Would you write for the Daily Mail?

So the Wannabe Hacks have a new member, and she's actually a hackette. Alice Vincent, aka The Maverick (pictured), is interning at Nylon magazine in the New York. And her first proper post on the site is an interesting one, asking: 'Too proud to work for "The Daily Fail"?'

The thrust of the argument, essentially, is that beggars can't be choosers, and when it comes to finding work as a journalist, wannabe hacks can't be picky.

It’s all too easy as a young and/or wannabe hack to imagine ourselves taking the Guardian offices by storm, rather than realising that writing for a living is as much about paying rent as it is ‘changing the world’. When I was job-hunting a fellow intern scoffed, ‘Gas and Power Magazine? Seriously?’ It’s easy done, until you see what journo job listing sites really look like and your specifications broaden considerably...

...I used to maintain, fairly ridiculously, that ‘I would rather not be a journalist than write for the Daily Mail’. Last week I interviewed for a company that provides copy for them and I’m really, really hoping I get the job. This isn’t a case of putting money before principle, but an awakening that making journalism a living comes down to who’s going to pay.

Which is all correct for course, and very good advice... but FleetStreetBlues can't help but be a little amazed at the level of assumed anti-Mail prejudice among journalism students (an audience the Wannabe Hacks very much represent, so we assume they know of what they speak).

This is probably Britain's most successful daily newspaper we're talking about, linked to what is now the country's most read newspaper website. It sets the UK's political agenda, consistently determines the news of the day and is admired widely throughout the industry, even by those at the other end of the political spectrum, for having its finger firmly on the pulse of its Middle England audience.

There are valid reasons why you might not want to work there, of course. It's not for everyone - and it's fiercely competitive. But for any job-hunting journalism student to even consider dismissing it out of hand as the 'Daily Fail' is a bit surprising...

Forget the Twitter stunts - why don't the police just start talking to journalists again?

The Press Gazette's Grey Cardigan is back - and in his latest column he makes an excellent point about the sad decline in the relationship between journalists and the police, off the back of Greater Manchester Police's recent Twitter-every-incident stunt.

As with most old-timers, Grey Cardigan can be prone to an attack of the 'back-in-my-days'... and he remembers exactly how, back in his day, crime reporting used to work.

It was a daily diary job, whereby the crime reporter would pop down to the nick at 10am every morning and the avuncular desk sergeant would open the incident book, turn it around, and allow said hack to jot down every detail of Plod’s business in the previous day. This information would then make its way to the public via flights of nibs.

More important cases were discussed later that night at the bar in the Police Social Club over a pint or six, where we – and our expense accounts – were always welcome. If something really big was going off, then it would be an afternoon session with a DCI where a steak sandwich and many pints of Speckled Hen would yield enough background for a splash, half a dozen inside page leads and an invitation to the planned dawn raid.

His message, though, is bang up-to-date.

It wasn’t the Press, Mr Fahy, who cut this flow of information to the tax-paying punters. It was the police, who suddenly decided that telling us too much information about their daily doings might scare the general public into thinking that they were living in a lawless, crime-ravaged nation.

So I applaud your decision (whatever its motives) to reveal what your troops are up to, but can I make just one suggestion? Why not set up a permanent, 24-hour feed of police activity to the Oldham-based Manchester Evening News and its remaining associated weeklies? Then you might not have to stage a publicity stunt the next time the government casts a stern eye over your finances.

Which from a journalist's point of view makes a lot of sense, of course. Although we suspect the Greater Manchester Police press office may be less enthusiastic.

Intern - GQ

Fancy working for GQ's website, GQ.com? If you're looking to make the step up from another two weeks of thankless work experience to something approaching a first journalism job, this could be a good opportunity.

It's officially an internship, and the work itself is likely to verge on the repetitive. We're told your primary responsibilities 'will include converting print articles into online content, which will include extensive production work in our content management system, as well as liaising with the picture desk, the magazine team and relevant PRs'. Lots of uploading then, and don't expect to be hanging out on photoshoots with Rihanna every day.

But crucially, it's a paid internship, full-time, and for six months, and if you're looking for a first break in online or magazine journalism it's worth firing off an application today. You'll need to be educated to degree level and ideally have some journalism experience already under your belt.

Apply to andy.morris@condenast.co.uk. Deadline nominally Wednesday 15 December, but this one's sure to attract dozens if not hundreds of applications, so we'd advise getting in early.

Tiny Editor

So much excitement among staff at the Independent today, who are all a-Twitter about their guest editor, who will be helping to put together tomorrow's paper. Elton John is in the building.

Columnist Johann Hari is wondering what to wear...

Comment editor Katherine Butler is wondering what song title she could sneak in...

And foreign editor Archie Bland is about to live the rock'n'roll dream...

Expect conference to be packed.

Quote of the Day: 29 November 2010

John Kampfner, chief executive of Index on Censorship, on why the whole debate around the media's reporting of the Wikileaks revelations is being framed in the wrong way:

Far from being "feral beasts", to use Tony Blair's phrase, the British media are overly respectful of authority. Newspapers and broadcasters tend to be suspicious of those who do not play the game, people like Mr Assange who are awkward outsiders. Some editors are quite happy to help the authorities in their denunciations of him, partly out of revenge for not being in his inner circle.

If you read just one op-ed piece on the whole Wikileaks story, make this one it.

Trainee Reporter - South Wales Argus

Newsquest title the South Wales Argus - whose feature writer Mike Buckingham has just had a lucky escape after what looks like a rather hairy plane crash in the Brecon Beacons - is recruiting a trainee reporter.

The ad on HoldTheFrontPage is simplicity itself - they want a 'high quality trainee reporter' and 'only those who have passed NCTJ pre-entry exams need apply'. We're guessing local knowledge and a driving licence might also help get you an interview. Pilot's licence not essential.

Email caroline.stock@gwent-wales.co.uk for an application pack. Deadline Friday 10 December.

Wikileaks opens its treasure trove

Remember our 'data journalism' rant last week? The complaint was that for all the thousands of documents on Iraq and Afghanistan released by Wikileaks, the actual number and strength of the stories which emerged was disappointing at best.

Well, a shortage of stories isn't going to be a problem this time round. In fact, the opposite is true. There are just too many to choose from...

Lots of papers aren't quite sure what to focus on at the moment, and most are running several angles at once. But among the fascinating top lines to emerge so far:

• US diplomats routinely spied on representatives of UN security council members, including Britain (The Telegraph)
• Arab leaders, including the King of Saudi Arabia, asked the US to launch a pre-emptive attack on Iran (BBC)
• Washington had a mole in the German government (The Times)
• Slovenia was offered a meeting with President Obama if it agreed to take in a Guantanamo Bay prisoner (New York Times)
• How a Politburo member Googling himself led to hacker attacks forcing the search engine to quit China (The Guardian)
• Concern over the 'inappropriate' behaviour of a member of the Royal Family (Daily Mail)

There's more, much more in there as well - unguarded gossip from the governor of the Bank of England, North/South Korea contingency plans and fears of Pakistani nuclear material, to name but a few possible lines.

To what extent the multiple news stories cancel themselves out over the next 24 hours remains to be seen, and there's no doubt that government spinners the world over will be furiously trying to turn this into a story about the leaked documents themselves, rather than what's actually in them. But this may be one massive data release which isn't a bust.


UPDATE: The main Wikileaks site may currently be down, but the full set of cables can be found here.

The perils of full disclosure

So there's a lot of online chatter about a post this week on the Guardian's Sport Blog: 'Why the heat is on Fifa to give the 2022 World Cup to Qatar'.

In it, football writer Louise Taylor waxes lyrical about the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid, praising it as an 'unprecedented opportunity' to 'forge fresh, enhanced understanding with the Arab world', hailing a dismantable stadium as 'an inspired piece of Qatari altruism' and concluding that 'mustering the bravery to hand Qatar 2022 might yet enable Fifa to gift the world a Cantona moment'.

So, what's the catch? Well, turns out that Louise Taylor had only been able to write the blog post after visiting on a complementary press trip courtesy of, you guessed it... the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid committee. A fact not mentioned at all in the original article, and only grudgingly admitted to in the comments when Sports Blogs Editor Steve Busfield stepped in to offer 'full disclosure' after lots of pointed questions from readers.

Cue much predictable outrage on the t'interweb, some of which is rounded up in this post over at The Media Blog. The Guardian's own Bad Science columnist Ben Goldacre, for instance, was distinctly unimpressed, while one reader on the piece left the immortal comment 'This is worse than Gogarty'.

All of which makes sense in theory, of course. It doesn't sound unreasonable for readers to want to know if there's a possible conflict of interest connected to an article, and after all the shouting Fleet Street's done about MPs' expenses and the new era of 'open government' and all, it seems only fair.

But the reality is this: rightly or wrongly, many journalists rely on expense-paid trips, lunches and the like to do their business. If the highly principled, Scott Trust-funded Guardian uses expenses-paid trips to get its reporters out the office, then you know damn well other papers do, and the more cash-strapped the publication, the more reliant its journalists on the self-interested generosity of PRs. For a lot of FleetStreetBlues readers working on smaller publications, the days of generous expense accounts are a distant memory. So the choice is often go out of the office on a PR company's tab - or don't go out of the office at all.

The Guardian was caught out in this case only because Louise Taylor wrote such a glowing review - a review which almost certainly had nothing to do with who paid for her trip. And yes, they could and should have stated in the original article who had paid for the trip, but declaring an interest is not a get-out-of-jail-free card - readers trust the article less, and declaring every conceivable conflict of interest is nigh on impossible.

The truth is, put much of British journalism under the microscope of rigorous financial scrutiny and there's probably some conceivable conflict of interest, whether that be through lunches with PRs, expenses-paid trips, familial financial interest or simply connections to advertisers. It doesn't mean we're biased - most journalists on junkets will probably go out of their way not to write nice things about the people paying for it. But full disclosure is not somewhere we want to go...

Poll result: Was Girish Gupta right to invoice the Independent for work experience?

Well, our snapshot poll taught us two things. Firstly, opinion is running roughly two to one against Girish Gupta's bold decision to invoice the Independent for work experience. And secondly, we can't spell...

The ultimate slow-news day

Think you've got an empty news list? Told your news editor 'Sorry boss, there's just nothing out there at the moment'?

Well, now a team of computer experts have claimed to be able to pinpoint the slowest news day of the 20th century after 'feeding 300 million facts into a computer search engine'. (Note: 'claimed'. It's almost certainly all rubbish, but hey, it's a Friday).

After letting the computer do its thing, the results came back... and the winner was 11 April 1954.

The Daily Mail (which came out the next day with the front page above) reports:

The best the machine could muster for the day was the fact that Belgium had its fourth post-war general election and a Turkish academic who taught electronics was born.

Journeyman footballer Jack Shufflebotham, who played a handful of games for Oldham Athletic and Notts County, died, aged 69, and plans for a coup d’etat in Yanaon, a French colony in India, are believed to have been agreed.

At least there wasn't a bloody Royal wedding to write about...

Online Editor - Estates Gazette

RBI title Estates Gazette is looking for a 'group online editor' to take charge of EstatesGazette.com.

It's partly a strategic role - you'll be a 'key member of the editorial leadership team'. However it's unclear how many people you'll be heading up (although they do ask for line-management experience), and there's a content-generation role as well. (They state that you will be expected to play a 'key creative role in generating new forms of content for the website', might be as exciting as it sounds... or might just mean they want someone who knows how the video camera works.)

Apply via the RBI website.

Roy Greenslade: My £3,000-a-year (news) junkie habit

Roy Greenslade is without doubt Britain's leading media commentator, online at least, and his MediaGuardian blog is a must-read for newspaper news as well as comment. He's also notable for being an old-school print journalist who's embraced the online world in a way that many pretend to, but not all actually have.

So we were a little taken aback by an admission his latest Evening Standard column on the developing world of 'mixed media' - not that he still reads papers, but that he has to pay for them...

I love reading printed newspapers.

I love reading online newspapers. I see no contradiction in loving them both. Each has different strengths and I consume them avidly.

There is still something magical for me in the feel of newsprint, the touch of it, even the smell of it. I have never thought to cancel the papers delivered to my door each day despite a £60 weekly bill.

£60 a week... and it's not as if he hasn't already seen the papers before they hit his doormat.

By the time they arrive, I have usually seen the front pages, if not on BBC2's Newsnight or Sky News the night before, then in the morning on my computer screen.

Before the papers are delivered, I will certainly have skimmed the major stories on each of the newspaper websites, and my RSS reader will have alerted me to my particular story interests.

I admit I am not typical. After all, we journalists are news junkies by trade. But I suspect that we are not alone in this mixed media world in obtaining our news from a variety of platforms (dreadful word, but it's the jargon de nos jours).

He's right of course. But most news junkies we know aren't willing to pay anything for it - let alone £3,000 a year. We need more people like him...

Independent workie: 'Troublemaker? Surely that's what every journalist should be'

This morning's post about Girish Gupta, the work experience student who invoiced the Independent, got a big response. Now the excellent Malcolm Coles has tracked down the man himself - freelancing in Mexico - and has a full interview here.

Do you think it’s harmed your future career at all?

I don't know what journalists and editors who both do and don't know me are thinking about the whole thing. I would hope they would see that I was standing up for something I thought was wrong and whether they agree or not, they would admire that, especially in journalism.

Someone commented today that they'd see me as a 'troublemaker'. Surely that is what every journalist should be. But they might just think I'm not worth their time.

HMRC are still investigating the case, we're told, and 'are sending people in'. Don't hold your breath...

As Girish himself says, the issue seems to have really divided people - although FleetStreetBlues has a sneaking suspicion that the people who support him are likely to be those applying for jobs, and those who don't support him are more likely to be the ones interviewing job candidates.

But we want to know what you think - so let us know in the poll at the top right.

Stay up-to-date with FleetStreetBlues

Yesterday was our best day's traffic for a while, with well over a thousand journalists from across the UK logging on to FleetStreetBlues. (There was also a sizeable Irish contingent giving a hearty endorsement of the 'Utter Gobshites' splash).

So now seems like a good time for a quick reminder of how to get your daily dose of FleetStreetBlues with minimum hassle:

• You can join our hundreds of followers on Twitter @fleetstreetblue.
  
• You can join our Facebook group (and show us what you actually look like).
  
• Or if you're old-school, you might prefer simply to get an email update every morning - sign up in the email newsletter subscription box on the right-hand side.

Don't forget you can send your news, jobs, contributions and unsubstantiated gossip tips to fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk. 

And finally, if you're a PR company, or a marketing type, or anyone else who'd like to grab the attention of hundreds of journalists in one fell swoop, drop us a line and offer us something - cash, cookies, iPads, or whatever it is you want to plug. We're easily bought.

Evil minds don't look alike

What's the worst possible picture-libel scenario you can imagine? Saying someone's a liar when they're not? Accusing them of rape? Printing their picture and accusing them of murder? How about accusing them of 430,000 murders?

Well, that striking Independent front page on Tuesday about 89-year-old Nazi war crimes suspect Samuel Kunz, who died this week? Turns out the photo may have actually been of someone else entirely - 50-year-old Croatian actor Ljubomir Jurkovic, who's still very much alive.

The MediaGuardian reports:

The large front-page picture purporting to be Kunz showed a sinister portrait of a man in the uniform not of the German Wehrmacht or SS, but of Croatian wartime fascist movement the Ustasha. The Ustasha "U" was clearly visible on the front of the man's cap.

It appeared that the picture was a doctored still from The Living and the Dead, a 2007 Croatian film about the 1990s Bosnia war which also features flashbacks to the war in the Balkans in 1943...

...Simon Kelner, the editor of the Independent, said: "We are investigating the provenance of the picture, but as yet there is no conclusive proof one way or the other, and our caption acknowledges there is always a measure of uncertainty with pictures of alleged Nazis from that era."

The same picture, however, is easily located on website publicity material and reviews for the 2007 film, The Living and The Dead, set in 1993 during the war in Bosnia, with flashbacks to parallel scenes from the second world war in 1943.

Ouch.

'Idiotic' workie invoices the Independent

Ever spent a couple of weeks on work experience at a paper, found yourself actually writing stories and thought: 'They should be paying me for this'?

Well, Girish Gupta did, and after an unpaid work experience stint at the Independent, decided to do something about it - he sent them a bill.

The email exchange which follows is pretty amusing. Even though he accepted an explicit offer of two weeks' unpaid work experience, Girish keeps insisting throughout that he's both legally and 'morally' entitled to payment.

The Independent, meanwhile, perhaps mindful of articles it's run arguing that it's 'Time to end the work experience scam' and describing unpaid workies as 'modern-day slaves', seems distinctly uncomfortable with the whole exchange. Initially deputy editor Adam Leigh gives him short shrift and describes Girish as 'particularly idiotic', but then the case gets passed on to a lawyer...

The point of course isn't that work experience is fair, or right, or the way things should work. But in the ultra-competitive world of journalism it's an unavoidable CV-enhancing hurdle. Asking for retrospective payment may not be the best way to enhance your CV.

Topless shots in student paper have them bang on course for Fleet Street

Varsity is one of the UK's oldest student newspapers, and - partly no doubt because it's a student paper at Cambridge University - it has an enviable track record in churning out future journalistic talent.

Famous ex-editors include Jeremy Paxman, David Frost, Richard Whiteley, Andrew Gowers and Richard Harris, while more current figures across Fleet Street can also credit it with launching their careers (among them Johann Hari, Olly Duff and Amol Rajan at the Independent, the Guardian's Oliver Burkeman and Alexis Petridis, and the Telegraph's Andrew Gilligan).

According to Wikipedia, the editor as recently as 2006 was a certain Jon Swaine - and look where he is now...

So, with a long and glittering career among Fleet Street's finest ahead of them, how have the current editorial team decided to make their mark?

An in-depth investigation into the student funding crisis perhaps? A detailed expose of university links to the private sector? Why no, they've gone for a topless fashion shoot - the first in Varsity's 63-year history...

You can, should you be so minded, check out the full set of photos on Varsity's website. As headline-grabbing stunts go, it's not exactly page three though - all arty, agricultural backdrops and tasteful knitwear. It looks very cold.

But in terms of making the news, the editorial team have done their job, with the fashion shoot covered in the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph - and even the Korea Herald. They'll go far.

Tabloid subs just wanna have puns

An enjoyable by-product of the impending Royal Wedding has been some top-class punning rivalry between the headline writers of, well, most of Fleet Street, bar the po-faced Independent. 

It's an intriguing competition - given that the big stories so far have been released, rather than dug up, the headline writers are for the most part operating on a level-playing field, and given the 'importance' of the story, they're being offered plenty of space to play with.

This morning, both the Daily Star and the Daily Mirror go with the posh angle - the Mirror going with '8 days orf', and the Star with the marginally more imaginative 'Let's all have it orf!', beneath a picture of the happy couple looking particularly love-struck.

The Sun meanwhile opts for 'Willy holiday', which works, although you arguably have to think about it a second too long. But FleetStreetBlues awards round one on points to the following effort from the Metro:

As the weeks and months go on, leave your contenders in the comments or email them to fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk. There will be many more rounds...

Irish tabloids tell it like it is

If you haven't been following the ins and outs of the recent financial meltdown in Ireland, then fear not: it's fair to say the Irish Daily Star has a pretty good grip on the feeling on the ground...

Hat tip: Andrew Ellson

How to get round the outrageous football fixture ban

When it comes to the law and the right to free information and free speech, FleetStreetBlues sometimes despairs.

Maybe it's our brief experience of how they do things oversease instead. Maybe it's our pigheaded belief that having a 'free press' should mean, for the most part, exactly that. Or maybe it's just because  Britain's privacy and libel laws are becoming increasingly restrictive. In any event, there seem to be so many rulings and judgements and restrictions out there which are self-evidently, obviously plain wrong that sometimes FleetStreetBlues can be found just sitting in the corner, head in hands, rocking back and forth slowly muttering 'Justice Eady, Justice Eady, Justice Eady' over and over again.

This is one of them. Quite why anyone could conceive of making a list of major sporting events copyrighted, so that newspapers have to pay money in order to print the football fixture list, is beyond us - except that it's a brilliant money-making wheeze.

Last time we wrote about this, we came up with a suggestion:

It's outrageous... but there's a simple solution. Come August, every newspaper, blogger and media outlet in the country should simply print a completely made-up fixture list, causing chaos for fans and football revenues to plummet. They don't want us to print their fixtures? We won't.

We can't help feeling, however, that this might be shortchanging readers who need to get games. So, two alternative suggestions.

First, we could start a campaign on Twitter, calling for the judgement to be overturned. (#iamjamesalexandergordon would be a good place to start, perhaps, although possibly prone to misspellings).

Failing that, earlier this season, when Southampton Football Club imposed a ban on all match photographers except its own, the Sun responded by referring to the club throughout its coverage as 'South Coast Team'. Why not do likewise for all 92 clubs? Surely you can't copyright a fictional fixture list as well?

The appeal against the High Court ruling that the fixture lists are in fact copyrighted takes place tomorrow. We're not holding our breath...

News Editor - Journalism.co.uk

So the good people over at Journalism.co.uk are recruiting again, and this time they're looking for a news editor.

The job ad's a decent length and worth reading in full, because as well as the expected (writing about journalism, strong emphasis on multimedia and online), there are some unexpected requirements as well. You'll need to take on an 'ambassadorial role' at conferences and networking with industry figures and students, you'll need to be 'confident at public speaking' and you'll have a significant events role as well, procuring speakers and overseeing marketing. Ironically, the journalists at Journalism.co.uk don't just do journalism.

That said, it's a high-profile role on one of the industry's leading websites, the networking opportunities will be legion, and it's the perfect opportunity to hone your Web 2.0 skillset. In fact, you'll be able to start that right now, as they somewhat unusually invite applications 'in video, audio or written formats or any combination of the three, sent via email or using other social media methods'.

The job's based in Brighton, and you'll be working in a small team of eight (three of whom are journalists).

It's john@journalism.co.uk if you're going to use boring old email, deadline Wednesday 22 December.

Quote of the Day: 22 November 2010

Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker on the somewhat unlikely prospect of a Prince William-Kate Middleton pre-wedding sex tape.

The subsequent headline apocalypse would cause Fleet Street to run out of ink until some point midway through 2013. 

He's not wrong...

Reporter - East London and West Essex Guardian

Newsquest title the East London and West Essex Guardian is looking for a senior reporter.

You'll need to have passed your NCE or equivalent, and have a driving licence - we're guessing that access to your own transport would also be a plus. A 'very competitive' salary is promised.

Apply to group editor Amanda Patterson at apatterson@london.newquest.co.uk. Deadline next Monday 29 November.

The truth about 'data journalism': it's still about the story, stupid

Forget 'citizen journalism' and 'multimeeja', there's only one contender for Media Buzzword of 2010. 'Data journalism' has become the in-thing to talk about amongst those who like to think of themselves as 'Web 2.0 journalists'.

Forward-thinking types have held 'Hacks and hackers' meetings to discuss how journalists and computer whizz-kids can combine to unlock the secrets held in spreadsheets, an understanding of an obscure Excel function called 'pivot tables' has suddenly become the must-have CV skill no journalist can live without, and of course it all comes amidst a series of unprecedented releases of large amounts of newsworthy data - so-called 'data dumps'.

Last year, of course, there was the MPs' expenses scandal, driven by a team from the Daily Telegraph picking through hundreds of thousands of expense receipts; this year, we've had huge releases of data on the war in Afghanistan and war in Iraq from Wikileaks, and a series of gigantic data releases on Government spending.

So, amidst all this hype, earnestness and spreadsheet-geekery, here's the truth about so-called 'data journalism'. It's still about the story, stupid.

There is no doubt that journalists are now getting access to unprecedented amounts of raw information, often in almost deliberately indigestible form - the release of the Coins database earlier this year, for instance, was basically one massive 120Gb spreadsheet with 24 million rows. So yes, journalists need to be able to sort and analyse this information, and yes, they need to be able to root out the stories in it. But far too much attention is being paid to the former, and not nearly enough to the latter.

First, let's be clear. It doesn't matter what medium you're working in - print, broadcast or online. News journalists continue to live and die by the top line of their story. Getting a killer angle is just as, if not more, important when working online as when working for a newspaper - readers are that much more picky, and if they don't want to read your story, they simply won't click on it.

That said then, how many important stories can you remember from the long list of data releases mentioned above? We're betting the ones that spring to mind are all from the MPs' expenses scandal, when a team of trained Telegraph journalists had the time - days, even weeks - to trawl through the documents in detail and, most importantly, add context. Even so, we guarantee you're not remembering the earnest efforts of the Guardian's crowd-sourcing or a 'data visualisation' of how the expense-grabbing compared across the three parties - no, you're thinking duck houses and moats, the stories which brought the whole affair to life and for ordinary readers made something quite abstract very real.

As for the other data releases, surely what's shocking is how few stories journalists actually managed to uncover. The Wikileaks releases ended up for the most part being a big debate over whether the files should have been released in the first place, and the odd colour of Julian Assange's hair, rather than a meaningful discussion of the myriad of fascinating stories which must have been buried in the data. The Government's data releases likewise. On Friday, the Guardian datablog boldly asked: 'Will the Government spending data really change the world?' Truth is, it can't even generate a single headline three days on...

No doubt we'll get better at this. Over time, journalists will learn how to pick out the stories that matter from these huge data releases - and it will help hugely whenever a single news outlet has control of the data, as the Telegraph did with MPs' expenses, so that they can drip-feed the top lines one at a time rather than see the whole lot drown in the 24-hour news cycle.

But when we do get better, it won't be thanks to a better understanding of pivot tables or an increased ability to generate pretty and fairly meaningless maps. It'll be when experienced, trained journalists - who, crucially, bring context to the table - are given time to trawl through the rows and columns and turn it into stories.

Context is key. Forget the hype. Stories are still what we do.

Read all about it: 19 November 2010

The first in an occasional series, here's what we've been reading over the past 24 hours:

• The Wannabe Hacks have some feedback for a reader as part of their 'Pitch Perfect' online freelancing workshop
  
• Advertising Age on how a formerly homeless reporter in the US now earns $100,000 a year blogging for a 'content farm'
  
• Roy Greenslade asks whether a smoking gun is actually needed to bring down Andy Coulson.

• It's not only journalism interns that get paid nowt - now press offices are offering unpaid internships, according to this post over at Harry's Place
  
• Striking journalists (striking as in shivering-outside-holding-placards, not as in tall--blonde-and-unusually-good-looking, although who knows, they might be...) at the Brighton Argus have set up their own blog, Brighton Argus Action. There's even video of some shivering-outside-holding-placards, and a supportive toot...

Quote of the Day: 18 November 2010

Some very practical advice from poor Pitching the World, still miserable and drinking in Dubai, on 'How to be a writer':

If you’re writing an important cover story for SoldOut magazine (a magazine aimed at estate agents; now defunct) and you have to interview the CEO of a company on a Monday morning, spend the whole weekend getting off your tits and then turn up on Monday without really sleeping for days and not knowing a single thing about the company, the CEO or yourself. You probably won’t know what words mean. In this situation your first question should be: “So, pretend I don’t know anything about you. What do you do?”

Reporter - Health Service Journal/Nursing Times

Emap health trade titles the Health Service Journal and Nursing Times, which share a combined nine-strong newsdesk, are recruiting a reporter (although it hasn't been so long since they last recruited one).

The requirements are slightly more specific this time round though - you'll need at least two years' experience and both a knowledge of the health sector and a biosciences qualification are useful, although neither is considered essential.

Full details on Gorkana, not directly linkable. Apply with CV, covering letter and salary expectations with the reference number KH-NT-029 to jobs@emap.com. There's deliberately no set deadline, which means apply ASAP.

PRs want to put a CRAPP on your mantlepiece

So yesterday saw the launch of the CRAPPs, an in-no-way contrived acronym which stands for the Communicative Relations Awards from PR Professionals - and for a PR stunt, it's actually mildly amusing.

Designed to 'celebrate the special relationship between the media and public relations professionals' in the run-up to Christmas, the awards allow PRs tired from 'just checking if you received the email' all day long to vent about the journalists who really irk them - as well as 'reward' the tame ones they don't get a flea in the ear from.

There are six categories for PRs to vote in, as follows:

1. The journalist that makes you feel warm and furry on the inside
2. The ‘most likely to tell you to sling your hook’ award
3. The ‘best blogger’ PR award
4. Least twattish Twitterer – the must follow journo
5. Journalist you'd most like to bring to the dark side (employ as a PR)
6. Most approachable national newspaper

The (surprisingly coherent) press release has all the details here, and - aside from the slightly curious 'sling your hook' phrasing, which may be an Archibald/Arabella thing - the tone is pretty well judged.

The website includes a link to Guardian tech editor Charles Arthur's seminal 'Die, PR, die' blogpost, and Rich Leigh, account director at 10 Yetis PR agency, admits: 'Knowing some journalists, being the recipient of the PR-voted ‘most likely to tell you to sling your hook’ award would be the perfect way to kick off Christmas!' Put it this way - we don't want to win the 'warm and furry' award.

The reader who sent this to us, though, has an intriguing suggestion. 'Why doesn't FSB hit back, and launch its own set of awards for generally useless PRs?'

Hmmn. If we get enough interest and ideas for categories in the comments - or by email - we might just do that. Any suggestions?

Don't mention the war: Mail on Sunday campaign's fatal flaw

If you're not a regular reader of the Mail on Sunday, you may have missed the launch of their British Time campaign, which kicked off last week with a call to arms from Peter Hitchens under the headline: 'Don't let them force you to live your life on Berlin Time.'

As the Mailwatch blog points out, it's a masterpiece of subtle - and not-so-subtle - xenophobia from beginning to end. The picture is in black-and-white, with the caption 'Forced change: The Nazis made occupied nations adopt German time'. Supporters of the time zone change are invited to 'breakfast on bratwurst'. And then we get to the nub of it:

But it is easy to see that since 1893, when Kaiser Wilhelm II’s arrogant and expansionist new German Empire adopted Mitteleuropaische Zeit (Central European Time to you), German power has been forcing its ideas of time on the rest of the Continent. First in 1914, and with redoubled force after 1940, the conquered nations of the Continent were instructed rather sharply to shift their clocks forward to suit the needs of German soldiers and German railways and German business.

A map of the present Central European Time Zone looks disturbingly like a map of a certain best-forgotten empire of 70 years ago. Would it really be silly to suspect that the neatness and standardisation fanatics of Brussels and Frankfurt, who have abolished almost every border in Europe, devised the European arrest warrant and the Euro passport and the European number plate and the European flag – and imposed a single currency on almost every state – would not also like a single time zone?

We don't know about you, but by the end of all that FleetStreetBlues was up in arms, just itching to single-handedly repel the Hun at bayonet point. You can take your Berlin Time and shove it Jerry. Britain's never done it before, and will never do it ag... oh, wait a minute.

We have done this before – but only in the desperate days of wartime, when it was necessary to keep munitions workers at their benches, and farm labourers out in the fields, as long as possible.

So, let's get this straight. We're supposed to be writing in in our thousands about this issue (BritishTime@mailonsunday.co.uk since you ask), supposedly whipped up into a fervour by a blatant appeal to our patriotism and atavastic hatred of all things German. And yet the only time we've ever tried it was when we were actually fighting them...?

Reporter - Accountancy Age

Incisive Media trade publication Accountancy Age is looking for a reporter.

You'll need between one and two years' reporting experience, and while no formal qualification requirements are stated, you must be confident in print, online and 'in front of a video camera'.

Apply via the website.

And in other news...

No prizes for guessing what's going to be on most of Fleet Street's front pages tomorrow morning - but will anyone go the same route as the Independent did when Charles and Camilla tied the knot?

Hat tip: Currybetdotnet

'Couple who met at university to marry'

Forget the BBC's lavish efforts and the Guardian's inevitable liveblog - top prize for Royal engagement coverage today surely has to go to the Caledonian Mercury.

Couple who met at university to marry

By James Browne

Two people who went to university together are to get married, it has emerged.

William Windsor (or possibly Wales or possibly Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) and Kate Middleton, both 28, met at St Andrews University eight years ago.

Mr Windsor is a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF – and also a prince.

Wall-to-wall, dewy-eyed hysterical coverage can be found in every other media outlet.

If you're wondering, James Browne is a former editor of the Caledonian Mercury, according to Wikipedia. He was appointed in 1827...

All news officially cancelled

So it's official: for the next 24 hours at least there are no other stories to report, other than the shock horror breaking news that Prince William is to marry Kate Middleton.

And for journalists, it's the very worst kind of breaking news. There's not really a new angle to chase. There's no exclusive scoop to be had from a pretty Home Counties girl marrying a slightly balding posh bloke, even if he is the future King of England. Nope, it's reaction, reaction, reaction - and while tomorrow's papers may be bought by record numbers of readers, it's not much fun to write.

Don't feel sorry for yourself though, there are always others worse off. As this heartfelt tweet from Daily Express football writer Matt Law goes to show...

Reporter - Stuff

This looks like it could be fun - and come with plenty of freebies. Haymarket gadget bible Stuff magazine is hiring a 'multimedia journalist', mainly to work on its Stuff.tv website.

You'll need excellent multimedia skills, particularly video presenting, but also tip-top writing, understanding of media law and a good knowledge of the tech market. There aren't any specific qualification or experience requirements, but as the ad says, it's a small team, so you'll need to be able to fit in and pull your weight.

Apply via the Haymarket website.

Features writer - The Dandy

A bit of a unique one this - after all, as our contact north of the border who sent it in says, 'imagine being on staff with Desperate Dan and Korky the Kat...'

Well, if that's your dream job in journalism, then it may just be about to come true. The Dandy, apparently the world's third longest-running comic and run by Dundee-based newspaper publishers DC Thomson & Co, is recruiting a 'magazine journalist'.

The decidedly po-faced ad explains in detail the demands of the role, which include 'creation of content through the writing of age-appropriate entertaining articles', proofing, subbing and managing contributors. They're after an 'experienced features writer' educated to degree-level or equivalent with 'an awareness of copyright laws and codes of practice and meticulous attention to detail'. Plus, you'll need to bond with Beryl the Peril...

Apply with CV, covering letter and details of current salary to:

DC Thomson, HR Department
2 Albert Square
Dundee DD1 9QJ

Deadline Friday 25 November.

BBC: 'No story is worth a life'

Most of the papers this morning carry the release of British yacht couple Paul and Rachel Chandler on their front page - among them the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and the Sun.

But what for readers is a fairly uncomplicated good news story is for journalists a little more complicated - because the release came only after a 'super-injunction' imposed a news blackout on the case.

In a fairly pointed post on the BBC Editors' blog - apparently aimed squarely at Sky News, who broke the story several hours before the BBC, a long lead, even by normal standards - Jon Williams writes:

While we're not in the business of censoring the news, no story is worth a life - we accepted the argument of the family, their lawyers and the judge that to do otherwise would jeopardise the safety of Paul and Rachel Chandler.

Some other news organisations did not - which is why, for some hours, during the Chandlers' dangerous journey through Somalia to the safety of Kenya, the BBC stayed silent while pictures of the couple could be seen elsewhere.

While it wasn't a comfortable position for us, or our audience, to be in, it was the law and a restriction put in place to try to ensure the safety of the Chandlers. Had we done otherwise, we would have been in contempt of court.

In this case, of course, all's well that ends well, and the BBC can feel pretty secure in justifying its decision - although the explanatory post does seem torn at times between saying the BBC stopped reporting the case because it was the 'responsible thing to do', and saying they stopped reporting it because they were legally bound to do so.

But, just as with Prince Harry's deployment in Afghanistan a couple of years ago, the whole affair also raises some uncomfortable questions. Reporting on the Chandlers' case may or may not have further endangered them - but banning reporting on anything which could be exacerbated by media coverage is surely a hugely dangerous precedent.

If the media report on a school shooting, is there not a danger of copycat shootings? When journalists write about the existence of a new cheap-but-dangerous drug, is that not endangering public health? Doesn't reporting on anything in Afghanistan bar MoD-approved press releases increase the risk to our troops over there? And surely all hostage situations have to some degree or another the same risks as the Chandlers' case. Slap a super-injunction on the lot...

The law is, as the BBC says, the law - but journalists don't have to like it, and they certainly don't have to be smug about it.

And 'no story is worth a life'? Immediately, a dozen counter-factuals spring to mind in which a story could very much be worth a life. As an explanation for why the BBC (and others) didn't resist a super-injunction in this one particular circumstance, it's just about justifiable. As a wider maxim for the world's largest broadcast news-gathering operation, not so much. 

Reporters - Press and Journal

Scotland's best-selling daily The Press and Journal is recruiting reporters, plural, for its Forfar district office, to cover the Angus, Dundee, Perth and Kinross areas.

No specific qualification requirements, but they're after someone local - we're told a 'knowledge of the region would be an advantage'.

Apply with CV and covering letter 'by POST only' (their capitals) to the editor, Derek Tucker (who won't be there much longer).

Derek Tucker, Editor
The Press and Journal
Lang Stracht
Mastrick
Aberdeen
AB15 6DF

Deadline Friday 26 November.

Trainee Reporter - Hunts Post

The Hunts Post, an Archant weekly in 'Huntingdonshire', which we're not entirely sure is not a made-up county, is recruiting a trainee reporter.

You'll need to have passed your NCTJ prelims and have 100 wpm shorthand. And that's about it, as far as the ad on HoldTheFrontPage goes.

Apply with CV and covering letter to the editor Andy Veale at andy.veale@archant.co.uk. Deadline Friday 19 November.

Whatever it takes

We will put an end to the student protest gossip after this, we promise - but after somewhat stereotyping the student population yesterday as a bunch of Jeremy Kyle-watching layabouts, it's only fair to set the record straight.

Daniel Wright, a home affairs producer at Channel 4 News, was one of the journalists on the scene on Wednesday:

See? Missing lectures. Protesting. Even rioting in the streets. Journalism students will do whatever it takes.

'The student protest Mr Darcy'

So the news website of choice for the revolting students on Wednesday was obviously the Guardian, and the front man for their coverage was none other than Special Projects Editor Paul Lewis, winner at the British Press Awards earlier this year.

But what readers following his dispatches from outside Millbank may not have known is that Paul has plenty of experience of student protest against fees - not least because he used to be president of Cambridge University's student union and in charge of organising anti-fees rallies of his own.

And nor - as Paul himself tweeted - was it the first time he's made a student fees protest-related appearance on the Guardian's website.

Yes, read for yourself the 2002 Guardian's breathless description of him as a 'rather nice set of cheekbones' in the wake of another student tuition fees march, then find out how he fared in an 'Idol Student' poll of hunky student politician-types. He didn't lose...

Technology Reporter - Telegraph

The Telegraph Media Group - the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph and the new and improved Telegraph.co.uk - is recruiting a technology correspondent.

You'll need to have proved yourself already as a technology reporter and come to the job with a bulging contacts book - you'll also need to have evidence that you can work well online, and be prepared to file several stories a day to very short deadlines.

Full details on Gorkana, not directly linkable. Email your CV and covering letter to cv@telegraph.co.uk.

The camera never lies: 'The Kaiser Chiefs could have warned us about this' edition

So, the iconic photo on all the front pages this morning?

Here's the photo:

Now let's do what Freelance Unbound.did, and zoom out a little:

If it bleeds, it leads, yes. But it helps if it's in perfect focus.

If it bleeds, it leads

Only one photo worth printing on the front pages this morning then, with an astonishing eight nationals plus the Metro going for the exact same shot.

Predictably, there's a lot of anti-media muttering about how journalists have been ignoring 'the real story' of the thousands of students who protested peacefully in favour of the violent minority. In fact, with the Sun and the Mail both acknowledging on their front page that the protest was 'hijacked', that's probably not the case.

But for the 'blame-the-corporate-media' types out there, consider this: yesterday about 1,900,000 students did NOT take to the streets, and just sat at home watching Jeremy Kyle went to lectures as normal. Those on the NUS march hoped to attract publicity, even though they were in a minority, because they were angry and proactive and made some noise. They can hardly complain now that they lost their place on the front page to an even angrier, more proactive and noisier minority...

'Hi there, I was just calling to check you received the IED we sent out earlier...'

Not so long ago, FleetStreetBlues had a random newsroom debate with someone about an article which mentioned Afghanistan.

Conscientious journalists that we are, the question was whether we should be making the effort to get comment from both sides - until it dawned on us that the other side was likely to be crouched behind a machine gun somewhere in Helmland Province preaching death to the infidels. After all, it's not as if the Taliban's going to request a correction, is it?

Well, it turns out they actually do. The Wall Street Journal reports:

The Taliban have in the past nine years become a relatively media-savvy organization, especially for Afghanistan, where major government ministries sometimes ask reporters to fax questions—in a country with few working land lines, and thus almost no fax machines.

The Taliban, in contrast, routinely send out statements and have a pair of spokesmen who are often eager to field queries from reporters, all the while decrying the Western media as a tool of Western governments.

The Taliban are also vigilant about mistakes in the way Western public-relations people watch out for their clients.

After being misquoted recently, Mr. Ahmadi politely requested a correction be run—and that the reporter e-mail him a link he could show his bosses.

Imagine... polite PRs, who work on email, and are 'eager to field queries from reporters'. Do they teach classes?

Journo-porn

It's a nifty commercial for the Washington Post's iPad app - but for journalists, it's something more.

iPads everywhere, glamorous American reporters and some of the most legendary names in investigative journalism? This isn't an ad, this is journo-porn. Hands up who wants to work with Robert Redford...

News Editor - Ilford Recorder

Archant local paper the Ilford Recorder is recruiting a news editor.

You'll need to be a 'fully trained senior journalist' with at least three years' experience - in return they're offering what's described as a 'competitive basic salary', which sounds, er, carefully worded.

Email maxine.leckerman@ilfordrecorder.co.uk quoting reference number RL/EDT800/NOV10 to get an application pack. Deadline Thursday 18 November.

Poll result: Are BBC journalists right to strike?

We won't pretend we were totally impartial, of course, and a number of readers expressed support for the BBC strikers - Dave Lee, for instance, was quick to point out that 'not all BBC journalists are on George Alagiah's wage'.

But if they can't win a majority backing among our (highly unscientific) poll of journalists, it doesn't bode hugely well for a wave of strikes lasting up until Christmas. The NUJ better get some PRs in...

Reporter - Construction News

Emap trade title Construction News is recruiting a senior reporter.

You'll be covering everything to do with the construction industry, really, and will be expected to go head-to-head with the nationals for relevant stories. There are no specific qualification requirements but you will need some experience - they ask for 'a track record of being the first to break a story'.

Apply with CV, covering letter and salary expectations to jobs@emap.com, quoting reference KH-IFCN-037 in the email subject line. Deadline Friday 19 November.

UPDATE: Gorkana is also advertising a senior features writer position on Construction News, although it's not currently on the Emap website, May be a case of advertising two positions and actually looking only to recruit one and do some internal shuffling about - although the features writer position is apparently brand-new.

Journalists unite! You have nothing to lose but your NIBs!

So here at FleetStreetBlues, we don't have much experience of strikes.

It's not that we're for them or against them, exactly. We're all for journalists having better pay, pensions and conditions, and absolutely support any ways of making that happen.

Our problem though - and possibly a wider problem our generation has with the concept of striking - is that the people who end up striking are never exactly the ones who most deserve better pay and conditions. Be it £30,000-a-year tube drivers, firefighters with second jobs or BBC journalists fighting to protect their pensions - well, they deserve better, for sure, but in the queue of people deserving better they're arguably a little way back.

So, we'll leave it to you to tell us how sympathetic you are to the BBC strikers (in the poll at the top right or the comments, please). But what we'd really like to see is this: a strike for the poorest, worst-off and most deserving journalists who really need our solidarity and support.

Let local paper reporters working eleven-hour days on £14k a year refuse to cover another bloody council meeting.

Let underpaid and underemployed freelancers refuse to churn out another 2,000-word feature for the promise of some frankly hypothetical payment three months down the line.

Let unpaid, over-exploited workies refuse to spend yet another day making the teas and answering the phones simply to pad out another line in their poor, unloved CV.

Let subs facing imminent extinction refuse to staff giant cross-county hubs, let online journalists refuse to tweet their every waking thought, let newswire-types stop churning out 4,000 words a day.

Who's with us?

'This article was unaffected by the strikes'

FleetStreetBlues can't be the only one who finds the BBC's persistent and self-conscious habit of covering itself like it's totally not covering itself (see Mark Thompson, Strictly Come Dancing, anything to do with Top Gear) slightly irritating. But this morning's effort is even more painful than most, as the BBC News website article attempts to give a run-down of how BBC journalists are performing as industrial action takes place - without of course acknowledging that it itself is an act of BBC journalism.

Radio 4's Today programme was an early casualty but BBC1's Breakfast News was going ahead. Further industrial action is planned for 15 and 16 November.

Why don't you give us more detail, please. 'This article was unaffected, up until this paragr...'.

Strike time

The BBC pensions strike is very much on then, with familiar faces such as Fiona Bruce, Kirsty Wark, Martha Kearney and Nicky Campbell all set to down tools from midnight tonight (although apparently it won't be everyone: Robert Peston is reportedly among those who'll be working as normal).

The 1pm and 6pm bulletins on BBC1 will also be hit by the strike, which will begin at midnight, as will the TV network's Breakfast programme and the corporation's 24-hour news channel, BBC News.

Managers were scrambling today to put together sufficient resources to provide a "core news service" across TV, radio and online. One insider described the situation as "looking stretched"...

...The NUJ, which represents about 4,100 BBC journalists, called tomorrow's strike last week. A second strike is due to take place from 15 November, with the threat of further industrial action over Christmas.

4,100 journalists?