State of Play: Love to know what people think the figures mean for the future of newspapers, both online and in print

Implemented across the country over the last year it has never been far from controversy.

Proposed strike action, a serious of high profile gaffes – most notably the Bedfordshire Times and Citizen’s now infamous ‘headline headghgh’ front page – and widespread criticism from staff have all dogged ATEX.

Now three high profile bloggers have piled into the unpopular system.

Vitriolic Press Gazette columnist Grey Cardigan, former Sun journalist turned media professor Roy Greenslade and ex-Birmingham Mail editor Steve Dyson all had harsh words to say about it.

Greenslade and Grey were responding to a memo from Paul Bentham, the managing director of JP’s South Yorkshire titles, which set out workflow methods for ATEX.

It included advice to editors suggesting they need not read every story.

Grey Cardigan wrote: “Suggesting that an editor need not glance over every story in their newspaper is utter madness. The lawyers must be rubbing their hands with glee.

“Does this silly man know nothing about newspapers? Perhaps in Mr Bentham’s barmy new world, not only are subs expendable but editors too.

“He’s not really thought this through, has he? Because if there’s no editor patrolling the proofs, who’s going to end up before the beak for contempt when a cock-up saunters through? Yes, you, Mr. Bentham.”

Greenslade was equally savage, comparing the document to something produced by ‘those wonderful John Bull printing outfits of youthful memory, a doing-it-by-numbers rigidity leaving very little room for initiative’.

He wrote: “But a couple of sentences were truly alarming:

‘Editors need to ensure that the policy of “right first time” is embedded in the newsroom culture. They should not however continue with the old practise of reading every story.
‘Editors should evaluate the risk for each story based on content and the seniority of the journalist and act accordingly.’

“Editors should not read stories! What, even when their boss confuses the verb practise with the noun practice?”

Greenslade continues: “What also emerges with some clarity from the memo is the death of journalistic creativity. We have always had to get pages off fast and in some kind of order.

“Every paper – local weekly, regional evening and national daily – has always been composed against the clock. But that fact of newspaper life has never stifled the creative process.

“How many times must we say, and mean, that content is king. The very notion that editors should stop doing their job by not reading every story is a disgrace.

“By this memo Johnston Press has reversed several centuries of journalistic good practice. The technology should be our servant, not our master.”

And it was the turn of Dyson, writing in his HoldtheFrontPage blog, to turn his guns on ATEX last week.

Reviewing JP’s Burnley Express, he wrote: ” What struck me about all inside editorial pages was poor design. Content, of course, is king, but the dominance of its crown can be hindered by what to me seemed slapdash, template-driven lay-outs.

“Whether this is down to stressed subbing hubs in Preston, the early days of Atex or both, it would be wrong not to tick Express owners Johnston Press off for allowing cost-savings to result in sub-standard looking pages.

“I just hope that Johnston’s East Lancashire Newspapers bosses resist the temptation to follow their sister company in South Yorkshire, where a recent memo from managing director Paul Bentham suggested that editors ‘should not continue with the old practise of reading every story’.”

Sources: Grey Cardigan, Roy Greenslade, Steve Dyson

State of Play: ATEX remains a blood clot that needs to be removed

The move means previous organiser, the Wilmington Group, has lost control of two sets of awards this year.

It follows the successful Regional Press Awards night – run by the NUJ after Wilmington decided not to go ahead with them.

The Newspaper Publishers Association will take control of the British Press Awards from next year.

It has asked the Society of Editors to organise the awards.

The NPA said: “The plan is to provide an editorial and journalism awards scheme for national newspapers in the UK that is independent of any one newspaper, fair and cost-effective, with proceeds retained within the industry.

“It is intended that the awards will generate a surplus which will be retained within the newspaper industry helping to fund campaigning by the Society of Editors on behalf of the media and to support the Journalists’ Charity.”

Earlier the Regional Press Awards proved to be a major success with NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear saying: “We hope the industry itself will recognise local and regional journalists. If it doesn’t we will consider running these awards again.

“We think it is vital to recognise the hard work you all do.”

State of Play: Wilmington belittled the awards and the journalists who picked them up, so good riddance to bad rubbish

The Sands Media Services blog gives a helpful run through those press day checks that can lead to nightmares if not carried out properly…

Source: Sands Media Services

On July 1, ten journalists – who had planned to hold industrial action over plans to move three sub- editors to a production hub 27 miles away – decided not to strike.

The Worcester sub hub will eventually produce papers including the Stourbridge News, Halesowen News, Dudley News, Kidderminster Shuttle, Bromsgrove Advertiser and Redditch Advertiser.

NUJ Northern and Midlands organiser Chris Morley said a resolution had been reached for two members, although concerns remained over the impact of the hub.

State of Play: Why are all the strikes being cancelled?

The papers shortlisted are:

The Cumberland News

The Hampstead & Highgate Express

Irish News

The News, Portsmouth

Nottingham Post

The Press, York

Yorkshire Evening Post

Jeremy Dear, NUJ general secretary said: “This was a particularly hard category for our judges to shortlist. The quality of journalism throughout our local and regional titles is outstanding.

“These awards are a great showcase for the excellent work being carried out by journalists throughout the industry, in newspapers that are doing a fantastic job for the communities they serve.”

The winner will be announced on Tuesday.

According to a report on HoldtheFrontPage, plans for industrial action look set to be abandoned as a number of centres across JP are unwilling to go on strike.

The strike, planned over objections to the company’s new content management system ATEX, had originally been due to take place on May 19, but had to be called off when JP obtained a last-minute injunction. The company claimed it did not actually employ any staff and that instead they were the responsibility of a number of subsidiary companies.

The original ballot had resulted in a 70 per cent yes vote for strike action, although only 346 NUJ members took part.

But now, although militancy remains high in the north of the country where the system has not yet been introduced, support seems to have waned among chapels in the south and midlands.

The NUJ is uncertain it could persuade members to take part in a national strike and will instead have to look to individual chapels to strike, notably those in Sheffield, Doncaster, Scarborough, Preston, Blackpool and South Shields.

Chris Morley, NUJ northern regional organiser, said it was up to individual chapels to decide what to do.

He said: “Nothing was decided as chapels have to consult with their own memberships and it is very much up to individual chapels on what they want to do, so any decisions will be made by them.

“Union members are unhappy about the rollout of ATEX across JP, which has led to a reduction in the number of sub-editors needed and claims of increased workloads for remaining staff.”

An insider at one of JP’s papers in the south told The Blog that support for a group-wide strike was waning in the region.

Our source said: “When the originally strike action was proposed a number of centres were already thinking of opting out and the company launched an offensive to stop those in two minds.

“A mixture of incentives – such as the lifting of the pay freeze – and threats – one managing director was heard to say, ‘they’ll really suffer if they go through with this’ – had persuaded many people it wasn’t worth it. Even if the May 19 strike had gone ahead a lot of people in this region would still have gone into work.

“Now the desire is even more muted. A lot of the more militant workers were among those made redundant and young trainees in their first job haven’t got the stomach for a fight.

“More importantly the system has bedded down a bit now and people have got used to it. There are still major problems, but there is a realisation ATEX is going nowhere. If we went on strike the company still would not get rid of this new system. It cost too much and JP doesn’t have money to throw away.

“It’s a case of get your head down and get on with your work.”

Source: HoldtheFrontPage

State of Play: Victory for JP?

While it is all to usual to compare our papers with the collapsing industry in the United States, Preston reveals this is merely a look at the two worst declining countries.

According to a Organistation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study, US circulations are falling like a stone with only 30 per cent of people saying they read a paper the previous day. In Britain, the country which fared second worse, of the 31 OECD members, only 33 per cent of people claimed to have read a paper recently.

But, the study and Preston both point out, these figures are vastly different in other parts of the world. In Japan, the figure is 94 per cent and in Norway it is 82 per cent.

Preston writes that a number of explanations and excuses can be used: circulation figures here made artificially worse by quality newspapers hacking away at bulk sale giveaways ; a particularly deep UK recession;. a rampant internet news sector and a rapid rise in cover prices among them.

But he points out: ‘ The countries where online newspaper website consumption is highest – Korea, Norway, Iceland, Japan – outscore Britain almost two to one and fare much better at protecting print circulation as well. Austria, pretty close to the UK in news site usage, lost a mere 2% of publishing turnover in the two years where we saw 21% go.

‘Here’s a hint in these statistics – the sort of people who get their news online are also the sort of people who buy print newspapers. It’s not one or the other; it’s often both. And nothing they find prompts the OECD researchers to conclude that print papers have a doomed, finite future.’

Preston adds that the UK also lags behind America in terms of digital advertising, that competition in this country is too introverted and that British papers struggle to connect with younger readers:

‘Worse, we’re particularly poor at connecting with new, young readers – who may prefer news on the net, but often choose no news at all. We fulminate about immigration, but don’t provide a service to meet their different needs. We tell ourselves that Fleet Street knows best, but change painfully little in style or range as the crisis bites.’

Source: The Observer

State of Play: Self-flagellation

The winners will be announced at Dingwalls in Camden at 1pm on June 29. As far as The Blog is concerned that fact that at least some journalists will get to see their work honoured this year has made the oft-criticised work of the NUJ worthwhile.

Here is the shortlist in full:

Columnist of the Year

• Paul Taylor – Manchester Evening News
• Rod McPhee – Yorkshire Evening Post
• Barry Gibson – Huddersfield Examiner
• Erik Petersen – Nottingham Post
• Stacia Briggs – Norwich Evening News

Campaign of the Year

• Kirsty Whalley – Croydon Guardian
• Cara Simpson – Coventry Telegraph
• Lucy Purdy – Haringey Advertiser
• Kathryn Torney – Belfast Telegraph
• Robert Pattison – Sunday Sun

Designer of the Year

• James Young – Evening Leader / The Leader / Chester Standard
• Alan Cooper – The News Portsmouth
• Alan Formby-Jackson – Evening Gazette
• Graeme Windell – The News
• Gerard Gough – Scottish Catholic Observer

Feature Writer of the Year (Daily/Sunday)

• Jayne Dawson – Yorkshire Evening Post
• Keiron Pim – Eastern Daily Press
• Rowan Mantell – Eastern Daily Press & Evening News
• Jim Entwistle – Northern Echo
• Viv Groskop – Evening Standard
• Lee Marlow – Leicester Mercury

Feature Writer of the Year (Weekly)

• Roger Lytollis – Cumberland News
• Audrey Watson – Belfast Telegraph (Weekend)
• Lucy Purdy – Haringey Advertiser
• Michael Russell – West Highland Free Press

Multimedia Journalist of the Year

• Gail Milne – Glenrothes Gazette
• Joseph Watts – Nottingham Post
• Nick Stylianou – The Orbital (student mag)
• Sion Donovan – Portsmouth.co.uk
• William Watt – Blackpool Gazette

Multimedia Publisher of the Year

• Jo Wood – thisiscornwall.co.uk
• Peter Raven – pinkun.com
• Stewart Kirkpatrick – Caledonian Mercury
• Paul Bradshaw – Help Me Investigate

Photographer of the Year (Daily/Sunday)

• Simon Dack – theargus.co.uk
• Martin Shields – The Herald
• Marc Turner – Herald and Times
• Mark Bikerdike – Yorkshire Evening Post
• Stuart Boulton – Northern Echo

Photographer of the Year (Weekly)

• Stephen Garnett – Craven Herald
• Alistair Wilson – Surrey Advertiser
• Chris Whiteoak – Surrey Advertiser
• Mark Soanes – Waltham Forest Guardian
• Peter Foster – Galloway Gazette

Reporter of the Year (Daily/Sunday)

• Phil Coleman – The News and Star
• Bimpe Archer – The Irish News
• Allison Morris – The Irish News
• Ciaran Barnes – Sunday Life
• Gavin Aitchinson – The Press

Reporter of the Year (Weekly)

• Cherry Wilson – Rotherham Advertiser & Croydon Advertiser
• Phil Turner – Rotherham Post
• Katie Davis – Ham & High
• Kate Mason – West Highland Press
• Eleanor Harding – Dumfries and Galloway Standard

Sports Journalist of the Year (Daily/Sunday)

• Neil Allen – Portsmouth.co.uk
• Scott Wilson – Northern Echo
• Amanda Little – News & Star (Cumbria)
• Jon Colman – News and Star
• Martin Smith – The Star, Sheffield

Sports Journalist of the Year (Weekly)

• Eric Mackinnon – West Lothian Courier
• Jon Colman – The Cumberland News
• Amanda Little – The Cumberland News
• Chris McNulty – Donegal
• Keith MacKenzie – West Highland Press

Student Journalist of the Year

• Mark Duell – Forgetoday.com
• Andy Halls – Pluto
• Rosie Taylor – Forge Press
• Jennie Agg – Student Direct
• Nick Stylianou

Scoop of the Year

• Bimpe Archer – The Irish News
• Gavin Aitchinson – The Press
• Cherry Wilson – Rotherham Advertiser & Croydon Advertiser
• Victoria Raimes – Evening News (Edinburgh)
• Ciaran Barnes – Sunday Life

Sports Photographer of the Year

• Stuart Harrison – Swindon Advertiser
• Mark Bickerdike – Yorkshire Post
• Chris Booth – Northern Echo
• Lucy Ray – Bradford Telegraph & Argus
• Chris Vaughan – Lincolnshire Echo

Sports Photographer of the Year (Weekly)

• Chris Whiteoak – Aldershot News
• Stephen Garnett – Craven Herald
• Marie Caley – Doncaster Today
• Liz Mockler – Doncaster Free Press
• Ann Marie Sanderson – various

Specialist Writer of the Year

• Carl Eve – The Herald
• Keiron Pim – Eastern Daily Press
• Susanna Wilkey – Hampstead & Highgate Express
• Katie Baldwin – Yorkshire Post

The Felix Dearden Reporting on Race Awards

• Tinashe Mushakavantu
• Nick Tarver
• Mary Griffin

Source: National Union of Journalists website

State of Play: Kiss of life

According to the Union, the PCC has asked JP to respond to claims its new editorial content system, ATEX, is putting accuracy at risk.

The NUJ wrote to the PCC following a memo from Paul Bentham, Managing Director of the group’s South Yorkshire titles, to editors and senior journalists, setting out new rules following the introduction of ATEX.

Mr Bentham’s note said all editors are not permitted to change pre-prepared templates ‘on the fly’, that a right first time policy must be ‘embedded into newsroom culture’ and that editors should not ‘ continue with the old practice of reading every story’.