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No going back to ‘booze-soaked’ days, conference told

Young journalists need to be made aware that the “booze-soaked days of old Fleet Street” are gone forever, a journalism training conference was told today.

Speaking at the Journalism Skills Conference today, head of Sky News John Ryley said that the old model of running newspapers had been “broken” and a new model which will sustain the journalism of the future has yet to be created.

Giving the keynote address to start the NCTJ conference at Bournemouth University, he said:  “That world isn’t coming back. Yet the core purpose of journalism remains.”

John also said the behaviour of a small number of journalists had tarnished the reputation of the whole industry and urged young journalists to follow “clear standards and models of behaviour.”

The conference, which is now in its sixth year, is designed as an opportunity to debate the latest training issues across all media sectors.

Sessions will cover journalism and the digital landscape; skills and the economics of journalism; and the evolution of core journalism skills.

Speakers at the event will include ITV News presenter Mark Austin,  Ian Murray, editor-in-chief of the Southern Daily Echo, and Tom Thomson, managing editor of the Herald and Times Group.

As the event got under way, John said that training for new journalists should instill an understanding of doing the right thing and that underhand methods were only “very rarely acceptable”.

Said John: “We owe it to the next generation of journalists to explain to them that negativity, fear and an ‘at all costs’ culture is ultimately self-destructive.

“That success can be achieved by the application of talent, hard work, good judgement and integrity. That there are clear standards and models of behaviour that they are expected to follow.

“That they can stand up to their superiors without fear of retribution. And all of this can be put to the service of good journalism.”

John said the world of news was in the middle of a revolutionary change as technology allowed news to be reported faster and more accurately than ever.

He said newspapers had seen profound changes as the old deadlines had been abandoned for rolling publication of news online.

Added John: “Yet the increasingly unpopular papers are still the cash cows of the business.

“The model that supported the old ways has been broken. And new journalists need to understand that too. But they should be warned.

“Reading golden-hued memories of the booze-soaked days of old Fleet Street, and listening to downtable meanderings about how it used to be, simply fuels nostalgia and breeds contempt for the modern age.

“That world isn’t coming back. Yet the core purpose of journalism remains. As we all know, good journalism costs money. The new model that will sustain the future of journalism has yet to be created. But that isn’t for want of trying.

“We now live in a much more complicated and fractured world in terms of news. But that can make it more exciting than ever.”

6 comments

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  • November 27, 2013 at 3:03 pm
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    Thing is, if you take all the fun out of journalism, what is the point of having it as a career? I mean, nobody becomes a journo for the money.

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  • November 27, 2013 at 5:55 pm
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    Strewth! Hope they don’t have too much then at the endless lunches and gala dinner!!

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  • November 27, 2013 at 5:58 pm
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    WRONG! He means the actions of the national newspapers, mainly the Redtops, have tarnished the reputation of the industry, not individual journalists.
    The journalists have to carry out the instructions of their employers, the proprietors, and the editors are there to ensure that those instructions are carried out.

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  • November 27, 2013 at 8:25 pm
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    Let’s get this into perspective. The hacking scandal was down to a confined section of the industry – a national red-top belonging to a single organisation.
    Journalism in general is more honest than practically any other profession – and that includes the priesthood. Before the hacking scandal I could count the number of ‘rogue’ journalists on one hand.
    The legal profession, on the other hand, has been routinely dishonest over the years. In my career I have written about literally scores of lawyers who have stolen from clients. I find it deeply irksome that someone like Leveson can pontificate about journalists when his own profession is so bereft of acceptable standards.
    Remember, Britain’s worst-ever mass murderer was a general practitioner. And accountants? So many have been caught with their hand in the till over the years that it’s beyond a joke.
    The NoW did all real journalists a serious disservice. But their behaviour was not typical of journalists generally – they were doing things the rest of us would never have contemplated.

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  • November 28, 2013 at 2:49 pm
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    I can just about remember when journalism used to be fun. About as much fun as toothache nowadays. Accountancy and legal though.., better than working for a living!

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