'It's not like we're the Independent. We can't just stick a headline saying CRUELTY then stick a picture of a dolphin or a whale underneath it'

Anyone who's seen The Thick Of It may remember a classic rant by the Daily Mail's news editor 'Adam Kenyon' which went a little something like this.



So what did the Independent, er, splash on on Thursday?

Spotted via Paul Waugh.

Reporter - Basingstoke & North Hampshire Gazette

The Basingstoke & North Hampshire Gazette is hiring a reporter.

You'll need to be NCE-qualified, or have passed your NCTJ-prelims and have 12 months' experience under your belt, and be up for working in what the ad describes as a 'thriving town, surrounded by beautiful countryside and ... less than a hour from London and the south coast'. Amazingstoke Basingstoke.

Apply by post only, with a CV and some clips, to:

Mark Jones, Editor
Gazette Newspapers,
Pelton Road,
Basingstoke,
Hampshire,
RG21 6YD

Deadline Monday 9 August.

Not-lazy journalism

We all know what 'lazy journalism' is. A trumped-up story, based around a couple of so-so quotes. A 'reaction' or 'follow-up' piece justified mainly by something that didn't come in in time for the original article. Celebrity stories are frequent offenders. Particularly anything involving Lady Gaga.

But what about the exact opposite?

Sometimes a journalist (or, perhaps, a would-be journalist on work experience) can spend hours, even days, painstakingly researching an element of a story. But it doesn't quite stand up, or the story's moved on, or maybe it was never that fascinating an angle in the first place. And the result of all your hard work and effort is a downpage, or a slightly out-of-place NIB, or a couple of pars buried in someone else's story.

Take this piece in yesterday's Evening Standard, about the launch of Boris Johnson's bike-sharing scheme.

Our research also suggests that around 3,000 of the 10,200 docking points will not be built in time.

And further down...

Standard reporters spent three days this week looking for docking stations being installed by TfL's contractor Serco. We visited 374 sites on TfL's official cycle hire map and found:

* 284 docking stations appeared to be complete.

* 34 were being built.

* No work had been done at 56 sites.

That's a whole lot of leg-work for an angle that doesn't even make the top line of a lead further back in the paper. At least Ross Lydall, Julia Belgutay and Alex Felton got to see plenty of London in the sun. And to fly the flag for some quality not-lazy journalism.

From the frontline

Where have you been working for the last six weeks? Guardian photographer and filmmaker Sean Smith, as his matter-of-fact diary records, spent June and the first half of July in Afghanistan with the US marines.

What was it like? Well, you can see for yourself...

Trainee Reporter - Weston, Worle & Somerset Mercury

The wonderfully-named Archant weekly the Weston, Worle & Somerset Mercury is taking on a trainee reporter.

The deal is old-school - you'll need to have passed your NCTJ prelims and have 100 wpm shorthand, and in return they'll help you with your NCE and ensure you become a fully-qualified senior reporter. In the meantime, you'll be doing all the things a local reporter does, notably courts 'n' councils, and you'll be given your own patch to cover.

Apply with CV and covering letter to the editor, Judi Kisiel, at newsdesk@westonmercury.co.uk. Deadline Friday 6 August.

One rule for them...

Sadly, this story over the HoldTheFrontPage doesn't really surprise FleetStreetBlues that much. In our experience, the answer to the question 'what can FOI officers refuse to disclose' is 'pretty much anything they can get away with'.

Only in this case, they didn't.

Weekly paper exposes council's FoI inconsistency

A weekly newspaper has received an apology from a local council which did not release a document to it under the Freedom of Information Act - but gave it out to a member of the public.

The Bucks Free Press discovered Wycombe District Council had released a report by consultants into a controversial stadium plan to a local person after an FoI request, while denying it to the newspaper.

Under the Act, chief reporter Oliver Evans applied for copies of all documents from consultants relating to plans to build a new sports stadium, which could be sited at Wycome Air Park.

He was provided with a 2009 technical report into having the stadium at that site but not one from the previous year - which covered key details about where new development could be sited on the airfield.

But a member of the public who asked for that report specifically was given it under FoI legislation and provided a copy to the newspaper.

Full story here.

On court reporting and shorthand

FleetStreetBlues isn't entirely convinced by all the hullabaloo yesterday which followed Heather Brooke's article in The Times about secrecy in the courts.

Firstly, does cutting and pasting the article onto a government petition website and a scattering of tweets and retweets really qualify as an online campaign nowadays? It's hardly #nickcleggsfault, is it? (Although given that the government petition website was his idea, maybe it will be shortly...)

But more importantly, the FleetStreetBlues team has never learnt shorthand - and never been convinced that not learning it is a good thing. We may have been able to get by in court, and rely on dictaphones outside court, but there's always been a nagging guilt that no matter how good your other work is, without shorthand you'll never be a 'proper' journalist.

None of this, though, should detract from the quality and cogency of Heather Brooke's original article, which describes her efforts to challenge court secrecy at an Information Tribunal hearing involving the Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust - and is nothing to do with reporters not having to learn shorthand.

I’ve been to the Tribunal before when I was fighting for the release of MPs’ expenses and that’s when I discovered the only record of proceedings of this so-called “open” people’s court (the Tribunals are meant to be a less formal, more accessible form of justice) were my scribbled notes. When it came time to write a script for a dramatised version of the hearing my notes and those of other reporters were all we had to go on. I’d asked at the time if I could tape record the hearing and was told “no”.

This time I decided to press harder.

Heather challenges the orthodoxy and forces the judge to explain why tape recorders are not allowed to ensure a verbatim transcript.

The next day in court the Judge announced she’d made her ruling.

“Please turn your tape recorder off,” she said, looking sternly at me over her glasses. I did so.

‘I have made my ruling. As you will no doubt be aware it is a Contempt of Court under section 9 to make any kind of recording for any purpose including with a view to publication or transcription. It is for the court alone to decide if a recording takes place and the court must have control of the recording. To do otherwise is fraught with difficulty. Firstly there is a risk of manipulation. Secondly it puts at a disadvantage other parties. Any recording you have made thus far must be deleted and cannot be used in any way including transcription.’

At least that’s the gist of what she said because here’s the final irony: When I asked if I could have a copy of her ruling she said there was no written record of it.

Heather Brooke is an American, of course, and it's perhaps because she's aware of the much greater freedoms journalists enjoy in the US that she so willingly and repeatedly takes on the Establishment, be it expense-fiddling MPs or a 19th-century judicial system. We need more Heather Brookes.

News Editor - Heat

Celebrity bible and supermarket aisle fixture Heat magazine is looking for a news editor - and the ad makes its point so well, we'll let it do the talking.

Have you got the scoop on Jordan’s latest marriage crisis? Could you bag us an exclusive with Pete’s trainer? Do you know what Kerry has for breakfast? If so, you need NOT apply for the position of heat’s News Editor!

We’re looking for a highly experienced journalist with a ton of fresh and original ideas about what’s really exciting and new on the celebrity circuit.

News editing skill and experience is more important than a celebrity background, then, although you will need to have a good understanding of Heat's 'young, female readership' and 'a knack of our uniquely irreverent tone of voice'.

Full details on Gorkana, not directly linkable. Apply with CV, covering letter and your best clips to managing editor Anita Pyne at anita.pyne@heatmag.com. Deadline Friday 6 August.

Trainee Data Researcher x 2 - The Guardian

The Guardian began advertising yesterday for two new 'trainee data researchers' to help wade through reams of complex data and marshall mounds of unruly statistics. Wonder what they will be working on?

Previous experience or qualifications don't really seem to be required, but you will need to be 'enthusiastic about data' - aren't we all? - and have good statistical and also visual skills, as you'll be working alongside the graphics team.

Both of the vacancies are five days a week, on a 1-year fixed term contract. Apply via the Guardian Jobs website. Deadline Sunday 8 August.

In praise of... Wikileaks

Like many in journalism, FleetStreetBlues isn't entirely convinced by WikiLeaks.

They're not journalists, they are unashamedly political and they're a little too pleased with themselves for their own good. Founder Julian Assange's comment earlier this month that 'it's an international disgrace that so few Western journalists have been killed in the course of duty' was offensive hyperbole.

And the Telegraph's Will Heaven definitely has a point when he writes:

It doesn’t strike me – or many of my colleagues – as politically neutral to feed such sensitive information to three Left-leaning newspapers: namely The Guardian, The New York Times, and Der Spiegel. Even more puzzling that Wikileaks would choose, very deliberately, to contravene its own mission statement – that crowdsourcing and open data are paramount.

But still. More than 90,000 confidential files, the biggest intelligence leak in history and an agenda-setting story fired round the globe which for better or worse could change the future direction of a war. Respect.

Sub Editor - Stuff

Geek 'n' gadget bible Stuff magazine is hiring a sub editor.

No specific qualification requirements, but you'll need to be experienced, and 'a keen eye for detail' is pretty much essential given they claim a 'zero-tolerance policy towards factual inaccuracies' (which sounds like a hostage to fortune if ever there was one).

Experience of sending and passing pages and a passion for gadgets and technology would also both be big pluses.

You'll be based in Teddington, Middlesex. Apply via the Haymarket website.

Sundays write about what they know

Lynn Barber. Sunday Times writer, Lynn Barber...

Fleet Street's always been fond of writing about itself, but even so, this morning's papers were unusually self-obsessed.

First up, the Sunday Times, which led on page 3 with a story headlined 'Demon Barber's bedroom test', in which we were told 'the journalist Lynn Barber reveals how she slept with 50 men in 16 weeks at university as she hunted Mr Right.' That would be the Sunday Times journalist, Lynn Barber...

Not to be outdone, the Observer magazine's cover story is an interview with 'The Incredible Huq - Konnie Huq on being the new face of prime time, the 'curse' of Blue Peter and life with Charlie Brooker'. Long-time Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker.

What's next? Well, we're eagerly awaiting the exclusive Telegraph investigation into Boris Johnson's love-life...

Reporter - The Cornishman

About this time of year the idea of permanently escaping the Big Smoke and going to work somewhere rural and scenic always seems unbearingly tempting - and this reporter vacancy on The Cornishman would seem to fit the bill.

It's a weekly based in Penzance, west Cornwall, and they're seeking an experienced and qualified senior reporter to write news and features.

Email vacancies@c-dm.co.uk for an application pack. Deadline Friday 13 August.

Newport (Ymerodraeth State of Mind)

No, it's not journalism. But on a slow Sunday at the end of July, it's four minutes well spent.

'Twinned with Guangxi Province in China
There's no province finer...'

Daily Star - total journalism fail

There are different kinds of newspaper apologies.

Some are simply for accuracy, where an inoffensive fact has been reported incorrectly, and the paper's making it right just as a matter of record. Others are terse, mealy-mouthed 'corrections', buried on page 35 and the paper's heart clearly isn't in it.

And still others are comprehensive, effusive mea culpas, so complete and detailed that you can almost hear the knuckles crack as a team of expensive, confident libel lawyers administer pain.

This, from the Daily Star, apologising for the clearly picture-led tale about an entirely fictional computer game they labelled 'Grand Theft Auto Rothbury', clearly falls into the latter category:

ON 21 July we published an article claiming that the video games company Rockstar Games were planning to release a version of their popular Grand Theft Auto video games series titled “Grand Theft Auto Rothbury”.

We also published what we claimed would be the cover of this game, solicited comments from a family member impacted by the recent tragedy and criticised Rockstar Games for their alleged plans.

We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication and did not contact Rockstar Games prior to publishing the story. We also did not question why a best selling and critically acclaimed fictional games series would choose to base one of their most popular games on this horrifying real crime event.

It is now accepted that there were never any plans by Rockstar Games to publish such a game and that the story was false. We apologise for publishing the story using a mock-up of the game cover, our own comments on the matter and soliciting critical comments from a grieving family member.

We unreservedly apologise to Rockstar Games and we have undertaken not to repeat the claims again. We have also agreed to pay them a substantial amount in damages which they are donating to charity.

Ouch.

A life in a day... of everyone

What is journalism? Well, we know it when we see it. And this definitely counts.

Full details of how to take part here.

The accidental death knock

Following on from the Chris Wheal piece we highlighted yesterday about being on the receiving end of a death knock, The Times' crime editor Sean O'Neill got in touch, with a recollection of his first time.

In journalism, timing is everything.

Ve hav vays of making you spell

From yesterday's Popbitch, a fact that intrigued and delighted many in equal measure:

Herr Flick from Allo Allo is now a sub-editor at the Sunday Times.

It's true, apparently - and we've got details. His name is Richard Gibson, although a quick Google suggests his talents may be wasted working in Wapping.

He launched a Christmas single in 2005 with Helga from Allo Allo, brilliantly entitled Rock Around Ze Clock. He has his own website, Ask Herr Flick. He's opened garden centres, supermarkets, summer fairs and company AGMs, at £1,000 - £3,000 a pop.

Oh, and he's officially the ninth funniest person in Holland.

Lily Allen takes on Fleet Street

So, the aftermath of Zacgate just went A-list.

It all started when ITV News crime correspondent Keir Simmons somehow ended up in a twitter-fight with Lily Allen, after he stepped in to defend Channel 4's investigative journalism.

Lily Allen: Zac Goldsmith is rich. Get over it @channel4. So transparent. Ugh

Lily Allen: all candidates are guilty of the same, but they’ve only gone after goldy cause he’s famously wealthy.
Keir Simmons: If that’s really all you think of the Zac Goldsmith story it’s probably best you stick to singing.
Lily Allen: I fink he’s well fit aswell. Snob!
Keir Simmons: Lily Allen supporting Zac Goldsmith and calling me a snob. What a mixed up world!
Lily Allen: Do you even know what a snob is?
Keir Simmons: I know that the journalists at @channel4 are free to decide what they investigate and that they have very high standards
Lily Allen: You implied I know nothing about politics because my profession is singing. Both snobbish and confused.
Keir Simmons: You implied C4 only investigated Zac Goldsmith because he’s rich – I don’t think that can be left unchallenged. Sorry.
Lily Allen: I’m free to have an opinion about it, even though I’m just a silly singer
Keir Simmons: I never said that … simply said IF that’s all you think the story’s about then stick to singing
Lily Allen: People won’t stop till a head turns up on a plate. So British, and depressing. If you want to destroy someones life and carrer
Lily Allen: Why go after one of the richest men in the country, when he’s got so much to fall back on? Won’t feel like a real accomplishment.
Lily Allen: I’m not going into politics, but thanks for the advice. You’re a snob
Keir Simmons: I think you DO have a place commenting on politics which is why it’s important you’re accurate. You have influence
Lily Allen: don’t backtrack. I know what you meant. I’m a silly little singer and I should stick to reading heat magazine.
Keir Simmons: I didn’t say that and I didn’t mean that

Keir Simmons has blogged about the bizarre episode here, and suddenly Lily Allen, with 2.2 million followers and counting, has found herself batting off criticism from lots of other journalists, Ed Fraser, Anna Harding, James Ball, Neal Mann and the FleetStreetFox among them.

But have we won her round? Er... not really:

What it's like on the receiving end of the death knock

Ever stood in front of the door, notebook in hand, nervous as usual and wishing you didn't have to do this - and paused to wonder what it's like for the person on the other side?

Freelance journalist Chris Wheal, whose nine-year-old nephew Jamie Bray died in a tragic accident last week, has spent the last week dealing with the press on behalf of his sister and her husband, and he writes about his experiences movingly and simply here.

There's some good journalism. There's some lazy, recycled churnalism. The nationals don't come out of it very well.

As Chris puts it: 'Being a journalist on the receiving end of journalism is an eye-opener'.

Defence Correspondent - Portsmouth News

This job's a bit of an oddity, and the ad admits as much. There are only two specialist defence correspondents on regional dailies in the country - and The News in Portsmouth is looking for a new one.

Portsmouth being, well, a port, your focus will be on the Royal Navy, but previous experience covering defence is not required. You will however need to be a top senior reporter already working on a daily, with a nose for an exclusive.

Apply with CV, covering letter and copies of your three best splashes to news editor Graeme Patfield at:

The News

London Road

Hilsea

Portsmouth

PO2 9SX

Deadline Friday 6 August.

Saving the Daily Mirror

FleetStreetBlues may be supposed to have its ear to the ground with all things journalism, but we've yet to mention the latest round of job cuts at the Mirror group, announced last month. After a while - dire warnings from the NUJ not withstanding - successive announcements of devastating editorial cuts all kind of blur into one.

Well, the good folks over at the Save the Mirror campaign are determined that they don't, and have set up a full campaign to make their point. There's a Twitter account, of course. There's an active Facebook group, with 1,600 members and counting.

And perhaps most telling of all, there's this article in Prospect, arguing 'Why we need the Daily Mirror' and putting the impact of the job cuts in strikingly simple terms. FleetStreetBlues has no way of knowing exactly how accurate this is, but the claim is that after the cuts, the Mirror will have just 12 news reporters left to run a 24-hours news operation and put out a 70-page daily paper, never mind the subbing cuts. Thank goodness for PA...

The team behind Save the Mirror are encouraging journalists of every stripe to sign up to the campaign. There's an Early Day Motion with more than two dozen MPs supporting it, planned strike action in the pipeline and if you're really keen, they suggest you could call or email Trinity Mirror's board chairman Sir Ian Gibson to make your point direct.

The campaign team sound optimistic, pointing out they already have some 'big names in journalism' on board - but one big name they probably haven't signed up yet is the editor of Guardian.co.uk, and former media editor at the Guardian, Janine Gibson.

Too bad. We wish Save the Mirror all the best, but somehow FleetStreetBlues suspects Sir Ian is unlikely to pay much heed to Twitter protests and Facebook groups, no matter how well meaning. He might take a call from his daughter.

Sub-Editor - Newsquest North West

Newsquest North West's centralised subbing hub is recruiting a new sub-editor.

Based in Blackburn, you'll be covering a pretty large patch, and working on titles including the Bolton News, the Lancashire Telegraph and the Westmorland Gazette. You'll need to be experienced and qualified, with NCE or equivalent.

To get an application form email the editor's secretary Tracy Cunliffe at tracy.cunliffe@lancashire.newsquest.co.uk. Deadline this Friday 23 July.

News Editor - Romford Recorder

Archant weekly the Romford Recorder is looking for a new news editor.

The ad doesn't specify exactly whether they're looking for someone who's a news editor currently, or perhaps a chief/senior reporter looking to make the step up. However they do ask that you be a 'fully-trained senior journalist', as well as a string of fairly vague other adjectives...

To receive an application pack, email Suzanne Hodson at suzanne.hodson@archant.co.uk, quoting reference RLE/EDT802/July10. Deadline Friday 30 July.

Nostalgia's not what it used to be

A long, long time ago, FleetStreetBlues used to edit a student paper, and it was a whole lot of fun.

There were about forty students in total who contributed to each issue, and all we had was a tiny room at the back of the student union, with four antiquated, knackered, steam-powered computers.

We made it up as we went along, fearlessly interviewing the great and the good, guessing our way through media law and nervously waiting to be crushed from on high.

Press nights were a thing to behold, an 18-hour orgy of proofs, pizza and angry phone calls from the printers that began about 10am on Wednesday and ended with a cold walk back through empty streets as dawn was beginning to break.

It was a whole lot of fun - so we were curious to see how the student journalists of 2010 operate in the excellent video above, shot for Journalism.co.uk at Kingston University and filmed by multimedia evangelist Adam Westbrook.

It's worth watching in full (and if you're interested in the video technically, there's a 'making of' video here too). But our overall impression of the student journalists themselves was one of, well, slight disappointment.

The offices are much bigger, although only taken over by the student journalists on press night, it would appear. There's pizza, sure, but the shot of a stack of empty boxes seems more like a nod to student stereotypes than any real reflection of messy chaos. In fact, they all look young, eager and very focused.

They too miss their deadlines, and they too get angry phone calls from the printer - but it's their lecturer, who's supervising the entire production process and seems to be there for the whole evening, who takes the call. Negotiating with a decidedly pissed-off printer who's about to unilaterally can the whole issue at 3am in the morning is one character-forming lesson it seems they're going to miss out on.

The class of 2010 will no doubt make excellent journalists, and they're sure to apply for jobs with a far wider skill-set than FleetStreetBlues' generation ever had - not least the ability to make videos like the one they star in. We just hope they had some fun along the way.

Perfect punning prevents piss-poor PR performance

A reader forwards the following press release from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Saturday 17 July is National Cherry Day and there’s something to celebrate as British cherry orchards begin to grow again. During the 20th century Britain lost 90 per cent of our cherry orchards. But between 2003 and 2008 they increased by 17 per cent.

However, despite the good news, the UK still imports around 95 per cent of our cherries.

Riveting, we're sure you agree, and clearly the team of 21 press officers employed by the department represent taxpayers' money well spent. No waste to cut there.

But it was the cheery, cherry, punny headline that caught our eye: 'Pip, pip hooray, it's National Cherry Day'.

If you're interested in writing about cherries, there's a helpful list of 'Ten Top Cherry Facts' attached, including the news that the wild cherry and sour cherry originally came from Asia Minor, cherry orchards support plants and other animals, and cherries can 'reduce pain and inflammation in rats'.

To which we'd add an eleventh 'Top Cherry Fact'. They have stones, not pips.

Times traffic 'falls 66%'

The Observer has a story out today with a new estimate for the most closely-watched figure in journalism, the traffic decline for the Times website in the wake of Rupert Murdoch's great paywall experiment. And for those hoping the old man might have found a viable way to make journalism pay? Well, it's good news. Traffic is down 66%, according to data from Experian Hitwise - but really that should read 'only 66%'.

As the Observer says:

The data from Experian Hitwise, which monitors internet traffic, showed that in the week following the introduction of the paywall on 2 July, visits to the Times site fell to 33% of its pre-registration level. The site had been expected to lose 90% of its traffic.

The drop may have been softened by an introductory charge of £1 for the first 30 days. Murdoch aims to charge £1 per day for access to the site or £2 for a week. He already successfully charges for access to the Wall Street Journal online, but it is accepted that readers are readier to pay for the kind of specialist data the WSJ produces.

According to Experian, the biggest drop in audience came in the five weeks ahead of the paywall going up, when visitors were asked to register their details. The site lost 58% during that period and the decline has only been modest since the wall went up.

UPDATE: Peter Preston has an interesting column in the Observer too - on why paywalls may not be the only money-making game in town.

Zac attacks

Actually, as a defensive PR tactic, going for the interviewer's jugular from the word go sort of seems to work. Beats answering the questions, anyway...

Chief Reporter - Wiltshire Times

We've long maintained it's the best job title in journalism, and now there's another chief reporter position going - at the Wiltshire Times.

They're looking for an experienced, NCTJ-qualified journalist who's ready to step up to the plate and head up a team of five reporters, as well as 'lead by example by bringing in great off-diary stories'. You'll be based in Trowbridge in west Wiltshire.

Apply with CV and two cuttings to 'adminstrator' Sue Cockrem at scockrem@newswilts.co.uk. Deadline Thursday 12 August.

Intro of the Day: 15 July 2010

So the 'Back for good?' and 'Relight my fire' headlines were predictable - but full marks to Alexandra Topping for this effort in the Guardian:

In the twist of separation, he excelled at being free – but it appears that after 15 years Take That have managed to find a little room inside for Robbie Williams, and convinced their former bandmate that whatever they said, whatever they did, they didn't mean it.

Too bad she couldn't fit in the lipstick mark still on my coffee cup...

Intern - Holy Moly

OK, so it's an unpaid position, and high-brow it ain't, but this could be fun - the celebrity news gossip site Holy Moly is looking for an intern.

You'll need to know your popular culture, have writing experience, ideally know Photoshop and blogging tools and most importantly be 'sparky, witty and enthusiastic'.

Although there's no pay, travel and food expenses are covered, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to hope for the odd freebie along the way as well.

Original ad on Gorkana (not directly linkable) although that's all there is to it really. Immediate start, so get in fast by emailing info@holymoly.com.

Picture of the Day: 14 July 2010

The Telegraph's website has a great selection of striking photos from the Bastille Day parade in Paris, but this cheeky effort is the pick of the litter.

He's 5'5", since you ask. Shorter than Napoleon.

Digital Editor - Sunderland Echo

It's not often a web editor vacancy at a sizeable regional paper comes up, so if that's your field, this could be a good 'un. The Sunderland Echo is looking to replace its outgoing Digital Editor.

You'll be overseeing a site currently pulling in around two million page views/200,000 unique users a month, and your mission will very clearly be to build on that. They're after a 'journalism all-rounder with good multimedia skills', and ideally design and subbing experience as well.

Apply with CV and covering letter to the editor, Rob Lawson, at rob.lawson@northeast-press.co.uk. Deadline this Friday 16 July.

Reporter - Children & Young People Now

Children & Young People Now, the Haymarket trade mag covering the children's sector, is hiring a reporter.

You'll be covering everything from how to combat child poverty to teenage pregnancy, and there's a heavy emphasis on complex government policy, so you'll need to be prepared to gird yourself with the armour of FOI and wade right in. A talent for off-diary exclusives would be a definite plus, as they're out to beat the nationals.

You'll be based in Hammersmith, west London. Apply via the Haymarket website.

Editor - Barking & Dagenham Post

Archant local paper the Barking & Dagenham Post is looking for a new editor.

They're looking for someone who's currently a deputy on a similar publication, although 'candidates with similar experience holding other senior positions in the industry will also be considered'. You'll need to be very up for it, anyway - it's a busy, 'vibrant' patch of east London.

Email suzanne.hodson@archant.co.uk for an application pack, quoting reference RLP/EDT815/July10. Deadline Friday 23 July.

Raoul Moat: Seven answers from the media - and one real question

Lots of excitement in the blogosphere and Twitterverse about a post over on Martin Robbins' blog, entitled 'Raoul Moat: Seven Questions the Media Should Answer'.

It's worth reading in full, but the gist is simple: the media's insensitive, overhyped and sometimes inaccurate reporting was largely to blame for the way the tragedy unfolded.

The media directly affected the mood and behaviour of a deeply unstable and dangerous man during the course of a manhunt that ultimately resulted in his suicide. Do they understand the nature of this effect? Can they explain why they printed inflammatory details that had no conceivable public interest justification?

Can they go to bed tonight safe and sound in the certain knowledge that they did not contribute to his death?

Erm... yes? Full marks to Martin Robbins for a rollicking read, and he's picked out some choice examples of media overexcitement, but his basic argument is just plain wrong.

1. Do you understand the nature and extent of your influence over Raoul Moat?
Yes, we understand it - but just because a murderer on the run asks us not to print something doesn't mean we actually, y'know, have to listen.

2. Did you endanger/mislead/incite the public?

Asking the public about what they know is actually kind of our job. And don't lay Gazza on us - no tabloid hack would dare dream up a plot twist that outrageous.

3. Did you interfere with or distract the Police?

First, the Police are a band. What's with the random capitals? Second, if the police want to keep us back behind the cordon, they will do - and they usually do. Journalistic scrutiny of the police is usually better than no journalistic scrutiny, trust us. Just ask Jean Charles de Menezes.

4. Do you create killers?

No. Journalists don't kill people. People kill people. And for the record, the only person Raoul Moat killed after he became a national celebrity was himself.

5. Was your use of psychology appropriate?

Interviewing psychologists is surely a pretty responsible way to try and cover a case like this. Asking a medical expert's professional opinion instead of simply relying on uninformed idle speculation has to be a good thing, no?

6. Have you considered the wider implications of your reporting on Steroids?

No, not really. Moat was a heavy user of anabolic steroids. There are legitimate questions over possible side effects of anabolic steroid use - as shown by the numerous medical studies which suggest a possible link with symptoms of mental illness - so it's legitimate to cover them. If we haven't fully considered the wider implications of our reporting on steroids, then we probably haven't fully considered the wider implications of our reporting on recently released prisoners, ex-bouncers or people who happen to live in the North East either.

7. Was the extent of your coverage justified by the Public Interest?

Yes, it probably was. OK, so there was an awful lot of coverage, and it's fair to say that if it wasn't mid-July and there was other stuff going on we wouldn't have gone quite so overboard. But we weren't hyping this up out of nothing. One in ten of the UK's armed police officers, twenty armoured cars from Northern Ireland and an RAF Tornado were looking for this guy - that's news, whichever way you slice it. And coming hot on the heels of the Derrick Bird massacre, closely following how a regional police force up north handled a case of this magnitude was absolutely in the public interest.

Look, it's not as if the Raoul Moat story was Fleet Street's finest hour. It showed how the proliferation of online news has only heightened the demands of the 24-hour rolling news cycle, and no one's saying the televised ending was particularly edifying for anyone concerned.

But the implication that journalists were too intrusive, too inquisitive and too obstructive to police is just inaccurate.

In fact, FleetStreetBlues' own question for the media is very different. Were journalists really right to sign up to a voluntary news blackout - preventing them from reporting details of the case and redacting stories which had already been published - just because the police asked us to and Raoul Moat threatened to kill people if we didn't? What kind of precedent does that set?

The fling-doctors

Remember the Sundays' scoops last month about 'Cameron Cutie' Caroline Nokes' affair with 'Tory toyboy' James Dinsdale?

The Sunday Mirror broke the original story of Mrs Nokes' 'hotel tryst' with her much-younger lover. But a week later, the Mail on Sunday hit back with a very different take: 'Police probe hotel sting after secret camera falls off ceiling in room where Cameron Cutie had tryst.'

Except, according to Private Eye, it didn't.

A rare foray online from the paper's 'HP Sauce' column has the inside story:

'No such sex film exists. The Sunday Mirror had a hidden camera in the corridor outside the room, to record Nokes and Dinsdale arriving, but none in the room itself. Sometime between 1.30am (when its film was checked after Dinsdale’s departure) and breakfast time (when the Mirror team checked again), it disappeared. How it got into Nokes’s room – if it did – is a mystery. What’s certain is that the Mirror didn’t put it there – and that it wasn’t in the room at the time of their “session”, which lasted between 11pm and 1am.

The tale of Special Branch watching Nokes and Dinsdale in flagrante is diversionary nonsense, dreamed up by Tory spin-doctor Andy Coulson to switch the focus from the hypocrisy of “Nooky” Nokes – signatory to a Christian declaration against extramarital sex – to the sleaziness of redtops, a subject on which he has some expertise.'

The new Con-Dem administration is still for the most part enjoying a prolonged honeymoon with the lobby, furiously promoting a new era of 'open, transparent' government, and it's no accident. The new spin is that there is no spin. And Andy Coulson is the new Malcolm Tucker.

'Gazza's doing WHAT?'

So at last the strangely overhyped hunt for Raoul Moat is over. But if it ended in the same sad way we always knew it would, then at least it gave us the chance to read the most honest quote from a celebrity agent anywhere, ever.

For reasons best known to himself, and to the delight of tabloid newsdesks everywhere, former England midfield maestro and would-be hostage negotiator Paul Gascoigne decided to head to the final confrontation between Moat and armed police equipped only with 'a can of lager, some chicken, a mobile phone and something to keep him warm'.

PA have the story in full - but what makes it is the quote at the end:

Gascoigne's agent, Kenny Shepherd, said: "He's doing what? I am sitting having an evening meal in Majorca. I'm speechless."

You and us both, Kenny.

Education Reporter - Gloucestershire Echo

The Gloucestershire Echo is hiring a specialist education reporter.

You'll be working a varied beat, which ranges from the future of the University of Gloucestershire to the academies shake-up. No specific qualification requirements, but we're told 'applications are invited from journalists of all ages', suggesting they have a preference for experience, and indeed you will need to have worked on a daily or a large weekly to apply.

Apply with CV and covering letter to the editor's PA, Maggie Bell, at maggiebell@glosmedia.co.uk. Deadline tomorrow, Friday 9 July.

Trainee Reporter - Grimsby Telegraph

The Grimsby Telegraph, a Northcliffe Media Group title, is recruiting a trainee reporter.

You'll have 'ideally' completed your NCTJ prelims, although 'this is not essential' - an appetite for hard news and a willingness to work online and with video, however, definitely are.

Apply with CV and covering letter to the editor, Michelle Lalor, at jenny.shipley@gsmg.co.uk. Deadline next Tuesday 13 July.

Express website shoots itself in the foot

A reader writes:

When I visited just now to enjoy the Express's story about jam made from Princess Diana's hair, I couldn't quite believe the juxtaposition of stories that they'd managed on their home page. Screenshots attached.

It's hard to tell if it's by accident, design, or simply the unhappy by-product of a super-efficient website algorithm - but either way, their current placement of stories does seem a little unfortunate.

Let's take a closer look...

Crime reporters and the sports desk, working in perfect harmony,

Incidentally, we assumed our reader was joking about the whole jam-made-from-Princess-Diana's-hair thing. Apparently not.

Car subbing fail

So we're aware there's a risk of us becoming a rather lame version of the excellent Bad Journalism Twitter feed, but we all like a good layout gaffe.

And hot on the heels of the Bedford Times & Citizen and the Financial Times comes this, from the latest edition of Auto Express.

As our correspondent puts it, presumably when you're busy driving fast cars you don't have time to actually write standfirsts as well...

Guest post: The next rung

A while back we invited you to have a rant and take the pressure off while we're busy watching the World Cup - and a number of you duly obliged. This heartfelt effort (warning: the language gets a little colourful) comes courtesy of a journalist who chooses to be known as The Essex Hack, who's desperately trying to reach the next rung of the career ladder.

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I love being a journalist. It’s great. You get to meet interesting people, find out things that people may not know, and tell people all about it.

Oh, sure, the pay is shite, but what can you do about it? Go off to PR and suck Satan’s todger while shoving coke up your nose? No thanks.

I’ve been a journalist for five years now and, even though my paper pisses me off sometimes (seriously, you try reporting on an area 20 miles away on your tod while your rivals have an entire sodding news team and are on the doorstep), it’s still more or less good.

However, I’ve spent all my working life at the same paper, and I’m feeling rather bored. There’s only so many council meetings and controversial planning applications one can cover without it all blurring into one.

So, what can I do? Well, without wishing to blow my own trumpet like Miles Davis at a South African football game, I’m a decent reporter. I’ve won awards, I don’t get stuff wrong and - oh, joy of joys! - late last year I did some shifts at the nationals. I got some bylines. I got invited back. Result.

Since then, though...there’s been fuck all. Nothing. Nada. Not a sodding dicky bird.

What am I doing wrong? I don’t know. If I did, I could rectify it. When I do make mistakes, I don’t make them twice.

Getting on the nationals is a mysterious quest.

I’d love to do the broadsheets. I know I could do it. The problem seems to be that I’m neither ex-public school, nor ex-Oxbridge, and I don’t have any relatives in that line of work.

My father was a well-respected member of the scientific publishing community (I know, I know...) and if I were in that line of work, my name would open a fuckload of doors.

I’m not in scientific publishing. I’m in news journalism, so that’s me buggered.

While my paper is a good paper, it doesn’t really have that sort of reputation that opens up doors. So I’m applying, and applying and applying - but because I don’t live with my parents, I can’t afford to learn to drive, so that’s me at a disadvantage when it comes to moving to the nationals via another paper. Fucksticks.

The other thing is that, because I have, y’know, an actual job, I can only shift at the weekends. I can’t afford to quit work on the off-chance that I’ll get offered something. It’s a right fucker.

I live close enough to London that I CAN do shifts, so I suppose I’m lucky. It’s still intensely frustrating, though, because I know I can do it. I know I’m capable. I know I’m good enough. So what more can I do?

The point I’m making is this - I need to break into the nationals. I’m sure there are plenty of local journalists who are in the same position as I am.

What the fuck can we do about it?

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If you'd like to write for FleetStreetBlues, email us today at fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

Reporter - Health Service Journal / Nursing Times

Because the news editor position over at the Health Service Journal and Nursing Times was filled internally, the Emap titles are now hiring a reporter instead.

They're sticklers for exclusives and breaking stories ahead of the nationals, so you'll need 'a nose for news, excellent contact-building skills and a passion for current affairs'. Health policy knowledge is much less important, it seems, although you're going to have to be able to quickly get to grips with the jargon.

Full details on Gorkana, not directly linkable. Apply with CV and covering letter to HSJ/Nursing Times deputy editor Rebecca Evans at rebecca.evans@emap.com. Deadline Friday 23 July.

More wardrobe malfunctions, with added cheese

Hot on the heels of the Lord Mayor of Leicester's wardrobe malfunction, a reader writes in to alert us of similarly amusing story, courtesy of the website of the US local TV station WKRC Cincinnati.

Naked Man Arrested At Library With Stolen Cheese

A man faces charges after an unusual incident at a local library. 52-year-old Darrell Bess was taken into custody yesterday, naked, armed with knives and several pounds of stolen cheese.

It would have better all in one sentence, of course, so it's no Lord Mayor comedy classic, but the unexplained inclusion of dairy products gives it a certain je ne sais quoi.

Meanwhile David MacLean, a regular FleetStreetBlues reader and the Leicester Mercury journalist who broke the story which has now made as far as the Times of India, has been doing what every decent hack should be - working on a follow-up.

Quote of the Day: 2 July 2010

Science journalist Ben Goldacre, Twittering a conversation with a child in... oh, about two years' time?

'Daddy, what was the Times?'

'I've no idea what you're talking about.'

Traffic to the Times website has fallen an estimated 60% since the registration barrier came in last month. Now they're asking people to start paying for it.