[Update] The News Corp scandal

Local high street. People paid to read my stuff. The mugs.

---------- Post added at 00:22 ---------- Previous post was at 00:21 ----------

Originally Posted by Tim Deegan

In mine, and many other peoples opinions, it's quite obvious that the Sun will just replace the news of the world.

... Which, with the greatest of respect, betrays a basic ignorance of how the industry works. Or how Murdoch works. The two are not necessarily the same.

[Tim Deegan]

Originally Posted by Chris

Local high street. People paid to read my stuff. The mugs.

Not quite the same experience as my step father then, who's experience includes:
Reporter
Political editor for a newspaper
Editor of two local papers
Editor of a national magazine
Press officer to the leader of a major political party
Press officer for the BBC

Please stick to the topic which is the scandal at News Corp and throughout the Press and Media Industry, not the origins of individual papers or members skills.

Originally Posted by Tim Deegan

Not quite the same experience as my step father then, who's experience includes:
Reporter
Political editor for a newspaper
Editor of two local papers
Editor of a national magazine
Press officer to the leader of a major political party
Press officer for the BBC

Not quite the same at all - that list being someone else's experience rather than yours. However, I guarantee you that because of my personal experience I have worked with, and know, and have been trained by, people who would tick all those boxes plus several more.

It's a pity you don't pay more attention to your step father's experience though. If you're still clinging to the idea that the News of the World was essentially just the Sun on a Sunday, you really weren't paying attention at all.

Always found it odd that the Sundays have a different staff. How do they fund it all for a once a week paper? Do only a small minority stay exclusive to the Sunday title in order to get the big stories and the rest pitch in with the other content?

Originally Posted by Damien

Always found it odd that the Sundays have a different staff. How do they fund it all for a once a week paper? Do only a small minority stay exclusive to the Sunday title in order to get the big stories and the rest pitch in with the other content?

They have a different staff because they are a different business with a different product.

There tends to be a greater emphasis on investigation and feature pieces in a Sunday paper. The NOTW, to take a topical example, was proud of its emphasis on crime fighting.

People misunderstand Sunday papers because they assume, from the title, that they are basically an extension of the daily paper. They are more easily understood when viewed for what they are - a weekly publication, with staffing levels and production schedules to match (not unlike the regional weekly title I used to write for, although we came out on a Friday rather than a Sunday).

And don't for a minute think that staff at the Sun on Sunday will stand at the water cooler telling the hacks at the daily paper what exclusives they'll be running that week. Competition between the two will be intense.

Originally Posted by Chris

They have a different staff because they are a different business with a different product.

There tends to be a greater emphasis on investigation and feature pieces in a Sunday paper. The NOTW, to take a topical example, was proud of its emphasis on crime fighting.

People misunderstand Sunday papers because they assume, from the title, that they are basically an extension of the daily paper. They are more easily understood when viewed for what they are - a weekly publication, with staffing levels and production schedules to match (not unlike the regional weekly title I used to write for, although we came out on a Friday rather than a Sunday).

And don't for a minute think that staff at the Sun on Sunday will stand at the water cooler telling the hacks at the daily paper what exclusives they'll be running that week. Competition between the two will be intense.

I understand they are different. I just never understood why such an arrangement existed in the first place. I am guessing that historically the Sunday papers were around longer and were bigger. As time goes on I would have thought it's not fiscally sensible to continue to staff two separate papers, especially when the latter is sold just once a week.

Originally Posted by Damien

I understand they are different. I just never understood why such an arrangement existed in the first place. I am guessing that historically the Sunday papers were around longer and were bigger. As time goes on I would have thought it's not fiscally sensible to continue to staff two separate papers, especially when the latter is sold just once a week.

Your assumption appears to be based on the erroneous assumption that staff on a weekly paper basically do nothing all week, and spring into action mid-morning each Saturday.

As a matter of fact there may once have been a fair bit of truth in that, but Murdoch put paid to a lot of the old practices.

Any weekly paper will have staff levels set at the level appropriate to the pattern of work during the week. There could well be a degree of shared workload when it comes to filing inconsequential bits and pieces of news copy that fill the gaps on the pages in the daily and the Sunday papers, but the bulk of the work on a Sunday paper is the big-hitting investigative stuff and there's no substitute for man hours when it comes to pulling all that together (especially now they can no longer gather their information by simply blagging, or hacking voicemails).

---------- Post added at 23:28 ---------- Previous post was at 22:10 ----------

Breaking: Sun on Sunday launches this coming weekend.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17092863

[Digital Fanatic]

Yuk! The Sun is a vile paper.. the last thing we need is a Sunday edition

It's still difficult to tell, but from the article on the Sun website it's looking like they're going for a seventh daily edition rather than a traditional Sunday paper.

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by Chris

It's still difficult to tell, but from the article on the Sun website it's looking like they're going for a seventh daily edition rather than a traditional Sunday paper.

Well, I won't be buying it, so it makes no odds to me

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic

Well, I won't be buying it, so it makes no odds to me

l never bought it after the Hillsborough disaster and l sure ain't buying it now either.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Tim Deegan

Not quite the same experience as my step father then, who's experience includes:
Reporter
Political editor for a newspaper
Editor of two local papers
Editor of a national magazine
Press officer to the leader of a major political party
Press officer for the BBC

Interesting cv your step father has, my grandfather was a sub editor on the Times for 20 odd years and held the same position at the Express and IIRC Telelgraph for many years at a time to and some of my sister and I's fondest childhood memories are of creating havoc down Fleet Street way and you know what I know about news papers, bugger all except how to read them.

Anyway, The Sun on Sunday will be sold this coming...err..Sunday. I don't really agree with the outrage over it, they are entitled to publish a paper on Sunday. The time since the closure of the NOTW combined with the loss of a big name brand means this wasn't a cynical ploy either.

I don't think Murdoch is a fit and proper person to be in charge of any part of his media empire.However I suspect that he'll emerge battered,tainted but uncharged after all the investigations and inquiries have finished.Everyone else will have their reputations shredded though as a sacrifice.

What I am hoping is that politicians have learned the lesson that getting too cosy with any journalist/newspaper/media organisation is not a good idea and that perhaps not sleeping around/having a hand in the public till/committing fraud might actually keep them clear of being manipulated by said media as a consequence.

I'm also hoping that the Met and other police forces will get their houses in order and finally sort out the corruption that has crept into their ranks because of the media and that the rest of us will start to take the idea of data protection rather more seriously than we do now.