Newspapers

Lord knows, we all blunder from time to time. Still, this is pretty impressive: “Each year, in my last Economic View before Christmas, I try to shed some light on economic events of the previous 12 months by comparing what has actually happened with expectations published here in early January. This year, even more than usual, reading back through January’s predictions has been a shock. Almost all have turned out to be wrong”. Anatole Kaletsky, The Times, 18/12/06.“My last article of every year looks back on the predictions I made in early January to shed some light on the economic and financial events of the previous 12 months. This tends

Ah, it’s that time of year again! Yup, the splendid blog Regret the Error rounds up the most entertaining newspaper corrections of the year. Some of my favourites: The Daily Mail was among the newspapers to report that David Gest contracted herpes from Liza Minnelli on their wedding night. Not so! In articles published on 23 and 26 May 2008, we gave the impression that Mr Gest had contracted a sexually transmitted infection and alleged that he had Liza Minnelli’s dog killed without her knowledge. This was wrong. David Gest has never had a sexually transmitted infection and did not have Ms Minnelli’s dog killed. We apologise to Mr Gest

Nice work, Reuters: Man who snatched wig will have toupee Hat-tip: Radley Balko.

Via Megan McArdle, I see that the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press are taking a novel approach to the malaise that’s crippling newspapers across America (and Britain): make it much more difficult for people to buy your product. At first you may think that this is so counter-intuitive that it must be brilliant. But it’s not: it’s every bit as stupid (I think!) as it sounds. The Motor City papers are apparently only going to deliver papers to their readers’ homes three days out of every seven. The theory, as I understand it, is that all this printing and delivering is too expensive to be justified on lighter

Is such that, as you know, there’s no need to bribe the fellow. From Simon Hoggart’s Guardian column today: A colleague of the late Raymond Jackson, “Jak” of the London Evening Standard, had an interesting tale. Jak was famous for including the names of firms – restaurants, pubs, even skip hire companies – in his cartoons. He would then sell the originals to the people mentioned, so getting two substantial fees for each drawing. What I hadn’t realised is that he used to pre-sell the slot. He’d ring up Knight, Frank & Rutley, for instance, and ask if they wanted to appear as the estate agent that day. Then he’d

Another sign of the times: every single employee of the Glasgow Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times was sacked today and told to reapply for their jobs (on changed  – that is, less favourable – terms and conditions of course) if they hope to have some sort of a future in newspapers. Or at least at the Herald Group. Early indications are that the company wants to cut the workforce by something like 20%. But journalists and readers alike should not fret: Managing director Tim Blott said: “We are creating an efficient operation fit for the 21st Century which will provide even more compelling and unique content for readers of

One of the things that distinguishes a good columnist from the ordinary, run-of-the-mill shill is the ability to treat their own party’s failings as severely as they would condemn the blunders committed by the other lot. Similarly, there’s something to be said for the rigour that consistency demands. Polly Toynbee may be correct (though I’d wager she isn’t) that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling played a blinder on Monday, but does anyone imagine that if it was a Conservative government presiding over this recession she would write anything as, I don’t know, cheerful and complacent, as this? Even if unemployment reaches 3 million, that still leaves 90% in secure jobs.

Some numbers that terrify anyone with any skin in the newspaper game, particularly in Scotland: Sales of the Sunday Herald are down 15% this year. More worrying still, if not altogether surprising given the state of the global economy, the Johnston Press, owners of the Scotsman and hundreds of local papers, report that advertising sales are down 15% this year. Expect that number to get worse. Two years ago the companies share price was £4.20; yesterday it closed at 19p. These numbers happen to come from the Scottish and UK (local) market. But they won’t be that different from the numbers elsewhere. So there will be more cuts which, in