NUJ protests after quote axed from strike story

The NUJ is demanding a right of reply after a union quote was removed from a story on the Warrington Guardian website about a strike by its own journalists.

The Guardian covered the story about journalists on the Newsquest-owned paper taking 24-hour strike action over redundancies.

It quoted Chris Hughes, regional managing director for Newsquest’s north west division, who said: “Sadly, we are not immune from the effects of the current economic cycle.

“The local and regional press, like many other businesses, face extremely difficult decisions.

“Job losses are always the act of last resort. Unfortunately, to protect the long term interests of the newspapers we publish, we have to reduce our operating costs across all disciplines, including editorial.”

It had originally included a quote from NUJ organiser Lawrence Shaw claiming the company had failed to justify the redundancies and that young low-paid trainees were facing losing their jobs.

Shaw had also said: "Newsquest in Cheshire and Merseyside made £7 million profit last year. Before any job cuts are made, we believe they should open their books to show us the real financial situation as its stands."

His quotes were later cut from the story.

Shaw has written to the editor demanding an equal space right of reply in the paper and has also threatened to take the Guardian to the Press Complaints Commission.

He said: "The question to ask is if the Warrington Guardian, or any paper, was running a story on any other industrial dispute would it ignore the arguments and position of one side of the dispute? Would it not even contact one side of the dispute for a comment?"

He has put up the original story, with his quote, here.

'I'm strike breaking': Read all about it on facebook

If you are going to be strike breaking perhaps it would be wise not to post about it on facebook where the strikers can read your thoughts.

NUJ organiser Lawrence Shaw has jumped at the chance to repost on his Collective Invective blog some of the facebook comments of two students who the union claim are crossing the picket lines at Johnston Press-owned South Yorkshire Newspapers, where journalists are on an indefinite strike over job cuts and office closures, to help out the editorial department.

Grist to the mill is the fact that one of the students is said to be Tom Bills, son of the SYN md John Bills.

Among Tom Bills' comments, according to Shaw, are:“workin in a newsroom in doncaster, av been for a couple of weeks! Its reaaaaalllly goood! ;) x” and “sooooo bored at work I've actually started look at the clock more than my computer screen!”.

Shaw says on his blog: "I have often wondered what goes through the mind of people who willingly and openly cross trade union picket lines to replace striking staff. Now, thanks to the miracle of social media and a lax attitude to privacy settings, the 24 NUJ members about to enter their fourth week of indefinite strike action against South Yorkshire Newspapers group now know what the scabs are thinking and saying."

He adds: "There’s more on there if you're quick. If the boys eventually clock on to this and change their privacy settings so the entire world can’t see their facebook status updates, then contact us for the multitudinous screengrabs we have saved for posterity."

Where's Ed? Labour leader accused by NUJ of ignoring strike over jobs at his local paper

Labour leader Ed Miliband is being criticised by the NUJ for ignoring a strike by local journalists in his own constituency while concentrating on attacking the Murdoch empire.

The indefinite strike involves job cuts, including that of the post of editor, at the Johnson Press-owned South Yorkshire Times, based in Mexborough in the heart of Miliband's Doncaster North constituency.

NUJ official Lawrence Shaw, who covers the north of England for the union, writes on his blog about the Labour leader: "Well OK, we know where he is. He’s on the Murdoch-bandwagon. And, to be fair, who can blame him? Not many people disagree with him on dismantling the media empires at the moment.

"But he’s entirely ignoring another major media crisis. One within his own constituency."

Shaw adds: "Labour MPs, even shadow ministers, have already been supportive. John Healey who represents the neighbouring constituency to Ed has voiced his strong support for the NUJ’s position calling for the company to think again about the cuts.

"But Ed has said nothing. Replied to no direct communication from the NUJ, or any of the members who have contacted him in relation to this dispute.

"Ed doesn’t have to agree to the NUJ strike action, or turn out on a picket line. But as a politician in the spotlight who is going for the jugular of the biggest beast on media ownership, why is he not also taking the opportunity to attack the companies, and their systems of private debt, that are largely destroying our fragile local newspaper industry?

"His abject failure to even comment on a crisis taking place on his doorstep lead me and all NUJ members involved to the conclusion that his grand talk about media ownership is little more than posturing. If Ed really cared about sorting out the media in the UK, he would address more than just Murdoch’s empires and the national papers."

• The striking journalists have the support of former world darts champion Dennis "the Menace" Priestley who joined the picket line at the South Yorkshire Times' Mexborough office. He said: "I am very concerned the newspaper will lose its local identity in this move. I'm a loyal Times reader".

Death knocking: Sick or appreciated?

Chris Wheal's blog about being on the receiving end of death knocking by the media, following the death of his young nephew in an accident, has provoked very interesting comments.
I thought the posts by Chris Morley and Lawrence Shaw gave very insightful and contrasting views about death knocking.
Chris Morley posted:"Dreadful news and I extend my condolences for what they are worth in these circumstances. I agree that your insight is valuable to our trade, seeing us as others do. I do have to disagree with some of the comments about death knocks however.
"I did them for many years as a district reporter and was fortunate enough to never have been subject to pressure of the newsdesk to go back if you were refused the story/pic.
"There was trust that you had done the best job and it was not worth the aggro of offending the grieving relatives. It was rare that I was turned away with and empty notebook and no pic.
"My experience was that very often families were appreciative that the local paper was showing respect in coming down personally.
"It was especially poorer families that actually welcomed me in on a death knock as it was a way of giving meaning to the grief and informing others of what had happened in a responsible and articulate way.
"The important thing is to give them the choice and if the answer is no, the door is closed and you walk away. I accept the pressures on some reporters, especially those working for agencies, may be different and where there is a scrum over the bigger stories but that is mainly about the manner in which contact is made and the number of times it is done."

However, Lawrence Shaw takes a strong line against death knocking. He posted: "Very sad story Chris, my condolences. I totally agree with your point about the death knock. It is a sick part of our trade that a death knock is seen as some kind of test for trainee and junior reporters to prove themselves.
"It is seen as a badge of honour to go and intrude on a families grief, with warm congratulations given to any journalist who comes back to the office with good quotes and a picture. Failure was not an option for my old news editors – if you didn’t get anything, you were sent back until you did – or risked a shouting down for not being “good enough” at your job.
"It is the inherently macho and bullying culture in the media that gives rise to this in my opinion. It is a mark of shame on our trade and the industry in general and it wouldn’t take much in the way of sensible co-operative working agreements around sensitive stories like this to ensure that packs of journalists don’t hound people in the depths of mourning and desperation."

Film of NUJ lobby of Johnston ADM

NUJ president Peter Murray has put up a film here of the lobby of the Johnston Press ADM in Edinburgh on Friday. It includes an interview with NUJ assistant organiser Lawrence Shaw who talks about the stress being caused by the introduction of the new Atex editorial management system.