Here’s one for the subs Journalist
Tony Fyler spent some time attempting to join the NUJ. Having tried and failed to set up a direct debit he called the union HQ. Rather than being put on hold, the phone was just put down on its side, leaving Fyler to listen to a conversation about betting syndicates liberally peppered with “fucking” and “fuck”.
“I don’t object to that – after all, I’m a journalist,” says Fyler. “I did object to the entire conversation being conducted while I paid to speak to someone.”
Related
Shortly afterwards, Fyler got a new job so wrote to say he wouldn’t be continuing in his efforts to join. This is the letter he received in reply. “I thought it might be fun to use as a sub-editing primer,” says Fyler. “How many inappropriate commas and caps can you find? How would you sort out the mid-section so it doesn’t appear as though the NUJ is a mechanism for processing money? And as for the last sentence… have fun cringing!”
Best to practice what you preach
Stephen Parker, managing director of Trinity Mirror’s regional newspapers, raised a few eyebrows when he spoke at the Newspaper Conference lunch as this year’s president of the Newspaper Society.
Content from our partners
He told journalists of the importance of regional newspapers having a presence in the House of Commons lobby in order to properly serve their local community.
Last November, Trinity Mirror’s Birmingham Evening Mail made Shaun Connelly, its Westminsterbased political editor, redundant and chose instead to share a correspondent with the Birmingham Post.
We’ll meet again
At the same lunch, new conference chair Kirsty Buchanan – political editor of the Western Mail – was called upon to introduce guest speaker Michael Howard.
Their first meeting, she recalled, was not quite so auspicious. As a young lobby hack she was waiting at the front of the queue at the taxi rank inside the Houses of Parliament gates, when an MP appeared from nowhere and jumped into the cab that had just pulled up. Buchanan raced after him, shouting a torrent of “distinctly unparliamentary language”. A policeman intervened, explaining the parliamentary rule that allows MPs to avoid queueing for taxis there. Mr Howard, for it was he, was perfectly entitled to pull rank, so to speak.
“Well, what do I care,” Buchanan told the copper. “It’s not like I’ll have to speak to the man ever again.”
A wee problem at the Daily Express
Daily Express journalists have asked Dog if they can borrow his lamp post for a couple of weeks. As our picture shows, the 200 journos working on the third floor of F-Ludgate House in London’s Blackfriars have not been able to take a leak for over a week.
Typing cross-legged is proving difficult.
“It seems that while management take the piss regularly, the male staff members (pardon the pun) cannot,” said one desperate insider.
Fighting over the few cubicles available continues…
A battle of the Roses was evident at the Regional Press Awards in Manchester, even before the Yorkshire hordes made off with several of the trophies. Yorkshire Evening Post sports photographer Steve Riding had smuggled in a stash of items that would have horrified the powers that be at Old Trafford – napkins from Leeds United, which he gleefully distributed around the room. Good job he made the most of it – there won’t be any other Old Trafford visits for relegated Leeds next season.
That is certain to get a few offers
From the Chester Free Press property pages. That particularly interesting “original feature” surely means there’s bound to be a stampede for this property.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
