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Quick change at the Times and the Sun

19/6/2014

0 Comments

 
Times change
Evening Standard
A quick turnaround for the Times after the first edition last night. Chances are that the change was set up for the tweaks to the puff - a slightly more elegant typeface, smaller underline, tighter cutouts on the left and a move for the weather. But since the page was on, why not improve the splash head.
The second version is better than the first, but was it the best story? Especially as one of the two polls was commissioned by the Evening Standard and so had been running for at least 12 hours before the Times put in an appearance.
The policy initiative to be announced today - which made the splash in the Guardian and i - is given one paragraph halfway down.

"He will announce that all 18 to 21-year-olds would receive benefits only if they were in training or enrolled in further education. Aides said that the plan would cut £65 million from the welfare budget. The move will complement a plan to ensure that those who lose their job after years paying into the social security system receive a higher rate of jobseeker’s allowance."
The paper says that some in the party are urging Miliband to stop announcing a flurry of new policies to address the party’s difficulties, and takes the view that the polls would overshadow today's speech, which is seen as "an attempt to move on from grumblings over his performance. 
You might think, though, that this was a policy worth investigating. It doesn't sound exactly Red Ed-ish to make young people go back to the classroom before they can claim benefits. The OpEd writers will certainly take a view tomorrow. 
The Guardian also splashed on the story, but it put the same elements in a different order - with the jobseekers' allowance at the top and the polls in the middle. There was still plenty of room for the "he's too geeky" complaints.
So much has been written about the electorate not being engaged in politics, but we aren't helping. As the SubScribe European elections audit found, politicians talk too little about the issues and newspapers aren't challenging them, being happy to write instead what "he" said about "her" and what "they" said about "him".
Opinion polls, and even gossip about what disgruntled party members are saying, have their place - they are important weather vanes - but when they take precedence over proper matters of policy that voters need to know about and debate, there is something wrong. 
When I cast my vote next year I won't care what a thousand or so people told Mori or YouGov, but I will care about how we are going to get poor people with inadequate qualifications into work.
Sun changes
The Sun also did a quick change last night, so quick that I thought the first edition was a spoof to keep the real splash secret, but the timings don't support that theory.
A football splash was essential with the England game tonight, and Suarez was the obvious target,  but the bite-back joke was even worse than the Star's ants-in-my-pants. The paper put a lot of work into it though. There was the photoshopping for the front, a page 5 guide to making a set off "teeth" from an orange, and the biggest challenge: to get Sun man Tom Morgan within photographing distance of the Uruguayan star.
At least the backbench had the wit to tear up the front when the Ian Wright story came in. The biting joke then became just about ok as a puff, but that 4-5 spread is just toe-curling.
That's the trouble with trying to do something original and witty. You whip up enthusiasm in the office, feed off each other and become convinced that it's a great idea. And sometimes it is. That's when the Sun is at its cheeky best.
But then there are the flops. Someone thought it was a great idea to distribute a special "edition" of the paper to 22 million homes. Why did anyone think that would work? The Sun is difficult to avoid and easy to get hold of. A couple of million people buy it every day, sixty odd million don't. Many, many of those have made a conscious decision that they don't want it in their homes. Why antagonise them further by forcing it on them.
I was sitting in a cafe the day after the Great Distribution and heard a couple of men discussing it. "I tore it into little shreds and burnt it," one said. "It wasn't even fit to go into the recycling."  Nothing like a bit of good publicity, is there.
As for the Suarez edition,  the response to Nick Sutton's nightly "tomorrow's papers"  tweet of tomorrow' papers was instnant:

Worst paper front page I've ever seen. “@suttonnick: Thursday's Sun front page - "Time to bite back" pic.twitter.com/l5ae4o6OB2”

— Michael Levi (@michael_levi) June 18, 2014

@suttonnick This makes me cringe, I can only imagine how it makes England fans feel.

— The Big Red Cheese (@KillianCollard) June 18, 2014

“@suttonnick: Thursday's Sun front page - "Time to bite back" #ENG vs #URU #WorldCup2014 pic.twitter.com/pvCGaMzEXc” FFS. Shit rag. #boycottSun

— Patrick Wehmeier (@OUFCPCW) June 18, 2014

@suttonnick what an utterly pathetic rag

— What's Going On? (@martincroom) June 18, 2014

@suttonnick @honigstein That is the most crass and ridiculous front page I have seen. Trust the sun to take shite to a new level

— Tayyib Abu (@Tayyiote) June 18, 2014

@suttonnick Bloody hell, who thought that was ever going to be even a half OK idea?

— SallyPC (@SallyPC) June 18, 2014

@suttonnick that is painfully cringey

— Barry Fallon (@BarryFallon) June 18, 2014

@suttonnick @honigstein What an embarrassment.

— Tony Paul (@mrtonypaul) June 18, 2014

@suttonnick @honigstein Absolute national embarrassment. #DontBuyTheSun

— Robin Powell (@rpowell19) June 18, 2014

“@suttonnick: Thursday's Sun front page - "Time to bite back" #ENG vs #URU #WorldCup2014 pic.twitter.com/30nSuk40l1” Brilliant.

— Saim Ashraf (@SaimSadeek) June 18, 2014
0 Comments

Secret trial should have been on every front page

5/6/2014

0 Comments

 
Daily Mail 05-06-14
Daily Express 05-06-14
It's easy to lump the Mail and Express together. They share many of the same values, they have a similar basic design, they both position themselves in the middle market and are deemed to be a notch above the redtops.
But days like today show that for all their similarities they are worlds apart. Whatever you think of the Mail's journalism, it is supremely professionally executed. The fundamental awareness of what is important is ingrained.
Our whole legal system is built upon the principle that justice must not only be done but that it must be seen to be done. Secret courts are the tools of despots and dictators.
Even the surreal events in the Cairo courtroom where three Al-Jazeera journalists and their colleagues are appearing today are open to public scrutiny. The prosecution and the proceedings may seem farcical, but we can see what's happening. Journalists are taking photographs, filming videos and tweeting constantly. They even talk to the defendants during recesses.
Here in Britain, two people accused of serious terrorist offences will go on trial the week after next. The case will be heard by a jury, but no reporters or members of the public will be allowed into the hearings. Nor will they be able to report the outcome. 
Indeed, until yesterday the media were forbidden even to report the hearing of their appeal against the secrecy order. Without the lifting of that gagging order, we would not know that the trial was to take place at all.
Picture
This is all pretty heavy stuff. There are issues of national security and issues of natural justice at the heart of this case. It is unsurprisingly the splash in the Guardian and, as we see above, in the Mail. It is also on the front of the Telegraph, the page 2 lead in the Times and it gets a decent show in the Mirror and Sun.
For the Express, the latest advice on avoiding dementia is more important, coupled with a photograph of the Queen (fair enough) and a headline about "hard-working Britons" that sounds like a party political broadcast (not fair enough).
The secret trial makes 150 words on page 2, with a crosshead that says "significant" - which SubScribe would love to think was put in by
a sub as a rebuke to those who gave it so little space.
The Independent also seems to have tripped up in its news judgment today: the story appears on page 20, the last home news page. The poisoned babies don't fare much better - they are on 19.
This ruling really matters and it should have been given prominence everywhere. The argument here is not the media's right to report the proceedings, it is the public's right  - duty, even - to witness.
It is perfectly possible to impose restrictions on which elements of the trial are reported. For all that the Press is branded irresponsible, uncontrolled, intrusive and accused of general scumbaggery, it obeys court orders. 
If national security requires that only the verdict and any sentence are reported at the end, then so be it. If editors and those attending have to sign confidentiality contracts, then so be it.
There are mechanisms that can be employed. But conducting entire trials in camera is not democratic and every newspaper should be shouting it from the rooftops.

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A woman by any other name

4/6/2014

1 Comment

 
Carla Powell
How far do we have to go in identifying someone in a story like this? Do we care because there was a £1m jewel robbery? Do we care because a woman was beaten by the thieves? Do we care because the woman is married to a member of the House of Lords? Do we care because the woman used to be friendly with a former Prime Minister?
I'm not sure of the answer but, put together, this assortment of headings seems to devalue Carla Powell as a person - this is a woman who has been attacked by robbers in her own home and she's described as somebody's wife, somebody's friend. Only two use her name, and one of them gets it wrong.
She is Lady Powell, a title she has on account of her husband being a peer. She would have to be the daughter of a Duke or a Marquess to be Lady Carla.
Even her name relates to somebody else. That could be said of any woman who adopts her husband's surname, but this is a step beyond that: the honorific has nothing to do with her own abilities and is granted her because of her husband's achievements - or, if you are cynical, connections.
Mail headline
There is a welcome - and belated - focus on attitudes towards women in what is supposed to be a first-world society, but our newspapers are still run overwelmingly by a certain class of white men and there is a need to readjust our thinking. This applies not only to men, but also to women working in the macho environment of the newsroom where the culture can become ingrained by osmosis. I can't think of the last time I saw the word 'housewife' in a headline, so can we now progress a little further to avoid heads like the one above? 
The #yesallwomen hashtag that was trending after Elliot Rodger's murderous assault on women at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was used opportunistically by some and to make valid points by others. But one thought came through loud and clear. We should all commit it to our brains:

"She's someone's daughter, mother, sister, aunt, niece, wife..." NO. None of that matters. The point is SHE'S SOMEONE. #YesAllWomen

— Lizney Princess (@unluckystars695) May 28, 2014
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Go out and buy the Independent

4/6/2014

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aleppo
Damascus
Why do so few people buy the Independent?
It's put together on a shoestring by a team that also has to produce the ever-growing i, and people who have worked there complain that stuff is shovelled down with barely time to think. 
Yet someone must have time to think, because the paper is good, and it has been getting better since Amol Rajan took over as editor.
Today let's hail the work of last night's production team, the subs, picture editors and other backroom staff  who are supposed to be unnecessary seat-takers to the modern newsroom.
Independent June 4
The front page is a masterpiece of presentation, starting with the reworking of the IRA's 'bullet and the ballot box' slogan. It would work whatever image was chosen, but the choice of photographs here is exemplary. 
The eye is irresistibly drawn back and forth from Asma Assad's pristine white jacket to the bombed girl's crumpled dress, from Assad's starched shirt and perfectly knotted tie to the rescuer's vest and belted jeans, from sanitised polling station to  "Wild West" devastation,  and, most of all, from the smugness in Damascus to the anguish of Aleppo. 
That polling station picture with everyone in the background smiling obsequiously is nothing on its own, coupled with the Aleppo photograph that could have come from a film set it says everything about a cold leader surrounded by sycophants but detached from his people.
Robert Fisk's style of journalism is not to everone's taste, but here SubScribe is praising the presentation, not his despatch.
Moving inside the paper, a number of headings had a nice gentle touch:

Roy Keane heading
And this one tucked in the corner of  Andrew Grice's spread on the LibDems trying to put the best gloss on their electoral disaster/botched coup by sending Clegg and Cable out to the pub:
Nick Clegg and Vince Cable
SubScribe has always been a fan (in their right place) of chatty headings and use of appropriate punctuation, which doesn't usually include quote marks, and there are two goodies here. It's just a shame that there are parentheses in both.
tourism spread
The ad doesn't look as intrusive when you see the whole page. I love that the sub sees the irony in the Lonely Planet publishing a book of undiscovered destinations. As to the places with the most single people, you need only read the heading and the panel, since the story (sorry, Jonathan Owen) is an extended version of both. That's the problem with that sort of survey, all you  want is a table - but you can't have that without a story. Ho hum.
And finally, here's a jolly picture from the foreign pages. It would have been nice to know who the people in the "floor covering" are, I suspect not the "many great French writers, poets and scientists" buried at the Panthéon.
Pantheon photograph
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    Liz Gerard

    Liz Gerard

    New year, new face: it's time to come out from behind that Beryl Cook mask. 
    I'm Liz Gerard, and after four decades dedicated to hard news, I now live by the motto "Those who can do, those who can't write blogs". 
    These are my musings on our national newspapers. Some of them may have value.

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