Linguistics student’s live blog of march against spending cuts

Hundreds of journalists joined Saturday’s march against spending cuts, according to the National Union of Journalists, with reporters and citizen journalists out in force to cover the largely peaceful demonstration.

One of those reporters was first year linguistics student Matthew Taylor, who set up a new website and live blog to gather Tweets from student journalists on the ground.

Independent student journalism site Elephant, which launched 12 hours before the march began, recorded 1,000 unique users on the day, with around 75 followers online at any one time.

Taylor, a 20-year-old student at Queen Mary University of London, created the site using ScribbleLive’s live blogging platform. Taylor said he wanted immediacy and accountability for the tweets included in the blog and by using the software he was able to use approve Tweets through a student editor.

Armed with an SLR camera, a netbook and phone, Taylor was one of around 15 students reporting for Elephant. The site’s editor, who was also watching out for new information on the UK Uncut blog updated by members of the protest group and rolling news channels, curated and checked tweets for use on Elephant with a delay of “maybe a minute”.

“We were second only to television as the fastest visual report on the day,” Taylor claimed.

He said he is now providing feedback to ScribbleLive as to ways the company can improve the distinction between comments from the public and contributions from journalists in a live blog.

Similar posts:

• MEN harnesses multimedia for English Degence League protest coverage
• Live coverage of the National Union of Journalists ADM
• #J30: How to use online tools to report national strikes
• BJP documents Terrorism Act photography event
• YouTube creates channel for reporters

Johnston Press chief executive million pound earnings revealed in annual report

Johnston Press chief executive John Fry collected earnings of more than £1 million in 2010, according to the publisher’s annual report, sent out late on Friday afternoon.

The report follows an announcement earlier this month alongside the company’s preliminary results that Fry was to step down within the next year.

According to the figures Fry earned a basic salary of £525,000 in 2010, the same as the previous year, which was then boosted further by benefits and performance related bonus. This led to a total of £1,001,000, an increase on 2009 when Fry received a total of £969,000.

The salary details of other directors were also detailed in the report, with chief financial officer Stuart Paterson, who resigned last year, receiving a total of £520,000 and Danny Cammiade, chief operating officer, receiving an increased total of £618,000.

The report outlines the publisher’s financial performance in 2010, with key statistics including a decrease in total revenues of 7.1 per cent to £398.1 million, a drop in circulation revenues of 2.8 per cent to £96.7 million and an increase in digital revenues of 4 per cent.

Similar posts:

• Despite group redundancies and pay freeze, Johnston Press CEO’s pay package nears £1m
• Future websites attracting over 11m unique users per month
• Newsquest ad revenue drops almost 8% but digital revenue is on the rise
• NYTimes.com mobile site records 600% traffic growth in 2007
• paidContent.org (via Washington Post): Online newspaper revenues fall 2.9 per cent at end of 2008 – drop predicted for 2009

Video: Journalists listening to woman’s rape claim attacked in Libya

A gun was allegedly pulled on journalists in a Tripoli hotel as they tried to listen to a woman claiming she had been raped and tortured.

The distressed woman burst into the breakfast room of a hotel where journalists were staying on Saturday, Sky News reported. The broadcaster claimed its crew had a gun pulled on them, and government minders tried to seize footage and smash a camera belonging to another crew.

“Hers is not the voice they want heard in this country,” said Sky News correspondent Lisa Holland.

Similar posts:

• Libya could relax ban on foreign journalists on Friday
• Reuters ‘dissatisfied’ by investigation into death of Fadel Shana
• #jpod in depth – ‘It just sent shockwaves through you’: journalists reflect on 9/11
• #news2011: Russia Today on raising awareness through its FreeVideo platform
• edwalker.net: How we used cached Google pages to track down norovirus victims

Switched off: Two more BBC World Service languages have ceased broadcasting

The BBC Caribbean Service broadcast its last programme on Friday and on Saturday the BBC Russian Service went on air for the final time.

Both services have been broadcasting for seven decades but have been axed as part of BBC World Service cuts in an effort to save £46 million a year. Around 650 jobs are being lost as part of the 16 per cent budget cut and the World Service has estimated that the cuts will cost the service 30 million listeners.

In this BBC Russian Service broadcast, Gabriel Gatehouse, who, until recently was based in Baghdad and who started his career with the BBC Russian Service, looks back at the Russian service’s 65 year history.

Similar posts:

• BBC announces special swansong for Russian-language broadcasts
• #jpod: NUJ stages protest against BBC World Service cutbacks
• Guardian: Cuts will see World Service merged with BBC News, says Thompson
• BBC returns to Sri Lankan airwaves after 14-month absence
• Let your mind wander: the Economist’s new campaign

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – data journalism toolkit

This post on the news:rewired event site is a great starting point for journalists keen to learn more about the initial stages of data journalism, including guides to data scraping and online data stores available to use. Tipster: Rachel McAthy.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

Similar posts:

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – data collection guides
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – open data in local journalism
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – data visualisation resources
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – what you need to know about data
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – data journalism checklist

#jpod: The top news stories from Journalism.co.uk, 25 March 2011

Listen below for this week’s news round-up from Journalism.co.uk’s Sarah Marshall and sign up to our iTunes podcast feed for future audio.

This week’s jpod includes a look at the accounts of journalists detained in Libya while reporting on revolts in the country, submissions to the government’s consultation on undertakings in News Corporation’s bid for BSkyB and acting deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police John Yates denies he had misled MPs in relation to the phone hacking investigation. There is also more information on Journalism.co.uk’s fourth news:rewired event, noise to signal, which takes place on 27 May at Thomson Reuters, Canary Wharf.

Podcast: Download

Similar posts:

• Parliament to quiz MP and senior Met officer over phone-hacking investigation
• Guardian: New phone-hacking investigation contacts 4,000
• BBC: Ken Livingstone calls for ‘arms-length relationship’ between media and police
• Guardian.co.uk: Committee to hear police evidence for NOTW phone hacking inquiry
• John Yates resignation statement

Budget details held back by Treasury press office

Finance journalist Chris Wheal reports that the Treasury press office will not provide him with figures showing how much worse off families will be as a result of the budget.

Wheal recorded a conversation with a press officer from the Treasury (and then uploaded this to Audioboo) when he called back to double check that the figures, which apply to a graph within the budget report, would not be released to him.

In the conversation Wheal is told the figures are available, but will not be published for two weeks.

Let’s be clear on this: The Treasury knows it must release the figures under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. But it knows that a FOI request allows it 20 working days to respond, so it is delaying by less than that. It is using a freedom of information loophole to delay giving taxpayers information it could – and should – publish instantly.

The Treasury press officer has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Similar posts:

• David Higgerson: Tweeting FOI requests? ICO got this wrong
• Treasury reaches out to hyperlocal sites for Budget coverage
• Can FOI requests be submitted on Twitter? Yes, says ICO
• @press_freedom: a new Twitter service from Journalism.co.uk
• Liverpool Daily Post scores scoop with reader’s FOI request

Union seeks ‘substantial’ above-inflation pay rise for BBC staff

Media union BECTU is seeking “a substantial rise above inflation” for BBC staff following two years of below-inflation settlements.

Pay talks for the 2011 agreement got underway this week, BECTU said in a release.

According to the union, the the 2010 agreement was reached on a flat rate increase of £475 for all staff paid up to £37,726 a year. In 2009 all staff paid up to £60,000 a year received a rise of £450.

“The rising costs of travel, food, fuel and the impact of the vat increase, set against a period of two years of below-inflation increases and rising pension costs, mean that staff pay at the BBC has regressed,” BECTU general secretary, Gerry Morrissey, said in the statement.

The BBC is due to respond in May when they officials will again meet with BBC management.

Similar posts:

• Unions jointly submit pay claim for BBC staff
• BBC unions prepare staff for strike action
• NUJ membership cost rises
• NUJ members at Newsquest submit claim for 5 to 8% pay rise
• BBC pensions update – strike ballot result expected today

Beet.tv: Video news start up raises $1.5m in funding

US video news start-up site Newsy has raised $1.5 million in new funding, according to a report by Beet.tv of an interview with CEO Jim Spencer.

The funding will allow the site, which currently monitors, analyses and presents news coverage from across the world, to expand in terms of original programming, adding to staff and moving correspondents to different locations.

The company curates about 15 video segments a day which are compilations of clips from many news organizations. They are edited around a specific news topic. The segments are then introduced by a “host” in the Columbia studios. The news source of the videos are identified with links.

In the interview Spencer says the funding will help the site grow into a “true mobile news organisation”.

See the full video interview below:

Similar posts:

• ITN On in video deal with Daily Motion
• ESPN in video content deal with AOL.com
• Media release: PA signs UK video news deal for US with AP
• YouTomb: where YouTube videos go when they die
• Round-up: London Mayor candidates get web-savvy

Media Release: Ongo adds Reuters to news feeds

News aggregation service Ongo is adding Reuters to its news feeds on offer to subscribers to its service.

Ongo launched earlier this year and offers content from news outlets including the Guardian and the Associated Press and provides a single web interface where full articles are delivered alongside customisation features, as well as curated content by an editorial team.

According to a release, the addition of Reuters brings the total number of daily stories for subscribers to more than 600.

Ongo’s base package consists of AP, Financial Times, New York Times picks, USA Today and Washington Post articles.

Similar posts:

• Reuters using Apture for multimedia linking
• Washington Post using Apture for article links
• Editor&Publisher: WaPo and Bloomberg partner for global news wire
• Forbes: Facebook is getting into the news business
• Washington Post launches iPad app