Royal Wedding beats Marathon in race for news

The upcoming Royal wedding beat the London Marathon and the anger of the nurses to take first place on the UK news agenda, for the week ending Sunday, April 17, according to journalisted.

Preparations for the Royal wedding generated 421 articles, of which 127 articles mentioned Kate Middleton; the London Marathon, with Kenya's Emmanuel Mutai and Mary Keitany finishing first, 186 articles; Andrew Lansley losing Royal College of Nursing confidence vote, generating more debate around NHS reforms, 135 articles; disputed Ivorian president Gbagbo, prised from a bunker by opposition forces with the help of French military and the UN, 124 articles.

Covered little, according to journalisted were a study in the Lancet revealed the UK has one of the poorest records of stillbirths for a developed country, 16 articles; 26 articles on Nigeria's election, won by Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party; and 12 articles on Finland's election, with a eurosceptic anti-immigration party gaining one-fifth of the votes.

'Hold the front page...we're having a revamp'

Holdthe FrontPage, the website specialising in covering the regional press, has unveiled a smart new look - its first revamp in 11 years.

HTFP says an improved job search is key to the new-look platform with all jobs now searchable by region, keyword and sector as well as category at a new jobs board, HTFPJobs.

There is also a dedicated social networking and blogging platform, HTFPConnect, where journalists will be able to link up with old colleagues and college mates, and write their own blogs for the site.

The entire archive of 20,000-plus HoldtheFrontPage stories has been migrated across to the new WordPress-powered site.

HoldtheFrontPage publisher Paul Linford said: “The original version of HTFP which went live in February 2000 certainly stood the test of time but in the fast-changing world of digital publishing a redesign was long overdue.

“What we set out to deliver was a platform that provides a better showcase for our content, offers an improved service to jobseekers and employers, and introduces a new element of social networking and interactivity, and I hope we have managed to do that."

• HoldtheFrontPage was launched in February 2000by Northcliffe Electronic Publishing, now Northcliffe Digital, in Derby. The Newsquest publishing group acquired a 50% stake at the start of 2001. Trinity Mirror came on board in 2002 and Johnston Press joined the partnership in 2004.
  
• Despite being owned by the biggest regional publishers, HoldtheFrontPage maintains its editorial independence and shares something in common with all those covering the media: Newsquest chief executive Paul Davidson won't speak to them.
  

Strike starts at Tindle titles in North London as journalists are warned of posssible redundancies

NUJ members at the Sir Ray Tindle-owned North London & Herts Newspaper group began a two week strike over low staffing levels today which they say are harming the editorial quality of their titles.

The nine NUJ journalists claim more than a third of editorial staff have left without being replaced and key positions are not being filled.

NUJ FoC Jonathan Lovett said: “This dispute is solely about the quality of our papers, we are not asking for more pay. We are hard working journalists trying to do a decent job without having to rely on people doing work experience. Staff are not being replaced and we have three reporters churning out nine newspapers every week.”

The journalists are planning a mock funeral procession in Enfield tomorrow to mark the death of their newspapers.

Tindle Newspapers says it regrets the decision of the NUJ members and claims the company was unable to take on new people or increase pay because of the North London centre's rising losses. It also says Tindle Newspapers is the only newspaper group not to have made journalists redundant during the recession.

Lovett said that the journalists were warned on the eve of the strike that the papers may be restructured and there could be redundancies.

Tindle Newspapers said in a statement to HoldtheFrontPage: "The rest of the group is currently supporting Enfield, but it is not possible for the group to continue to support the current level of loss.

"It follows that unless we are able to increase our profitability dramatically over the coming weeks, we will need to take action to make the papers profitable.

"We may do this by re-structuring the newspapers, which could potentially result in redundancies."

North London & Herts Newspapers comprises: The Enfield Advertiser, The Edmonton Advertiser, The Winchmore Hill Advertiser & Herald, The Enfield Gazette, The Barnet & Potters Bar Press, The East Barnet Press & Advertiser, The Edgware & Mill Hill Press, The Hendon & Finchley Press and The Haringey Advertiser.

Pic: NUJ

Ex-journalist jailed for leaking police info to press

A Hertfordshire police community support officer who had previously worked as a journalist has been jailed for a year for leaking confidential information to the INS news agency, BBC News reports.

Emma Smiter, 26, of Welwyn Garden City, was found guilty of misconduct in a public office and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Basildon Crown Court was told she passed on information gleaned from police computers to the news agency.

The former reporter with the Welwyn and Hatfield Times had denied the charges and said she used police computers and e-mails only for legitimate reasons. She told the court she knew Neil Hyde, a director of the INS news agency, but said they had been "just friends".

Prosecutors told the court she gave details of police inquiries to Hyde, who passed the information on to newspapers.

One accusation was that she told the news agency about a charity box at a police station in Borehamwood being £12 short.

Best of the US press on the press: Print and digital

Finalists in the fifth annual Mirror Awards competition for journalists covering the media have been announced by Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Among the finalists is the Gannett blog, which keeps an independent eye on Newsquest's US parent company, for an article about the finances of the Freedom Forum and the Newseum.
The finalists are:

Best Single Article, Traditional Media

• Devin Friedman, "The Viral Me" (GQ)
• Gabriel Sherman, "Chasing Fox" (New York Magazine)
• Mary Walton, "Investigative Shortfall" (American Journalism Review)

Best Single Article, Digital Media

• Don Carli, "Is Digital Media Worse For The Environment Than Print?" (PBS)
• Jim Hopkins, "All Shook Up" (Gannett Blog)
• Damon Kiesow, "Former Newspaper Photographer Becomes Mobile Social Journalist" (Poynter)
• Geoff McGhee, "Journalism in the Age of Data" (Stanford)
• Justin Peters, "Trust Falls" (Columbia Journalism Review)
• Jonathan Stray, "Play Paywall" (Nieman Journalism Lab)

Best Profile, Traditional Media

• Ken Auletta, "The Networker" (The New Yorker)
• Christopher Beam, "A Reasonable Man" (New York Magazine)
• Raffi Khatchadourian, "No Secrets" (The New Yorker)
• Ben McGrath, "Search and Destroy" (The New Yorker)
• Jose Antonio Vargas, "The Face of Facebook" (The New Yorker)

Best Profile, Digital Media

• Edmund Lee, "Capital New York Plies Tough Market With Earnest Journalism" (Ad Age)
• Joel Meares, "The Biggest Fish in Albany?" (Columbia Journalism Review)
• Joel Meares, "Keeping Up with Chuck Todd" (Columbia Journalism Review)

Best Commentary, Traditional Media

• Eric Alterman (The Nation)
  • "Money For Nothing"
  • "Bill Moyers Retires"
  • "Party Every Day"
• Bill Minutaglio (Texas Observer)
  • "No Foundation"
  • "Borderline Bias"
  • "Painful Reminders"
• James Poniewozik (TIME Magazine)
  • "The Myth of Fact"
  • "Reality at 10: How It's Changed Television - and Us"
  • "The End of 'Objectivity'"
• James Wolcott (Vanity Fair)
  • "The Norman Conquests"
  • "Barbarians at the Shore"
  • "The Sound of Sanity"

Best Commentary, Digital Media

• Eric Alterman (Center for American Progress)
  • "Think Again: Kill Me Before I Sing Again"
  • "Think Again: Perception, Reality, and Responsibility in the Gulf Oil Spill"
  • "Think Again: Just What Exactly is Fox News?"
• Joshua Benton (Nieman Journalism Lab)
  • "Food For Thought: Sontag and Chee On Shrinking the World"
  • "Three iPad Design Choices That Will Influence the Way We Read News Online"
  • "Crunching Denton's Ratio: What's the Return on Paying Sources?"
• Jina Moore (JinaMoore.com)
  • "When Can You Name Rape Victims? Nick Kristof Replies"
  • "Should We Tweet Rape?"
  • "A Roundup of Ideas on Tweeting Rape"
• Scott Rosenberg (MediaShift Idea Lab - PBS)
  • "Why Can't Journalists Handle Public Criticism?"
  • "Washington Post Caught Napping at Imaginary Intersection"
  • "'Report an Error' Button Should Be Standard On News Sites"
• Craig Silverman (Columbia Journalism Review)
  • "How WikiLeaks Outsourced the Burden of Verification"
  • "Canadian Media in Crisis"
  • "Eruption, Interrupted"

Best In-depth Piece, Traditional Media

• Jodi Enda and Priya Kumar, "Retreating From the World" (American Journalism Review)
• Andrew Rice, "Putting a Price on Words" (New York Times)
• Danielle Sacks, "The Future of Advertising" (Fast Company)
• Mary Van de Kamp Nohl, "Paper Money" (Milwaukee Magazine)

Winners will be announced at an awards lunch on June 7 in New York City

Tindle strike: It's the grim reaper up North London

Journalists planning to strike at the Sir Ray Tindle owned-North London & Herts Newspaper group say they will hold a funeral procession for their titles through Enfield on Wednesday.

The NUJ chapel says the procession will include the grim reaper and a "a priest reading out the last rites over the corpse of our newspapers."

The journalists are protesting at low staffing levels and say journalists are not being replaced. The strike action is due to start at 8.30am tomorrow morning for two weeks with a protest outside the North London & Herts Newspapers offices in Enfield.

The chapel said in a statement: "We are taking action over Sir Ray Tindle’s refusal to replace members of staff, leaving our formerly award-winning newspapers to dwindle and die."

The "funeral procession" on Wednesday starts at noon.

Tindle Newspapers says it regrets the decision of the chapel and says the company was unable to take on new people or increase pay because of the North London centre's rising losses. It also says Tindle Newspapers is the only newspaper group not to have made journalists redundant during the recession.

North London & Herts Newspapers comprises: The Enfield Advertiser, The Edmonton Advertiser, The Winchmore Hill Advertiser & Herald, The Enfield Gazette, The Barnet & Potters Bar Press, The East Barnet Press & Advertiser, The Edgware & Mill Hill Press, The Hendon & Finchley Press and The Haringey Advertiser.

Pic: NUJ chapel North London & Herts Newspapers

'Pay what you like' football magazine scores in US

A new quarterly UK football magazine that takes inspiration from Radiohead’s ‘pay what you like’ download model is claiming an unexpected success in the US market.

The Blizzard – named after an eccentric but short-lived English newspaper from 1893 – is the brainchild of Jonathan Wilson, an author and Sports Illustrated online contributor.

The digital pilot - ‘Issue Zero’ - was downloaded in every US State and 149 countries in its first month. One in six of the magazine’s total downloads came from North America - reflecting the growing popularity of football in the USA and Canada.

Each journalist contributor receives a direct share of the magazine’s profit and helps promote The Blizzard via their own Twitter accounts and other social media. The publishers of the magazine say this ensures The Blizzard gets far more coverage than via a marketing budget and that the positive response has led them to to commission a print run of the magazine.

“The huge appetite of US readers for The Blizzard has been a genuine, and very pleasant, surprise,” Wilson says. “The internet has reduced overheads and facilitated distribution to the point where there is no longer a need for any great publishing apparatus behind a new journal. Niche publications can now target readers on a global scale."

On the pricing policy, he says: “We hoped that letting people name their own price would make readers think about what value a publication like this has for them while at the same time opening up The Blizzard to be read by as many people as possible; you can download it for as little as two cents.

“We’ve been blown away by how well the digital version has been received and how our readership has been prepared to pay responsibly. If everybody paid two cents then the project wouldn’t be viable, but people seem to have been realistic.

"If we can now persuade the people who have bought and enjoyed the digital version to commit to a print subscription, we have all the makings of a sustainable title for years to come. It’s still a big if, but at this stage we’re quietly confident.”

Issue Zero of The Blizzard includes contributions from Gabriele Marcotti, Simon Kuper, Andy Brassell, Uli Hesse and Philippe Auclair. It is available as a digital download from www.theblizzard.co.uk.