Friday 11 June 2010

Quotes of the Week: From Ozzy to headghgh

The Sunday Times Magazine on why Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne is its new health columnist: "Ozzy Osbourne has survived plane and quad-bike crashes, drug and alcohol addiction, mental breakdowns and dysfunctional family life to become a world authority on pharmacology, neurology, psychology and hypochondria."

Culture and Media Secretary Jeremy Hunt on the possibility of new local 'City TV' stations launching across Britain linked to regional press groups:
"I have long believed that the lack of high quality local TV is one of the biggest gaps in British broadcasting."

Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey: "We don't see 'City TV' as a viable proposition. Our research suggests that the costs are too high and the revenues too low to support a sustainable business model."

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear on the 200 job cuts on Mirror titles: “This savage package of redundancies is also a stark warning to editorial staff at national, regional and local newspapers all over the country, as they reveal the real, cost-cutting intent behind the introduction of content management systems such as Contentwatch, as used at the Trinity Mirror group and ATEX, as used across Johnston Press."

Comedian and writer Richard Herring in The Word magazine: "I know Twitter can act a bit like the Daily Mail of the left, but it also helps the truth get out there quickly."

Jeremy Clarkson in the Sunday Times on the price of fame: "I was snapped walking up Holland Park Avenue, going into Tesco, buying eggs, driving up the M40 and relieving myself in Oxford services. I’m not joking. I turned round while I was having a pee to find a lorry driver filming me. Doubtless, this riveting scene is already on YouTube. "

Matthew Bell in the Independent on Sunday: "Within a few weeks, once the world's media has moved on, the people of Whitehaven will return to whatever normality there can be, and the circulation of The Whitehaven News will go back to normal levels. The events of last week will leave an indelible mark on the town's history. But the importance of local journalists – to obtain and verify the facts as quickly as possible – has, at least, been proved once again."

Editorial expert Peter Sands on on infamous gaffe splash 'headline headghgh': "Two-deck syndrome leads to lazy words squeezed into inappropriate shapes, it makes news pages all look the same (like wallpaper) and, as the Times & Citizen demonstrates, it turns news pages into a product, with one shape to fit all stories. Layout should be about story telling, not about drawing boxes. Words sell newspapers - but the drip-drip effect of predictable splash headline words such as plans, attacks, boost, drugs, shame, vandals, crash etc have become bland and invisible on the newsstands."

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