Journalism
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Down Your Local
It’s some months now since my home city of Nottingham got its own hyper-local TV channel. Launched in a blitz of outdoor and print advertising featuring the most local of phrases – ey up – it was closely watched by everyone within the industry. Would it work? Would the content live up to expectations? And…
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A Prior Engagement
As far as villages go, Fairmile in East Devon is fairly nondescript. But its modesty, tucked away by the side of the A30, belies its recent past. Here, in the mid 90s, I interviewed a young man camping with his mates in a field. They’d vowed to stop the road being widened, and were among…
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Go West
So, having been in Devon for exactly three days, I’m running the risk of starting a local war. By going to Cornwall. I partly blame my acquaintance and staunch Kernowist (I’ll get this terminology sorted our soon) Rob. He was taught how to speak Nottingham by reciting the words “Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet” in…
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Arrival
So, to recap, this is where the work and travel blogs merge. I’ve landed myself a four month secondment to BBC Radio Devon – and when I’m not busy doing that, I’ve made it my mission to explore as much of my glorious temporary home as possible. And you could do a lot worse than…
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Credit Where It’s Due
The great and the good of local journalism gathered in Salford today for a forum ambitiously entitled the “Revival of Local Journalism”. It was hosted by the BBC to debate the current state of our industry, against the harsh background of technological innovation, greater competition, job cuts and – critically – falling sales of local…
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What The Duck?
Bank Holiday Tuesdays are usually pretty boring affairs news wise. Public bodies are largely dormant, the most serious crime is often a city centre brawl and, frankly, nobody can be bothered with consuming hard facts. But this Tuesday will be different, at least in the cosy bubble of “the media”, with the launch of Notts…
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Here Isn’t The News
It’s the end of an era. Paxman quits Newsnight, and amid the speculation of who can fill the space left by his gnashers there’s a raft of superlatives from the bosses saying how wonderful he’s been. I admire Paxo for many reasons – not least the fact that he won’t cross an NUJ picket line.…
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Information Underload
When large numbers of your listeners are caught up in the heart of a story, involving and engaging them is just as important as informing them. Aside from on air content, a radio station’s website can add context and detail which you simply can’t fit into a three minute news bulletin. But how you do…
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Embargo-a-go-go
Managing the news is something PRs are paid to do. As journalists, we get that. Drip feed a story at an appropriate time to your target outlet, hope that both sides play by the unwritten rules and everyone’s happy. It’s a neat arrangement. And one that is completely unworkable in 2014. This morning I heard…
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Don’t Question Me
You would never consider a Tweet reading : “I just had a wee. How was your last bowel movement?” So why do some news organisations insist on asking inane questions after every story link posted? Don’t get me wrong here – Twitter is a great way of getting your message out to an audience that…
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