journoprof

With all the talk of dying newspapers, I am proud to report that it was a British newspaper – The Telegraph (or Torygraph as it is fondly known in the UK for its political bent) – which exposed the scandalous abuse by British Members of Parliament of their expense accounts and has brought the British government to its knees. The speaker of the House of Parliament, Michael Martin, has finally quit amid heated calls for his resignation for mishandling the scandal. The outlandish expenses claims – which include thousands for home renovations, plasma TVs, a thousand pound rocking chair – were secret until this week when The Telegraph published details of the expenses claims which were leaked to them. Here’s the coverage in The Telegraph. Other newspapers have picked up the story, the British public is said to be disgusted by the misuse of taxpayers funds and Gordon Brown’s government is in tatters.

Check out New York Times financial reporter Edmund Andrews’ very frank confession about his personal credit crisis. It’s touching, human and undoubtedly echoes the experience of many Americans. Hobbled by alimony payments from his divorce, he finds love with an old high-school friend. They buy a house they can’t afford at a time when mortgage loans were being handed out like candy. Pretty soon his American Dream is crashing down around his ears and the creditors are calling. The article is an excerpt from his new book. You can’t help but hope the book will become a bestseller and get him out of his financial bind.

This just in from Josh Jezioro, a student of mine, who was rightly outraged that the tabloids may have sunk to a new low. Brooke Shields claims a National Enquirer reporter checked her mom out of a nursing home all for the sake of a story. The 75-year-old Teri Shields, apparently suffers from dementia. LINK.

Witness my video debut at The New York Times’ newish blog, The Local. Who says a print reporter can’t learn new tricks!

Click HERE for the link to the site and see the post that accompanied the video.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

The New York Times is going to raise the cost of each issue to $2 in June, up from $1.50. The Sunday  paper will cost $5.00. It seems like a suicide bid given the straightened times, but it’s an indication of how desperate the paper is. Reporters there have accepted a 5% pay cut and sections are being axed left and right. Subscriptions are not increasing – yet, but they’re not making any promises. LINK.

The newspaper of the future. Is this what it will look like? Here’s an interesting story in The New York Times, which, by the way, looks like it’s about to shut down the Boston Globe (which it owns.)

Check out this slideshow of some of the magazines that haven’t made it through the financial crisis LINK. I mourn the loss of Domino.

Here they are. They Pulitzer Prizes.LINK.

Any journalism student unconvinced about the importance of a style manual at a news organization should read this week’s essay in The New York Times by the public editor to see how seriously copy editors take these issues. Here’s a Quick Guide to AP Style and a good list of things to look out for from Dr. Michael Sweeney, Utah State Uni.

The Shack, as the modest warren of offices for the press located in New York’s Police Headquarters is called, appears to be destined for the chopping block. If it happens, this will severely cramp the style of New York’s newspapers in particular.