Quit the monkey business … journalism is SERIOUS!

I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t, really I do.

But I couldn’t stifle a brief smile when I read that: “Financial Times reporters will have to subedit parts of their own stories, including writing draft headlines … ‘ (Media Guardian)

I mean, just imagine some of the ‘draft’ headlines a room full of seriously-disgruntled FT journalists might pen as a  cerebral yet subtle way of sticking two fingers up at the management.

It reminded me of a cutting I snipped from the bottom of a broadsheet Times front page in the days when cut and paste involved scissors and glue. The single-deck headline ran above a story in which the Archbishop of Canterbury was quoted on the subject of animal vivisection. It read: ‘Apes have souls too, says Primate’. (more…)

So MPs are backing local journalism … Here are THREE things they can do for starters

It’s good news that 70 MPs are today calling on the Government to support local journalism.

The motion calls on the Government to: “Explore innovative solutions to preserve local journalism and to ensure that state support, either in the form of deregulatory measures or financial help, is given only where firm guarantees on investment in local journalism are secured.”

So while the innovation squad, whoever they may be, gets into gear and media chiefs conjure with the notion of ‘firm guarantees’, here’s three ideas to get the ball rolling: (more…)

It’s tough enough out there as it is … so why does newspaper design have to break the bank?

I still have my sub’s grey steel em rule. It’s on my desk as I write. Pica ems on one side, eight and ten em measures on the reverse, millimetres on both, sharp edges designed to draw blood.

Don’t yawn. I know those days are dead and buried. But I’m making a point …

My benchmark for technology is simple: is it as easy and reliable as a pencil and rule? Does it enhance creativity, or get in the way? If you think that’s barmy, then you’d have to question the sanity of a whole generation of production journalists who fell head over heels for those first shoebox-sized Classics and have remained faithful to Apple ever since. (more…)

Rocky Mountaineers launch subscription appeal

So now we know …

Around 30 staff from the Rocky Mountain News, which folded last month, have joined forces with three Denver entrepreneurs to launch an online-only service.

The team is hoping to sign up 50,000 subscribers, paying “as little as $4.99 a month” by April 23 – the 150th birthday of the Rocky Mountain News.

If they reach their goal, then InDenverTimes.com could be launched in early May, “reviving a tradition of distinguished reporting and editing with 21st-century electronic delivery,” according to the new website. (more…)

Let’s hope Rocky Mountain News journalists can pull off a Hollywood ending … for all of us

Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle might do worse than point his browser at a site called I Want My Rocky. It could provide the subject for his next blockbuster. And I’m not joking.

The story of the demise of the Rocky Mountain News has it all: gritty social commentary amid dramatic Rockies scenery; a devastated workforce falling victim to corporate failure during the global media meltdown; a catchy title. It wouldn’t surprise me to find a gnarled hack passing on pearls of wisdom to a young investigative reporter and an office love tangle lurking in the background.

Then there’s the glimmer of a rebirth, against the odds and driven by the journalists themselves, of the Rocky Mountain News … or something else. (more…)