View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
November 11, 2003updated 22 Nov 2022 1:25pm

Back Issues 11.11.03

By Press Gazette

REUTERS’ STRAIN

A judge had controversially ruled that Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) was meaningless and had “no place in the medical books”. Judge John Prosser accepted the evidence of Reuters’ medical experts and dismissed a claim by sub-editor Rafiq Mughal against the news agency. He had sued Reuters for £85,000 for loss of earnings, and pain and suffering after, he claimed, he had developed RSI by working on a keyboard.

AN ISSUE OF SEX

Women in the media were still failing to break through the “glass ceiling” and nab the top jobs. A meeting of 200 women heard claims that the media industry was misogynist and operated a “pernicious” male network which stopped women becoming editors and directors. Jane Reed, director of corporate relations at News International, predicted that the total of three editing jobs on the nationals held by women in 1993 was unlikely to rise to 10 by the year 2000. She was right. At the moment there are only two, Rebekah Wade on The Sun and Tina Weaver on the Sunday Mirror.

NO INSPIRATION, MAGIC OR FLAIR

Sir Richard Storey, chairman of Portsmouth and Sunderland Newspapers, criticised regional newspapers for “being devoid of inspiration, magic or flair”. He argued that declining sales were down to poor quality of editorial content. Storey accused regional papers of a lack of objectivity and a failure to give the public balanced information.

Content from our partners
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it
Impress: Regulation, arbitration and complaints resolution

NO FLUKE AT GRIMSBY TELEGRAPH

Clare Henderson of the Grimsby Evening Telegraph was in London picking up the scoop of the year award for her exclusive that Norman Lamont was to resign as Chancellor. She got the newsfrom Lamont’s mum, who livedin Grimsby. Just to show the scoop wasn’t a fluke, the Evening Telegraph did it again. Editor Peter Moore, in London for the awards ceremony, was able to break the news that England manager Graham Taylor had quit. Taylor’s dad was a former sports journalists on the Grimsby Evening Telegraph’s sister newspaper in Scunthorpe. A local connection on a national story had come up trumps for the second time in a year.

MIRROR MAN UNCOVERED

Daily Mirror editor David Banks was defending his decision to publish pictures of Princess Diana snapped in a gym by a hidden camera. The Mirror and the Sunday Mirror had been castigated by the rest of the press and criticised by the Press Complaints Commission chairman Lord McGregor. But Banks, writing in Press Gazette,argued: “The photographs, neither distasteful noroffensive but flattering and beautiful, were taken some months ago, without collusion or inducement from Mirror Group Newspapers, by the owner of a
gymnasium.” He argued that a gym could not be classed as a private place.

NO PUNCHES PULLED

A book of classic Sun headlines was being published ready for the Christmas market. Naturally, it was called Gotcha and included another famous headline from the Falklands conflict: “Stick it Up Your Junta.” One of the best was “Not In Here, I’m on the Throne” above the story that the Queen was going to open Buckingham Palace to the public. Editor Kelvin MacKenzie in a foreward wrote: “On The Sun we don’t pull punches. That’s why so many people swear by us and a few others swear at us. But no one ignores us.”

MISSING HEADLINE

Dog couldn’t resist featuring this classic Sun headline that was too late for the Christmas book.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network