Former Brighton Argus deputy editor Frank le Duc guest posts on Jon Slattery’s blog about the recent strikes at the Argus and other Newsquest titles, and about the challenges facing regional publishers from new local competition.

The difficulty for companies like Newsquest is that their profits are not coming from a resurgence in advertising revenues but a ruthless cutting of costs.

Newsquest has used a salami-slicing technique which has its limitations. You can slice the salami only so many times before there’s no meat left.

Full post at this link…

• Newsquest ad revenue drops almost 8% but digital revenue is on the rise
• InPublishing survey: ‘Behind the turnover figures, the industry is essentially still in profit’
• Roy Greenslade: Brighton’s Argus and saving local newspapers
• Mail Online helps DMGT to significant increase in digital revenue
• Brighton Argus printing presses could close; 53 jobs threatened

Today journalists from the Newsquest-owned Brighton Argus took to the picket line for the second day of strikes, in protest at plans to relocate their subbing operations to Southampton and the loss of seven jobs at the title.

The strike action on both days went beyond the picket line in Brighton, with campaigning staff using social media to spread the word. The group produced a Twitter account @argus_strike, posting videos, pictures and comments throughout the action.

There was also a Argus strike blog set up in the lead up to the action, featuring information on why the staff were striking, campaign links as well as vox-pops with readers. Web editor Jo Wadsworth even called on the title’s community correspondents to support the action by not crossing a virtual picket line, and postponing any submissions to the site until the weekend.

The sub-editors made redundant say they were originally told today would be their last day, but told Journalism.co.uk yesterday they may be asked to work on for another two to four weeks to help with the movement of production down to Southampton.

Members of the National Union of Journalists, local politicians and other supporters stood outside the offices in the south-east town, with the number of journalists estimated to reflect around three quarters of the editorial team at the picket’s peak.

Journalism.co.uk produced this video report, speaking to members of the union and those losing their jobs.

• NUJ: Southern Daily Echo chapel to ballot for strikes over pay freeze
• NUJ: More strife for Newsquest as four more NUJ centres vote to strike
• Brighton Argus printing presses could close; 53 jobs threatened
• NUJ members ballot for strike at north-east Newsquest titles
• ‘There’s no fat to cut away here’: BBC Sussex staff join nationwide strikes

Media commentator Roy Greenslade gives a no-holds-barred review of the local news scene in his home city Brighton, in particular the problems faced by the Newsquest-owned local newspaper, the Argus.

As we all know, regional evenings have been in decline across the country, but the Argus has lost more buyers faster than many similar titles. Is this Newsquest’s fault? Well, a publisher cannot be entirely free of blame.

However, the central difficulty facing any editor of the Argus (and, arguably, all regionals and locals) has been demographic, trying to identify, and then appeal to, a target audience. In plain terms, should it be The Times or The Sun or the Daily Mail?

The paper, again like others, has tried to be all things to all people, without managing to satisfy any sector. Its front pages have tended to be red-toppish, with an accent on crime. Indeed, much of the news follows a tabloid-style agenda.

Comments from former Argus journalists, contributors and some readers make for an interesting anatomy of the difficulties faced by regional and local newspapers across the UK – a worthwhile read for all regional hacks.

Full post at this link…

• Are the new police crime maps any use for UK journalists? Some doubts raised
• Jon Slattery: ‘You can slice the salami only so many times,’ warns ex-Argus man
• How sticky are UK newspaper sites? 62.8 per cent of users look at just one page, says Alexa
• HTFP: Northcliffe editor defends production hub plans
• Brighton Argus’ new out-of-town subs fall at the first hurdle

Having set-up a discussion group online and run two successful offline meet-ups, Adam Westbrook’s Future of News initiative has inspired new events in the West Midlands, Brighton and Scotland. The idea: to discuss new tools, new directions and share ideas for the future of UK journalism.

West Midlands

The first ever meeting of the West Midlands branch of the Future of News group will be held at Birmingham City University on Monday 8 February at 6.45pm. To register you’ll need to sign up here. All is explained in a post on the site Journal Local and there’s a short introductory video from organiser Philip John:

Brighton

On the same date Journalism.co.uk’s own Judith Townend has set-up the first meeting of the Brighton group – with scheduled talks from the Brighton Argus’ web editor Jo Wadsworth and the Guardian’s Simon Willison. It’s at The Skiff from 7.15pm – and you can sign up here.

Scotland

Both of which have got digital editor Iain Hepburn wondering what demand there is for a similar meet-up in Scotland. If enough people register an interest, he says he’s happy to get the ball rolling. If you are, let Iain know on this blog post.

• UK Future of News gets local
• Future of News meet-ups in Brighton and Birmingham
• New meet-up group organised to discuss the future of news
• Former Birmingham Post editor launches West Midlands business news site
• South west weeklies bought by unnamed businessman, says founder

Future of News group organiser Adam Westbrook has summarised last week’s meet-up on his blog and also updates on the birth of three UK splinter groups: in Brighton, South Wales and the West Midlands. Full post at this link…

On Sarah Booker’s suggestion, I set up a page for the Brighton group: places are filling fast for our first meeting on 8 February, featuring developer Simon Willison (behind the Guardian‘s MP expenses crowdsourcing project and wildlifenearyou.com) and the Argus online editor, Jo Wadsworth. So put your name down quickly!

• Future of News meet-ups in Brighton and Birmingham
• Future of News meet-up spreads to West Midlands, Brighton and (maybe) Scotland
• Brighton Argus recruiting police community bloggers; PCSO Sam Justice among them
• #datajourn: Simon Willison’s ‘hack day’ tools for non-developers
• #FollowJourn: @jowadsworth/web editor

As reported by HoldTheFrontPage last week, two students from the Journalist Works fast-track course based in Brighton, were recently awarded top marks in the NCTJ Public Affairs examinations, scooping them £250 prizes.

Journalism.co.uk is keeping an eye on the type of jobs newly trained journalists are going onto: Nicky Newson, who came top in the central government exam, is about to start work as a researcher at the House of Lords.

“One of the topics I was asked about at my interview was reform of the House of Lords, which we had covered as part of the syllabus, so studying at Journalist Works definitely helped me to land a great new job, even though I haven’t gone down the route of becoming a news reporter,” Newson said.

If you’ve just finished your NCTJ examinations, drop us a line and let us know what you’re going on to do. Is it a traditional journalism job, or something a little different? What benefit was the journalism training? You can email judith or laura [at] journalism.co.uk, or send us a tweet via @journalismnews.

The presentation, from left:  Nicola Newson, Paula O’Shea, Nicola Corfield

• House of Lords takes to YouTube
• #soe09: Winners announced for NCTJ’s excellence awards
• NCTJ Awards shortlist announced
• NCTJ to make qualification ‘more relevant to digital age’
• Too old to become a journalist: UK journalism courses uncovered

The Guardian’s assistant editor and esteemed political pundit Michael White was spotted taking a well-timed, and no doubt well-earned, nap during the opening proceedings of the Labour party conference in Brighton today. Shame he couldn’t have spent the day lazing in the sun in a deckchair with a knotted handkerchief on his head…

Michael White, Guardian assistant editor. © 2009 Mousetrap Media

• Green paper tigers
• Brighton Argus launches parliamentary candidate tracker
• Sun says it’s Tories wot should win it
• BBC dominates list naming top political journalists
• #Followjourn @Clairee_French/journalist

The UK-based Mail Online was forced to shut down one of its online polls yesterday after a concerted campaign by Twitter users and, Journalism.co.uk can reveal, UK-based psychologists, nearly brought their servers to a halt with an overwhelming ‘yes’ vote.

The poll, which asked the somewhat leading question “Should the NHS allow gipsies to jump the queue”, attracted ridicule from many within the Twitter community leading to, at one point a 96% vote in favour of the proposition.

Brighton-based senior lecturer in experimental psychology Dr Sam Hutton contacted Journalism.co.uk today to reveal that there was also an email campaign among UK-based psychologists who, as part of their jobs, take questionnaire neutrality seriously.

“One reason I think there were so many yes votes was because a psychologist got hold of it, and sent an email which quickly got copied to virtually every psychologist in the country, suggesting that we all vote yes as a way of protesting against such a ludicrously loaded question (psychologists care about questionnaire design),” Dr Hutton said.

“It clearly worked – it was actually 96% YES when I looked, but the server was struggling, and they have removed the poll completely now. A nice example of an online newspaper getting it wrong…”

This is the email that Dr Hutton, and psychologists all over the UK, received:

Here is an excellent example of how to phrase a neutral question from our friends at the Daily Mail… for all those interested in questionnaire design:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/polls/poll.html?pollId=1011506

Please do vote “yes”

Angered Twitter users have now vowed to take their campaign to all of the Daily Mail’s online polls, taking the opposite stance to the expected response, given the Mail’s reputation for having a ‘Middle England’  readership and an editorial line against what it sees as the liberal establishment.

Footnote: Readers from outside the UK might be also interested to read about the Mail’s history – in the 1930s it openly backed the British Union of Fascists, aka the Blackshirts.

• Daily Mail gypsy/NHS poll on The Now Show
• Poll: Is the new Daily Mail beta website an improvement?
• Journalism.co.uk forum poll: Who do you want to edit the NUJ’s Journalist magazine?
• Daily Mail was ‘late online’ admits chief exec, as new site moves out of beta
• Daily Mail tries to lure users with free international texts

Journalism.co.uk has learned that Newsquest is considering closing the printing presses for the Argus in Brighton.

Fifty-three jobs could be lost as a result, Journalism.co.uk was informed by a member of staff at the paper, and a 30-day consultation period will be undertaken.

We will follow up for further information with the concerned parties, although an enquiry to Newsquest Sussex yesterday about proposed subbing job cuts received this response: “We do not comment on our business.”

Update: The company did not wish to comment, when contacted.

(Jon Slattery beat us to it and noted reported closure of the presses on his blog too).

Yesterday we reported:

“There is speculation among staff members that the Argus will move ‘most if not all’ of its production to the Southampton centre in the future.

“‘They’re also proposing to move a subbing job focused on ad features, and six advertising jobs on the Propertynet online system, to Southampton,’ the chapel member said.”

• Brighton Argus: Twitter account and strike blog boost picket line protests
• Brighton Argus’ new out-of-town subs fall at the first hurdle
• NUJ members ballot for strike at north-east Newsquest titles
• Newsquest staff to vote on strike action over ‘subbing hub’
• NUJ: Southern Daily Echo chapel to ballot for strikes over pay freeze

Peter Mandelson had to be a last minute addition to the list because the magazine had already gone to press: being offline seems to be a recurring theme for the London Evening Standard’s 1000 most influential Londoners list, out this evening.

Can we get an online version? Can we heck! After time wasted going round the editorial houses through the Evening Standard switchboard, Brighton-based Journalism.co.uk is getting sent a print version.

So in the meantime (till the print copy arrives) here’s the online media and general media types we’ve spotted on the list of 50 that are featured on the website. And it looks like new media gets a fairly good representation.

The little ‘see new media’ under the names almost had us thinking we could click on links… no chance. Well, we’re not in London; we don’t really exist, clearly.

Shiny Media’s three founders are included – and quoted as being “highly influential in the UK online world”. They aren’t among the very top 50, but you can see a scanned in bit of the list on the Shiny blog.

Media/Online types from the top 50:

• Nikesh Arora, GOOGLE, EUROPEAN VP: Boss of the internet giant’s most important base outside California, bringing in close to a billion pounds a year in advertising revenue in the UK. Landed Google job after 17 interviews. (New Media, TV & Radio)

• Jonathan Ive, 41, APPLE, DESIGN GURU: The world’s most influential product designer, involved in the iPhone and iPod. He is returning to British roots, buying a £2.5 million retreat here. (New Media)

• Mark Thompson, 51, BBC, DIRECTOR-GENERAL: From deception scandals to swingeing job cuts, Thompson has had to weather many storms while rival broadcasters pitch for a slice of the corporation’s income from the licence fee (Television & Radio)

Outside of the big 50 we’ll have to rely on the Guardian’s Media Monkey for information:

“…chief exec James Murdoch, Ashley Highfield, chief exec of the Kangaroo on-demand TV project and, drum roll please, Evening Standard owner Lord Rothermere, chairman of DMGT! Who’d have thunk that thisislondon.co.uk was such a groundbreaker?

Other media bods on the list were Paul Darce, Rebecca Wade, Ed Richards, Mark Thompson, Simon Cowell, Simon Fuller, Nick Ferrari, Emily Bell, Eric Huggers, Evan Davies, John Humphrys, Jay Hunt, Peter Horrocks, Alexandra Shulman and Gok Wan.”

• New media rank amongst London’s ‘most influential’
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – tools for beginner data journalists
• TechCrunch UK: Shiny Media’s fashion blogs go to Bright Station
• Google ends Radio Ads scheme – cites same reasons as Print ads closure
• Time’s most influential list hacked