The national with just three reporters

Lots is coming out of the Leveson Inquiry - and despite our scepticism about the inquiry as a whole, some of it makes pretty uncomfortable listening for any journalist - but what's also interesting is the stories which are coming out almost incidentally. Ignore the knee-jerk journalist-bashing headlines and listen to or read the evidence in full, and for anyone interested in the British media the inquiry offers a real insight, albeit with a hefty Guardian-esque ideological slant.

Yesterday saw evidence from former News of the World deputy features editor Paul McMullan and the Guardian journalist who broke the phone-hacking story, Nick Davies, who between them pretty much cover the full spectrum of Fleet Street hackery. But the inquiry also heard from Richard Peppiatt, the former Daily Star reporter who resigned in a memorable blaze of glory back in March ('I made it up. Staring at a blank page, I simply plucked it from my arse') and has since established himself as a campaigner for press standards. 

In his evidence, as well as making much broader ethical points about the fabrication of stories and the influence of PR, he talked about the pressure overworked Daily Star reporters are under, and offered the following anecdote:

Richard Desmond’s investment in his newsroom operation was/is woeful, and this has resulted in too few reporters to adequately do their job. I recollect one day there being just myself and two other reporters to write the whole newspaper. We were forced to use pseudonyms just to make it appear to readers there were more of us.