November 2009 Archives

IT WAS only a matter of time before Labour MP Frank Cook had his mouth washed out with soap and water in public.

The 74-year-old 'F-word' politician is infamous in the media world for picking up the phone and firing expletives at journalists or editors who dare to write or publish anything he doesn't agree with.

I remember dozens of such occasions from when I edited the Teesside Evening Gazette and, though annoying, you tended to let the abuse roll off your back, as it really wasn't something you wanted to share with readers.

But what a great decision by stalwart editor Malcolm Warne in the Friday November 13 edition of the Darlington & Stockton Times!

Cook was one of many Parliamentarians who'd been told to pay back expenses by Sir Thomas Legg, the lawyer and former civil servant who conducted an independent audit of MPs' expenses.

Cook's response when phoned for comment by D&S Times reporter Rob Merrick?

"I won't pay up without justification and, if the one they provide is not good enough, I will tell them to piss off."

Given that Cook is still pondering over whether to stand as an Independent for Stockton North following his deselection by Labour, the D&S Times has carried out a great service for democracy by revealing the foul-mouthed MP for what he really is.

And they did it with such class. A page five lead was felt to be front-end enough; no screaming headlines; and appropriate asterisks avoiding any blushes for readers not used to reading the swearing of MPs.

But the story puts Cook exactly where he deserves to be... in the public limelight for 1/ his expenses misdemeanours, 2/ his disrespect for authority and 3/ his general uncouthness.

The D&S Times, which is based in Priestgate, Darlington, alongside sister newspaper The Northern Echo, first published in 1847.

Published by Newsquest, it's one of those traditional weekly newspapers full to bursting with local news, comment and reports from community groups.

In the Cleveland edition I was sent, readers got 124 news stories (including business, farming and entertainment), more than 50 local pictures, and 25 sports stories (although only seven sports pictures).

On top of this were various sections crammed with very local information, including (to name just a few): late chemists; hospital visiting hours and planning applications.

And on another five pages of Town & Village were a total of 58 detailed community reports from a network of linage correspondents in neighbouring towns, hamlets, Young Farmers' Clubs, Women's Institutes and the like.

In all, there were 96-pages (including a 16-page Property and a 12-page Weekend Times section) for just 70p.

Many of these pages and community reports completely change for the D&S Times' separate North Yorkshire and County Durham editions.

And this local 'good value' service speaks for itself in sales: nearly 25,000 people buy it every week (24,859 in the first six months of 2009, according to the latest ABC).

The jury may still be out on its most recent development... it switched from its traditional broadsheet format to a smaller 'compact' layout in March 2009.

But whatever its size, I was impressed with how the D&S Times is still prepared to stand up to would-be media bullies like Frank Cook.

Lancashire Telegraph

TAKE a quick glance at the page ones of these two daily newspapers...

A mate of mine visiting from up north dropped them on my desk last night and, when I found them this morning, my first instinct was to start assessing what I thought were publications from separate days.

Even the front page adverts were different.

And with the heavy editionising continuing on 11 of the 12 local news pages, it wasn't until I got to the Motors section on page 15 that I realised that both editions were from yesterday, Thursday November 12.

The Lancashire Telegraph has two editions, the 'home' one serving Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley.

But readers in Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale are not short-changed just because they don't host the paper's headquarters.

As well as multiple change pages on news, the editions also proudly display major sports changes from Blackburn Rovers to Burnley FC, as can be seen here...

Even the paper's 'lookingback' nostalgia section gives readers specific local history and memories from their own areas....

Now that takes a bit of effort, but the result is a classy example of the importance of 'local, local, local' newspapers.

Yes, flick through the media industry websites and you'll find that the Lancashire Telegraph, published by Newsquest, has had its share of cost savings in recent years.

It's gone overnight; district offices have been closed; it's switched its printing to Deeside, Flintshire; there have been editorial redundancies, etc.

Despite these cutbacks, there is obviously no distraction on the editorial floor from providing the best local news service possible for its different sets of readers.

And there is no predominance of press release fodder. There are plenty of hard news stories, court convictions, council rows and local human interest reports throughout.

They've even got local MP and Justice Secretary Jack Straw to write a weekly, mostly readable column.

It's what a committed editorial team led by a hard taskmaster editor can achieve.

No wonder readers in both edition areas continue to shell out their 40p a day.

While sales have fallen, they are only 6.2% down to 28,569 in the latest ABCs, which is a better-than-average performance during the current downturn.

Top marks for the attention to local detail to editor Kevin Young and team.

I'm sure this dedicated service to readers will see the Lancashire Telegraph through the current recession.

Staffordshire Newsletter

WHO'S the happy chappie in this picture, and why was the scantily-clad kissogram sitting on his lap in the old editorial offices of this proud newspaper?

The aging 1970s-style snap had been found by modern-day hacks, but long-gone were the in-office memories, and no date or caption was available. Oh, how to solve this mystery...

The answer, of course, is to ask your thousands of readers... one of them is bound to know.

And so was the case in the November 5 Staffordshire Newsletter I picked up in the little village of Brocton after my taxi duties for my lad's football team playing in this weekend's junior Staffordshire Cup tie.

There on the Nostalgia Notebook page was a full recall from reader Anne James, the former front desk manager from way back when.

Apparently, then cub reporter Aiden Goldstraw had a string of speeding and parking tickets, so the office asked Cheryl the kissogram, a regular classified advertiser, to perform a freebie trick.

"He was gobsmacked," remembers Anne. "Great times, great people, great place to work!"

I bet... Oh for those newsrooms before political correctness crept in!

But while this mystery was solved, the Newsletter created another one with a report lacking a few details on page 1.

A shooting at a Stafford industrial estate was a good story, and a painful one for the victim who was shot in his buttock.

But with my news editor's hat on, what was the name of the victim? (The incident happened nearly two weeks before, so there must have been time to find out).

Also, having read the incident was "just the latest in a catalogue of problems at the site" involving "boy-racers", I almost assumed that it was an air-rifle prank. But the story doesn't specify the type of weapon. (If it was a 'real' gun, far more alarm for readers).

Nor was there any police number for witnesses to phone.

The shooting took place at the estate's car body shop, but there were no quotes from anyone there.

We don't know how hard the Newsletter reporters tried, of course, or how obstructive the local police were, and there may well be a follow up in this week's paper or on the website.

The good thing is that the story was the hardest news in the paper, rightfully made the splash, and caught my attention long enough to pose these questions.

Elsewhere, the Newsletter, which sells around 18,000 copies* a week and is published by Iliffe News & Media, is a solid, informative read. The edition I bought was 64-pages, which included a 12-page Property pull-out.

In the remaining 52-pages, there were a total of 83 news, business, farming and entertainment stories, 33 related pictures, 36 sports reports and 18 sports pictures.

Plus there was a Community News spread with a total of 80 short but detailed reports from local villages, churches and neighbourhood groups.

Not bad for 60p.

Yes, the county town of Stafford, with a population of 60,000+, is served well by editor Killoran Wills and team, whose sense of humour I commend in including that kissogram on the nostalgia pages.

Just a few more hard facts for the page 1 splash please.

* ABC Jan-Jun 2006

STAFF at the Weston & Somerset Mercury have quite rightly pointed out their stonking splash in the latest edition.

The online version is clickable here.

Fantastic human interest story!

Weston & Somerset Mercury

THERE are two things that readers of this weekly newspaper cannot complain about: pagination and story count.

In the October 29 edition that I purchased when walking in North Somerset last week, there were a total of 136-pages - and all for just 60p.

OK, 60-pages were a pull-out Homes section, although this in itself will always be a popular read for locals interested in buying, selling and renting homes - or those just nosy at neighbours' prices.

But even leaving the Homes section aside, there were another 76 pages jam-packed full of local news, views and sports reports.

A total of 102 individual local news stories, to be exact, published along with 61 pictures; at least 36 sports reports on six sports pages, also rammed full of tables and results, everything from football and rugby to bowls, sea-angling, cribbage and skittles; and 16 local sports pictures squeezed in among them.

The Weston & Somerset Mercury is a weekly tabloid newspaper sold in the town of Weston-super-Mare and surrounding parts of North Somerset, extending from Portishead, Clevedon and Nailsea in the north to Burnham-on-Sea and Highbridge in the south, and inland as far as Winscombe and Cheddar.

According to the latest ABCs, the Archant publication sells 15,817 a week, up 4.4% year-on-year.

And its pages almost glow with interactive popularity: there were 32 detailed community reports from local town, village and estate correspondents on the 'Signposts' page; plus 18 despatches from local treasurers and organisers on the 'Clubs and Societies' page; and more than 100 paid-for entries of its Family Announcements pages.

It looked vibrant on the advertising front as well, with a 6-page 'Prepare for Christmas' run-of-paper supplement full of ads. In fact, there was a healthy ad count throughout, with thorough classified and motors sections.

The only problem with such cat-killers can be a lack of structure, and a tendency to 'pour' the news in rather than arrange it on merit and in clearly identified sections.

For example, it was great to see as many as three letters pages. But why, oh why, run these separately with repeated 'how to' furniture on pages 6, 8 and then 30?

There was a neat looking package on page 9, possible created as part of a design template. But the 'Two shop assistants send hooded raiders packing' lead just didn't gel well with the 'Front line injections' swine flu health story in the shoulder, nor with the 'Oo-la-la' picture caption on a French day at a local school under the same 'raiders' headline.

In the index on page 2, the paper proudly heralded its regular 'In the Dock' section on page 14. Yet this was just two half columns containing nine minor cases, when pages upon pages of other court stories and columns appeared with no signposts throughout the book.

Perhaps the most telling weakness was the choice of page 1 splash.

'Don't dump druggies on us - says MP' (sic) was the centralised headline, well shy left and right on three of its four decks.

And the intro par gives you a feel for the writing style and news judgment:

"Weston's days as a 'dumping ground' for addicts and a free market for drugs could be over thanks to an 'unthinkable' Government U-turn. The strategy swerve [is]... on the agenda of public health minister Gillian Merron..."

I flicked onto page 2 without reading any more.

Surely a better page 1 tale would have been a collation from what was buried on pages 16 and 17? As it stood, this was a haphazard collection of 15 'druggies in court' stories, many of them telling of the convictions and long-term jailing of local heroin dealers, several with custody pictures of the criminals concerned. Although the content was fascinating, the spread was unannounced, with no collective strapline or standfirst. And the figure '10' clashed in the main headlines on both pages.

But whatever the critique from what is, after all, a one-off reader, this was more than made up for by the sheer volume of local stories and local pictures throughout the book provided by editor Judi Kisiel and what is obviously a hard-working editorial team.

Perhaps just a bit more organisation and story selection needed to help the reader through those pages...

Now, following an enjoyable holiday week viewing other papers around the country, it's time to head back up the M5 to make sure tomorrow's Birmingham Mail is in a fit state to stand up to scrutiny!