Media Quotes of the Week: From 450 jobs go as BBC News puts focus on digital to Chancellor will look at tax incentives for news publishing industry

Director of BBC News, Fran Unsworth, after the corporation announced around 450 jobs will be cut from BBC News under plans to complete its £80m savings target by 2022. "The BBC has to face up to the changing way audiences are using us. We need to reshape BBC News for the next five to 10 years in a way which saves substantial amounts of money. We are spending too much of our resources on traditional linear broadcasting and not enough on digital."

• NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet in a statement on The BBC cuts: “These damaging cuts are part of an existential threat to the BBC, and a direct consequence of the last disastrous, secret licence fee deal the BBC agreed with the government. This is before the impact of taking over responsibility for the over-75s licences kicks in. Against this backdrop, the BBC’s very existence is being threatened with public service broadcasting under unprecedented threat."


• Amol Rajan on BBC News: "Adapt or die is a passable motto for modern media, particularly the publicly-funded kind. The BBC faces an existential crisis. It's one hell of a moment for arguably the BBC's most important division to undertake a radical experiment."

Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian: "The BBC can be maddening, prompting both left and right to tear their hair out. But in a world of fake news, we need a broadcaster free of commercial pressure, one that aims to stand aside from the partisan din. It may not always get there. But without it, our grip on the truth would get even looser."

The BBC in a statement on the decision by Fergal Keane to stand down as BBC News Africa editor: “ For several years, Fergal has been dealing privately with the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), stemming from several decades of work in conflict zones around the world. He has been supported throughout this time by friends and colleagues in News, as well as receiving professional medical advice. However, he now feels he needs to change his role in order to further assist his recovery. It is both brave and welcome that he is ready to be open about PTSD.”

• Ben Fenton on Twitter: "Reporters, not necessarily in warzones, are the unreported victims of traumatic events. Not least because of guilt factor of being "vultures", but also because they don't talk about it. Covering Dunblane pushed two of my former colleagues over edge into leaving the industry."

Stig Abell, launch director of The Times and the Sunday Times' new current affairs digital radio station Times Radio which is launching this year, as reported by The Times [£]:  “I want to be able to listen to this station and learn something, and get the world presented to me. I don’t want pomposity, I don’t want stuffiness.”

John McDonnell in The Times [£]: "We now see a finance, data/media complex capable of combining the traditional financial clout over economic decision-making by governments with the ability to use its ownership and influence of the various media platforms to decisively influence decision-making and even elections. As we have just witnessed, not just in the UK but across the globe, elections can be decisively influenced by the dominating ownership and control of the mainstream press, the resultant permeation of the broadcasting media and the purchase of overwhelming influence via social media and use of data targeting. This is not a conspiracy theory. There is no need for conspiracy. It’s simply the capitalist system naturally evolving to protect its distribution of power and wealth from any radical challenge."

International Federation of Journalists general secretary Anthony Bellanger, in a statement on investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, accused by Brazil's federal prosecutor of  criminal association and illegally intercepting private conversations: “This decision of the Brazilian public prosecutor evidences the systematic attacks by the Brazilian government against media freedom and freedom of expression. We stand in solidarity with Glenn Greenwald and all the Brazilian journalists who are facing permanent attacks and threats for doing their job in an attempt to intimidate and silence investigative journalists. They will never silence us.”

Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust communications manager Mark Prentice in an email accidently sent to an Eastern Daily Press reporter:"Just to let you know in advance of the Board meeting that there’s nothing in the EADT today (either in print or online) about eating disorders following Emily Townsend’s query yesterday. Perhaps she might attend the Board today and try to talk to someone about it then? Also, we seem to have got away (again) with the Adult Safeguarding Review story. I used iPlayer to check Radio Norfolk between 4pm and 7pm last night, and it was not on there at all. I think we may have been saved by the death of Terry Jones."

From the government's response to the Cairncross Review: a sustainable future for journalism: "The government accepts the public good of traditional print newspapers and is committed to maintaining zero-rated VAT in this area. We also recognise that changes in technology are shifting traditional journalism online and we are therefore considering the merits and risks associated with extending the zero rate. In addition, the government has committed to extend the existing tax relief it provides through a business rate relief for local newspapers which has been in place since 2017, until 31 March 2025. The Chancellor will consider the case for a range of potential tax incentives to support the news publishing industry this year.”

[£]=paywall

Media Quotes of the Week: How print still beats the web to now nasty Rob Titchener abuses hacks

Jack Shafer on Politico: "Print—particularly the newspaper—is an amazingly sophisticated technology for showing you what’s important, and showing you a lot of it. The newspaper has refined its user interface for more than two centuries. Incorporated into your daily newspaper's architecture are the findings from field research conducted in thousands of newspapers over hundreds of millions of editions. Newspaper designers have created a universal grammar of headline size, typeface, place, letter spacing, white space, sections, photography, and illustration that gives readers subtle clues on what and how to read to satisfy their news needs. Web pages can't convey this metadata because there's not enough room on the screen to display it all."

Allison Pearson in the Telegraph: "It is scarcely credible at the start of the 21st century that the number of national newspaper columnists who went to Westminster, Eton or other private schools outnumber those of us who went to a comprehensive. How is it possible that the kind of school that serves 93 per cent of the population should be so pitifully under-represented among the ranks of those who pontificate on state education about which, to be perfectly fair, they know absolutely bugger all?"

Harold Evans‏ @sirharryevans on Twitter: "For sheer disgusting hyena journalism see -or rather don't- NY Post splash on Clinton sickness."

Donald Trump at a rally in New Hampshire, as reported by the Huffington Post: “I have really good news for you. I just heard that the press is stuck on their airplane. They can’t get here. I love it...They called us and said, ‘Could you wait? I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ Let’s get going, right? Let’s get going, New Hampshire.”

Trinity Mirror in a statement: "Trinity Mirror has confirmed that it will be handing back four of the eight regional Metro franchises it operates to DMGT. The Scotland, Cardiff, Bristol, and East Midlands Metro franchises will be handed back with effect from 1st January 2017 but (it is understood) are likely to be continued to be published by DMGT. Trinity Mirror will continue to operate its other Metro franchises in Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham. Trinity Mirror has run the regional Metro franchises since each was launched over the last 15 years. However, as circulation and advertising revenue has declined, the profitability and sustainability of each franchise for the company has been reviewed."

Metro in a statement: "From 1 October 2016, Metro is set to increase its national print circulation by 10%, increasing the paper's daily print run to 1.477 million – its largest ever. Most extra copies of the newspaper will be distributed in the London area, upping the number available each weekday morning to almost 900,000 in the capital. Metro will be expanding the edition's existing presence on the bus network, with the paper available to even more commuters in London and the South East."

David Walsh in the Sunday Times [£]: "It has always been clear that those with most to hide are often quickest to sue. Putting it bluntly, they use their lawyers to discourage inquiry. This response is now exacerbated by changes in the way we receive our news and the difficulties that have arisen from our industry’s original sin: free content. [David] Simon’s point is undeniable. Proper journalism depends upon an online revenue stream. The irony is that journalism has never been as vital to a country’s overall health as it is now. A current example: there is a sporting body out there, funded by you and I, the taxpayer, who seem almost eager to pass on every difficult question to their lawyers. They employ PR staff but you wouldn’t know this if you emailed a serious question. Instead the lawyers write long letters for large fees. What lawyers love, though, is further correspondence. Most newspapers cannot afford to engage in lengthy legal actions and, of course, this is something the unscrupulous exploit."

Jeff Jarvis in an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg after Facebook took down the famous Vietnam war picture of a girl victim of napalm: "Dear Mark Zuckerberg, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Facebook needs an editor — to stop Facebook from editing. It needs someone to save Facebook from itself by bringing principles to the discussion of rules. There is actually nothing new in this latest episode: Facebook sends another takedown notice over a picture with nudity. What is new is that Facebook wants to take down an iconic photo of great journalistic meaning and historic importance and that Facebook did this to a leading editor, Espen Egil Hansen, editor-in-chief of Aftenposten, who answered forcefully: 'The media have a responsibility to consider publication in every single case. This may be a heavy responsibility. Each editor must weigh the pros and cons. This right and duty, which all editors in the world have, should not be undermined by algorithms encoded in your office in California…. Editors cannot live with you, Mark, as a master editor'."

Peter Preston in The Observer: "Facebook, though now the biggest carrier of digital news on Planet Earth, says it isn’t an editor or publisher, merely a humble platform. But now watch it change algorithms like any publisher in a jam. Watch it take editorial decisions, switching idiocy for sense. And watch it drain advertising revenue pretty voraciously from the news sites it carries. Dear Mark is part of our news world now. And he needs to be fully, intelligently engaged in it."

Dylan Jones in The New European: "Van Morrison tends to think that most journalists are dumber than cardboard. As one said, he takes to interviews like a duck to tarmac."

Daily Mail@DailyMailUK on Twitter: "Police create crime map that looks like a giant pink penis"

Ben Fenton ‏@benfenton on Twitter: "Slow news day?"

Daily Mail U.K. ‏@DailyMail on Twitter @benfenton: "yes".

Rob Titchener in The Archers reviews the papers: "Here's another one. 'Serial Abuser Posed as Mr. Nice Guy'. My life reduced to a salacious headline. How can they live with themselves inventing this nonsense. These hacks have no idea."

[£]=paywall

Quotes of the Week: From the Mail-Miliband bust-up to why cats up trees are newsworthy

Mail attack on Ralph Miliband

Ed Miliband in the Daily Mail: "Journalists need to hold politicians like me to account — none of us should be given an easy ride — and I look forward to a robust 19 months between now and the General Election. But what appeared in the Daily Mail on Saturday was of a different order all together. I know they say ‘you can’t libel the dead’, but you can smear them. Fierce debate about politics does not justify character assassination of my father, questioning the patriotism of a man who risked his life for our country in World War  II, or publishing a picture of his gravestone with a tasteless pun about him being a ‘grave socialist’. The Daily Mail sometimes claims it stands for the best of British values of decency. But something has really gone wrong when it attacks the family of a politician — any politician — in this way."

The Daily Mail in an editorial refuses to apologise to Ed Miliband: "More chillingly, the father’s disdain for freedom of expression can be seen in his son’s determination to place the British Press under statutory control. Next week the Privy Council, itself an arm of the state, will meet to discuss plans — following a stitch-up with Hacked Off over late-night pizzas in Mr Miliband’s office — for what will ultimately be a politically controlled body to oversee what papers are allowed to publish. Put to one side that Mr Miliband’s close involvement with degenerates such as Damian McBride gives him scant right to claim the moral high ground on anything. If he crushes the freedom of the Press, no doubt his father will be proud of him from beyond the grave, where he lies 12 yards from the remains of Karl Marx. But he will have driven a hammer and sickle through the heart of the nation so many of us genuinely love."

Nick Clegg ‏@nick_clegg on Twitter: "I support @Ed_Miliband defending his dad. Politics should be about playing the ball, not the man, certainly not the man's family."

Ben Fenton ‏@benfenton on Twitter: "What's hard to grasp about Miliband dad row, is why the Mail would want to give party leaders reason to unite with Royal Charters upcoming."

Peter Preston ‏@PJPrest on Twitter: "I wonder what Ld Rothermere feels about family's old Nazi-loving past being recycled as predictable riposte over Mili-smear. Own goal Dacre?"

The Guardian in a leader:  "We share some of the Mail's anxieties about the future shape of press regulation. Highly personalised attacks on those involved in searching for the right solution, far less their dead relatives, will win over no friends to the press's side of the argument – quite the opposite. The Mail's voice in the debate is important: but reasoned discussion is better than hatchet jobs."

Roy Greenslade on his Media Guardian blog: "It is clear that the Mail's editor, Paul Dacre,, has forgotten the first rule of those who find themselves in an untenable position: when in a hole, stop digging."

Robert Shrimsley in the Financial Times: "As the genetic offspring of a Britannia-loving Mailman, it must follow that my motives cannot be questioned when I view the attack on Miliband Sr as vicious, bigoted, distasteful and the antithesis of everything one should love about Britain.
There is, incidentally, one upside for Ed Miliband in the whole sorry business. Until now the one thing everyone knew about him was that he elbowed aside his elder brother to win the Labour leadership. Now, thanks to the Mail, he is less the man who knifed his brother than the man who stood up for his father."

Mail on Sunday editor Geordie Greig's apology after two of his reporters attended a private memorial service for Ed Milibands's uncle: "I have already spoken personally to Ed Miliband and expressed my regret that such a terrible lapse of judgement should have taken place. It is completely contrary to the values and editorial standards of The Mail on Sunday. I understand that Lord Rothermere is personally writing to Ed Miliband".
 
Seymour Hersh, quoted in the Guardian: "I have this sort of heuristic view that journalism, we possibly offer hope because the world is clearly run by total nincompoops more than ever … Not that journalism is always wonderful, it's not, but at least we offer some way out, some integrity."

peterwalker99 ‏@peterwalker99 on Twitter: "Harassed sounding Tesco press officer: 'Yes, we're aware of the inflatable gay best friend, and we're looking into it urgently'."

Patrick Wintour in the Guardian: "Cameron will fear a backlash from rightwing newspaper proprietors if he supports the all-party charter. But he will also be aware that senior News International executives are due to stand trial at the end of October over their involvement in phone hacking. These trials may revive interest in how the government has responded to evidence of wrongdoing by some newspaper groups."

Johnston Press boss ashley highfield ‏@ashleyhi on Twitter: "HenryFaureWalker off to be CEO #Newsquest great ringing endorsement of digital strategy and good for regional press industry."

News UK chief Mike Darcey, interviewed in InPublishing, on national newspapers that have free online sites: “If they have strong, free, online propositions, then I think they are contributing to a decline in their print sales and really it’s a function of the decisions they make and whether they tighten that up or whether they continue to eat themselves alive."

Sir Charles Gray and Alastair Brett on Leveson in the Guardian: "The two recommendations which really scare the press are the idea of a 'free' arbitral process for all media disputes and the new regulator having to hear complaints, not just from individuals but from any crackpot lobby group which believes an article is wrong or unfair."

Michael Gove on Walter Greenwood, who died this week, in The Journal, Newcastle: “Being taught journalism by Walter was like being taught football by Bill Shankly or playwriting by Alan Bennett - he was the master."

Grey Cardigan on The Spin Alley: "People are interested in 'cats up fucking trees'. They want to know why there was a fire engine at the end of their street, they want to know who owns the climbing cat, they want to know how it got up there in the first place and, as any reporter who has ever worked for me knows all too well, they want to know the name of the damn cat. And woe betide the trainee who returned to the office without that essential information."

Press standards: Why not empower the reporters?

Roy Greenslade, Peter Oborne and Ben Fenton at the Frontline Club

It is expected that Lord Justice Leveson will recommend beefed up regulation of the press, underpinned by some form of statutory legislation, when his inquiry into standards is completed.

But could he sweeten the pill by empowering reporters and offering them protection from unscrupulous and bullying newsdesks by recommending that they are offered protection as whistleblowers if they speak out against unethical journalism?

The NUJ has long argued that a "conscience clause" should be inserted in journalists' contracts which would stop them from being unfairly sacked for refusing to do unethical journalism, and raised the matter in its evidence to Leveson.

Ben Fenton, of the Financial Times, speaking in a discussion on the Leveson Inquiry at the Frontline Club last night, claimed: "The difference between a good newspaper and a bad newspaper is that on a good newspaper the reporter tells the newsdesk what the story is and on a bad newspaper it is the other way around."

He said: "I believe that if there was a democratic voice within newspapers, if reporters were allowed in some way to anonymously whistleblow on their editors and newsdesks we would solve a lot of problems we've had in newspaper journalism over the past 50 years."

Guardian media commentator Roy Greenslade, also speaking at the Frontline debate, gave his full backing to the NUJ's idea of a conscience clause based on the union's Code of Conduct, saying it would enable journalists to stand up to their newsdesks.

He said the union had come up with its code in the 1960s and it had taken the newspaper industry until 1991 to draw up the Editors' Code of Practice. "We had the ethics but no-one took it up," Greenslade said.

Thais Portilho-Shrimpton, a journalist and co-ordinator of the Hacked Off campaign, said she would like to see a change in culture and cub reporters joining a national newsroom "without being told to leave their ethics at the door."

As well as Leveson, the discussion centred on the select committee report which concluded this week that Rupert Murdoch was "unfit" to run a major international company.

The Telegraph's chief political correspondent Peter Oborne, who has accused David Cameron of being "in the sewer" because of his News International friends, enthused: "This is the most glorious moment in my adult life."

Political blogger Paul Staines, aka Guido Fawkes, was a tad more cynical claiming that 20 years after Lord Justice Leveson completes his inquiry there will be another judge led investigation into the power of the press.

He said all politicians were afraid of the press and noted: "Since the News of the World closed no MPs have had an affair."

Pic: Jon Slattery