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• 11.21.09
  If the NUJ aren’t very, very careful, they will find history condemning them to the same fate as the NUM – the National Union of Monks General, Journalism | (0)

  There are several reasons why all roads wound their way towards the National Union of Journalists today. One was a piece that appeared in MediaShift this week; one that returned to the theme of revolution... http://www.pbs.org/idealab/2009/11/changes-in-media-over-the-past-550-years318.html For me, there was nothing 'revolutionary' in what was being said; in fact, in my little world I would these days venture to suggest that this was accepted 'orthodoxy' - that the arrival of the web is currently changing the way world communicates and interacts with itself in a way not seen since 1500. That we need to party like its 1499, not 1999... http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=260 But what made David's piece ...

  Tagged: NUJ, TalkAboutLocal
  
• 03.31.09
  If the NUJ is truly ’serious’ about finding an answer to the needs of the Stockport Messenger then maybe it needs to start talking to the Lindas and the James’ rather more seriously… General, Journalism | (0)

  If it's a fight for the very soul of provincial journalism you're after, then I suggest we look no further than the streets and suburbs of Greater Manchester. It's there in streets of Stockport, Didsbury, Wilmslow and Hale that two tribes are going to war - the NUJ summoning up the spirit of the Scott Trust to flail into The Guardian Media Group. It is an increasingly bitter and divided battle as the NUJ goes on the offensive with a series of adverts designed, one presumes, to force GMG into a fundamental rethink of their plans to all-but halve the editorial floor ...

  Tagged: DarwenReporter.com, GMG, NUJ
  
• 01.26.09
  Three more cheers for the NUJ – sounds to me like they’re playing our tune… General, Journalism | (0)

  Needless to say, there was one particular line that stood out... http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=42911&c=1 'And he said that the solution to the current crisis may be the use of public funds to help set up new journalist-led news organisations. '"It may be that we are looking at funding mini-media or a foundation that will give money to groups of journalists if they can pass the quality threshold," Davies said... Suits me. As ever, however, the question is when...? [Update... or rather, another thing: if they 'can pass the quality threshold...' You mean come with some kind of recognised 'kitemark' attached? See below...]

  Tagged: NUJ
  
• 01.22.09
  Three cheers for the NUJ; deciding the time may now be upon us when the green shoots need nurturing; that fighting this forest fire might be beyond anyone’s means General, Journalism | (0)

  Fair play to Mr Dear. And a thank you, too. It's cheering, occasionally, to be a little blip on someone else's radar. http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/533301.php Because as my NUJ card-carrying Mrs waits to discover what filling out a time-sheet for a week means for our family's fortunes this spring, it's good to see the NUJ sensing that there is a common cause to be had here; that maybe the answer to some of the challenges we, as journalists, face in 2009 might have to come from within our own ranks... ... that the reinvention might have to be as much about the way that we, ourselves, ...

  Tagged: MyFootballWriter.com, NUJ
  
• 10.02.08
  The challenge for the NUJ is monumental. Working out who the real ‘enemy’ is would help. Its the web and our former audience, not OfCom… General, Journalism | (1)

  We've been round the block with the NUJ before. And I'm under few illusions as to the monumental challenges it faces in trying to protect the interests of its members - one of whom is my Mrs. But at some stage it has to acknowledge that there are forces at work here that are wholly beyond the control of ITV, of Sly Bailey, of OfCom, of NewsQuest, of JohnstonPress, of John Fry and each and every other 'Press Baron' stroke 'Establishment' figure and institution that is currently passing across its sights... OfCom may not be perfect; it may have next to no ...

  Tagged: ITV, NUJ, OfCom, Sly Bailey
  
• 09.25.08
  What have OfCom and backpackdave08 got in common? Everything – if you allow Mr Lilley to wave his Magic Lantern into the gathering gloom… General, Journalism | (2)

  Having a vague knowledge of OfCom's latest review of the future of Public Service Broadcasting, this was always going to make for interesting reading... http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/25/itv.ofcom Even if the numbers are slightly eye-watering, there was a very real sense that this was in the wind. Like everyone else, ITV can't make the numbers add up. Their world - our world - is all but disintegrating. The game's up; the show's over. At least as far as Anglia (East) and Anglia (West) are concerned. For the people of Norwich, here comes the news from your region. 'A man from Milton Keynes was today bailed to ...

  Tagged: Anthony Lilley, backpackdave08, ITV, Magic Lantern, NUJ, OfCom
  
• 09.19.08
  On local, on link and on the future of newspapers… three big and familiar nails that Mark Potts bangs firmly on the head. Superb. Journalism, MFW | (0)

  I've always been a fan; and remain so. He might have once-upon-a-time 'run out of track...' but, boy, does he know where the world is going. He remains firmly on the right track. So, if I was being lazy, I would do nothing more than commend each and everyone of you to read the following three posts from Mr Mark Potts... and then insert the UK landscape into the imploding world he's observing across the Pond. How his thoughts tally with what we're trying to practically achieve via MyFootballWriter and, ideally, sometime in the dim and distant future MyLocalWriter, I'll leave for a ...

  Tagged: Jeff Jarvis, Johnston Press, Mark Potts, MyFootballWriter, NUJ, Peter Kirwan, TrinityMirror
  
• 08.20.08
  A word for the NUJ. You can fight yesterday’s wars and lose… Or you can fight tomorrow’s battles and help us all win. General, Journalism | (1)

  Cards on the table first. I'm not an NUJ member. My Mrs, however, is. And as a part-time sub-editor at Archant (Norfolk), given events at Archant (Suffolk) she - along with 100s of others across the UK and the US - is firmly on the endangered species list. As, of course, are 65 souls across Trinity Mirror's Midlands stables... http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/greenslade/2008/08/trinity_mirror_leads_the_way_t.html Where the axe will exactly fall remains to be seen; but having been through a one-in-three redundancy process on the sports and subs desks at Archant two years ago, I would suspect that is where the brunt of the 'action' will be. But as the ...

  Tagged: NESTA, NUJ, OfCom, TrinityMirror
  

recent posts

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• Mr Schmidt is bang on the money – again. The trick may well be to let people personally organise the ‘news’ that really matters to them…
• Five slides with no story attached; for that, you’ll all just have to use your imagination…
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• DMGT appear curiously at ease with central Government ad spend going down the proverbial toilet; fine, in which case give those last pennies to every Josh we can find