BEACH WATCH: Palm oil, decimated dunes and a no-fun foam party
Alan Geere online
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1y ago
QUICK - GRAB THE LIFE BELT! Wading through the putrid sea foam on Warkworth beach Like many people who live near the coast I am fiercely protective of ‘my’ bit of beach. But excursions to Warkworth on the Northumberland coast in the past week have brought sadness, disappointment and even some anger. As if the ravages of Storm Babet were not enough, leaving the dunes looking dangerously undermined, the piles of ‘sea foam’ that followed were, to use the technical word – yucky. Wading through the waist high spume was a dispiriting experience. Dirty, smelly and difficult to remove from cl ..read more
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Wimbledon, Nick Kyrgios and why everyone needs a coach
Alan Geere online
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2y ago
Let’s call this ‘Bereft Monday’. No more Wimbledon, no more Sue Barker…how will we ever survive? Like millions around the world I lapped up the two-week tennis spectacular without barely a stop for changing ends of the sofa. Also, like afficionados and final-watchers-only, I marvelled as Nick Kyrgios (below) gave nailed-on favourite Novak Djokovic a run for his money. But after taking the first set, things started to unravel for the ‘Maverick’ Australian. Shouting and swearing at his bemused and rather embarrassed looking team box for not giving him enough support sort of summed up where both ..read more
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HOMELESSNESS: The story that won't go away
Alan Geere online
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3y ago
  PROPPED UP: A homeless man plays the flute and begs with a child. Photo by student journalist Ming Yu ONE of my favourite assignments to carry out with student journalists is under the general theme of ‘homelessness’. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Takes students out of their comfort zones, gives ideal interviewees who aren’t going anywhere in a hurry and provides for pictures and videos that just happen in front of you. Yes, I’ve heard all the arguments about why NOT to do it: It’s potentially dangerous as the homeless may be disease-ridden or have mental health issues ..read more
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Afghanistan: Then, Now and in the Future
Alan Geere online
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3y ago
Like many people who have spent time in Afghanistan I am watching events unfold with a mix of incredulity and frustration. No, I didn’t put my life on the line clearing mines or pockets of insurgents as brave troops did in this bewildering, beguiling and bonkers country. But I did share my passion for journalism with around 50 local people who wanted to play a part in rebuilding their society in the aftermath of 9/11 and the fall of the Taliban. As often happens on these ventures, I learned far more from them than I think they gleaned from me. Tolerance, hospitality, generosity and imagination ..read more
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The shape of editorial leadership
Alan Geere online
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4y ago
Editorial leaders and…change A major theme to emerge from current editorial developments is ‘change’, and different approaches to leadership and management through intense periods of transformation, and maybe even revolution, in both attitudes and working practices. “I think it’s been for a fair while and will continue to be, might permanently be, about getting a lot of people to deal with a lot of change,” said Reach Midlands editor in chief Marc Reeves. “I think that’s what editorial leadership is and it’s going to continue to be so because the sands are shifting all the time.” Reflecting on ..read more
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Web Summit: How old school journalism was given new world treatment
Alan Geere online
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4y ago
Were you at Web Summit 2020? No, thought not. Luckily for you Alan Geere was among the 104,328 attendees at one of the world’s biggest online love-ins and sends this verdict   Sometimes it felt like you had wandered into a zeitgeist TV show – think ‘Industry’ the BBC2 drama currently airing about life in the bonking, sorry, banking world – with impossibly attractive and intelligent young people sharing the secrets of their life in a totally confident and competent way. Of course, there were older people there too. Sir Tim Berners-Lee (65), casually billed as ‘inventor of World Wide Web ..read more
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From hiring and firing to balancing the books: Editing 2020
Alan Geere online
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4y ago
Jeremy Tunstall, writing in his seminal 1971 work Journalists at Work, chose to feature the ‘personnel management decisions’ in his dissection of the constituent roles of the editor. Calling these decisions ‘considerable’ he highlights the ‘hiring and promoting of wide range of journalists’ and the financial responsibility of ‘controlling salaries and expenses of over £1 million a year’, which equates to around £13.8 million a year in 2019 when taking inflation into account, according to the Bank of England (Bank of England, 2019). While Tunstall was basing his comments around national newspa ..read more
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THE COMMERCIAL EDITOR
Alan Geere online
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4y ago
Bottom line and audience Newspapers have long had editorial staff whose role is to service commercial interests. Titles ranging from ‘commercial editor’ to ‘special projects editor’ and the more straightforward ‘advertising writer’, but now there is an expectation that the traditional editorial leader will take a much more significant stance in the commercial wellbeing of the title and business. “Editors do need to be more commercially savvy,” says Ian Carter, Editorial Director of Iliffe Media. He recalled a meeting he had with a group of editors: “I was saying to them that they have to be aw ..read more
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The ‘hands-on’ role of the editor
Alan Geere online
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4y ago
How does a commitment to a hands-on role translate itself to the editor who has oversight of sophisticated and complicated technology? Jeremy Clifford, editor-in-chief of Johnston Press, is concerned that editorial leaders do not spend time and effort keeping up with the latest technologies that drive the industry. “I don’t know how to fix my car if it breaks…you just need to know how to drive it,” he says. “If you waste your time trying to work out how to use Crowntag or learn Socialflow [analytical tools] and that sort of thing, you won’t concentrate on the core part of what your job is whic ..read more
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“God bless journalists, every one!" - Reflections on A World Without News
Alan Geere online
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4y ago
‘The research’, a bit like ‘The Science’, can sometimes end up going up its own wazoo and leading us precisely nowhere. There’s also the nagging suspicion that researchers sometimes know the destination and are just trying to find a robust route to locate it. There’s no doubting that all the right spadework has gone into this piece of research. A nine-page methodology document sets out to clarify its credentials, covering semiotics, behavioural experiments and quantitative surveys. And the results are unequivocal. We love news and we want it to stay. Journalists, even when the bearers of sad ..read more
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