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March 1, 2013updated 04 Mar 2013 2:40pm

This week in Press Gazette – Journalism Weekly: Wallis believes more arrested journalists will be cleared by the CPS

By Andrew Pugh

Wallis: More arrested journalists will be cleared by the CPS. Former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis believes more arrested journalists will be cleared by the Crown Prosecution Service. 

“People have a view about what’s happening to them of course. I’ve heard more stories since my news. I think that I will not be the only person who the CPS eventually do the right thing about.”

3 Motive unclear after Times Yemen reporter is shot at. Times Yemen correspondent Iona Craig was shot at in a taxi this week – and is unsure whether it was a targeted attack.

 
“The initial reaction from the services who saw me when I got to the checkpoint and from the taxi driver was that I was being targeted because I was a foreigner. I can’t confirm that. I have no idea.”

Times and Harding praised for backing ‘unsettlingly controversial’ Norfolk story. Times journalist Andrew Norfolk has praised his newspaper and former editor James Harding for giving him the time and resources to work on the story that saw him win the Paul Foot Award on Tuesday night.

 
“The editor of The Times until recently James Harding believed very much that we were giving a voice to some of the most invisible children in our society – children who for far too many years have been ignored by the people who have a responsibility to protect them.”

Neil Wallis: ‘I thought I was about to be charged’. At 9.55pm last Thursday former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis’s lawyer received a brief email from the Crown Prosecution Service. It said: “At 11am tomorrow morning we are going to announce a ruling on your client.” Despite desperate attempts to find out more information, none was forthcoming. After 21 months of being questioned by the state, Wallis now had one question to fire back – was he going to be charged or cleared?

“I was talking to somebody the other day who has been on bail for 15 months. Somebody else thought the decision was going to be last week was suddenly told they were going to have to wait for another month. It’s a very destabilising and difficult way to lead your life and it’s very isolating."

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Five JP daily-to-weeklies suffer double-digit dips. Figures released this week reveal how five Johnston Press dailies that went weekly last year have suffered double-digit circulation declines since making the switch. 

The official ABC figures also show how the four Northcliffe dailies that went weekly have seen a considerable drop off in sales including the Lincolnshire Echo, which saw circulation fall 19.8 per cent year on year to 20,660.

Aviation titles at war over expos. Rival aviation magazines are embroiled in a legal dispute over their annual conferences, which were this year held in the same city, one day apart.

Euromoney claimed its title, the Airfinance Journal (AFJ), and its annual conference, had been libeled by competitor Aviation News Limited, which prints Airline Economics.

10 Mirror’s reopened trainee scheme: It is ‘a factory of talented young journalists’. When Press Gazette revealed that Trinity Mirror was bringing back its training scheme this year the decision was applauded across the industry. Having a brief look at its 30-year history and it’s not difficult to see why. 

“There’s a desire to invest in the future, and the trainee programme historically has produced some of the best journalists around. We’ve been deprived of that for the last few years, and I think we’re quite keen to get that back on track.”
 

13 How to turn your blog into a business. If you have a laptop and access to the internet you could be on your way to making millions. 

In my new book Get Rich Blogging, I use the example of Arianna Huffington who set up the blog The Huffington Post and became a multi-millionaire when she sold it to AOL for £160 million. Martin Lewis from Money Saving Expert, Nikke Finke from Deadline Hollywood and Michael Arrington from Tech Crunch also set up blogs by themselves, built them up and sold them for more than £10 million.

14 Journalists need to assert the importance of editorial material. If journalists wanted to be in marketing, they’d have gone into PR, advertising or content marketing.

The fact is, many are leaving the profession for such roles – not just because of lay-offs to reduce “operational costs”, the closure of titles or their title going exclusively online.

16 Regionals are the best place to get experience. Trinity Mirror reopened its journalism trainee scheme this year after it was closed in 2008. This year’s scheme, which lasts for three years, will take on three trainees. According to the Mirror more than 500 applications were made for the programme, which starts in September. Here, deputy managing editor of the Mirror Group Aidan McGurran gives his tips on how to get on to the scheme.

"We are a little bit more open to characters than some schemes – but as always with the proviso they are bright, enthusiastic, willing to learn and with a decent bit of experience behind them."
 

18 MoS journalist wins first Sunday Times Colvin scholarship. The Mail on Sunday’s George Arbuthnott has been named winner of The Sunday Times’ inaugural Marie Colvin scholarship.

“I have always been a huge admirer of Marie’s work and her type of fearless public interest journalism inspired me to enter the profession in the first place. The scholarship was a unique and unmissable chance to try to learn some of the skills she used to such powerful effect.”

19 Waugh: Journalists love holding police to account. This week Yorkshire Post journalist Rob Waugh was named runner-up at the Paul Foot Awards for a series of investigations into dubious spending by senior Cleveland Police officers and abuse of power by the Association of Chief Police Officer and Chief Police Officers’ Staff Association (CPOSA).

“We all accept the industry is changing and the use of modern technology to deliver news speedily is at the top of the agenda. Newspapers have to embrace the digital era. But it’s also crucial to keep sight of what our key responsibilities are and what our readers expect us to do.”

24 Axegrinder: Wade and Harding got ‘bollocking’ for ignoring expenses; Lawyers spoil Cruddas party; Davies joins pro-fox hunting campaign?; Guardian get another hyding

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