Five fabulous reasons to read the February edition of Press Gazette magazine

The February edition of Press Gazette is now out.

Here are some tasters from my five favourite features:

Exclusive interview with Scottish News of the World editor Bob Bird on his amazing six-year legal fight with shamed, and now jailed, Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan:

“He threw my cloths out of the back door and asked: ‘Do you know who I am? I’m Tommy Sheridan’s best man’, at which point my blood ran cold and I thought Tommy Sheridan himself was going to burst in with a video camera and two Russian vice-girls.”

What happened to the journalism graduates who emerged on to the job scene in the summer of 2009, probably the worst time in post-war history to be looking for a job as a journalist. The surprising answer is that most of them got jobs, well on the Kingston University MA course anyway. We tracked them down and found out how grit, determination and a willingness to work for free can get you a journalism job even in the worst of times.

Panorama versus Dispatches. Four years after the two broadcast current affairs heavyweights went head to head in prime-time – we find out who has come out on top. In-depth four-page feature including interviews with editors Tom Giles and Kevin Sutcliffe.

Exclusive interview with former Heat editor Sam Delaney:

“Heat is a guilty pleasure…The readers know that we go ‘we know this is bollocks too but it great fun’. Reading Heat is like eating a donut, you don’t expect it to do you any good but it’s great fun.”

Former magazine industry supremo Lori Miles on why the current crop of consumer titles have lost their lustre: “Same old ideas, same cover treatments, same old cover lines.”

Press Gazette is only available to subscribers. The deal is £90 plus a free USB stick (plus big discounts to attend journalism industry events like Paywalls 2011).

For students a year’s subscription is just £40.

I would be amazed if anyone subscribing to PG did not get their investment paid back many times over in terms of the professional advantage they get from reading the inside track on the journalism industry. All the content in the magazine is only available to paying subscribers, with only a tiny sample also appearing for free online.