After more than 20 years in journalism I’m not sure whether I still believe in the idea of a ‘silly season’ when it comes to news. The fact is, as has been highlighted both on HTFP and on this blog

Earlier this year HTFP carried a story about a news agency’s laudable attempt to provide a comprehensive list of four-week council audits taking place this summer. Under the Audit Commission Act, local authorities are required to open their books for

Knowledge gained is never a waste and what journalists write about for their papers may sometimes serve them well in their own lives. So it proved for the health reporter of The Bolton News who has recently been laid up

I have blogged before about the American-born media analyst Claire Enders and her prediction that the next four years will see the loss of 650 of the UK’s 1,300 local and regional newspapers. My instinctive reaction to her pronouncements is

Will Green, my successor-but-one as political editor of The Journal, scored a notable exclusive by persuading Minister for the North-East and Labour Chief Whip Nick Brown to go on the record with his thoughts about Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley.

After some confusion as to whether Sion Simon or Stephen Timms would be taking over the Digital Britain brief from the now-departed Lord Carter, Downing Street has now ruled in favour of Mr Timms. But anyone expecting any degree of

Much excitement in Medialand today about Rupert Murdoch’s announcement that, from next summer, he will charge people to read his newspapers’ websites. Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford reckons it could herald a new ‘Murdoch Revolution’ 23 years on from the

People losing their jobs and livelihoods is never a laughing matter and sadly the press and media industry has been too full of stories about redundancies recently. Still, one can always rely on that most positive-thinking of demographics – the

Former That’s Life presenter Esther Rantzen today struck a blow for the journalistic profession by announcing she will stand for Parliament at the next election in the Luton seat being vacated by expenses row Labour MP Margaret Moran. But if

When former North-East and Midlands MD Steve Brown left Trinity Mirror in a company restructure earlier this year, the response from his former employees in Newcastle and Birmingham was startling. The NUJ chapel in Newcastle passed a vote of no

Times are tough in the regional press and it’s a constant gripe among the rank and file that wages are low. So no-one can blame Salford Advertiser reporter Pamela Welsh for trying her hand at winning some extra PIN money

Congratulations to Oliver Luft who starts work as online news editor at Press Gazette on Monday, joining from Media Guardian. Having previously worked for Journalism.co.uk, he now only needs to come and work for HoldtheFrontPage to complete a full-house of

Earlier this week the Tories made a bit of a splash in some quarters by announcing plans to allow newspaper groups to provide regional TV news using funding top-sliced from the BBC licence fee. It was of course good to

We’ve had the one about the town that ran out of custard (see previous post) – now here’s the one about the dead moggie that united a Midlands cathedral town in grief. Well, it is July after all…..  

Earlier this year, HoldtheFrontPage ran a piece about a weekly paper in Kent which had published a story about a mum-of-three complaining that the local shops had run out of custard. It provoked a lively debate, both on HTFP and

As well as being one of the best observers of the national political scene either inside or outside the Lobby – check out his blog Outside the Bubble – David Higgerson is an enthusiastic Twitterer in his role as Trinity