1 Sir Ray plans more expansion as Tindle reports profit surge. A surge in profits at Tindle Newspapers suggests the UK’s embattled regional press may be finally recovering from the recession.
“There will be more acquisitions and we may be offered some papers to buy. We are in no way retrenching.”
3 How Brit beat US to Beyoncé scoop. A British journalist this week beat the United States press to one of the biggest stories of the year.
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“Sometimes you come across a single fact and you just know it’s going to catch fire.”
4 JP ‘a good bunch of papers, they will return’. Sir Ray Tindle has defended the decision to increase his investment in debt-laden regional publisher Johnston Press.
“I bought many of the shares at 4.5p – if you look at the papers today you’ll see they’re 12.5p. So I wonder why people are criticising my purchase of shares.”
6 Williams-Thomas: ‘Many police officers will just not talk to journalists’. A former detective turned television presenter, who helped expose the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal, says following the Leveson Inquiry “many police officers will just not speak to journalists”.
“Police officers are very worried about talking to journalists. Not because they are giving anything away, but because they have suspicion on this if they talk to a journalist.”
8 Exploding Porsche case could curb test-drives. Motoring journalists are “alarmed” after a freelance was sued to the point of bankruptcy for damaging a £1.25m car during a test drive.
“I think it will make a difference. It will make people think twice about lending their cars.”
9 Bankers fail in anonymity bid. Scores of bankers have failed in a bid to prevent their names being revealed during preliminary hearings of a High Court case centred on the rigging of a lending rate by Barclays staff.
“I simply don’t see that there is any sufficient case in principle made out, cogently or otherwise, which would justify the making of the order.”
10 Journalist jailed by Hamas says bloggers are now biggest threat to safety. Paul Martin has been beaten up, shot at, tortured and imprisoned over the course of a 35-year journalistic career mainly involving covering the Middle East and Africa.
But he has told Press Gazette that the greatest danger he faces today doesn’t come from paramilitaries with guns – but from bloggers with laptops.
“What I’m worried about is it restricts my ability to work safely in a region which I have been an expert on for 35 years. In that sense they make my life not only difficult but dangerous or even possibly fatal.”
13 Industry has been in a state for 35 years – but there is a big future, says NCTJ chairman Kim Fletcher. When journalists of a certain age get together the conversation goes off in a familiar direction: the job’s changed… the fun’s gone…there’s no money any more. Then, usually after another drink: no one likes us…we don’t get time to knock on doors…the office expects us to work all hours – and wouldn’t know a real story if it walked in with its hands up.
My goodness, the industry must be in a state – except I first heard these lines 35 years ago, at the end of my first shift as a cub reporter on The Star, in Sheffield.
16 How to get a job at… Press Association. You must be able to tell stories in creative ways. Press Association recruits several trainees a year on its multimedia graduate scheme. Here, Tony Johnston, head of Press Association Training, explains what he looks for in young journalists.
“What we are looking for are trainees who are highly effective communicators – both in terms of writing and verbal communication. Ultimately, the ability to tell stories in interesting ways across different platforms – in print, in pictures, in video and online.”
18 Prince Harry: Everyone is ‘guilty’ of buying papers. Prince Harry made a scathing attack on the British press during a series of interviews given at the conclusion his three-month tour in Afghanistan this week.
“My father says don’t read it, everyone always says don’t read it because it’s always rubbish. I’m surprised how many people in the UK actually read it. Everyone’s guilty for buying the papers, I guess – hopefully no one actually believes what they read, which I certainly don’t.”
19 If you ask me… with entrepreneur Mike Bokaie.: Phone-hacking did not ruin UK journalism’s credibility.
“Sunday tabloids’ investigative journalism and their need to dig dirt at whatever cost was instigated by a few ultra-ambitious managers; this cannot be compared with the superb quality of journalism produced by many thousands of business and consumer journalists on a daily basis.”
24 Axegrinder: Has Axegrinder Got an Apology for You; An exception to Mail apology rule; A 500-word apology
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