Media Quotes of the Week: Death of US local press helped Trump demonise the media to cladding fund warns claimants not to speak to journalists

NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet in a statement: “The destruction of the press – particularly the local press in the States – has left a dangerous vacuum for trusted information and news and the conspiracy theorists and extremists have moved in. Some 4,000 journalist jobs have gone in the past decade and the lack of a robust local press has unmoored citizens from their local democratic institutions; research has shown this has led to a loosening of community cohesion. This makes it ripe territory for populist demagogues to step in with simple slogans and fear mongering. It was easy for him [Trump] to demonise the press and shout fake news."

Ian W. Karbal on the Columbia Journalism Review: "As a mob swarmed the Capitol building on Wednesday, images and videos of the event spread across social media in close to real time, many going viral on Twitter and Facebook before cable news networks covering the events could verify or report them. One video showed a group of rioters surrounding a pile of Associated Press equipment, trying to burn or damage it. 'We are the news now,' they shouted. Many in the circle were capturing the moment with cellphones."

David Yelland on Twitter: "Too many journalists on the right, in the UK and in the US, now find themselves exposed by events as far too close to Fascism, to liars, to QAnon, to enemies of democracy. They have been used. But they cannot see this through their anger."

Sean Illing on Vox: "If the fantasy-industrial complex churning out lies and conspiracy theories wasn’t bad enough, we’re also dealing with a much more pervasive problem in the press.We’re facing a new form of propaganda that wasn’t really possible until the digital age, something known as 'flooding the zone with shit' It’s less about perpetuating alternative realities and more about overwhelming the public with so many competing narratives, so much misinformation, that even well-intentioned people don’t know what to believe. This isn’t going away either. I don’t know what comes next and won’t hazard a prediction, but I know this much: Without some kind of reckoning in right-wing media, there is no sustainable path forward for the country."

Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, freelance photojournalist on assignment for The Washington Post at the Capitol, interviewed by the Committee to Protect Journalists: "I had three different people threaten to shoot me over the course of the day. They weren’t armed as far as I could tell. I saw people with knives and pepper spray. If they had guns, I couldn’t see them. But I did see people in flak jackets and bullet proof vests, so clearly ready for armed combat. At one point, a guy leaned over to me and said, 'I’m coming back with a gun tomorrow and I’m coming for you'.”

Margaret Sullivan in the Washington Post: "Day after day, hour after hour, Fox gave its viewers something that looked like news or commentary but far too often lacked sufficient adherence to a necessary ingredient: truth. Birtherism. The caravan invasion. Covid denialism. Rampant election fraud. All of these found a comfortable home at Fox. In the Trump era, the network — now out of favor for not being quite as shameless as the president demands — was his best friend and promoter. So to put it bluntly: The mob that stormed and desecrated the Capitol on Wednesday could not have existed in a country that hadn’t been radicalized by the likes of Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, and swayed by biased news coverage."

Marina Hyde in the Guardian: "Imagine being the country that has watched the last four years unfold in the US, with its bloodlines so easily traceable to the Fox sensibility, and is nonetheless thinking: let’s have a bit of that. Because that’s us, of course. In the coming months, not one but two anti-impartiality news channels will launch in the UK – GB News, backed by Discovery, and News UK, courtesy of that  adornment to international life, Rupert Murdoch."

John Sweeney on Twitter: "At the BBC I was taken aside by a senior manager and told off for the tone of my tweets critical of @realDonaldTrump. Too many powerful people in Britain appeased this monster."

The Sunday Times [£] in a leader on the Trump Twitter ban: "With this decision, however, the platforms have committed to making editorial decisions on a scale not seen before, a task that, given the vast amount of content they host, will prove to be nigh on impossible, ruinously expensive and hugely controversial. Who will pass the Twitter test and who, like Mr Trump, will be regarded as beyond the pale? And will those who are banned have a right to appeal? Once the social media platforms set themselves up as judge and jury, they are asking for trouble."

• Lionel Barber on Twitter: "The Trump Twitter ban and Facebook’s belated clampdown finally settles it: platforms are publishers, with all the responsibilities that come along with that privilege."

The Times [£] in a leader: "While it remains wise to be wary of any state attempt to police free speech, recent events have shown that greater online regulation is inevitable and indeed desirable. For too long, tech firms have turned a blind eye towards their responsibilities. It would be no better if they now swung towards self-serving censoriousness instead. The past decade has shown what happens when Silicon Valley sets the parameters of free speech for the world. In the future, it must not be up to them."

The Telegraph in the obit of its co-owner Sir David Barclay, the eldest Barclay brother: “ 'Privacy is a valuable commodity,' said Sir David – reputedly the more outgoing of the two – in one of his very few public utterances. 'There is no incentive for us to talk about our business affairs.' Many years later, replying by email to a request for an interview, he added: 'It doesn’t appeal to us to boast to others of how clever we have been or how successful we are'.”

Martina Lees and Gabriel Pogrund in the Sunday Times [£] on how the £1bn cladding fund to fix unsafe blocks of flats gags applicants from speaking to the press: "A leaked copy of the contract, which applicants must sign to get aid, bans them from 'any communication' with journalists about repairs 'without the prior written approval' of government press officers."

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Media Quotes of the Week: From anger at the arrests of and attacks on journalists covering US protests to news staff replaced by robots

Committee to Protect Journalists program director Carlos Martínez de la Serna in a statement after journalists covering demonstrations in the US were attacked by police and protesters: “Targeted attacks on journalists, media crews, and news organisations covering the demonstrations show a complete disregard for their critical role in documenting issues of public interest and are an unacceptable attempt to intimidate them. Authorities in cities across the U.S. need to instruct police not to target journalists and ensure they can report safely on the protests without fear of injury or retaliation.”

Donald Trump on Twitter: "The Lamestream Media is doing everything within their power to foment hatred and anarchy. As long as everybody understands what they are doing, that they are FAKE NEWS and truly bad people with a sick agenda, we can easily work through them to GREATNESS!"

David Yelland on Twitter: "The President is enabling and encouraging brutal elements of US police departments to attack journalists. Be in no doubt. It is worrying that not everyone at @WSJ and @FoxNews can see this."

Lionel Barber on Twitter: "The President of the United States is inciting violence against journalists. It doesn’t get much darker than this."

Piers Morgan on MailOnline: "As he always does, Trump has reacted to justified criticism by repeatedly lashing out at the ‘fake news media’, and unsurprisingly, a large number of journalists have been targeted by police in the past few days – arrested, pepper sprayed and shot at with rubber bullets. The President, not content with encouraging police to shoot black protesters, wants them to see the media as the enemy too. It’s a total disgrace, aimed to show his base supporters what a big tough guy he is."

Amol Rajan on Twitter: "Journalists everywhere are being attacked or abused, not least by the US President This is your regular reminder that most journalists are decent, public-spirited people, neither rich nor famous, who just want the truth. If you want to do without them, try living in North Korea."

Frank Gardner on Twitter: "Blatant targeting of journalists by US policemen as they report on the current wave of US protests. A familiar sight in dictatorships, depressing to see it in a western democracy. @pressfreedom"

The Times [£] in a leader: "Police are not obliged to like journalists, or even to be polite to them. But the greater hostility suggests that President Trump’s relentless attacks on the media have percolated through society and into the police...No doubt he would not welcome physical attacks on journalists, but he should be aware that words have consequences. Instead it would be more dignified for the president to speak up for press freedom, after all one of his country’s founding principles, and condemn the assaults."

John Sweeney on Twitter: "This is dark stuff. A @CNN reporter arrested live on air. He was being polite and offering to to anywhere where the police placed him. This is where
@realDonaldTrump's attacks on #fakenews ends up. Censorship in real time."

• Dan Rather on Twitter: "Arresting reporters for doing their jobs is a mark of tyranny and demands a complete investigation and repercussions."

Amy Fenton, Newsquest's chief reporter in South Cumbria forced to leave her home because of threats, quoted in the Guardian: “Nothing is ever going to stop me wanting to be a journalist, ever. It was my dream from the age of about eight and I love my job. I love the way we are in a position to help people. It’s not just reporting court cases and when bad things happen. I love that we can champion people’s causes and fight for decency and morality and fairness, even though there is never anyone fighting for us.”

• Lindsey Hilsum on Twitter: "People often tell me I’m brave because I go to dodgy places. But then I go home. This is really brave: @amyfentonNWEM continuing to report from Barrow-in-Furness despite credible threats to her and her child. In Britain. Today."

Jemma Bufton, a trainee reporter on the Worcester News, in a column quoted by HoldTheFrontPage: “As a Worcester News reader before becoming a Worcester News writer I knew there were many online comments which slated the paper, the writers or those who were featured in stories. What I didn’t realise is just how relentless it is, so much so, myself and my colleagues agree our view of people has been considerably changed. Although we like to believe everyone is inherently good, it does seem that all it takes is the tiniest bit of anonymity and some people turn into absolute savages. In my short time working for the newspaper I cannot remember a day when I wasn’t publicly humiliated. It is not criticism. We can all take criticism, we put our work out there to be judged and we expect people to judge it, to question it, to nitpick. It is part of the job."

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer after Boris Johnson refused to let his top scientific and medical advisers to answer questions from the media at a press conference, as reported by BBC News: "We want transparency. Nobody should be stopped from answering questions from journalists."

Una Mullally in The Irish Times: "Just as Trump has framed contemporary American politics as reality television, in Britain, political coverage embodies the great British form of soap opera. Who’s in favour this week? Who screwed up? Who’s having an affair? Who’s having a fight? All the while, knowledge and comprehension of systems and processes is lost. There is little context in the episodic churn. Of course the latest Cummings scandal is newsworthy, but the “shock” that surrounds is numbing. How can one be shocked by something Cummings does? He’s Dominic Cummings. Boris Johnson is the prime minister. What did they expect? Send in the clowns, and you wake up in a circus."

Sir John Tusa, quoted in the Sunday Times [£] on the Emily Maitlis intro row:  “No editor of Newsnight that I worked with would have allowed that to go through. No presenter would have written anything like that. It is self-indulgence and it does no service to viewers. You can either choose to be a celebrity or you can choose to be a journalist. You can’t be both.”

Will Hutton in the Observer: "The BBC management’s first instinct when under fire should have been to adopt the same judicious questioning of Maitlis off air that it expects of its presenters on air. They should have worked out a shared response based around shared values and should have done so in their own time, rather than the government’s."

Jim Waterson in the Guardian: "Dozens of journalists have been sacked after Microsoft decided to replace them with artificial intelligence software.Staff who maintain the news homepages on Microsoft’s MSN website and its Edge browser – used by millions of Britons every day – have been told that they will be no longer be required because robots can now do their jobs. Around 27 individuals employed by PA Media – formerly the Press Association – were told on Thursday that they would lose their jobs in a month’s time after Microsoft decided to stop employing humans to select, edit and curate news articles on its homepages."

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Media Quotes of the Week: From Lynn Barber tackles Sunday Times over rugby thighs on front page to should Labour launch own newspaper?

Lynn Barber on Twitter: "Looked forward to first edition of Sunday Times under new woman editor and what do I find? Photo of rugby players on front page. To me this is the clearest possible signal this is a men’s newspaper. They have dozens of sports pages to print all the pix of men’s thighs they want."

Josh Glancy on Twitter: "Victoria Newton's [pictured] confirmation as the new editor of The Sun means half of Britain's national newspaper editors are now female. (This includes The Sun, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Financial Times and The Daily Mirror, a good spread)."

Tim Adams interviewing ex-BBC journalist John Sweeney in the Observer: "He concedes that he probably did not advance his case by addressing director of news and current affairs, Fran Unsworth, in emails as 'Kim Fran-un'.”

From The Times [£] obit on theatre director Terry Hands: "He could rarely resist a jibe at the media. 'Why did you choose journalism?' he asked one interviewer. 'You were obviously a nice person once'.”

Matt Chorley in The Times [£]:  "[Dominic] Cummings is not just being talked about, he is dominating the national political conversation. In fact analysis for Red Box by Daniel Clark, a Times interactive journalist, shows that since Boris Johnson became prime minister Cummings has had more press coverage than any member of the cabinet. In the past six and a half months, there have been more than 3,007 stories in national newspapers about the PM’s official adviser, ahead of every elected member of the government."

Adam Boulton in the Sunday Times [£]: "Johnson proudly told MPs: 'I am a journalist', but his career in print was notable for its partisan brio rather than devotion to facts. As prime minister he has gone along with avoiding interviews and question-and-answer sessions. He has threatened the BBC and political journalists with radical change. As shown with his Brexit night video, he has expanded the government payroll to include technicians capable of getting his message out on social media without calling in independent MSM professionals."

Sarah Scire on NiemanLab: "The New York Times’ decade-plus march from crisis to sustainability to growth hit another happy milestone today: The company announced it had generated more than $800 million in digital revenue in 2019. That meets a corporate goal set four years ago to hit that number by the end of 2020. (Like a good journalist, the Times even beat deadline.)"

Emily Bell on Twitter: "Journalism will be like football. Securely wealthy or publicly funded are the Premier League, the richest few have generous staffing levels, but if they want the field to survive they will need to loan players/invest in lower leagues.....just like the old days."

Labour deputy leader candidate Richard Burgon on Novara Media: “It would be fantastic if the Labour movement could invest in its own free newspaper given out on public transport because that is when people will read it. Written in a tabloid style”

Ian Murray, another candidate for the deputy Labour leadership, in The Times [£]: “We are not a protest movement handing out newspapers outside stations. Blaming the media for our defeat is also a pathetic excuse for our failings. We lost because voters didn’t trust our leadership.”

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Media Quotes of the Week: From Libs in fake newspaper row, Cons threaten Channel 4 plus what Chris Moncrieff asked the Prime Minister who saved him from falling off the Great Wall of China

Ian Murray, executive director of the Society of Editors, in a statement on the Liberal Democrats disguising their election freesheets as local newspapers. “It is ironic how it is often politicians who complain about fake news but then set out to at least blur the lines for readers – and in this case voters – by packaging their partial messages to ape independent newspapers. If political parties were genuine in their desire, often expressed, to both remove the effects of fake news and disinformation as well as support existing regional and local media they would take steps to ensure their political freesheets look markedly different to real newspapers. There should also be a requirement to clearly state which party is funding a publication in large, bold typeface rather than hiding such information away in an attempt to deceive.”

Alex Wickham and Mark Di Stefano on BuzzFeed: "The Conservative Party is threatening to review Channel 4’s public service broadcasting obligations after the broadcaster replaced Boris Johnson with an ice sculpture at Thursday night’s election debate. In a dramatic escalation of the war of words between the Tories and Channel 4 that will likely provoke outcry, a Conservative source told BuzzFeed News that if they win the coming election they will reassess the channel’s public service broadcasting licence."

The Times [£]  obit on Clive James: "His TV column [in the Observer] became a weekly event largely because he was capable of memorable and cutting comic description. 'Even in moments of tranquillity,” he wrote, “Murray Walker sounds like a man whose trousers are on fire.' It is hard to see Arnold Schwarzenegger without recalling James’s description of him, in his acting days, as 'a brown condom full of walnuts'.”

Alan Rusbridger on Twitter: "Maybe Thanksgiving is a good day to thank a reporter you admire for the work they have done. Thank you #DaphneCaruanaGalizia for being intrepid and true. #thankareporter."

BBC director of editorial policy and standards David Jordan in a letter to the Guardian: "Peter Oborne is incorrect in suggesting that the BBC thinks it’s wrong to expose lies told by politicians. The BBC is committed to calling out lies, disinformation or untruths – no matter who tells them. That is what our journalists do on a daily basis. With Reality Check we are doing more than ever at this election. What we don’t do is label people as liars – that’s a judgment for audiences to make about an individual’s motives."

The BBC in a statement: "This clip from the BBC's Question Time special, which was played out in full on the News at Ten on Friday evening and on other outlets, was shortened for timing reasons on Saturday's lunchtime bulletin, to edit out a repetitious phrase from Boris Johnson," the BBC said in a statement. However, in doing so we also edited out laughter from the audience. Although there was absolutely no intention to mislead, we accept this was a mistake on our part, as it didn't reflect the full reaction to Boris Johnson's answer."

Tim Shipman in the Sunday Times [£]: "BBC bosses have been accused of pulling the plug on politically sensitive reports into the close links between leading politicians and Russia. John Sweeney, a BBC investigative reporter, has turned whistleblower and filed a complaint against the corporation with Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog. He alleges investigations into Labour’s Lord Mandelson, the former Tory cabinet minister John Whittingdale, the Brexit funder Arron Banks, the oligarch Roman Abramovich and the far-right activist Tommy Robinson were all dropped."

John Sweeney in the Sunday Times [£]: "Being attacked by a far-right cult while undefended by the BBC was maddening, literally. I felt bewildered and betrayed and, eventually, I cracked up. I am back to my old self but have left the BBC. However, I love it too much to just walk away in silent dismay."

John Major quoted in The Times [£] obit on PA's legendary political editor Chris Moncrieff who he saved from falling off the Great Wall of China when he was PM: “I thought for this act of mercy he would say thank you. But I misjudged the great man. He stopped, looked up and said, ‘Can I use this story?’ ”

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Media Quotes of the Week: Why the killers of Jamal Khashoggi must be bought to justice to making magazines in smokey rooms 40 years ago

International Federation of Journalists general secretary Anthony Bellanger on the anniversary of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul: “It's been a year since Khashoggi's murder and there’s still no justice for those who ordered and executed his murder. We will continue demanding an international and independent investigation on this crime and rejecting any kind of political cover-up of it. If the perpetrators are not held to account, oppressive governments of the world will see it as a green light to commit crimes against a journalist with impunity. We won’t allow it.”

The Washington Post [£] confronts Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi: "He should stop offering half-truths and accept full responsibility for ordering the murder. We don’t expect that to happen anytime soon. History will show that our lost friend and colleague Jamal was on the right side of the debate that Mohammed bin Salman thought, mistakenly, he could win with a bone saw."

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex in a statement on the decision by the Duchess of Sussex to sue the Mail on Sunday for the misuse of private information, infringement of copyright and breach of the Data Protection Act: "Though this action may not be the safe one, it is the right one. Because my deepest fear is history repeating itself. I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditised to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces."

Sunday Times Style [£] columnist Charlotte Edwardes on lunching with Boris Johnson: "Under the table, I feel Johnson’s hand on my thigh. He gives it a squeeze. His hand is high up my leg and he has enough inner flesh beneath his fingers to make me sit suddenly upright."

Manchester Evening News political and investigations editor Jennifer Williams in the Observer: “I keep being asked when I’m moving to London as my work’s getting known ‘nationally. I’d rather ask a different question: why aren’t there more reporters like me all over the country? Why are places outside London not properly represented?"

John Sweeney @johnsweeneyroar on Twitter: "After 17 years I'm leaving the BBC. It's high time to make trouble elsewhere. First stop, Malta. With @carlobonini and @Manwel_Delia I've written Murder On The Malta Express: Who Killed Daphne Caruana Galizia, to be published on October 14 by Midsea Books. Thanks to my great pals at BBC. Together we helped free 5 cot death mums starting wi Sally Clark, jailed on wrong evidence of Prof Sir Roy Meadow. Trump got challenged over his links with Russian mob, Putin over the shoot-down of MH17 and I yelled at Church of Scientology."

Alan Rusbridger in the Observer:  "The new elitism is a deadly form of condescension. Sun readers aren’t there to be informed. Entertained, yes. Inflamed, yes. Infuriated: certainly. But not well informed. Interestingly, the Mail, under a new editor, is quietly turning itself into a much more nuanced paper, willing to do justice to more than one side of an argument. An editorial on [Supreme Court president] Hale was notably reasonable – miles away from the finger-jabbing fury of the previous regime. Sales seem to be holding up just fine (and, I’m told, more than 200 advertisers have returned)."

Black journalists and broadcasters in a letter to the Guardian in support of presenter Naga Munchetty over the BBC's Editorial Complaints Unit finding she had breached guidelines in a comment on President Trump's 'send them home' jibe at four congresswoman: "To suggest a journalist can 'talk about her own experiences of racism' while withholding a critique on the author of racism (in this case President Trump) has the ludicrous implication that such racism may be legitimate and should be contemplated as such. While we stand in support of Munchetty, the consequences of this decision are widespread with implications for the entire media landscape in the UK and those who work within it."

BBC director general Tony Hall responds by overturning the ECU complaint, as reported by BBC News: "I have also examined the complaint itself. It was only ever in a limited way that there was found to be a breach of our guidelines. These are often finely balanced and difficult judgements. But, in this instance, I don't think Naga's words were sufficient to merit a partial uphold of the complaint around the comments she made. There was never any sanction against Naga and I hope this step makes that absolutely clear."

Ex-Smash Hits editor David Hepworth in InPublishing on making magazines 40 years ago: "The magazine was put together in those days, like all magazines, in smokey rooms made noisy by the clacking of typewriters, the ringing of immobile telephones and the arrival and departure of motorcycle messengers... The layouts were taken up to the compositors in Peterborough by a retired printer called Len who used to come every day and return on the train. You often didn’t get an idea of what things were going to look like until it was too late to change them...In 1979, most magazines were predominantly black and white and cover mounted gifts were no more valuable than flexi discs and badges...nobody had picture researchers or stylists or executive art directors or car accounts or off-sites in foreign climes or PowerPoint. Nobody talked about pitches or copy approval. PRs didn’t 'reach out' and would have died of embarrassment if it had been suggested that they remained in the room as an interview was going on."

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Media Quotes of the Week: Is Parly paedo probe payback by Fleet Street? to Hansen on Twitter

Ian Burrell in the Independent: "We are now seeing payback for what many papers regard as Westminster’s disproportionate response to the misdemeanours of Andy Coulson and some of his underlings. The press coverage of Parliament’s paedophiles has been awesome to behold – that is, awesome in the traditional sense of jaw-dropping, rather than punching the air in delight. It refutes the popular notion that Fleet Street’s muscles have been withered by the debilitating impact of the changing media landscape."

Don Hale in the Daily Star Sunday on what happened when he was editor of the Bury Messenger and tried to investigate claims of about politicians involved with a paedophile group: “I was sworn to secrecy by ­Special Branch at the risk of jail if I repeated any of the allegations."

Pic:BBC

John sweeney ‏@johnsweeneyroar on Twitter: "Today is a great day for Church of Scientology, North Korea, Barclay Twins, Glencore etc. I've been made redundant from #BBCPanorama. Byeee"

Former cabinet minister Cheryl Gillan on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour: "I sat at the breakfast table with my male colleague, saying I cannot believe we have all these exciting politicians into key positions and what people are talking about it is what they are wearing, their makeup, how tight their jacket is and what their shoes look like. I think it's just insulting."

Michael Wolff @MichaelWolffNYC on Twitter: "Wouldn't it be a hoot if Murdoch was just beginning the most active and expansive phase of his career?"

Adam Boulton asked on Sky News if he wants to take a pause: “No, I’ve swallowed a fly, that’s alright.”

Socialist Worker: Headline and column caused outrage

Owen Jones in the Guardian on the Socialist Worker column on Eton schoolboy Horatio Chapple who was killed in a polar bear attack: "Whoever wrote that Socialist Worker column thought they were being oh-so-revolutionary, so courageously and provocatively sticking it to the man. But all they were doing is laughing at a dead teenager, whose last moments were no less painful or terrifying because of his cosseted childhood. It is socialism with the heart cut out, devoid of the humanity and compassion that must surely underpin it. That might be their socialism. It certainly isn't mine."

Matthew Parris in The Times [£]: "The enemies of internet freedom will advance in a series of individually minor incursions, each individually arguable — usually pleading “emergency”. The best hope for free speech is that a Western government will overstep the mark and some appalling miscarriage of justice will occur, turning the tide of public opinion. However, short of Clare Balding being shot by mistake as an Islamic extremist on the basis of an appalling IT muddle-up at the Home Office internet surveillance department, the outlook is bleak. Arguments in principle, like this column, will be lost in the wind."

The Grey Cardigan on TheSpinAlley: "I came across the following charming job advert [placed by Newsquest] on Holdthefrontpage: 'Our regional group editing services department, based in Newport, now has vacancies for Graduate Copy Editors. Working as part of a team, typical candidates will be qualified to the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism or have passed some of the modules associated to this qualification. Applications will also be considered from those who are educated to degree level. They must be highly motivated and be able to work to tight deadlines, spot mistakes and have a flair for creating great headlines.' So let me get this right. The legions of experienced, knowledgeable sub-editors who Newsquest have made redundant around the country – most of whom will have progressed to the job through the traditional route of trainee reporter, senior reporter and newsdesk duties – are being replaced by callow youths who may or may not have any actual journalistic training and have never actually done the job. I wonder what those angry hacks who insisted that the Newport hub was manned by talented, experienced subs have to say now?"

Roy Greenslade on his Guardian Media blog on plans by Archant to centralise subbing in Norwich: "The only winners out of this are the owners and their bean-counters. As the NUj points out, Archant's chief executive, Adrian Jeakings, was paid £284,000 plus a cash supplement of £82,000 last year. The same situation exists among the managements at all the major corporate publishers. They are growing wealthy by making others poor. Ain't capitalism wonderful?"

Express & Star editor Keith Harrison interviewed by Steve Dyson in InPublishing: “My personal view is that a metered paywall is likely to be the most successful model for newspaper websites.”

Mike Lowe ‏@cotslifeeditor on Twitter: " 'Hi Mike. Richard here from XXX. I hope you don't mind me reaching out.' Reach out all you want, pal. Just don't touch."

Alan Hansen in his farewell column in the Daily Telegraph: "Twitter has changed everything, to the point whereby you not only have to make sure that what you say is right, but also that you say nothing wrong. There has never been a hiding place in the media, but nowadays, you can find yourself being judged within 10 seconds of publication or broadcast."