to be recognised and rewarded, no matter which school or college they were at. At every level, you're only as good as your last story.
Roy Greenslade suggests it's time the industry pulled itself together to address the working class/ethnic minority shortage. And I guess the rather confusing entry system could do with a little more clarity. But with the NCTJ accrediting more private sector providers, and many institutions opting out of the NCTJ, that's unlikely to happen. It's down to editors to recognise who is going to do the best job for them. And that's fundamentally down to ambition, skill and persistence, which are equally available to all.
Chris McGillion, former editorial page editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, says editors should work with the courses to shape the type of graduates that they want. Sound sensible.
As for me, I did a postgraduate one-year pre-entry course at City University in the 1980s, funded by a government grant. My coursemates are now all over the place, in regional and national newspapers, foreign correspondents, TV and PR. There was a mix of backgrounds, colours and creeds. All shared the drive and ambition which got them there, and which has driven them on afterwards.

'A up me duck, get tha snap tin and get thesen darn te t'Guardian*

2008-03-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

If you thought your regional accent was an embarrassing setback to getting on in the sometimes precious and largely middle-class world of the media, think again. Forget the plummy vowels of the educated classes, The Guardian, is saying 'Ay up' to the far-flung corners of England. It is looking for a trainee who apart from having a degree from anywhere in the world, must also be fluent in standard English and 'at least one other language, including but not limited to foreign languages, computer languages, the language of the arts or science, English dialects or some other speciality'. All you needs is experience in the media as well, and there's £25,000 a year on offer from September. So don't worry if you were no good at French - if tha can talk convincingly about black pudding and whippets, you just might be in with a chance. Find out more here.

*Hello my dear, pack up your lunchbox and hurry off to the Guardian

In with the new...

2008-02-29T02:14:00.000-08:00

Two posts on the UK Press Gazette website bring into focus the dynamic change in local media. The first is the relaunch of the Birmingham Post website on the newspaper's 150th anniversary. The second is the latest circulation figures for the regional press.
The Post site is flagged as a 'web-first' operation, embracing all the bells and whistles of web2 developments from blogs to delicious. The site looks clean and well laid out, with loads going on, from breaking news to columns, with all the latest devices to encourage the audience to interact.
In line with the rest of the regional press, the morning Brum Post has long seen a decline in readership of the newspaper -the regional morning market is notoriously difficult - you're putting a hybrid of local, regional and national news - up against the local and national competition. Now the has Post has clearly repositioned the brand online as a market leader in the search for the regional audience.
As editor Marc Reeves puts it: "We'll be breaking news and bringing you information on your sector of interest that you just can't get anywhere else - and even more than you can get in the newspaper."
Good luck to them, and that comes from a former reporter from the once arch enemy the pioneering, ahead of its time, now defunct free morning paper in Brum, the Daily News.
Meanwhile the regional ABC figures tell a familiar tale. In the last six months of last year the regional mornings bucked the trend of recent years, with a slight slowing in the overall decline - down 3.6 per cent year on year compared to 3.9 per cent six months ago. The Birmingham Post notably was one of the better performers, down 2.1 per cent.
The regional evenings were down 5.3 per cent overall, with only two titles showing a rise, in Swindon and Dundee. Andy just to make it slightly more complicated, many 'evening' newspaper now print overnight, putting them in the shops in the morning alongside the traditionally more upmarket regional morning papers.
And finally, just how relevant are the separate newspaper sales figures? The ABC has started publishing reports linking print circulation and website users. It says: "The new Multi-platform Monthly Report will detail month-on-month and year-on-year figures for both on and offline properties. In addition the report will breakout figures by geographical region; the UK, Republic of Ireland and other countries."
This has to be the way forward - convergence means audiences are delivered in a variety of ways, so advertisers need a reliable way of deciding how to reach them.

How to get ahead of the pack

2008-02-26T00:52:00.001-08:00

You're chasing a big story. You turn up at the house where your target lives. But so has everyone else. There's half a dozen or more reporters hanging around. One by one they make their approach. You wait five minutes. What should you do?
You don't want to be accused of harrassment. But you know you've got to give it a go. You could tell your news editor you tried but there was no one in. But what if someone else go the interview?
So, having parked your car facing the direction of departure - in case you need to make a quick exit - you walk up the path and knock on the door. You suspect there's someone in. But no one answers the door. What do you do now?
Of course you leave a note. Maybe just a page ripped from your notebook, but write down a brief message and your contact details. Maybe, if you work for a big agency or one of the national media, you can offer cash for an interview. But you work for the local media. So there's no cash on offer. 'How can we compete?' you wonder. You put your note through the door. At least you can tell your news editor you tried. You leave, closing the garden gate behind you.

And you go back to your office. The phone rings, it's the person you want to interview, offering you the full story, even though you work for the local media and have a policy of not paying. But why did they choose you? Because you're local, they know and trust your title. And they tell you that of the two dozen reporters who knocked on the door that day, some offering big money, only you closed the garden gate. And that left a good impression. This is based on a true story.

Launch of beajournalist.co.uk

2008-02-21T14:56:00.000-08:00

I decided to tinker with some CSS code and put together a website for would-be journalists - the result is now online at http://www.beajournalist.co.uk/ or http://www.beajournalist.talktalk.net/ .
A press release I put together has generated some coverage - notably on Holdthefrontpage - so here's the link if you want to read the story: http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/news/080221beajournalist.shtml.
The story led to some interesting feedback, including a call from a reporter at BBC Radio Orkney, asking me when I was a reporter at weekly newspaper The Orcadian. That was from 1989 to 1990. And that was all they needed to put a local angle on the story for them. Must have been a slow news day in the Northern Isles - although I did see on BBC text that they had had a visit from 'killer ladybirds'. Reassuringly they kill other insects, not people, but are a worry nevertheless. If you don't believe me, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7254397.stm.

I also heard from a journalist called Chris Gaynor, who swiftly put together an impressive piece for the citizen journalist site The Latest at http://www.the-latest.com/so-can-you-hack-it. The site is well worth a visit.
And I got an email from an old friend from my Bristol days, Jeremy Deacon, who is now in Bermuda. See where this job can take you!

Should you ever make up a quote?

2007-11-22T14:19:00.000-08:00

This posting applies mainly to printed/online reports, but the issue of fabrication is topical and relevant to broadcasters as well.
The answer to the question is, 'Of course not'. But there will be times when what your report is not exactly verbatim what you have been told. First, let's define what we mean by 'make up a quote'. If the question is, 'Should I fabricate a quote out of thin air because I've not been able/can't be bothered to find someone to supply a real quote', the answer clearly has to be, 'No'.
But in newspapers, you often see quotes from anonymous people, 'onlookers', 'neighbours' etc. It is tempting to make up a quote. But don't. It's unethical and the thin end of the wedge. Once you start, where do you stop? Get a different job. The readers/viewers trust you. Don' let them down. And you may get found out. The truth will out. Actually, outing the truth is your job. Respect it.
Beware of even bona fide anonymous quotes. They are of little value, because sceptical readers will question why the person does not want to be named, or even if they exist at all. You will sometimes see in a newspaper report an 'onlooker' quoted, accompanying an embarrassing photo of a celeb. In fact, the 'onlooker' is usually the snapper, describing what they have just taken a photo of, as if they were a passer-by.
Most readers know this and are sceptical of such a device. It undermines the credibility of the newspaper. Not a problem if the organ doesn't have much credibility in the first place, such as the more lurid nationals, but dangerous if it occurs in a more trusted local newspaper.
Clearly sometimes people fear for their safety if they are named in relation to violence, crime etc. And used sparingly in obviously appropriate circumstances, the anonymous quote is acceptable. It can be all you've got. But avoid over-use of anonymity. Generally, if someone has something to say, and they are important enough for the newspaper to want to quote them, you should put their name to what they say - or leave them out.
When you're quoting someone in a story, you will often need to tidy up what has been said. The starting point is that you have identified yourself as a reporter, which means the conversation is on the record and everything is fair game to be reported.
First, you will edit the words given to you - that is, unless you're writing a James Joyce-style stream of consciousness. Unlikely.
This means you will choose an appropriate, pithy, relevant quote from your conversation, which illustrates a point in the story or adds colour or emotion. You're providing the reader with the authentic voice of the subject.
You will also add punctuation. Not many people talk in soundbites, especially to a newspaper reporter where the exchange is more informal than a rehearsed piece to camera or microphone. And you will also edit out all the 'erm', 'ah', 'ahem' parts.
You generally should avoid quoting your subject saying something that makes them look stupid, or something they didn't mean to say.
If in doubt, ask them to repeat what they said. Or ask them the same question again, phrased differently, to produce a similar response. You could also tell them what the quote will be, which means you are checking what they said.
If someone tells you something, it is generally accepted that you have gained their 'consent to publish'. This means that if they have told you something defamatory about themselves on the record, they would have a problem taking legal action as they were the source and therefore agreed to you publishing by telling you. This is where your notes are important. Accurate, contemporaneous notes, especially in shorthand, have got many a reporter out of trouble as they can be offered as solid proof of the content of your interview.