Tag Archives: Sunday Herald

Media140: Pat Kane on using social media and journalism

“Reading a newspaper on a street corner might be seen as banal. What’s becoming just as banal is producing news on that street corner,” Pat Kane, co-founder of the Sunday Herald and author of ‘The Play ethic’, said in his opener at today’s Media140 conference.

The growth of social media and online publishing is showing ‘just how quotidian and everyday the practice of journalism becomes in this everyday environment’, he added.

Speaking at the microblogging and journalism event, Kane said there are some key reasons/benefits for journalists using social media tools:

  • Beat reporting
  • Early warning system– communities decide what’s the news. “Twitter’s the canary in the coal mine – Overlap with trad journalism
  • Real-time content
  • Traceable sources/interviewees/leads – “How much better can journalism practice be in a civic space?” asked Kane. Social media can be ‘an enrichment of a classic journalistic process’.
  • Can you help? – asking readers for tips, feedback etc
  • As a promotional tool
  • An expertise archive – “Used to be called desk research, now it’s handheld device responsiveness.”

But asks Kane:

“How distributive and collaborative are journalists prepared to be?”

“To what extent might the Darwinian acid that new media is throwing onto organisations transform them?

Milne Media: Opportunities in the Herald’s website merger

Shaun Milne sees the soon-to-be launched HeraldScotland site – a merger of the Herald and Sunday Herald websites – as a new opportunity: for design, for the papers to boost their audiences and for journalism graduates.

Full post at this link…

allmediascotland: Herald and Sunday Herald to merge websites

Staff at the newly integrated Herald titles will see a website merger take place in the next few weeks. The Sunday Herald and Herald websites will come together to create www.heraldscotland.com. Similar plans were mooted as far back as October 2007 and major changes have taken place in the newspapers’ newsroom since Donald Martin took on a new editor-in-chief role.

Full article at this link…

Following up on Guido Fawkes’ Scottish media speculation

Earlier this week Guido Fawkes published what seemed to be a segment of the minutes from a North Lanarkshire council meeting. The original PDF link on Guido’s blog no longer seems to work. The council told Journalism.co.uk that this information about appointments is always made public (see end of post).

Guido speculates who the people were on the shortlist for the position of head of corporate communications and marketing at the council. Could it be that five senior figures in Scottish journalism were up for the role?

FleetStreetBlues suggests – probably based on the minute – who the final candidate was, while this report from February 1 over on AllMediaScotland suggested the new head is Sunday Herald deputy editor Stephen Penman. (Update – Deputy editor of the Scotland on Sunday, Tom Little, has now confirmed to Journalism.co.uk that he was offered the job but turned it down, and Stephen Penman has confirmed that he will be taking up the position in April.)

North Lanarkshire Council supplied Journalism.co.uk with this statement from Gavin Whitefield, chief executive of North Lanarkshire Council:

“It is this council’s practice to ensure transparency and accountability in all aspects of our business – including the recruitment process for Chief Officer posts. For that reason we have always included the names of shortleeted [sic] job candidates, and of successful applicants, in the minutes of the Appointments Committee, which deals with Chief Officer appointments. Although we have not received complaints about this practice in the past, we do keep our processes under review in response to comments and experience.”

Update: Journalism.co.uk asked the council why, if the material had been intended for publication did the link not work? “In light of the concerns raised in relation to this post, we consider it appropriate to remove the minute from the council’s web site and we will review our practice for the future. The web site is being amended today and the appropriate section is therefore temporarily unavailable. It should be available again later today,” Gavin Whitefield, Chief Executive, said.

Journalism.co.uk will try and contact the relevant parties involved for more information.

allmediascotland: Herald Group agrees to voluntary redundancies

Following the National Union of Journalists’ (NUJ) submission of a list of applications for voluntary redundancy at the Scotland-based Newsquest Herald Group, all but one of the names were accepted, Allmediascotland.com reports.

Further names have now been added (which takes the total to just above 40) – and will be confirmed after a meeting between the newspaper and the NUJ on Thursday, according to Allmediascotland.

The successful applications include Ian Bruce, the defence correspondent at the Herald, and Alan Campbell, sports writer at the Sunday Herald. Full story...

‘A sad day for Scottish Journalism’: job cuts at Herald&Times and BBC Scotland

All staff at Newsquest’s three Glasgow titles, the Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times – bar a handful of senior management roles – have been made redundant and told to reapply for their jobs in a move to cut 30-40 posts.

The announcement follows the appointment yesterday of Donald Martin as editor-in-chief across all three titles.

According to a blog post by Shaun Milne, staff have been put on 90-day notice, as part of plans to integrate the three titles. “[T]he titles will adopt a 24/7 approach from a single operation taking in the web, evening, daily and Sunday titles,” writes Milne (in reference to one of the industry’s worst kept secrets this year…)

The announcement comes as BBC Scotland said it would axe 70 jobs, including an expected 20 from news and current affairs – this figure is on top of the 96 redundancies implemented in September, a release from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said.

The NUJ chapel at BBC Scotland has sent a letter to controller Ken MacQuarrie protesting against the proposed job losses.

In a release, Pete Wishart MP, SNP Westminster Culture spokesperson, said the cuts marked ‘a sad day for Scottish journalism’.

Commenting on the Herald&Times cuts, Wishart said:

“Any decision that threatens news coverage and quality is clearly troubling and these cut backs are a backward step by the group’s owners.

“When Newsquest acquired these newspapers they made a commitment to develop and invest in them, regrettably those words do not seem to have been backed up by investment.”

Allmediascotland: Herald&Times editor-in-chief ad renews merger speculation

The Herald&Times newspaper group is advertising for an editor-in-chief to replacing outgoing Herald editor Charles McGhee.

The ad states the new role will be involved with editorial operations across the Herald, Sunday Herald and Glasgow Evening Times – renewing speculation that the group is to merge the daily and Sunday titles into one seven-day operation.

Newsquest announces 40 job cuts: ‘poor trading conditions’ to blame

Newsquest Glasgow blamed ‘poor trading conditions’ as it announced 40 job-cuts yesterday.

The company publishes the Glasgow Evening Times, Herald and Sunday Herald newspapers and 20 of the jobs are believed to be in editorial departments.

Newsquest Glasgow has adopted a Telegraph-style integration policy and will merge staff at the three offices to create ‘one of the world’s most modern multimedia news operations’, it announced yesterday.

NUJ President James Doherty has accused Newsquest of having a detrimental impact on Scotland’s leading papers since it first took over the titles.

“Last year we took action against management, now members are more furious than ever and we will be looking for support in any action we take to fight against these savage cuts,” he said.

“We will be looking to political leaders and others to defend quality journalism as part of a healthy democracy in a devolved Scotland.”

According to Press Gazette, Herald editor Charles McGhee and Evening Times editor Donald Martin said that volunteers would be sought before any compulsory cuts are considered.