Comments on: Give all journalists their own ‘20 per cent time’

By: 150cc scooter

150cc scooter — Sun, 02 May 2010 08:13:48 +0000

Very good report,You learn new stuff every day.

By: Dave Lee

Dave Lee — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:10:10 +0000

No no, not saying it’s crap at all. More saying that a lot of it — particularly breaking news — is in little bitty bits, that no paper could ever publish.

What would be good, I think, is for a post-wire production side to Reuters/PA/whoever that would re-write copy that could be published without need for in house journos to worry.

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:56:37 +0000

Dave, I don’t know what you are referring to when you say wire copy isn’t in acceptable written form – the point is it has to be adaptable to different papers’ styles. Do you really mean PA and Reuters and so on? Are you really saying it’s all crap? I’m sorry I can’t understand this.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:37:54 +0000

Bernie: Fantastic point. Outsourcing, in any industry, is normally seen as a terrible idea leading to a lack of quality for whatever service it provides.

However, in this instance, I think it might be a great idea. Why not have machines drilling out this sort of copy while the local journalists get out there and get stuck in.

I think it could be time for the wires to perhaps produce a secondary service. Wire stories tend to come in ebbs and flows and aren’t really in acceptable written form… why can’t someone within the wires sort this out?

By: Scott Goodacre

Scott Goodacre — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:01:20 +0000

Doesn’t all this come under the banner of ‘investigative journalism’? What was once the lifeblood of the journalism profession must obviously be dying out.

If we sat and rewrote PR all day, then who’d be in charge of the news? It would become dictated for us, and journalism courses like my own would be dedicated to the mindless recycling of news from local industry and business.

That, strangely enough, is exactly what we’ve been doing all semester at Sunderland. ‘News Writing’ consists of a two hour lesson, every week, where our tutor comes in and hands us a press release. He leaves, then returns about 90mins later to collect them all in, before dismissing us. The evaluation at the end was fun to say the least.

Strangely enough, it was ideal preparation for the NCTJ test, which had us doing exactly the same thing.

By: Bernie Russell

Bernie Russell — Sun, 18 May 2008 21:24:44 +0000

Great idea. But for local newspapers, I’d go further: make it 80/20, with journalists spending 80 per cent of their time on stories, and 20 per cent on writing up press releases. After all, as LInda points out, that used to be the model.
And if newspapers say they can’t afford this, maybe they can’t afford not to.
Writing press releases is really just copy-crunching. In some cases, it’s not much than topping and tailing. Yes, it has value, but not as much as a story.
And is it a doomed business anyway. Pretty soon, they’ll all be out-sourced to the journalistic equivalent of call-centres.
Never happen? It already is.
So could this be the model? One day a week, you process copy from your workmate in New Delhi. And for the rest of the week, you’re on the beat.
Good thing, bad thing?
That depends. If the bean-counters see it as a way of cutting costs, then it will only accelerate the decline of newspapers.
But if it could liberate local journalists to add real value to their newspapers by getting out and finding stories (which is what people want to read anyway) then it might halt – and maybe even reverse that decline.

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:54:51 +0000

Hi Dave – before my experience on local papers ended 10 years ago, ‘off diary’ stories were what made the paper and in an area where there were two competing evening papers, were the lifeblood of the newsroom – God help you if your ‘rival’ got the exclusive – I’m not sure that has vanished entirely despite the pressures of churning out stuff. ‘Off diary’ stories may still be expected alongside the other stuff though – adding even more pressure on reporters.

I would say that on the Express & Star, Birmingham Post and Birmingham Mail, the management are still very, very keen on ‘off diary’ stories and all of these strong regional papers have a proud record of producing stories that can make a difference locally or spark national follow ups and debate.

Also have you looked into Sunday papers much? I have worked on two regional Sundays and you couldn’t touch anything that had been mentioned elsewhere – everything was pretty much ‘off diary – relying on cultivating contacts and getting out and talking to people etc. These regional stories are still making page leads in the nationals.

You’ve also reminded me that part of my training was being driven to a village, dropped off for the day and coming back with as many stories as possible – do you do that sort of thing these days?

Good luck with everything, starting out wanting everyone to know you as a ‘good honest bloke’ is pretty admirable in my book – but you will meet some of the most awkward buggers out at the school gates or at the local nick – so good luck with that!

By: Ed Walker

Ed Walker — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:30:08 +0000

Spot on Dave, unfortunately it doesn’t seem like this will happen because local/regional papers are driven remorselessly towards very tight profit margins. It’s a shame, as the best journalism is often the well research local story.

On a positive note, student papers aren’t under that pressure and where local papers are failing – student papers with good teams should be able to be out there in the student community, and the local community, picking up some great stories.

At Pluto I’ve actively encouraged our writers to go out there and find stories – and the essay-writing ring that we smashed was an example of just that. Sadly though, the number of students willing to think on their own and not just re-write the first thing given to them is declining.