Rantings

Cudlipp lecture Alastair Campbell, former Mirror man and Downing Street press secretary for most ofTony Blair’s time as prime minister, will deliver the annual Hugh Cudlipp Lecture at the London College of Communication on January 28, 2008 entitled The Media: a case of growth in scale, alas, not in stature.

Damn lies, or statistics? For those readers and ranters who give a toss about numbers, here are a few. According to the website counter that has been ticking away since August (six weeks after we launched), we have 10,700 readers. A fairly healthy readership for a specialist weekly publication, that;

From Peter Morris: When Arthur Brisbane was about to complete fifty years of journalism, Mr. Hearst, his employer, urged him to take a six-month vacation with pay. This magnanimous offer Brisbane refused to accept, saying there were two reasons for his doing so. ‘The first reason,’ he said, ‘is that

Your holiday quiz The Archive on this website is already becoming uneconomical to maintain, so enjoy it while it lasts. There’s nothing on TV between the holidays, so why not use the Archive to take a stroll down Memory Lane? Or even Chancery Lane? Here’s a prompt, by way of

Christmas past and a Christmas present Our Letters Page this week has Ken Ashton on quotes and headlines, Edward Playfair on Ian Levack, and Rosalie Macrae and Howard Reynolds remembering Shelley. Here on this page, HARRY PUGH reports on a Christmas surfeit of sausage in the Crown & Kettle, while

The way it was COLIN HENDERSON has a mini-rant about The People, then and now, and we lift a report quoting an internal memo to describe how the Standard is now. WALTER ELLIS says that in the old days you were not allowed to return to the office, after lunch,

‘Anything in the paper?’ We are experimenting, this week with the publication of a cartoon. It happens to be a personal favourite, ‘News’ by Thomas Derrick, published in Punch on May 4, 1938. Perhaps it shows that the public’s appreciation of our noble calling has changed little in nearly 70

End of an era So when did the great days, the glory days, actually end? Was it the arrival of Maxwell (1984), the Murdoch move to Wapping (1986), or the manifestation of Montgomery (1992)? Certainly the good old days did not extend beyond the 20th century – as WALTER ELLIS

Subs bench and the Rest of the World Where do you stand in the war between subs and scribblers? DON WALKER had a foot in both camps and reckons that never can the twain meet. And what about the battle between subs and snappers? ALBERT COOPER takes his life in

  Asked by a youngster for advice about choosing journalism as a career, most of us would probably offer the same counsel we’d give to a young man contemplating marriage: don’t. But if the questioner is determined, says GARTH GIBBS, it helps if they are blonde and female – otherwise

Layout tryout As an experiment, diary stories have been moved into the Home Page and inserted among the articles there. They can be sourced from the introduction, or identified by the rubric: Back from The Stab.     October 5, 2007 Justin time Before the gravy train hit the buffers,

When KEN ASHTON went on a running story it was often he who finished up doing the running. His shoes were more likely to be spiked than his copy. He reminisces about dear Doncaster days and names plenty of names (three dozen or more), while REVEL BARKER remembers when he

Colin Dunne started something with his piece last week about Money for Old Rope and, not surprisingly, a number of expenses claims were immediately submitted but many of them have been rejected by the EDITORIAL MANAGER, with a (courteous) note asking for them to be revised and re-submitted. FRED WEHNER

Blowing in the wind By Paul Bannister Obituary: Christine Garbutt Running amok with the Style Book By Austin Wormleighton My first murder By Geoffrey Mather Taking tea with a poisoner By Edward Rawlinson Gone fishing By Alan Knight Upstick job arsewards, stop By Revel Barker How to be a toady

Darkroom Rwanda by Alun John Unfair On ‘Mr. Manchester’? – A Different View by Robert Waterhouse My Search For Utopia… by John Harris In Search Of Decent Conversation by Geoffrey Mather Sinking Your Teeth Into Journalism by Ian Skidmore A Weaver Of Tales by Edward Rawlinson I Knew Eric Wainwright by Colin Dunne     Location, location,

Bombed out of their minds by Revel Barker You couldn’t make it up by Paul Bannister The Petri Dish Kid by Joe Mullins Life’s burning ambitions by Geoffrey Mather Danish Blue by Ian Skidmore The Blade, and Di by Patrick O’Gara The Queen and I by Revel Barker    

The golden boys by Paddy Byrne There stands the enemy by Ian Skidmore Treadling a goat by Geoffrey Mather Living in a democracy by Paul Bannister The Last Cuckoo by Revel Barker Poems written on columns (Keith Preston) No-one but a bloghead by Ian Skidmore Campbell’s kingdom by Revel Barker