Friday 20 April 2012

Media Quotes of the Week: From Simon Cowell on privacy to 'fear and anger' in the Sun newsroom


Simon Cowell on TMZ: "It's not my habit to kiss and tell. I've never done it. I've always tried to keep my private life private."

AllMediaScotland on the Johnston Press-owned The Scotsman being named Scottish Newspaper of the Year: "
The newspaper that has had its editor-in-chief recently placed on leave - because his position is being axed - has been named Newspaper of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards. John McLellan accepted the prize on behalf of the paper, barely a week after it was announced by publishers, Johnston Press, that he was 'consulting' with the company, commonly interpreted as code for being sacked."

Various Johnston Press managing directors announcing that their daily regional newspapers are going weekly:
“Our publishing strategy going forward will ensure that we give our local audiences what they want. While providing our existing audiences with an even better product, both in print and online, we will extend our audience by increasing our online content and making it easier to access in the most relevant ways as technologies continue to evolve.

Johnston Press ceo Ashley Highfield on JP's strategy in a video message to staff: "Our audience is going to be bigger. They will be more active in contributing content. And they will consume our media mostly from digital and mobile devices. What does this mean financially? Well, we’re going to earn equal amounts from digital and print products by 2020 - and we will make much more money through a combination of delivering more of our media digitally and a vastly increased audience that we can target more effectively. The result is that we will be a much more profitable business - perhaps not as large as Johnston Press in the past, but certainly a sustainable business performing a unique function in the economy and society, and delivering positive returns for our shareholders."

Post on HoldtheFrontPage: "Having been told this morning that my own job is “at risk”, I feel a certain sense of relief that I am in the lifeboat instead of going down with the Titanic. New management brings new ideas but as yet has not solved the issue of how to give the public all the news it NEEDS to know (local government, crime, human interest etc) while axing editorial staff; nor has it discovered how to encourage readers to view advertising on line. Good luck with that, those rearranging the deckchairs…"

Matthew Engel on Ft.com about the Northampton Chronicle & Echo going weekly: "The Chronicle & Echo has died, not because the town is too small but because it is too big. Northampton is no longer a coherent community. Though it is by far the largest town in Britain to have lost its daily paper, others will follow, including perhaps – before long – cities as large as Birmingham and Manchester. And post-print websites will fail even there unless they pay for far better journalism than has been the provincial norm."

Paul Breeden, chair of the Bristol NUJ Branch, on the latest cuts at the Bristol Evening Post: "How can the city's only dedicated daily newspaper provide proper coverage when staffing is reduced by a further third, to fewer than 40 journalists? Six years ago there were close to 190 journalists on the Post, Western Daily Press and Observer.
"

Former Press Complaints Commission chairman Sir Christopher Meyer
giving the annual lecture at the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspapermakers, on the Leveson Inquiry: "A combination of show trial, seminar and truth commission.”

Newspaper Society press release on research supporting its campaign that local authorities should advertise Traffic Regulation Orders in local press rather than council websites: "Eight times as many people have read a newspaper in the past week than have looked at their council website (32 million v 4 million adults). Twenty-nine per cent of all adults (and 21 per cent of drivers) haven't accessed the internet at all in the last 12 months meaning that advertising TROs online only would exclude 14 million UK residents, including many poorer members of society."

Senior Sun source quoted in the Journalist about News Corp's Management and Standards Committee handing over material to police which could identify sources: "Rather than go back to the reporter if they found something dodgy they acted as judge and jury and handed over everything to the police...There is fear and anger in the newsroom and a sense that reporters have been thrown to the wolves."

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