How the other half live: getting the transcribers in

An amusing spat at the end of last week between Guardian music critic Alexis Petridis and Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford.

Petridis tweeted that his interview with Take That was 'back from the transcribers' (including the frankly baffling exchange in the excerpt above), prompting Ponsford to blog:

Now call me naive, but I really had no idea that journalists did this. And it strikes me as rather risky. I would rather trust my own ears because if you get something wrong and it ends up in print, I don’t think lawyers will be too impressed by the excuse that “it was the transcriber’s fault”.

In fact it was Petridis who was none too impressed, firing back a series of increasingly irritated tweets pointing out that Ponsford had originally called him 'Alex' rather than 'Alexis', and culminating in:

and

If you're interested, it costs as little as 90p a minute and Petridis uses the services of a London-based transcription services company called Transcript Divas. Nuff said...

How your blog can help get you a journalism job, part two

Well, that was quick. The excellent Wannabe Hacks blog is but two and a half months old, but when it comes to brand building, self-promotion and all the other things advised by the bloggers-turned-journalists at the City University seminar on Tuesday, they've not just talked the talk, they've walked the walk.

The Intern blogs this morning:

On Monday morning I start a brand new job at the Guardian, I can’t really talk about what I will be doing yet as some of it isn’t ready for the outside world to know – however I will do my best to keep you updated as and when it is appropriate...

...The speed at which our beloved industry is changing is both exhilarating and terrifying and now I will be taking one small step inside the world I have been peering at through the glass.

The 'Oh s**t' moment

We all live in fear of the 'oh s**t moments'. It's the second you realise you've made a terrible, irrevocable mistake and the paper's gone to press. Not a mistake that will prompt a political complaint, something that can be argued about, debated. An honest-to-God factual error of gargantuan proportions that makes you look like an idiot.

It shouldn't happen, of course. But as busy journalists juggle multiple stories and frantically process ridiculous amounts of information from an ever-multiplying range of sources - well, it's probably a case of when not if.

Maybe you've had an 'oh s**t' moment. Maybe, so far, you've been lucky to avoid it. But we all know someone it's happened to and think: there but for the grace of God go I.

It's fair to say someone at the Metro in Boston had an 'oh s**t' moment earlier this week.

On Tuesday the Metro splashed on a survey that ranked the relative intelligence of different cities across the US. 'Boston's brains 3rd in the nation' screamed the headline.

The next day, this - immortalised forever by the unsparing Regret the Error blog:

Oh s**t.

There but for the grace of God go I.

Online Editor - Nursing Times

It's not often you come across a journalism job ad requesting 'nursing experience', but over at Emap title Nursing Times they clearly take subject knowledge very seriously.

To be fair, though, it's 'preferable but not essential' for this online editor/deputy online editor role, and what they're absolutely looking for is interweb know-how, as well as 'top-notch sub-editing skills' and 'a desire to work with specialised clinical content'. Whether you end up getting the online editor job or the deputy job will depend on experience, and potentially any internal promotions they make as well, we're guessing.

Apply with CV, salary expectations and 100-200 words on your ideas for nursingtimes.net to jobs@emap.com. The full ad on Gorkana also asks you to put the job title in the subject line and to mention where you saw the ad. (Feel free to put FleetStreetBlues rather than Gorkana, it'll make your application stand out...)

Deadline next week, Friday 5 November.

Poll: Should staff journalists be able to sell on stories?

Last week the post about a Jewish Chronicle reporter's attempt to stop regional and national journalists taking her quotes for their stories got a few comments, and a couple of them rather unsympathetically chastised her for not taking the initiative and selling the story herself.

The catch of course is that many local and specialist newspapers regularly aim to get their stories picked up by the nationals, and get credit for it, and so don't take too kindly to staff members reselling the stories themselves.

So, we want to know what you think. Should journalists be allowed to sell on stories they've worked up and written on company time? Is it a valid way for them to make a name for themselves and earn some extra cash, as compensation for all that unpaid overtime they end up doing? Or is it unfair on their employer who's already paid them once for the work and shouldn't have to subsidise rival publications?

Let us know what you think in the poll on the right. And if you work for a local paper or trade mag, you can also let us know in the comments (or at fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk) what your publication's current policy on staff members selling on stories is - anonymously if you wish.

Quote of the Day: 27 October 2010

Clodagh Hartley, Whitehall editor of the Sun, to a PR for the Fire Brigades Union who ended a conversation abruptly because of a queue of other journalists he had to speak to:

'You can't do that, you're speaking to the Sun...'

Hat tip: Jon Slattery

The new business model: 'Read now, pay later... or we'll sue'

Journalists are often criticised for assuming that there should be a business model to support what they do, even if the sums don't add up. But a local news website in upstate New York has taken things to a whole new level by adopting a bizarre new business model, apparently entirely seriously. Their unapologetic justification? 'We provide a service to you, we deserve to be paid for it'. Damn right we do.

The North Country Gazette's genius plan is to demand that readers pay to access its content after 'one free read per visitor' - without actually bothering to put a paywall of any description. 

Instead, they have apparently decided to post the following warning on articles across the site.

In the unlikely event that readers don't immediately volunteer to part with their cash, they are confronted with the following warning that the lawyers are on the case.

At last, a simple solution to the great paywall debate, and one we can all get behind. Why bother with ever-diminishing advertising returns and complex hybrid monetisation strategies when you can just hire a lawyer and bring on the bulk subpoenas? Don't tell Mr Murdoch...

How your blog can help get you a journalism job

Can it? Really? Apparently so... and three trail-blazing young journalists who have managed to translate a presence on the interweb into full-time staff jobs at the Guardian, Telegraph and BBC World Service - all before they turned 25 - have just told a bunch of rather jealous City University students how they did it.

Lucy Hewitt lists their tips and tricks on - where else - her blog.

UPDATE: Patrick Smith has an even more detailed report of the same event here.

Editor - MK News

Weekly free paper the MK News is looking for an editor.

You'll need excellent editorial and management skills, although interestingly experience of managing editorial teams is listed as an 'advantage' rather than essential, and bags of enthusiasm - they want someone to 'lead from the front, in print and online', which sounds like you'll be extremely busy. They're offering between £26,000 and £30,000.

Apply with CV and covering letter to alison.lloyd@lsnmedia.co.uk. Deadline Sunday 14 November.

Spelling whites and wrongs

There we were just thinking that it had been a while since we'd indulged in a spot of random PR-bashing... and then what should drop into our inbox but the following:

OCTOBER 2010 PRESS RELEASE

AGE CONCVERN ISLE OF WHITE URGES OLDER PEOPLE TO STAY SAFE THIS WINTER

As the clocks go back and the nights start drawing in, Age Concern Isle of Wight is urging people in later life on the Island to take extra care in their homes this winter...

We'll spare the PR agency's blushes, but if you look them up on their website they promise a wide and comprehensive range of services, including 'strategic counsel and reputation management', 'full press office function' and 'creative issues-led media campaigns', which sound expensive. Spellchecking comes as extra.

Trainee Reporter - Scunthorpe Telegraph

Trainee reporter vacancies continue to be at a premium, particularly at this time of year, so if you're still looking to get onto the first step of the ladder, this position at the Scunthorpe Telegraph may be worth a shot.

They're looking for an NCTJ-qualified trainee with 100wpm shorthand - they don't mention having a car, but we imagine a driving licence might help too.

You should have plenty to cut your teeth on. We're told that thanks to two huge regeneration projects 'North Lincolnshire stands on the brink of a transformation that will forever change the landscape of the region'. Who knew?

Apply with CV and covering letter to the editor, Mel Cook, via jenny.shipley@gsmg.co.uk. Deadline Friday 5 November.

First eyes on i

Lots of excitement, then, about tomorrow's launch of 'i' ('the i'? We're going to need a style guide...). In case you've missed it, i is the new populist version of the Independent which will cost 20p, after a few days of being free.

FleetStreetBlues hasn't been particularly convinced since hearing the news, not least because it sounds less like a new paper and more like a clever attempt at two-tier pricing for the Independent, which is obviously up against it circulation-wise in a crowded marketplace. But what will it actually look like?

Roy Greenslade has some details:

It will be composed of all the stories that feature in the Independent, but heavily subbed down. In the so-called "news matrix", no story will be longer than 400 words, and most will be news-in-brief-style paragraphs. There will be just one comment article in the "opinion matrix", again taken from the main paper. There will be a news feature, some lifestyle content, a page of puzzles, a "business matrix" digest and a fair degree of sport...

...The front page will be devoted to colour pictures, and there will also be plenty of colour throughout the 56 pages.

Which leaves us wiser, but not really much more convinced.

We're told that the colourful, 'jazzy' i will be 'aimed at people who have never picked up the newspaper-reading habit and winning back former readers who have abandoned print'. Now, we're very willing to be corrected, but is a paper full of NIBs going to do that? Won't the paper's target demographic of young, tech-savvy readers just skim the 'news matrix', ignore most of it and be left completely unsatisfied by the stories they do want more on? Won't they miss clicking on things?

Reporter - Chemist & Druggist

UBM trade title Chemist and Druggist is recruiting a reporter.

You'll be covering pharmacists at all levels - 'you could be writing about the chief executives of global companies such as Alliance Boots and GlaxoSmithKline or about the retail and professional challenges facing the 20,000 community pharmacists working in the UK' - and there's a stronger-than-usual emphasis on all things online. They ask for print, online and social media know-how, and 'you should be as comfortable coming up with an idea for an online infographic as you are shooting a video or tweeting from a conference'.

It's potentially an entry-level role, but they're also interested in candidates with some reporting experience looking to make the step up.

Full ad on Gorkana, not directly linkable. Apply with CV and covering letter to the editor Gary Paragpuri at gary.paragpuri@ubm.com. Deadline Monday 8 November.

Armchair war journalism

No doubt about it that the latest Wikileaks data dump is a massively important story - and potentially in the long-term much more significant than the files it released on Afghanistan.

But as the papers and the TV channels and the columnists dissect reams of information collected by the military on the ground - significant most of all because it was collected by the military on the ground - let's spare a thought too for the journalists doing it the old-fashioned way.

The New York Times reports today:

KABUL, Afghanistan — A New York Times photographer was severely wounded Saturday when he stepped on a mine while on patrol with American soldiers in southern Afghanistan.

Joao Silva, 44, was wounded in his legs while moving through an area near the town of Arghandab. Mr. Silva was evacuated from the scene and taken to Kandahar Air Field, the American and NATO base, where he is receiving treatment.

No American soldiers were wounded in the explosion. A group of minesweepers and bomb-sniffing dogs had already moved over the area several steps ahead of Mr. Silva when the bomb went off...

...Mr. Silva has photographed wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, southern Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East. He has won many awards for his work. He is the author, with Greg Marinovich, of “The Bang-Bang Club,” a chronicle of a group of four photographers covering the violence in South Africa in the 1990s. The other two were Kevin Carter and Ken Oosterbroek.

Hat tip: Marc Vallée

Reporter - Diss Express

The wonderfully-named Norfolk paid-for weekly the Diss Express is hiring a senior reporter.

You'll need to have completed your NCE (or equivalent) and are expected to be a jack-of-all-trades, covering news, features, entertainment - a little bit of everything really.

They also promise an 'exciting job in a beautiful part of the country' (which may or may not be code for 'the pay ain't much').

Apply with CV and covering letter to the editor Catherine Morris at catherine.morris@dissexpress.co.uk. Deadline Wednesday 10 November.

Foreign Editor - Daily Telegraph

The Telegraph is recruiting a foreign editor to head up its foreign desk across the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph and Telegraph.co.uk.

It's obviously a very senior position, with budgetary and strategic responsibility, but you'll be commissioning and editing copy as well, and overseeing the day-to-day work of correspondents. Experience as a foreign correspondent yourself would be a 'strong advantage', and you'll need at least five years' experience in a 'national or international setting'.

Full ad on Gorkana, not directly linkable. Apply with CV and covering letter to cv@telegraph.co.uk.

Robinson's mini-meltdown

So, FleetStreetBlues has only just got round to watching the video of BBC political editor Nick Robinson loosing (sic) the plot, and frankly, we're rather disappointed. Hardly in Adam Boulton's league, is it?

'Photograph me carefully, I will pose like zis only once...'

There's an art to the perfect local paper photograph. All but the most high-minded snappers are generally not averse to posing their subjects, but it's a real skill to compose the right shot. You try setting up the definitive illustration for a story on TV licences or dustbins or overdue pension payments on your patch's most notorious council estate on a wet Tuesday afternoon.

But still... something tells us the Brighton Argus' photographer had their Weetabix the morning they shot this beauty, for a classic tale about a pensioner whose TV aerial can only pick up French telly.

Beret, check. Stripy jumper, check. Comedy moustache, check. And mais oui, those appear to be onions...

(Spotted by Angry People in Local Newspapers)

The revenge of the failed journalist

From yesterday's profile of George Osborne in The Times:

'Politics was Mr Osborne’s second choice of career. After Oxford he wanted to be a journalist, but narrowly failed to make it on to a trainee scheme on this newspaper.'

He's in all the papers now...

Stealing stories

Jessica Elgot is a reporter working on the Jewish Chronicle. And she's really not happy...

Jessica wrote a cracking story back in August about a British heir to £100m of Nazi-looted art, which made the front-page. And then she thought nothing more of it... until an eerily-similar version of the story popped up in the Newcastle Journal two months later, based on the fact that the heir is from Northumberland.

The intro, at least, is different, but her quotes were used in full - and no attribution.

It happens all the time in journalism, unfortunately, far more than it should, but Jessica didn't want to let it lie. So, as she explains in a blog post on the Jewish Chronicle website, she investigated.

Trying not to spit blood, I casually enquired how this might have happened. The Journal it seemed had received a copy-and-pasted press release from Straughans, a firm of accountants assisting on the case, who had given us the original tip off. Then the Journal reporter googled the story and decided to help himself to a few more quotes from the story on our website. The Journal is promising to put in the proper attribution, but that's yet to materialise.

It still hasn't materialised - and it gets worse. The two-month old reheated story attracted the interest of the nationals, and the Sunday Telegraph followed up:

Today I happened to pick up the Sunday Telegraph. And guess what? They've printed the Journal's story, albeit they've done a better job of rewriting the press release than the Journal, but still, my quotes are there. And they don't attribute the Journal - whom I guess they believed did the original story. The story doesn't appear to be on their website, though it was printed in Sunday's paper on page 31.

Crying plagiarism is always a fine line of course - just because a paper breaks a story, that doesn't give it exclusive rights over that story for all time. And if a firm of accountants issues a press release with quotes from the executor in it... well, one can see them also confirming that the other quotes used by the Jewish Chronicle were accurate, and the time-pressed regional journalist simply added them in.

So to long-in-the-tooth Fleet Street veterans Jessica's angry rant is unlikely to cause much of a stir. But it should. The story in question, which appeared in a specialist newspaper, local newspaper and a national, was only reported once. The Newcastle Journal and Sunday Telegraph just rewrote it - and apparently passed it off as their own.

There's a kind of unspoken, accepted rule in journalism that nicking stories in one direction, and in particular for print, is OK. So magazine stories can be reused by local papers, regional journalists can see their work appear in the nationals and blogs are fair game for anyone, all without any suggestion that the new story isn't original work.

But that kind of arrogant assumption is an anachronism that just doesn't fly anymore, not in the world of the web.

It's not 'just intellectual copyright'. The only thing which enables journalists to do what they do and feed their families at night is intellectual copyright. And if local papers and nationals and anyone else thinks it's OK to lift quotes or churn out two-month old stories? Well, newspapers, even the nationals, are no longer the biggest beasts in the jungle, even if they think they still are.

And when a new Google comes along, a Google without the don't-be-evil motto and with a bunch of play-to-win hard-assed lawyers, and when they set up the ultimate churnalism service which copies and repurposes every original news story out there, search engine optimises it to the max and quickly becomes the world's go-to place for any kind of digital news ... well, the Newcastle Journals and the Sunday Telegraphs of this world are totally screwed.

Or actually, journalists in general are totally screwed. But the Newcastle Journals and the Sunday Telegraphs of this world will kind of deserve it.

'At the moment we can afford to either have the carriers or the aircraft, but not both'

Journalists who don't normally cover defence issues and are still struggling to get their head around the logic behind today's defence cuts may wish to consult the following essential primer.



Hat tip: Guido Fawkes

Credit where credit's due

A quick note to anyone who's contributing or thinking of contributing to the blog... 

First off, please do - it's been great to see a significant increase in emails lately, from brand-new readers as well as regular contributors, and we welcome absolutely anything at all - from fully-formed articles to random tip-offs to criticism, constructive or otherwise. The email address is: fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

But if you do - and particularly if it's a tip-off of the controversial/heard-it-on-the-grapevine gossipy kind - please make it clear if you would like to be credited for the tip. We won't give away your identity - we're scrupulous about protecting our sources - but there have been a couple of cases lately where we've erred too much on the side of caution and not credited people for a great tip. (The sharp-eyed Wordsmith for Hire's email prompting the Wanky Balls goes to Manchester post being a case in point). And we want to make sure we give credit where credit's due.

Thankyou. Public service announcement ends...

Sports Reporter - City AM

City AM is hiring a sports reporter.

You'll be working evenings till 'late', Sunday to Thursday, five days a week, but you'll also need to be flexible and work other shifts as required. They ask for some reporting experience, although there are no specific qualification requirements, and you'll need to know QuarkXpress and how to write headlines and captions.

Full details on Gorkana, not directly linkable. Apply with one-page CV and covering letter to sports editor Frank Dalleres at frank.dalleres@cityam.com.

Reporter - Estates Gazette

RBI title the Estates Gazette, based in Sutton, is taking on a reporter.

You'll be doing all the things a B2B magazine reporter would normally do - which these days includes video interviewing, although training is provided - and you'll be writing for commercial property professionals, covering everything from regeneration schemes to multi-million pound sales.

You'll need a journalism qualification and previous experience as a news reporter, either on a local paper or another trade mag, as well as a strong interest in business reporting.

Apply via the RBI website.

UPDATE: A reader comments to say that the ad's wrong, and Estates Gazette is actually based in Holborn, central London, rather than RBI's Sutton offices. Someone may want to tell HR...

A survival guide for budding journalists

A quick plug for another one of the Guardian's live question-and-answer sessions on the journalism jobs market, featuring an as-yet-to-be-disclosed panel of experts offering top tips for wannabe hacks on how to break into the industry. Tune in at 1pm on Thursday...

News Editor - Retail Express

Retail Express, the fortnightly B2B newspaper for the convenience trade, is recruiting a news editor.

They're looking for an 'experienced and high-achieving' reporter on a trade mag or local paper willing to make the step up - you'll be overseeing a team of reporters, from the sounds of it - and Newtrade Publishing, based near Angel tube in north London, are offering a salary of £26k plus £2k performance-related pay.

Send CV and covering letter to recruitment@newtrade.co.uk. Deadline Thursday 21 October.

New dawn in the USA?

Where America leads, the UK follows.

That's the theory, anyway, and while it's not always true, it applies often enough for us to look at this piece over at the Nieman Journalism Lab with just a little bit of hope...

Newsonomics author Ken Doctor has done some detailed number-crunching on recent journalism job losses in the US, and set them against newly-created jobs in digital journalism, and... well, it's actually not all bad news.

Finally, we're seeing light on the horizon. Journalism hiring is picking up.

The second half of the year has so far produced TBD’s hiring of 50 in Washington, Patch’s push to pick up 500 journalists across the country, and the new alliance for public media plan to hire more than 300 journalists in four major cities, if funding can be found in 2011. In addition, the brand-name journalist market has suddenly flowered, as everyone from National Journal to the Daily Beast to Bloomberg to AOL to the Huffington Post to Yahoo compete for talent. These are bigger numbers — and more activity — than we’ve previously seen, though they build on earlier hirings from ProPublica to California Watch to Bay Citizen to Texas Tribune to MinnPost and well beyond.

The article goes on to explore the notion of 'replacement journalism', analysing which fields seem to have suffered a net loss in reporters and which have managed to replace redundant roles with new positions. National, hyperlocal and even investigative journalism seem to have fared not too badly - perhaps unsurprisingly, it's larger-scale regional journalism ('metro-level reporting') which has been hardest hit.

So is the UK journalism jobs market also about to pick up? Well, there are substantial differences, of course, not least our far greater emphasis on national media and less geographic need for extensive hyperlocal coverage.

But there are similarities in the problems we face too - the recession/digital double-whammy applies both sides of the Atlantic - and good news about the future of journalism is in short supply at the moment. It sounds like they're starting to think there's cause for some optimism in America. Let's hope the UK follows...

The Twitter Network: Rated Awesome

Because much as FleetStreetBlues may love to hate it, if there's one demographic group that's truly taken to Twitter like a fish to twater, it's journalists. We now have more than 1,000 followers...

Beijing correspondent - AFP TV

And here's another great overseas opportunity - Agence France Presse Television is looking for a Beijing correspondent.

You'll be producing two-minute reports in English on all things Chinese, and will need substantial broadcast experience, with Mandarin and experience working in China 'desirable'.

Apply with CV and covering letter to jobs.asia@afp.com. Deadline Saturday 30 October.

Chocs away at the News of the World

The Times offers newspaper and website subscribers invitations to events and free film screenings, the Guardian has discounts on everything from DVDs to, er, carpet cleaning powder, and the Daily Mail keeps it simple, with dine-out-for-£5 deals and weekends away to be won.

So as the News of the World website faces its first Sunday behind the Murdoch paywall, what goodies are they using to draw in the masses? Why... it's a free Galaxy Ripple!

Business Editor - Nassau Guardian

FleetStreetBlues may not necessarily be able to keep up its original promise of publishing one 'Ten top tips' article every week - they're a real pain to put together - but when we next get round to it, the subject's likely to be how to get a journalism job overseas. But if you're pining for sunnier climes and can't wait for our words of wisdom, you could just apply for this - the Nassau Guardian in the Bahamas is recruiting a business editor.

Carribean posting it may be, but this is a paper with serious pedigree - established in 1844, no less - so you should expect strong competition. They're looking for experience, a passion for business and financial news and a good working knowledge of QuarkXpress. An 'attractive salary' and benefits - did we mention it's in the Carribean? - are promised.

Apply with CV and covering letter to editor@nasguard.com. Deadline next Thursday 21 October.

'Student journalism is where I learnt everything I know'

Wannabe Hacks - fast becoming the essential resource for journalism students and others wanting to break into the industry - has just published its first podcast.

The Intern, The Chancer and The Freelancer, all apparently veterans of the University of Birmingham's student paper Redbrick, share their tips on how to get started, tackling FOIs... and the importance of sleep. Well worth a listen below.

Wannabe Hacks Podcast #1 by Wannabe Hacks

Chief Reporter - Wiltshire Times

The paid-for weekly the Wiltshire Times is looking for a new chief reporter.

You'll need to be an experienced senior reporter already looking to 'prove' yourself in a 'management role' - you'll be leading five reporters in covering six towns for the paper. No specific qualification requirements specified - they just want a good journalist and good team leader. You'll be based in Trowbridge.

Apply with CV and covering letter to the editor Gary Lawrence, via scockram@newswilts.co.uk (although the ad on HoldTheFrontPage lists her as Sue Cockrem, so you'd better check the spelling). Deadline Tuesday 9 November.

Bribery and corruption (definitely not) at Sky

Journalists of whatever stripe have a long and honourable tradition of being on a completely different wavelength from HR/Accounts/IT/whoever actually runs the company they work for - but this email, doing the rounds at Sky News and first flagged up on Roy Greenslade's blog yesterday, is a particularly glorious example.

It has been brought to my attention that people have been using the words "bribe" or "fraud" when submitting their expense claims.

Whilst, in most cases, this has arisen because people are covering fraud or bribery cases, please can everybody refrain from using these words in future.

Sky doesn't tolerate the use of bribery or fraud in the workplace and has to investigate each case. We will be contacting the people concerned.

'Most' cases?

Editor - Retailing Online

Centaur is launching a new online publication called Retailing Online, looking at e-commerce and retailing online, and they're looking for an editor.

The ad on Gorkana (not directly linkable) isn't overflowing with details, it's fair to say, but Retailing Online will be a sister title to New Media Age, and we're told the 'ideal candidate will have knowledge of the online retail market and a firm grip of online journalism'.

Apply with CV and covering letter to NMA editor Justin Pearse at justin.pearse@centaur.co.uk.

Back in style

... well, sort of anyway. It's later than planned and posting's going to be intermittent for the next few days, but we couldn't miss the opportunity to blow our own trumpet about a write-up in the Independent.

The feature, in the wake of Andrew Marr's comments about bloggers earlier this week (Marr-gate?), highlights ten up-and-coming blogs and asks: 'What's so inadequate, pimpled and single about this lot?' To which the obvious answer of course is... er no, we're the journalists.

Anyway, the piece gives us a flattering review alongside such media luminaries as Jeff Jarvis and Stephen Fry, describing us as:

A must-read for journalism students and news hounds alike. This site dissects the biggest media errors, editorial manipulations and the evolution into so-called 'churnalism.' It claims to give the inside scoop on a world of newspapers which has moved far from the Fleet Street ethos it represents.

And there were we thinking we just did gossip and bad puns. Cheers guys...

Reduced service

Sorry guys, but FleetStreetBlues is going to be pretty intermittent over the next few days, for reasons beyond our control. Fear not though, normal service will resume on TUESDAY 12 OCTOBER.