I took part in the second JEEcamp in Birmingham yesterday. Last year, it was very much an experiment to see what might happen if you stuck 50 journalists in a room and let them unconference for a day about how to create a new journalism for the future. I’d been mapping plans for an online [...]
Press Gazette: I'm not mourning
Published in April 7th, 2009
When Wilmington announced yesterday that it was closing Press Gazette permanently, quite a few of my colleagues blogged about how sad they felt at its demise. Dave Lee, Alison Gow, Kristine Lowe and even Roy Greenslade all wrote at length about what PG had meant to them and why it would be missed. I’m going [...]
Local news, local action
Published in March 28th, 2009
Anyone who pays any attention to the news cannot have failed to hear of the swingeing cuts in staff being made at newspapers and magazines up and down the UK. Thousands of journalists jobs have disappeared over the last year. Some papers and magazines have been closed down. Over the last couple of weeks, people [...]
TwitterTitters – Ta-dah!
Published in March 4th, 2009
Or how we exploited social media to change the world… Less than a month ago, fellow journalist Linda Jones asked me to join her on a project to raise money for Comic Relief using the medium of Twitter. What a rollercoaster it has been! By harnessing Twitter, we somehow managed to create an entire book [...]
Ivan Cameron – a death not in vain
Published in February 26th, 2009
Yesterday, when there was a fatal plane crash in Amsterdam and several British soldiers were killed on duty in Afghanistan, one other story dominated UK headlines – the death of six-year-old Ivan Cameron. Normally, I’d consider it inappropriate for such a private tragedy to be given priority over other news that is arguably far more [...]
Schiphol plane crash – news and green views
Published in February 25th, 2009
Shortly after 9.30 this morning, I learned – via Twitter – of the plane crash at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands. A Turkish Airlines Boeing 737 came down short of the Polderbaan runway, where it promptly broke into three pieces. It was a miracle that it didn’t turn into a fireball and that so many [...]
Aid Zimbabwean journalists
Published in December 2nd, 2008
Press Gazette and the NUJ have started a very worthy appeal. To help journalists get the news out of Zimbabwe, they are asking for hacks here to donate any kit such as laptops and cameras to their counterparts. If you can donate anything – an old mobile phone, an outmoded (for the UK) laptop – [...]
Dacre – out of touch, out of order
Published in November 10th, 2008
Early this morning I read the transcript of Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre’s speech to the annual conference of the Society of Editors. What has captured my attention is his views on privacy. On his own admission, Dacre knows that “sensation sells papers”. That has clearly been the basis for his particular brand of journalism [...]
No orchids for Mr Brand
Published in October 29th, 2008
No question the hottest story of the week has been Brandgate, pushing Robert Peston and the recession off the front pages and onto the backburner. Things moved fast today when the BBC announced first the suspension of Brand and co-broadcaster Jonathan Ross, then Brand’s resignation. The fate of Ross remains unknown but Brand was always [...]
When hacks get sacked for blogging
Published in September 25th, 2008
Freelance journalist Nick Clayton got the boot last week for blogging. His firing has attracted a lot of media attention and he’s written up his experience on his own blog. Read and learn what a storm in a teacup it is – not for him but for The Scotsman. No doubt Nick will be keeping [...]
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