Thursday 17 September 2009

Experienced journalists need not apply

Are you an editor with 30 years' experience in the regional press? Know the industry from back to front? Perhaps ready for a new challenge after years at the coalface? Well, the Press Complaints Commission doesn't want to hear from you.

Earlier this week, Tim Toulmin announced he was stepping down as director of the PCC after six years.

We thought we'd drop the PCC a line to see if they wanted to advertise the forthcoming vacancy with us but were told: "As the position is not available to journalists or anyone working in the industry there would be little point in this so we will not be taking you up on this offer."

Apparently it's something to do with maintaining the PCC's independence. But am I the only one who finds this presumption that anyone who changes jobs automatically takes all their old prejudices with them rather patronising?

Only way is down for Beeb

Ben Bradshaw's speech to the Royal Television Society convention in Cambridge last night did not specifically mention the regional press, but there is no doubt that its content will have repercussions for the industry, in particular his comment that the BBC has "probably reached the limits of reasonable expansion."

The culture secretary pointed out that in the last 20 years, Bradshaw said, the BBC has grown from being a provider of two TV channels, four national radio stations and a local radio network to a media giant with a world-leading online presence and a commercial publishing arm, adding: "If it were to continue on anything like that trajectory, the rest of the industry would be right to be worried and the mixed economy would be seriously imbalanced."

This confirms the fairly widespread view that last year's battle over the corporation's plans to set up 68 local internet TV stations, and the ultimate defeat of those plans by a powerful regional press lobbying operation, probably represented the apex of the trajectory he describes.

Media Guardian has the full pdf of Mr Bradshaw's speech here.

Reverse publishing boon from hyperlocal project

A couple of months back we covered the launch of the new LocalPeople.co.uk sites in the South West by Associated Northcliffe Digital.

Now AND's director of strategy Roland Bryan has given an update on how the initiative is going in an interview with PaidContent which makes interesting reading.

Roland says that although LocalPeople wasn't designed solely as a community news platform, around 1,500 individual contributors have already posted something on the sites, with 12 user-generated stories finding their way into Northcliffe's print titles.

The initiative is due to be reviewed at the end of the year, but Roland says there’s no question that LocalPeople.co.uk will make money, “unless something very strange happens to our user numbers.”

Wednesday 9 September 2009

Are the British obsessed with potholes?

Leicester Mercury editor Keith Perch penned an interesting counterblast a week or so back on the subject of potholes and why we in the UK are so "obsessed" with them.

Keith had been holidaying in Italy (lucky beggar) and noticed that while the state of the roads there was markely worse than in Britain, this at least had the effect of making people drive at slower and safer speeds.

"It made me wonder why we are so obsessed with potholes in this country. Every year, the Mercury runs stories about residents complaining about the state of the road where they live, councils run hotlines to allow potholes to be reported and, if memory serves me right, Leicestershire County Council proudly attempts to fix all potholes within 24 hours of them appearing," he wrote.

"But why? What is the real problem with potholes? Wouldn't the cash be better spent elsewhere?"


Keith may like to check out a new satirical blog which has come to our notice entitled Glum Councillors.

It features local newspaper pictures of councillors looking glum while inspecting - you've guessed it - potholes.

New term heralds spate of job moves

The first week back after the summer holidays has already seen some notable new editorial job moves, with ex-York Press editor Kevin Booth named as the new editor of the Burton Mail, and Northcliffe's Ian Carter jumping ship to become the new editorial director of the KM Group.

Now speculation is rife that another big appointment is on the cards, namely that former Scotsman editor Mike Gilson is to edit the Belfast Telegraph in succession to Martin Lindsay who retired last Friday.

The Gilson rumour has been flagged up today by the blogger Slugger O'Toole, who knows a thing or two about Northern Irish politics and media, and also on AllMediaScotland which is similarly well-connected in that part of the world.

There has been no announcement as yet from the Bel Tel, but sources there expect an appointment will be made in the near future.

Update: It's now official.