Alan Rusbridger in the New Statesman: "Is there an economic model for serious news? Let’s hope so – but the gales blowing through my old industry are now truly frightening. When I stepped down from the Guardian just over a year ago, my Guardian Media Group colleagues were happy to go on the record to emphasise their confidence in increasing digital revenues and a future based on growth. But something profound and alarming has been happening in recent months and all our eyes ought to be on the West Coast giants – especially, but not only, Facebook – that are cleaning up quite extraordinarily."
The Guardian reports: "The Telegraph has started a round of targeted cuts of senior newsroom staff, including the deputy editor, Liz Hunt. Also axed are feature writer Harry Wallop, head of arts Andrew Pettie, foreign chiefs Richard Spencer and Colin Freeman and Asia editor Philip Cherwell."
Research for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism showing a pro-leave bias in national press coverage of the EU referendum:"The Daily Mail included the most pro-leave articles followed by The Daily Express, The Daily Star, The Sun and The Daily Telegraph, while the newspapers including the most pro-remain articles were, in order, The Daily Mirror, The Guardian and The Financial Times. The articles examined in The Times were relatively evenly balanced between the two positions, with a slight preponderance of pro-leave articles. All newspapers, whatever their main position, included some articles from the other point of view, but the proportion of these was smallest in The Daily Express and The Daily Mirror."
Anonymous newspaper executive on Digiday UK: "The digital media industry has completely screwed up by pursuing scale for the sake of scale. There’s been a relentless pursuit for the biggest number you can get, which has partly been driven by what advertisers want, and partly driven by vanity."
Peter Preston in the Observer: "Who can define the power of love? You may answer poetically, clinically, statistically or, in the case of Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall, social medially. Once Rupert got hitched, episode four, he suddenly stopped tweeting. Love doesn’t need 140 words. Sociability beats any media."
Society of Editors executive director Bob Satchwell in a letter to The Times [£] "The inclination of some judges to tip the balance away from the public right to know must be addressed. The need for a US-style First Amendment protection for the media and overarching public defences in all legislation is long overdue and should be part of a new British bill of rights."
Paul Connew, ex-editor of the Sunday Mirror, in a letter to The Times [£]: "King Canute tried only to hold back the tide, but the Supreme Court is attempting to hold back a modern-day cyberspace tsunami. In doing so it has bypassed parliament and established a judge-led privacy law. The reality of the internet/social media age only demonstrates that the Court of Appeal got it right in wishing to lift an unrealistic mainstream media gag and the Supreme Court got it wrong in overruling its pragmatic decision. The effect of the Supreme Court decision does indeed make the law resemble an ass. The internet genie is out of the bottle, and there is no point in trying to stuff it back."
Weekly Newspaper Reporter of the Year Gareth Davies of the Croydon Advertiser, interviewed by Press Gazette: "Despite all that stuff that gets thrown at us, all the ways in which the industry puts barriers in the way of doing the job, at the end of the day we’re getting paid to talk to someone and write a story down – and who really gets to do that? No matter how much things get you down, you think actually, at the end of the day, this is an amazing job to do."
Regional Press Daily/Sunday Sports Journalist of the Year Carolyn Hitt of the Western Mail at the Regional Press Awards on what she was was once told by a Cardiff businessman: "I don't write about cross stitch, why do you write about rugby?"
Old Quote of the Week
John Whittingdale asked in June 2006 by the Independent who in the media do you most admire and why?: "Rupert Murdoch has transformed the media in Britain not once but twice. If it wasn't for him we would still have grubby newspapers run by trade unions that strike at the drop of a hat. And he launched satellite TV. Also Kelvin MacKenzie - because he is courageous, funny and very often right."
[£]=paywall
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