Writes & Wrongs

SO FAREWELL THEN TO THE PRESS GAZETTE

Sneaking a look at the editor’s Press Gazette (then UKPG) was one of the first of many newsroom dark arts learned at the knee of old hands who should have known better.
Now it is no more – maybe not for long according to latest reports – but we’re pleased to publish this ode from PT Stodd, not to be confused with EJ Thribb, on its passing.

So farewell then to the Press Gazette
The hacks' neglected organ.
You seemed to chug along quite well
in the years before Piers Morgan.

After 40 years of obits
for subs from Slough to Chester
they're writing your obituary
for the want of a good investor.

So where to look now that you've gone
for jobs on Ilkley Moor?
And those ads for freelance writers
that smack of model, second floor.

We'll miss you dear old Press Gazette
and wish you all the best.
You lost your UK long ago
and now you've lost the rest.

PT Stodd
aged 62 and a week

DON'T MAKE A MOCKERY OF A BIT OF FUN
As the proud owner of a number of mock-up leaving pages – including, ironically, one from the South China Morning Post – I read this story, Subs sacked over leaving page, in the MediaGuardian with both horror and fascination.
Maybe to have c**t not once, but twice, on the page wasn’t the brightest idea the two subs ever had but for the editor-in-chief to not only fire them but also send out a pompous email may also count as an, er, misjudgment.
As a fully paid-up member of the editor-in-chief club I always reckon its best to save your public bollockings, sorry b*********s, for something that really matters, aka something that affects readers.
To witter on about “there are basic standards of decency that need to be respected in any modern company, standards that are enshrined in our code of ethics” won’t do much for the good folk of Wan Chai or Chai Wan.
I for one hope the company sees fit to reinstate Messrs Ruffini and Willison; I’m sure their creativity can be put to good use in the pages of the SCMP.
PS: I had a miserable time there in the mid-80s; doesn’t seem like anything’s changed much.

FOLLOW-UP TO PREVIOUS POST

The question of low salaries in newspaper journalism was raised in Press Gazette's Grey Cardigan column on 24 August. If you didn't see it, click here.

Brendan Martin

WOULD YOU LET YOUR DAUGHTER BE A JOURNALIST?

Media commentator Kim Fletcher, (Media Guardian, July 24,) is guilty of the same arrogant mistake that many of his ilk make: believing there is no other type of journalism apart from newspapers. There are also online publications (something newspapers have yet to do properly), broadcasting and magazines. The latter offer wannabe journalists the best way in to the profession, trade or call it what you will.

Salaries start at between £18-£20,000. There is also no two-year contract dressed up as "training" but really designed just to keep the new journalist on low wages for that period.

Magazine journalists fall into two categories: consumer and business-to-business (B2B). It is on the B2B titles that an interesting and exciting start can be made to a young person's journalistic career. On a local newspaper, the reporter's beat is usually a geographical district where stories can range from the annual WI bring-and-buy to a juicy murder. The former is probably more frequent than the latter. Foreign travel is, for the most part, a trip to the next village for which every penny must be accounted.

The "district" of a B2B journalist can be a sector of an industry. The experience of a Journalism Training Centre graduate is typical of many who opt for a life in B2B magazines. In his first year working for a magazine that reported on the fruit and vegetable market, he visited South Africa to report on oranges; South America and Italy for the grape harvests; Holland for tomatoes and Shropshire for the picking of the potato crop. All expenses paid with little or no quibble.

And there are just as many hard questions to be asked in the fresh fruit sector as there is in Basingstoke; just as many stories to be uncovered in the financial services press as there is in Glasgow; and just as many human interest stories to be found in the world of petro-chemicals as there is in Norwich. B2B title are the "newspapers" of their sector presented in a magazine format.

Magazine journalists, many of whom - but not exclusively - pay for their own training find their rise up the media ladder can be faster than their local newspaper counterparts.

So why do so many go to local newspapers? Because of articles like Kim Fletcher's which make no mention of the other avenues into journalism. Also many university careers officers, in my experience, do not know any better and have advised their graduates that newspapers are the only way.

Magazine journalists, who attend reputable courses, learn shorthand and media law just as thoroughly as their colleagues in newspapers. They are not some form of second-rate reporter. Indeed, they are not just reporters. Magazine journalists learn how the report news, write features, sub and layout pages from the start. They learn their craft in a positive and encouraging atmosphere and not in a fear-based, resource-starved newsroom run by who think that because he/she had to suffer, the new recruit does too.

And before some local newspaper journalist looks down their nose at the magazine journalist, think about who's got the better salary? Who gets to see more of the world? Who has more fun?

Oh and the male B2B journalist also has to have a jacket and tie ready in case a chief executive resigns suddenly! - Brendan Martin

FOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLLS...AND OTHER GOOD SOUNDBITES

Writing a piece to mark Sir Paul McCartney finally reaching the age he immortalised in song...64, I recalled an interview I did with the ex-Beatle some years ago. It was in his office in London's Soho Square and we were discussing his vast back catalogue of songs from his days with Wings and as a solo artists.

At one point, I asked the man who has to his credit, songs such as "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Yesterday", "Let It Be" and "Eleanor Rigby" if there was anything he felt he still wanted to achieve in life. I expected he would say write a novel, paint an amazing picture or even build a scale model of Paddy's Wigwam in Liverpool. Instead he thought for a moment and then said:

"I'm still trying to write a great song."

That was a bell-ringer moment.

Bell-ringers are those sentences and phrases that an interviewee utters in the middle of a conversation that hit you hard. Bells ring. You've just been given a brilliant quote. You can see the pull-quote box now. Or even the headline. The art of good interviewing is to say very little and just listen. As you listen, keep your ears peeled for those words you know will make that killer quote. Listen for those bells.

- Brendan Martin

And so to Vietnam where I learn that dairy farmers worried about foot and mouth disease are turning to tortoise production (yes, for food) and am relieved that they know at least one more Englishman apart from Prince Charles and David Beckham.

Whether Gary Glitter is someone we’d all like as a symbol of Britishness in this far-flung country is another debate.

I’m here in Hanoi to run a four-day media management course and am rewarded with a handsome turnout of newspaper editors, trade magazine reporters and a delegation of people from a series of publications for ‘the youth’ – a phrase that always makes me shudder that Look and Learn is about to rise from the grave.

I shouldn’t have worried, though. One of the publications was a natty little handbag sized magazine for teenage girls and in between the advertisement for ringtones and language schools were glossy pin-up pictures, a readers’ forum, fashion and those pesky teenage problems that seem to be same the world over.

It couldn’t have been more different from the traditional daily paper that was selling 400,000 a day – “More than The Guardian” as the cheerful editor was quick to point out – but everyone worked hard together to see if they could take on board some of the latest developments in journalism and publishing.

The technological developments held no horrors for these talented, ambitious young people. Mobile phones are a cultural phenomenon, laptops the must-have accessory and swish cameras the must-to-be-seen-with gadget. My patient explanation of one-man video journalism started to look silly when one delegate showed me just that on his website.

It was therefore easy to forget that this is a one-party communist state operating under the traditional Party lines. But as things drew to a close and delegates reflected on what they might be able to implement back at base many talked about how they would find it difficult, if not impossible, to convince their bosses of what needs to be done.Not for the first time doing this sort of project I reflected that probably the wrong people were on the course. These bright, lively, funny and ambitious young people only need pointing in the right direction by someone with enthusiasm and experience.

I’d love to think those poor tortoises are going to live for another day rather than the pot. Perhaps that’s not the only futile hope I have…

- Alan Geere

WHAT YOU'RE NOT TOLD ABOUT BREAKING INTO JOURNALISM

I spent some time today reading the forums on a website called News Monkey. It appears to be a site aimed a journalists in local and regional newspapers. What came across to me was the lack of information offered to people when they decide they want to become a journalist.

Many go into local newspapers because a careers officer at university has told them that's the only place to start. But with salaries at about £11,000, if you're lucky, and being tied to a two-year training contract, it ain't the best way. What saddens me is because these hopefuls don't get the full picture, many never consider careers in magazines or the Business-to-Business (B2B) press.

Ask a newspaper journalist about that and they'll tell you these avenues are not hard journalism. Not true. On a local newspaper, you'll be given a district of your locality to cover. On a B2B title you'll also be given a "district of your locality" to cover. The difference is that your locality is a sector of industry or business. Your district will be a part of that.

Let's take an industry like agriculture, for example. You may be given the "district" of dairy farming. There are as many hard news stories in that as there are in an area of your town, city, or county. The main difference is that if there is a dairy story in Denmark, you'll have to go there to cover it. On your local newspaper, "foreign travel" is often defined as a trip to the next village!

But I'm not interested in cows, I hear you say. You would be if you were a agriculture graduate or came from a farming background. Agriculture was just an example. They must be a industry that rocks your boat. Maybe you don't know it yet and have yet to realise that writing about stapling machines and other office stationery can be great fun. (Especially when you're on an all expenses trip to Dusseldorf to cover the European stationers convention.)

On a B2B title you learn your craft quickly and efficiently. While newspapers hold you back - they have to to justify the two-year training contract - B2B titles give you your head. You get to sub, write features and make up pages from the off...as well as reporting. Many people make editor within two to three years.

Another benefit of B2B titles is that they are one avenue to a national newspaper. Were I the editor of a national newspaper, where would I look for my aviation correspondent? Not the Localtown Gazette but a specialist aviation title.

Oh, and the salaries on B2B start around £17,500 - £18,000.

That's why we aim to get anyone who does our Diploma Course in Magazine Journalism an introduction to the world of B2B and a well-paid and rewarding career in journalism.

Our next course is scheduled to start on Monday 12 June 2006. Check out out website at www.jtc.co.uk - Brendan Martin