news in brief...


RUSBRIDGER WILL NOT CHAIR TRUST Alan Rusbridger, the former editor- in-chief of the Guardian, will not take up the role of chair of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian. Rusbridger, who stood down as Guardian editor-in-chief after two decades last summer, had been due to take over from Liz Forgan in the role from September.


NEW JOB FOR THE NEW DAY’S EDITOR Alison Philips, the editor of The New Day newspaper, which closed after just nine weeks, has become deputy editor-in-chief of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People. Before becoming editor of The New Day, Phillips was the Mirror’s weekend editor with responsibility for the Sunday People and Sunday Mirror.


LONGEST-SERVING EDITOR IS TO LEAVE Satish Kumar, thought to be Britain’s longest-serving editor, is to step down after his 80th birthday in August. Kumar became editor of the climate and environment focused Resurgence Magazine in 1973, renamed Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine, and was made its editor- in-chief in 2010. Greg Neale will become editor-in-chief.


NUJ PRAISES BAJ FOUNDER TURNER The NUJ has praised British Association of Journalists union founder Steve Turner as a “fierce defender” of journalists’ working conditions and an advocate for “robust and decent” journalism following his death aged 80. Turner established the BAJ in 1992, breaking away from the NUJ after he was fired as its general secretary in 1991.


BBC’S CHINESE MOVE COMES UNDER FIRE The union has criticised the BBC World Service’s decision to move the main part of its Chinese language services to Hong Kong, including moving its head editors from London. It said the move poses a threat to the service’s editorial independence and integrity.


4 | theJournalist


Overworked, underpaid and highly educated


J “ ”


the newspaper’s offices on Royal Avenue in the city centre last month to bid farewell to their old home. The newspaper, owned by Independent News &


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More than half of women earned less than £2,400 a month compared with 35 per cent of men


ournalists entering the profession today will almost certainly have a bachelor’s degree and probably a master’s, are more


than likely to be white and have a one in five chance of earning less than £19,200, close to the living wage. If they are female – and 45 per cent will be


– they will find themselves being less well paid than their male counterparts and less likely to be promoted. More than half of women earned less than £2,400 a month compared with 35 per cent of men. Black Britons are under represented. This snapshot is taken from a report


from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Journalists in the UK, which has investigated the men and women behind the headlines, where they work, what their politics are and their views on what is ethical when getting a story. It showed that more than half of journalists


now work online, and that the proportion working on print versions of newspapers has fallen from 56 per cent to 44 per cent since 2012.


Those working exclusively online earn less. It revealed that the vast majority of journalists


(86 per cent), despite working longer hours, feel that they do not have enough time to spend on their stories. The report’s authors said the data showed rank and file journalists were producing, processing or editing 50, 60 or 75 stories a week. An overwhelming majority (94 per cent)


agreed that they should adhere to codes of professional ethics. Most believed that it is justified to pay for confidential information when this is in the public interest, compared with just five per cent of American journalists. A further 81 per cent said they would


use confidential business or government documents without permission compared with 58 per cent in the US.


Eamonn McCann elected to Stormont E


amonn McCann, the well-known journalist, political campaigner and former NUJ executive council member, was elected to Northern Ireland’s Stormont assembly after nearly 50 years of contesting elections. He was elected as an Anti-Austerity – People Before Profit candidate for the Foyle constituency. A leading civil rights figure in the late 1960s, McCann has long campaigned on left wing issues. A native of


Derry’s Bogside, he first came to prominence as a member of the Derry Housing Action Committee, campaigning against Unionist leaders for better housing. Mr McCann told The Irish News that he hoped to use his position to encourage grassroots organisation and opposition to austerity and the development of left-wing politics based on class rather than on community. He said: “It is significant that a seat will have been won by somebody in this constituency who is saying we’re not orange, we’re not green – we are other.”


BELFAST TELEGRAPH STAFF SAY GOODBYE


ormer Belfast Telegraph staff gathered outside


Media, is moving to Clarendon Dock. Those pictured


former editors are Roy Lilley, Ed Curran and Martin Lindsay, current editor of The Irish News, Noel Doran (who was previously at the Telegraph) plus


another former Irish News editor Martin O’Brien. The Telegraph, established in 1870, has been operating from its Royal Avenue for 130 years; all the printing is now handled by the Independent News & Media plant at Newry.


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