Reporter - The Register

The UK's biggest technology and science news website The Register is recruiting reporters who already have two years' experience covering technology, science or business - and we're lucky enough to have a tip from a former reporter there.

Our source, who's now moved on to a national, writes:

The Reg keeps a low-ish profile but completely dominates its market in the UK. You get a lot of scope to do original, investigative stories (not necessarily about technology) if you've got the chops. They're good bosses and pay a decent wage, so there's probably not many better places to start out IMHO.

A pretty ringing endorsement, and the job looks like a good 'un. The only catch? You'll have to apply very, very fast. 

They only appear to have put the job ad up on Monday but in theory today is the closing date. We reckon they might forgive you if you got your application in first thing tomorrow, but don't delay. Email cvs@theregister.co.uk.

Newspapers all set for April Fool's shenanigans

So last year the clear winner of the annual April Fool's contest was the Guardian, with this story on Labour's supposed new election strategy (featuring the poster above that surely would have won Gordon Brown the election in real life).

Other notable efforts included the Daily Telegraph's report that 'specially trained ferrets' were being used to deliver broadband to rural areas, the Independent's claim that a second Large Hadron Collider was planned for the Circle Line, and the Daily Express's exclusive on the Queen's flight from Luton to Aberdeen by Easyjet.

We await this year's crop with bated breath...

Breaking into journalism: The accidental interview

The next entry in our breaking into journalism series comes from a true Fleet Street veteran. Charles Rae was formerly royal correspondent at the Sun and Today and industrial editor at the Sun, and is now a freelance journalist. Send your story today to fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

In the 60s, aged 16, and a copy boy at the Scottish Daily Express in Glasgow, I had no thoughts of journalism.

I took the job until I was 18 as I was about to join the police force.

The Spencer Davis group had just released Keep on Running and were playing live in Airdrie Town Hall. I was desperate to see them but was broke. I had met many reporters and was impressed that a press card seemed to open up all sorts of doors for free!

This was in the days before computers and I hit on the idea of making a fake press card to blag into the gig.

At the Town Hall, l quickly flashed the card and the doorman said: 'Fine, follow me.' I thought I had been rumbled and was taken through dark corridors to a closed door. My escort knocked the door and a man opened it and told me : 'Right come in. You have 10 minutes before Spencer starts.'

And there I was face to face with Spencer Davis, and his then bandmates, Steve and Muff Winwood. Of course I had no notebook, tape recorder or anything else, but started asking Spencer about his life so far.

After watching the concert, I was concerned that my bosses might find out, so I typed up the 'interview' in a Q&A session, took it to work the following day and casually mentioned I had bumped into Spencer Davis. I was told to put the copy in a tray and thought nothing more about it, but was basically pleased with myself I had covered my arse.

Later that day I was delivering copies of the Express’s sister paper, The Evening Citizen, to various executives and eventually read it to find my story – with a byline – was there in black and white as I had submitted it in a Q&A.

I never went to the police force - instead I began a 40-year career in journalism.

My start was certainly due to luck and a bit of cunning. But it gave me the kick I needed and the determination to make a career in one of the greatest jobs in the world.

Advice for those starting out: use your luck when you get it and keep focussed and remember in this business you never stop learning.

To share your story of how you broke into journalism, email us today at fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

'Spooky faces in Ben's kneecaps'

We thought the story in the Daily Mail and the Sun about the semi-detatched house in Swansea that 'looks like Hitler' would be hard to beat. We were wrong.

Two readers - Karam Filifan and Rosie Taylor - were in touch yesterday regarding the same story, a lookalike effort from the Sheffield Star published last Friday that tops the house that's not fuhrer sale.

Spooky faces in Ben's kneecaps

Two ghostly faces formed in a Doncaster man’s knees have become a family joke.

Dad John Martin first spotted the two ‘faces’ apparently staring out of his 20-year-old son Ben’s kneecaps as they both sat watching the television at the family home at Catterick Close, Denaby.

Remember, unlike with the Hitler house, there's no flimsy we're-covering-an-internet-fad excuse here. No, this is a Sheffield Star exclusive.

Admit it though, at this point you really want to see a picture of said kneecaps, don't you? Well, here they are:

They look like 'an old-fashioned picture of a bearded Chinese man', and have been dubbed 'Casper' and 'Fu Manchu'. Apparently.

Breaking into journalism: 'Journalism degrees are three years of a waste of time'

The eleventh installment in our series on breaking into journalism comes from Nadia Gilani, senior reporter at the South London Press. You can follow her on twitter @nadiagilani or read her blog here. Submissions are still coming, so if you want to tell us how you got into journalism - and help inspire the next generation of would-be journalists - email your story to fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

Work experience, work experience, work experience. Ask most journalists how they got their foot in the door, and they’ll mention it at some point. I always tell budding journos that you get it by asking for it. Work experience isn’t advertised. You have to hunt it out, and elbow your way in.

I did work experience all over the shop before I even trained or got my first job; at local papers, newspapers, glossy magazines.

I went to Leeds and slept on a friend’s sofa to do a week at the Yorkshire Post.

My point is: be flexible. If you really want to get a foot in, you’ve got to be willing to step into the office of absolutely any title.

Put dreams of being a Guardian columnist aside for a while. It’s not the time to be snobbish.

It's all very easy to say you want to be a journalist, but what are you doing about it?
 I also got myself published as soon as I could. Initially I started reviews for websites - it was a great way to get in free at music gigs and clubs and got a portfolio going. Finally I managed to convince editors as some of the magazines I liked at the time such as Dazed & Confused and Tank to let me write something.

There’s no buzz like the one you get from your first byline.

There are a fair few competitions around for students and young people. It's a good thing to do - it gets you writing, gives you a word limit, and a deadline.

I bought the Guardian Media Guide so I had all the contact details of everyone.


If it's newspapers you’re going for call the news editor, introduce yourself and chances are they'll get you to send in your CV. Follow up with a call to remind them. Keep the cover letter brief. Journalists don't have time to wade through a life story.

If it's magazine work you want contact the managing editor or the editor's PA – not the editor – and don’t do it first thing in the morning. I’d say the middle of the day is a good time to chance a call.

Be persistent. The Sun newspaper turned me down three times before agreeing to give me a go so persistence pays off but you have to gauge how far to push it. Working at a newspaper is extremely stressful and reporters don't tend to appreciate time wasters.

Once you're in - be keen. That's the single thing I look for in workies. You're not expected to know how to do everything, but if you're keen you've won me over.

I've seen great workies, and pretty awful ones. Showing off isn't a good idea. Rest assured if you do good by the tasks you're given it will be noted.




You'll be given a few short stories before you're trusted with something bigger. But do a good job, come up with your own ideas, and you'll not be on the little stuff for long.

Rejections? You've got to dust yourself off, stay focused and keep going. If one person says no, try elsewhere. 


In terms of courses, I don't know anyone for whom a media degree lead to a job. Others may disagree. And I'm not into journalism degrees. It’s three years of a waste of time.

I'm sure you learn a bit but overall, but I reckon the sooner you get out, and get on with it the better. The insight I got through work experience couldn’t have been got in a classroom. Journalism isn't a science that needs to be studied. However, it's quite strict in newspapers these days that you have to have done National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) accredited training, which covers media law and short hand.
It's the first thing you will be asked if you cold call a news desk.


So start now. Phone up the place that’s the job of your dreams – why not? Being fearless, willing and able is the best start. Over to you.

Email your story today to fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

The Hitler house

The 'Daily Mail Reporter' byline is used to cover a multitude of sins these days, but even by MailOnline's usual standards, today's effort was exceptional. Anyone want to own up?

Reporter - Gloucester Citizen

Six-days-a-week local paper the Gloucester Citizen is hiring a senior news reporter.

No specific qualification requirements in the ad, but you'll need to be a 'great communicator' with an eye of an exclusive and a fair degree of experience under your belt. They promise a 'hard news patch on the doorstep of the Cotswolds'.

Apply with CV and covering letter to maggie.bell@glosmedia.co.uk. Deadline Friday 8 April.

ClosetGate: The Movie

Scott Powers, the Orlando Sentinel reporter bizarrely imprisoned in a closet last Thursday by staff of the US Vice President Joe Biden, has finally spoken out about his ordeal.

But for the true inside scoop look no further than the animation above, which recreates the entire event, complete with hefty West Wing boot applied to journalistic backside. Exactly how it happened. Almost. 

(Hat tip: Roy Greenslade)

Breaking into journalism: 'Go where the story is'

The tenth in our continuing series on breaking into journalism comes from an experienced broadcast journalist - Rachel Corp, news editor at ITN. Send your story to fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk. 

I always tell people the key things are to get involved in student media, hustle for work experience wherever and whenever you can, work 24 hours a day if necessary and have a shed load of ideas.

Student media is the best place to learn the basics, make a load of mistakes when it doesn't matter and get a grip of the lingo so you are that bit further ahead when it comes to trying to get work. Nothing beats work experience for getting something on the CV/showreel and making contacts.

Then throw every story idea you have at those contacts and their contacts - no media organisation ever has enough stories/people to work them up so pitch enough and someone will eventually bite. Use any background, knowledge or in you have and be bold - go where the story is if necessary.

My tale - a group of us set up a student radio station at Leeds University. It was probably terrible to listen to but we all learnt how to broadcast and it took us places where we could get to real people working in the industry (and winning student media awards helped!). I met BBC producers at a conference and wangled work experience at Radio 4. That opened doors to programme makers who needed airtime filled, so I threw stories at anyone willing to listen and ended up freelance feature reporting, including heading off to the war in Bosnia which was going on at the time.

All of that meant when ITN's trainee programme came up that year, I was in a good place to apply and 'break into journalism' properly.

That was 1995. I did nine years at ITN, then some time at the BBC and the outside world before coming back to ITN this year. I still think the main principle hasn't changed. It's all about stories - story ideas and story choices, using your initiative and making yourself heard.

There's plenty of life left in this series yet, so as long as they keep coming in, we'll keep publishing them. Send your story of how you broke into journalism today to fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk. 

Deputy News Editor - Cyprus Today

Living and working abroad is probably something most journalists talk about at some point in their careers - but concrete opportunities to up sticks and move overseas are few and far between. So if you're looking, this deputy news editor position at English-language newspaper Cyprus Today could be your big chance.

You'll need to be an experienced journalist - preferably one who's done time on a newsdesk - and ready to step straight into the role, which is a combination of assisting the news editor and some reporting. You'll be based in Nicosia, and they're after someone who's 'in a position to relocate quickly'.

No mention of pay, but clearly the big draw is the 300 days of sunshine a year. As the ad puts it: 'This is no holiday camp - it's a demanding job - but the bonus is a relaxed Mediterranean lifestyle, sunshine, friendly people and a lower cost of living.'

Apply with CV, covering letter and clips to the editor, Gill Fraser, at cyprustoday@yahoo.com. Deadline next Monday 4 April.

Wanted: Responsible Drinking Journalist of the Year

Impeccable time-keeping, stylish dress sense, healthy personal finances - journalists are known for many things. But responsible drinking may not be one of them.

Our man in Cape Town (yes, FleetStreetBlues has got so big we now have a man in Cape Town) alerts us to a brand new set of awards aimed at South Africa's finest hacks - the brandhouse Responsible Drinking Media Awards.

Here's the pitch:

brandhouse is deeply committed to responsible drinking and is involved in numerous interventions driving this important message to consumers. The awards form part of the company’s ongoing efforts to inform and raise consumer awareness about the potentially devastating effects of alcohol abuse. 

The objective of the awards is to encourage journalists to use their individual approach and messaging influences to proactively gain traction with their readers and shape perceptions and behaviour around drunk driving, as well as other alcohol-related issues such as under-age drinking, foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), binge drinking and illicit alcohol. 

This initiative creates the platform for brandhouse to acknowledge media who are true ambassadors for responsible drinking.

Now of course there is, as our source - freelancer Raymond Joseph, @rayjoe - acknowledges, a serious problem with drink-driving in South Africa, and anything to help address that has to be a good thing. But if South African journalists are anything like their UK counterparts, those volunteering to be praised as 'true ambassadors for responsible drinking' - by one of the country's biggest booze distributors, natch - may be thin on the ground.

Raymond adds:

Putting up "Responsible Drinking Media Awards" for journos, who know a few things about knocking back the demon alcohol, and offering ZAR10,000 (quite a lot of cash locally) for each category, seems like an attempt to cash in with a straight face, something marketers are good at. 

I'm not sure what self-respecting journo wants to put Responsible Drinking Journalist of the Year on their CV. But buying doubles all round in the pub will make them popular. 

Last thought: will brandhouse refuse to serve alcohol at the awards night and risk journos not turning up? I think not!

Journalist 'forced into cupboard'

Think Government press officers in Britain are heavy-handed? Try this for size - members of US Vice President Joe Biden's staff apparently forced a journalist into a cupboard at a fundraising event on Thursday.

The Orlando Sentinel reports:

The life of a political reporter isn’t all champagne and canapes. Consider our man Scott Powers, who was sent over to the Winter Park home of Alan Ginsburg this morning as the designated “pool reporter” — aka scribe — for the fundraiser where Vice President Joe Biden is appearing on behalf of U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. 

Turns out the veep hadn’t arrived, but about 150 guests (minimum donation $500) were already in the house. So to prevent Scott from mingling with the crowd, a member of Biden’s advance team consigned him to a storage closet - and then stood outside the door to make sure he didn’t walk out without permission.

As is often the case in incidents like this, however, the overzealous staff members turned out to be as cack-handed as they were heavy-handed. They forgot to confiscate Scott's phone - ensuring he was able to capture his temporary prison for posterity.

The story's now running on top US blog the Drudge Report and has just crossed the Atlantic and made it onto the Telegraph website.

Quite why a politician thought he could get away with his staff forcing a journalist into a closet is beyond us though. Isn't it normally our job to be forcing them out of one?

The Sunday scoop: Pregnant woman told to give up her BA seat so Gordon Brown can fly Club Class

For the past few weeks the Sunday papers have been dominated by breaking news rather than hard-won exclusives, and this week was no different, with various takes on the anti-cuts march predominating (various figures too, with estimates of the number marching ranging from 'more than 250,000' in the Observer to 'up to 500,000' in the Independent on Sunday.)

Our favourite story of the day though came from the Mail on Sunday. Politician-baiting, a pregnant woman in distress and the all-important pictures - this story has it all. They even came up with the perfect tabloid name for it: 'Mutiny on the Brown-ty'.

Stat of the day: 26 March 2011

On the eve of what's expected to be the biggest political demonstration for nearly a decade, the Guardian, which has been trailing the march against the cuts all week, commissioned an ICM poll of public opinion. This wasn't the answer they wanted.

Of 1,014 people questioned this week, 35% believe the cuts go too far, 28% say they strike the right balance and 29% say they don't go far enough; 8% don't know.

Breaking into journalism: 'If you don't like news, work in a shop'

We've had a lot of positive feedback on our breaking into journalism series, but there has also been the odd comment that our contributors are - how to put this politely - on the more experienced side. The following submission, from a younger journalist who chose the pseudonym 'Mark Renton', aims to redress the balance.

With the greatest of respect, the hacks featured so far in your 'how did you get your job' series are all of a certain age.

That's not to say they're past it, or out-of-touch. But they have seemingly all landed their jobs before the shit really hit the fan. You know, in the days before every single national paper except the Daily Mail suspended their trainee schemes. Before regionals stopped offering permanent contracts, and the shitty six-month gigs they do offer attract 100+ applicants each.

First off, get writing for fun. There's plenty of papers, magazines and websites out there who survive on unpaid contributors. If you don't enjoy it, choose a different career path and save yourself a lot of hassle.

But you'll know all that already. The next important step is to face reality. If you enjoy writing gig reviews and fashion features, cool. You and every other fucking wannabe out there. So learn about news. Personally, I liked reading about current affairs long before I wanted to become a hack. But I quickly learned on my journalism course that I was very much in the minority. So if you don't like news, piss off and work in a shop. There's too many time-wasters clogging up journalism courses as it is. It just makes life harder for those of us who actually have the potential to be half-decent reporters.

Next up, get applying for jobs. No one is going to ask you. Believe in yourself. There are plenty of naturally shy hacks out there, but do remember to make yourself sound like Jesus on your CV. Remember, this is a very competitive industry. Think you're above working for a local weekly? Good luck, and keep stacking those shelves.

Learn to deal with rejection, as you'll be facing a lot of it. Writing a good CV and handling interviews well only comes with practice. Above all, no matter how long it takes to find a job, keep reminding yourself that you are a journalist. Resist the temptation to just take some god-awful PR job, or to start writing bullshit copy for some commercial website. Such jobs are not journalism. Don't fool yourself. Bide your time, and keep your eye on the prize. Keep doing work placements. Keep writing for unpaid magazines. Anything that keeps your hand in.

Because it's worth it in the end. Even if the money is crap.

Young or old, and whatever kind of journalist you are, we want to hear from you. Email your story today to fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

Intern - Erotic Review

Here's one of the more intriguing job ads currently on display over on Gorkana - the Erotic Review is looking for unpaid 'cabaret and burlesque interns', to review shows and work from home, and also an unpaid editorial intern, for a full-time, 8-week office-based placement.

You'll need to be 'mature, open-minded and culturally proficient', and able to write 'entertaining, tasteful prose about eroticism, sex and sexuality'. Mm hmm.

If you're interested - and hey, it's always useful to have a sure-fire talking point on your CV - apply via the Gorkana site. Both roles are unpaid, and there are no travel expenses either, although they do promise to at least feed the editorial intern lunch in the office.

Deadline this Monday 4 April.

Treasury press officer tells journalist: 'I don't want to send just you the figures'

What's the best way of dealing with a PR doing their best impression of a brick wall? Well, this is one option.

When Chris Wheal, writing an article for the Daily Finance website, repeatedly asked for figures behind a table in the Budget's Red Book, only to be told by Treasury press officer Andrea Geoghegan that she had the figures but just didn't want to send them to him until they were published more widely in a couple of weeks, he recorded the whole conversation and published it online.

Wheal: Why can't I have the figures now?

Geoghegan: They are available to me. The thing is, I don't want to send you - just you - the figures. I think in terms of transparency it would be good for everyone to see the same figures at the same time.

If there's one thing that gets FleetStreetBlues' goat, it's sub-standard PRs trying to play Malcolm Tucker. Now Roy Greenslade has picked up on it, and what's surely a fairly minor issue in the larger scheme of things has received national attention.

Listen to the full conversation below. It may sound rather familiar.

Student journalists sent 'door-knocking for stories'

This past week has been Student Media Week over on the Wannabe Hacks website, and they've had some useful and different perspectives on the changing role of student journalists, particularly the print vs online debate, which seems to be as fiercely fought on university campuses as anywhere else.

It was the following piece from Leeds-based student journalist Phillip Wood which caught our eye though, describing a rather bizarre attempt at teaching the value of 'community engagement'.

He writes:

When I asked a student journalist what the issues were, he said that “the faculty tried to encourage co-operation between journalism students and the local community. We were asked to door knock for stories. There was some concern before we did the task, however they were surprisingly helpful and informative.” 

“But my overwhelming worry is that I’m not a fully certified journalist – I lack the conviction of a pro. Put yourself in their shoes: would you want to be hassled by a gaggle of rookie hacks angling for a story?” 

Think of 30 student journalists pot-noodling their way through a leafy West Yorkshire suburb and you see his point. Joking aside, despite a positive experience with door knocking, these stories haven’t been followed up and the practice hasn’t been repeated.

Now we're all of getting student journalists away from the computer screen and out into the real world, but is this really what they're teaching on journalism courses? To literally go door-to-door in a random sleepy suburb looking for stories?

By all means teach students the value of engaging with the public, the importance of having the confidence to approach strangers and the difficult art of the sensitively-handled death knock. But we're not quite sure what the double-glazing-salesman approach to general newsgathering was hoping to achieve.

'These stories haven't been followed up and the practice hasn't been repeated'. No doubt.

Breaking into journalism: 'Copy and paste the job description'

Number eight in our breaking into journalism series comes from a sub-editor who's asked to remain anonymous, with some very specific advice on how to write the perfect cover letter. Send your story to fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

I started at age 16 as an arts editor on my US high school newspaper. When my family moved to the UK, I joined my university newspaper as a copy editor. I got the job after marking up a full issue and handing it to the editor (this may not work on university newspapers who don't have a completely shit previous copy editor). I was also an interim arts editor.

This meant that when I left university I was able to put 'I have three years' experience working with InDesign in a fast-paced newsroom environment' and 'I have managed other reporters and editors' on my CV, unlike many of my graduate competitors. I applied for a shit ton of jobs in the month before I left university, and was hired as a sub-editor on a B2B magazine, due to start the day after my graduation. This was in 2008; I'm not sure how many graduate subs jobs like that are still going.

I worked at that magazine for a year and a half before the global recession meant all subs (yes, all of them) were made redundant.

I applied for a shit ton of jobs, and a month later picked up a maternity cover position subbing for a few magazines under the umbrella of a well-known financial brand. They dropped me after six months and readvertised the position when I came down with a short-term illness, but after I was healthy and back on my feet I applied for a shit ton of jobs, got one within a month, and am now happily ensconced as a financial/political sub-editor at an analyst firm in the City.

Lessons:

• apply for a shit ton of jobs
• remember that it is a rubbish job market at the moment, and don't get discouraged
• wear a suit to first interviews, no matter what
• have a really smashing cover letter that you rewrite to apply for each new position.

I firmly believe the reason I got so many interviews and have been able to find work so quickly is my cover letter skills.

I literally copy and paste the job description, so that if a spec says (to pull a description from a current Gorkana posting), 'We're looking for a skilled all-rounder who thrives in a close-knit, friendly and fun team atmosphere but who can take initiative when needed', I copy 'skilled all-rounder', 'friendly', 'team', and 'take initiative' and then write my cover letter around those words, using examples from my work history.

It lets the person hiring know that (a) you've actually read the job spec and (b) you can actually do what they're asking.

Whatever kind of journalist you are, and wherever you're at in your career, we want to hear from you - email fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

+ + + Huffington Post to launch UK edition + + +

We sent them the Daily Mail website - now the Yanks are getting their own back by sending us the Huffington Post later this summer. Fair trade...

(Pic via Channel 4 News technology correspondent Benjamin Cohen)

Quote of the Day: 24 March 2011

BBC News head of newsgathering Fran Unsworth on the challenges of covering Egypt, Libya and Japan, and everything else in between:

In my own career I find it hard to recall a period when there has been so many huge stories happening across the world at the same time.

'Our ideal candidate has cursed out an editor': journalism job ad tells it like it is

Listen up, people. This is how you write a journalism job ad.

Forgive the overt Americanisms and forget the questionable spellings ('lede' - really?), and instead sit back and enjoy what is quite possibly the best job posting ever courtesy of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune's Matthew Doig.

We want to add some talent to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune investigative team. Every serious candidate should have a proven track record of conceiving, reporting and writing stellar investigative pieces that provoke change. However, our ideal candidate has also cursed out an editor, had spokespeople hang up on them in anger and threatened to resign at least once because some fool wanted to screw around with their perfect lede. 

We do a mix of quick hit investigative work when events call for it and mini-projects that might run for a few days. But every year we like to put together a project way too ambitious for a paper our size because we dream that one day Walt Bogdanich will have to say: “I can’t believe the Sarasota Whatever-Tribune cost me my 20th Pulitzer.” As many of you already know, those kinds of projects can be hellish, soul-sucking, doubt-inducing affairs. But if you’re the type of sicko who likes holing up in a tiny, closed office with reporters of questionable hygiene to build databases from scratch by hand-entering thousands of pages of documents to take on powerful people and institutions that wish you were dead, all for the glorious reward of having readers pick up the paper and glance at your potential prize-winning epic as they flip their way to the Jumble… well, if that sounds like journalism Heaven, then you’re our kind of sicko. 

For those unaware of Florida’s reputation, it’s arguably the best news state in the country and not just because of the great public records laws. We have all kinds of corruption, violence and scumbaggery. The 9/11 terrorists trained here. Bush read My Pet Goat here. Our elections are colossal clusterfucks. Our new governor once ran a health care company that got hit with a record fine because of rampant Medicare fraud. We have hurricanes, wildfires, tar balls, bedbugs, diseased citrus trees and an entire town overrun by giant roaches (only one of those things is made up). And we have Disney World and beaches, so bring the whole family. 

Send questions, or a resume/cover letter/links to clips to my email address below. If you already have your dream job, please pass this along to someone whose skills you covet. Thanks. 

Matthew Doig
Sarasota Herald-Tribune

True story: a long time ago, in the dim and distant past, FleetStreetBlues once went for an interview at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. It was the best job we never got.

Somewhat unbelievably, Poynter.org reports that despite the ad going viral, the paper's only received '15-20' applications so far. If you're interested, the place to send them is matthew.doig@heraldtribune.com. Better make the cover letter a good one.

Breaking into journalism: 'I'd never done any work experience'

The seventh entry in our series on breaking into journalism comes from Alec Doyle, a senior sports reporter at the Chester Chronicle. Send your story to fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

When I got into journalism I had never done any work experience, I simply applied for a job. I didn't go to university, didn't pin my hopes on a journalism course or any of that.

I just got mediocre A-levels and applied for a job at the Chester Chronicle with a four-month training course in Newcastle attached.

I got in by impressing the editor with my solid but basic writing skills, confidence, good current affairs knowledge and a bit of balls (I challenged him that if I out-and-out failed in Newcastle, I'd refund his money). That was 11 years ago and sadly the only one of the traits I showed that still survives in most of the work experience youngsters we get now is confidence, which is often misplaced.

Read papers (including local ones), pay attention, learn to speak on the telephone, spell correctly and dress smart. If you do these things you will impress and if you impress, you are likely to stand out when jobs come around.

Ultimately someone who understands how the world works and gets the basics right will catch an editor's eye because they are few and far between.

Whatever kind of journalist you are, and wherever you're at in your career, we want to hear how you got there - email fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

Quote of the Day: 23 March 2011

Given that FleetStreetBlues reads the news a fair bit, and could tell you the exact number of Canadian warships anchored off Tripoli but not anything at all about the Libyan rebels, even four days late this comment from Matthew Parris' column in The Times on Saturday still seems pretty relevant:

I doubt we know much about the rebels, whose appearance in the British media increasingly puts me in mind of Evelyn Waugh’s novel Scoop and the faraway African country whose conflict the Daily Beast characterises as being a civil war between the Rebels and the Patriots. The Beast’s proprietor instructs his foreign correspondent: “Remember that the Patriots are in the right and are going to win.”

In the Libyan case, it seems, the rebels are in the right and are going to win — but who are they? Vigorous expressions of media support for their cause are worryingly unaccompanied by any analysis of their membership, their ideological aims, their unity (or otherwise), their leadership, or even their names.

Breaking into journalism: The importance of pester power

The sixth installment in our series on the different ways to break into journalism comes from freelancer Alison Ebbage, who you can follow on Twitter at @alisonebbage. Send in your story today to fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

I got into journalism through determination, pester power and being in the right place at the right time!

After uni I had a few sales-type jobs in financial services that didn't suit. I decided I'd like to be a journalist and did a few evening courses at City University which gave me some good pointers.

I decided to write about something close to my own heart- the lack of direction and difficulty in deciding on a career after uni. Then I identified possible 'targets' and contacted them with ideas, followed up to see if they liked the ideas etc... One of those targets was Ian Wylie, editor of the then "Rise" section in Saturday's Guardian - it looked at graduate careers.

A few days after I had proposed a piece on graduate schemes at large companies, Mark's pulled their scheme. Ian phoned me Friday and asked if I could produce a piece by Tuesday - hell yeah!

It built up from there and I wrote for the Guardian on a regular basis which opened up doors to other nationals - still on Careers and HR. I was still working in financial services full-time and freelancing at the weekend at this point and after a year or so I started to apply for jobs - got one on a financial publication going straight in at features editor level. I eventually became editor there and went freelance after my daughter was born.

I was lucky to write for the Guardian straight away and that did open doors for me but I had to do a lot of ground work in building up the relationship with the Ian at the Guardian in the first place - and he was also very supportive of what I was trying to do and gave me lots of useful advice when I was looking for full-time jobs. Other editors were also supportive. The other key was being able to think up good features ideas, often on the back of something in the news. The courses at City were really good as well.

I think my story proves that if you can write in the first place, can come up with decent ideas, deliver them on time and be able to forge good relationships with editors then you will do well. Also you need good networking ability to build your contacts.

Whatever kind of journalist you are, and wherever you're at in your career, we want to hear how you got there - email fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

'It's just not cricket': Daily Mail rip off has US journalists up in arms

Over here we may be used to the Daily Mail website's easy familiarity with other people's hard work, but in the US, they're less impressed.

The SFWeekly.com website has just launched an angry tirade in the general direction of Paul Dacre after their painstaking investigation into how illegal immigrants were becoming legal residents after being victims of crime became this on MailOnline.

This is an example of "churnalism" at its most depraved -- the story's byline reads only "Daily Mail Reporter," as if the anonymous hack couldn't bear to fess up to his or her lack of originality. The article proceeds to rephrase our sentences, lift our quotes verbatim, and even write snappy sidebars about the visa-seeking San Francisco-based immigrants -- Rosa Aguilar and Adolfo Lopez, you've gone international! -- profiled in our original story.

Check out our story versus theirs for yourself: There is absolutely no original reporting in the entire Daily Mail piece. Apparently the reporter thought he or she was absolved via a quick "SFWeekly.com reports" in the 18th paragraph. No link or anything. Wow, thanks.

Nor, as SFWeekly.com points out, is it the first time this has happened - they cite other recent articles which bore close similarities to pieces in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times respectively.

It's one thing to like the doggy in the window, and another to abscond with it and walk it down the street like you own it.... C'mon, guys: All we're asking for is some link love and heavy attribution high up in the story. Then go ahead and take what you want. To borrow a British expression, what the Mail did -- it's just not cricket.

Beautifully put... but if US journalists are hoping that kind of robust response will persuade the Daily Mail to change tack, they may be sorely disappointed. If anything, the competition's likely to get worse.

Last month, it was reported that the Daily Mail's online operation had just signed a four-year lease on a 5,200 square foot newsroom in New York.

Better get used to it, America. Welcome to Fleet Street.

Daily Express double whammy

Even the Daily Star splashes on Colonel Gaddafi's 'human shield of kids' this morning - it's wall-to-wall coverage of Libya across the front pages, with every paper covering what now seems to be a war from their own editorial standpoint.

Every paper, that is, except the Daily Express, which as last week with the tsunami, is once again the odd man out.

You've got to hand it to them, they know their readers well. Cheaper energy bills for us all and the chance to run another Diana picture? Clear the front page.

Play it again, Kien

If there's one thing local papers know how to do, it's how to go to town on a low key neighbourhood dispute. And, as the excellent Angry People in Local Newspapers blog points out, this effort from the Norwich Evening News - 'Teenage musician could be banned from practising piano' - is a classic case in point.

It's basically a story about one neighbour shouting at another neighbour to keep the noise down, but that hasn't stopped the Evening News giving it the full Watergate treatment, bless 'em.

There's an exclusive interview with the piano player (Kien Ingate, 14) at the centre of the storm. There's an off-the-record briefing with the neighbour who 'asked not to be named'. And, this being the 21st century, there's a frankly magnificent minute-long video reenactment of what happens every time poor Kien gets asked to keep the noise down, complete with some quality eye-rolling action (see above). If you watch one online video this year, we cannot emphasise strongly enough that this video must be it.

Breaking into journalism: 'Take up plumbing, the pay is better'

The next installment of the week in our breaking into journalism series, intended to help show would-be hacks that it's not impossible, comes from another hugely experienced journalist, Alan Dean.

To send in your own story, email us today - in fact, right now - at fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

I started out on the Clapham Observer, straight out of grammar school with a rather average exam record, the year the Russians put a dog in space for the first time (that’s a long way back). I ‘made my name’ when I came up with a story asking whether Battersea Dogs Home would allow any of its ‘residents’ to become dognauts.

I remember phoning the Russian Embassy for a quote – much to the surprize of the embassy's cultural attache, and, I imagine, whoever was tapping the phone lines in those Cold War days. I was 17 at the time. The name of the game then was to find an original angle, not to cut and paste e-mailed PR handouts, which, alas, is what much of journalism seems all about these days.

In the Sixties (yes, the Swinging Sixties) I turned down a Fleet Street offer with the Sunday People and decided, instead, to do a bit of travelling. I became a stringer for a handful of titles, including three national dailies in several newsworthy spots.

For the foreign news desks and copytakers (do they still exist?) I was Dean of Tangier, Dean of Saigon, Dean of Tel Aviv (the 6-Day War) and Dean of Belgrade. I was later offered a job on the Kent Messenger, but did not fancy becoming Dean of Canterbury. Armed with a bundle of clippings from exotic (if that's the word) datelines I snatched the job of deputy editor at an international news magazine based in Belgium.

My career saw the days of portable typewriters, Cable and Wireless credit cards for filing by telegram (later the telex), handsome expenses, and getting paid on time. Yes, the good old days of Fleet Street's larger-than-life-characters and hot lead.

My advice to most would-be journalists today is somewhat jaundiced - take up plumbing: the pay is better, and there’s always work.

For the record, I have not become a dinosaur: in my early seventies, I am involved in content management for a handful of websites on a daily basis. And I am currently planning a trip through Eastern Europe to research a story on... that's another golden rule, keep the good story ideas to yourself.

Follow Alan on Twitter at @alaninantwerp. Whatever kind of journalist you are, and wherever you're at in your career, we want to hear how you got there - email fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk. 

Breaking into journalism: 'I overcame 80 job rejections'

The fourth offering in our series on breaking into journalism is short and sweet, and comes from veteran football reporter Ray Ryan, formerly of the News of the World.

To send in your own story to help inspire the next generation of journalists, email us today at fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

Combination of luck and being persistent. After 80 job rejections as a trainee reporter, I decided to join a local paper in the circulation department doing a crappy job for next to no money. But it served its purpose as I got to know the editor and started writing for them from there.

Led to work on a national magazine and News of the World for 15 years.

Message to anyone wanting to get into journalism - don't give up, keep bashing away. And best of luck.

You can follow Ray on Twitter at @RazorPat. Whatever kind of journalist you are, and wherever you're at in your career, we want to hear your story. Email fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

The Sunday scoop: Euro MPs exposed in 'cash-for-laws' scandal

For the second week running there were slim pickings for those looking for genuine exclusives on the Sundays' front pages, with air strikes on Libya occupying top billing for most papers just as the aftermath of the tsunami did last week.

An honorable mention should go to the Mail on Sunday for its startling disclosure that Midsomer Murders does, after all, feature a black face, even if he only appears for a few seconds as an extra - we can only assume Rob Cooper has been hitting the box sets all week.

But scoop of the day surely has to go again to the Sunday Times, for its report exposing how three senior MEPs agreed to table amendments damaging consumer protection across the EU in return for secret payments. MPs' expenses may have been done to death, but it still feels like there's much, much more to be written about goings-on at the European Parliament.

Solid old-fashioned investigative journalism, complete with video filmed undercover. In the finest traditions of Insight...

Breaking into journalism: 'Bugger me, lad, you're in'

The third offering in our series on breaking into journalism comes from a hugely experienced journalist, a former teacher-turned-sub.

To offer your own experiences, and help inspire the journalists of the future, send your story today to fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

These days it’s hard to imagine the number of vacancies for reporters and subs that emerged with the dawn of ‘the new technology’ in the mid-1980s.

Greying hacks and subs all over the country collectively seemed to say ‘Sod computers’ and take the cheque on offer. I was a teacher, but looking for something else. With that in mind I took a correspondence course in subbing – I figured I knew my way around the English language because of my job. A big regional daily was looking to fill the empty seats of its downtable news subs so I applied – and was surprised to get an interview.

The interview wasn’t going well; the editor was justifiably hung up over my total lack of experience. Seeing my big chance going down the plughole I said ‘Give me a test.’ The editor shot me a blimey-he’s-keen look, then brought me in three pieces to cut and sub. Twenty minutes later he took them out to the chief sub and returned with a slightly mystified ‘Bugger me, lad, you’re in.’

 Subsequently, ‘Give me a test’ were my watchwords in any craft-specific interview. It worked every time.

From then it was more subbing, reporting, a series of snarly-but-fair Scottish chief subs, NCTJ, Fleet Street, the web, mobile and now, oddly, teaching – journalism this time.

Whatever kind of journalist you are, and wherever you're at in your career, we want to hear your story. Email us today at fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

Quote of the Day: 19 March 2011

Fraser Nelson, editor of the Spectator, on suggestions that Bedfordshire Police have taken it upon themselves to investigate the magazine over a blog by Melanie Phillips.

Think of the other crimes going in in Britain – the other demands on the CPS time. How did we get to this point? The Bedfordshire Police are not expected to be a local Stasi. Last time I checked, this is not East Germany. To me, the idea of being imprisoned for what you say, or what you tweet, is deeply sinister. And one which should raise more protest than it does. 

Breaking into journalism: A foot in the door in China

The second entry in our series on breaking into journalism comes from Alice Hutton, a reporter at The Cambridge News. Send your story today to fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

I started to get into journalism on my gap year. Instead of helping children I got a job in an English language magazine in Shanghai for six months as it was an exciting city with a large expat community where I would be given a lot of responsibility despite my lack of experience. It was the best thing I could have done.

I kept my contacts and returned to several cities in China during and after university (where I edited the uni magazine, also invaluable), building up an international portfolio.

The majority might have been flighty features for Time Out Beijing but it helped me stand out when I applied for a journalism MA at City in London and when I got my current job as a reporter for The Cambridge News.

I know it sounds boring but anything you can do work experience-wise that looks interesting and unusual will help your CV make it to the top of the pile.

Working for the local village gazette is great but if you did the equivalent in Romania, the jaded news editor reading piles of applications might give you a second look. If you can afford it that is. That is why I would also recommend getting a part-time job during university.

The real question my friends and I are asking ourselves now is: how do you get that elusive second, better paid, better located job in journalism once you're in? Answer us that, FleetStreetBlues...

You can follow Alice on Twitter at @alice_hutton.

Whatever kind of journalist you are, and wherever you're at in your career, we want to hear your story. Email us today at fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

The difference between promoting a yarn... and writing it

An anonymous reader left a comment yesterday on the first in our series on breaking into journalism which seems to makes quite a lot of sense. Particularly the web monkey bit.

... Five years or so ago, there was a certain kind of old-school journalist who, converted to the cause, as it were, banged on at length about the importance of hacks having a web presence of the highest order to demonstrate the new skills. It turns out, however, that the new skills are a piece of piss (particularly with current web technology), and promoting a yarn via Google, Facebook, Twitter etc is, in reality, an administrative task rather than a journalistic one. If you want to employ a proper journalist rather than a cheap web monkey, the SEO stuff really is secondary. (Of course, there is the fact that many employers actively want web monkeys rather journalists because they are so much cheaper, but that's a whole other debate.)

Read the full comment here, and then let us know if you agree. Are 'community moderators' and other such multimeeja types really journalists at all? Or is it an entirely different skill? And is it time we stopped pretending otherwise?

Daily Mail wardrobe malfunction

The Daily Mail's website has built its enviable reputation on a heady mix of Middle England scandal and scantily-clad Z-list celebrities - but yesterday things went a little awry.

A routine story about Kerry Katona and Nicola McLean's 'glam night out' was accompanied by the following photo (saved here for posterity by News of the World showbiz editor Dan Wootton - click here to enlarge, although you really don't want to).

The caption? 'Helping hand: Katona reaches out to McLean as she slides down the wall exposing a lot of leg... but the low lighting may have led some to believe a lot more'.

As internet types began to gossip - 'did the Mail just publish what I thought it published?' - that 'some' clearly soon included higher-ups at the Mail, who swiftly intervened.

The amended picture's new caption? 'Helping hand: Katona reaches out to McLean as she slides down the wall beside the elevators (the image has been pixellated to protect her modesty)'.

The offending picture has now been removed entirely, Daily Mail readers will be mightily pleased to learn. There's a line...

Stat of the day: 17 March 2011

15.9 million 

That's the number of unique users the BBC News website had last Friday, the day the tsunami first hit Japan - a clear new record beating their previous best, 11.4 million unique users on election results day.

All the major broadcasters - CNN, Sky News, Channel 4 and so on - received similar boosts in traffic (Journalism.co.uk has the full figures), and no doubt in due course newspapers and their websites will report similar spikes. News is not dead.

A very cheeky headline

This is just mean. Getting strip-searched after a routine traffic stop is bad enough - having a punny American sub-editor on a local TV news website making you the butt of internet jokes is just unfair. 

Read the full story over at WYFF4.com.

Hat tip: Fiona Cullinan

Breaking into journalism: 'If you have no stories you're worth nothing'

We've had a fantastic response to our appeal yesterday asking for readers who are established journalists to send in their stories of how they got their foot in the door, in a bid to inspire the next generation of wannabe hacks.

First up is News of the World TV editor Tom Latchem. Send your story today to fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

The simplest - and most effective - bit of advice on getting into journalism is dig up and generate your own stories.

You can be the best writer in the world, but if you have no stories you're worth nothing as a reporter. Conversely, there are dozens of reporters who are appalling writers but have successful careers because they know what a story is and manage to deliver them.

Work experience is handy as it shows journalism is not a flash-in-the-pan idea, but use it wisely - prepare yourself for it by coming up with some stories, or at least some ideas you can develop into stories. If you can generate stories, the news editor will have you back as they don't feel they need to spoonfeed you - and you have a value for them. When there be keen and polite - you'll be amazed how much people want to help you if you appear hungry. In the same respect, people won't give you the time of day if you're blase about it all. Get on with people and stay in touch with them - maybe even offer up future stories.

By the time you finish uni you should have impressed people and made enough contacts that you'll be able to shift/do work experience somewhere while you do an NCTJ course. By the end of that, if you've not got any offers to at least shift somewhere virtually full-time, then you're probably doing something wrong.

Oh, and you'll need a car. 

I personally did lots of journalism while at uni (when else are you going to get 'paid' to do unpaid work? You definitely won't be able to when you leave and have to pay bills!) which handily doubled as a side-job because I impressed my local paper, the Southern Daily Echo, so much while on work experience that they gave me shifts writing local football reports. I was paid £80-a-week, which beat working in a pub and gave me lots of bylines - proving to future employers I held a long-term ambition to be a reporter.

I also did the odd national newspaper work experience. While at the Daily Mirror I made friends with a sports reporter, and he was impressed by my attitude and took me under his wing. He helped get work at Hayters sports agency, where I did regular football reporting. 

By the end of uni, I had a decent collection of cuts and managed to get £50-a-day shifts at Skysports.com. The money was crap, but I was a proper journalist! At the same time I applied for and won a place on the Mirror graduate scheme - helped by my work experience and the contacts made during the week there. I then spent three years working in various roles for the three national Mirror titles, and broke some fairly decent stories, before being approached by the News Of The World to become a feature writer two and a half years ago. Since then I have worked hard to break regular stories and was recently promoted to TV Editor.

To go back to my original point, everything that has happened in my career has come about through being keen and willing to do anything - but, ultimately, consistently generating my own stories. Do this, and the rest will take care of itself.

You can follow Tom on Twitter at @theboylatch.

Whatever kind of journalist you are, and wherever you're at in your career, we want to hear your story. Email us today at fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk.

The lawyer did what now?

An old and grizzled newshound once gave a wet-behind-the-ears FleetStreetBlues some sound advice about writing up court cases.

'Always check the names,' he said, and he was right. Even if you're the New York Times.

Here's their story:

And here's their summary page - with a rather different story:

For the record, the first one is right - the man in the dock is actually Raymond Clark III. Poor Mr Lopez is just his lawyer.

Hat tip: Colin Shek

Online Editor - Matchbox

West London glossy lifestyle magazine Matchbox is looking for a web editor for its website matchboxmag.com.

You'll need at least two years' experience working for a consumer website at a senior level, with skills in CMS, SEO, HTML and any other multimeeja acronyms they can think of. They also ask for a bulging contacts book, decent commissioning experience and 'a zest for all things London'.

Full details on Gorkana, which is now (oh happy day!) directly linkable. Apply with CV, covering letter, three examples of your work and three feature ideas via the Gorkana site. Deadline this Friday 18 March.

How did you break into journalism? Tell us your story

If there's one question we get asked more than any other by FleetStreetBlues readers, it's this: how do I break into journalism?

There's no one answer, of course - in fact, the usual response we give is that there are many ways to do it, no right way and getting where you want to be normally involves a healthy dose of luck. But one thing that inspired us when we were cub reporters, and seems to still inspire people today, is stories of how actual people actually made it - the path that established journalists took to get where they are today.

So - we want your help. If you're reading this and you are lucky enough to be an established journalist - whether a first-jobber covering councils on a regional paper, or one of our many more experienced readers who's been in the industry for decades - we want to hear from you. (It's not just newspapers, either - we want to hear from every kind of journalist: freelance, broadcast, magazine, online...) 

Send us a short email (anything from a couple of sentences to 400 words tops) at fleetstreetblues@hotmail.co.uk, telling us who you are, how you got there and any words of wisdom you'd like to pass on to the next generation. Ideally we'd like to run the stories alongside identifiable authors, but if you'd rather be anonymous, just say. 

We'll be running the stories over the next couple of weeks, so you have a while to come up with something if you want, but we're not looking for polished. We're essentially looking for the short email you'd fire off at the end of the day to the 15-year-old daughter of the cousin of your best friend's mother who wants to know how she can become a journalist.

So if you can spare just five minutes, write it now and send it in. Think of it as your good deed for the day.

'Have we got a little scoop here?'

Ever since he joined Twitter, FleetStreetBlues has been following Piers Morgan - and vicariously living the life as a result. Billboards in Times Square, a role as America's top news channel's chief interviewer and the chance to jet around the world interviewing the world's top celebrities and politicians. What's not to like?

But while there's no doubt Mr Morgan has done very well for himself, there's also the familiar feeling that he's very happy to remind us of that fact at every opportunity. And so we couldn't help reading the following entry in Media Monkey in yesterday's Guardian with a little wry smile:

It may have taken a few weeks but Piers Morgan's CNN talkshow has really hit its stride. Take this exchange with Joan Collins on an edition of the show last week. Piers Morgan: "Well, Dynasty's coming back." Joan Collins: "That's what I hear." PM: "Are we going to see more Dynasty?" JC: "Could be." PM: "Have we got a little scoop here?" JC: "My lips are sealed." PM: "I like this. This is a scoop." JC: "It is a scoop." PM: "Is Dynasty coming back?" PM: "It's been on Twitter darling." PM: "But is it properly coming back?" JC: "I can't say." Clear an award-sized space on the shelf now.

News in (very) brief

A reader sends in this page from last Thursday's Sutton Guardian, offering conservatories, two jewellers and - if you look hard enough - three rather sorry-looking NIBs. Editorial space is clearly at a premium.

Reporter - Cambridge News

The Cambridge News is hiring a reporter, and is willing to consider either trainee or senior applicants.

You'll need to be 'enthusiastic, accurate and organised', and as a minimum will need your NCTJ prelims or equivalent, and 100 wpm shorthand.

To ask for an application pack, email Nicole Want at nicole.want@cambridge-news.co.uk. Deadline Tuesday 22 March.

'Please get rid of this article': when the public don't like the public interest

What does 'in the public interest' really mean?

It's a grandiose-sounding term often flung about by journalists, and in certain contexts, it seems obvious. Exposing a corrupt politician, helping to track down a serial killer or revealing wastage of taxpayers' money - all obvious examples. But a row on the Kent Online website last week raises some more complex questions at a very local level.

Last week Kent Online ran an article reporting the death of a woman in Broadstairs, beneath a photo of the victim, who was called Natalie Walker.

Tributes paid to tragic mum

Smiling joyfully at a wedding and surrounded by loved ones, this is the tragic mum killed in Broadstairs.

The victim, named in a tribute page on Facebook as Natalie Walker, was found at the weekend.

She was described as a "beautiful" and "special" person.

The 34-year-old was rushed to the QEQM Hospital at Margate on Saturday after police were called to a house in Grant Close in the town...

Below the article, a furious row developed among readers, attracting dozens of comments.

Initially, the complaints were about the use of the photos, which Kent Online appeared to have lifted from Justice for Natalie, a public Facebook page set up in tribute.

'Whilst social networking sites may be in the public domain, I do strongly feel that using photos directly from an online tribute site is an act which suggests that the Thanet Extra is morally bereft,' wrote one reader. 'How dare you take pictures of the site that do not belong to you,' demanded another.

But as the argument developed, it soon became clear that the real issue was about much more than the use of Facebook photos. As one reader put it:

Both Thanet Extra and Mick are showing extremely patronising and disrespectful views towards the privacy and well-being of the victim's family. They wished for this matter to be as private as possible. This could be of detrimental effect. Let them grieve with dignity. Please get rid of this article.

Another said:

It's about the family's wish for privacy to grieve. They do not want the publicity, as you can see no comments from them are in the article. It's a question of respecting their wishes at this very difficult & awful time.

Interestingly, Kent Online chose not to intervene in the debate directly, but left it to other readers to hit back and explain why the article had been run. And indeed they did, as with this comment from 'Old Bill':

On average 2 women a week are murdered in domestic violence in the UK. Mick is right the public have every right to know what crimes have been committed and in serious tragic cases like this one who the victims are. We do not have press censorship and photos are published as part of the story especially as the photos were in the public domain in the first place. My heart goes out to the children-family-friends. R.I.P.

'Old Bill' is right, of course. Journalists shouldn't be blind to the wishes of readers, or the fact that when we write stories, the people we're writing about have family and friends who will also be reading. When FleetStreetBlues reads about privacy laws, we always think not of Max Mosley, 'Fred the Shred' or the latest hard-done by celebrity politician, but of poor Nicola Paginton, and her family, and the prurient coverage which made a young woman's only epitaph a dirty joke, an internet meme.

But ultimately, however distasteful it may seem, it's not about whether the family 'want the publicity' or not. We live in a public society. Births, marriages and deaths - and quite a lot in between - are a matter of public record.

Covering this kind of death isn't anybody's idea of fun, but it's important that we do it - not according to the wishes of the family, but simply in the best and most professional way possible. In the public interest.