Former Daily Telegraph political editor George Jones is to join The Press Association as a special correspondent to enhance the agency’s multimedia political coverage from October 31.
His track record includes ten general elections and he has reported on six prime ministers. He has been reporting politics since 1969 and has been political editor and political correspondent for three national newspapers – The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph. He is a regular broadcaster on politics, a newspaper reviewer, and has a reputation as an impartial but insightful political observer.

The World Association of Newspapers asked 22 futurists, media and Internet experts to describe the newspaper of the future, and their responses say much about the present state of the newspaper business – being based on current trends in the industry as newspapers evolve as multimedia businesses.
Some said newspapers will resemble glossy magazines. Some say they will be individually tailored to readers. Some envisage networks of news generators and digital news hubs.
Chris Bisco, managing director of CN Group’s publishing division, said in his response: “Newspaper companies will look very different in 2020. There are many reasons to be confident that our industry has the vision, the energy and the fundamental business strengths to emerge by 2020 as a multi-media communications business with a wider market to operate in than it had before 2007.”

An award has been launched in memory of a sports-mad journalism student who died in a road accident.
The University of Central Lancashire has teamed up with Chelsea FC to offer journalism students the chance to win an insight into the world of top-flight football as a tribute to scholar Matthew Hesketh. The 18-year-old died when a car he was in was involved in a collision with a taxi earlier this year. Matthew was a back seat passenger and died at the scene.
The new Matthew Hesketh award for Sports Journalism will commemorate him.

Ledbury Reporter journalist Gary Bills has returned from the Poetry on the Lake Festival in Italy, where he read his own poems and presented prizes in the formal category of the event’s poetry competition, which he also judged.
Gary last appeared there in 2002, when he read from his first collection, The Echo and the Breath.