MORE TIME FOR JOURNALISM

It's been difficult in past days to find any time for blogging. Today back from London from meetings, hauled in to do some volunteer stuff for Oxfam, then to another meeting and just finishing article before I head off to bed and up at 5.45am. So please bear with me while I adjust to a new routine.
Glad, however, to note Tim Gopsill, the recently retired editor of The Journalist, has a new blog, Victor Noir, which I have linked to ......
Tim, sadly, did not cover our last ADM due to internal union issues which don't belong on the blogosphere. But his contribution was massive and he will be sadly missed.
Tim says he will now have "more time for journalism." I hope that's true.

THE FUTURE OF BLOGGING - A MEETING IN HEBDEN BRIDGE

The Calderdale branch of the NUJ is organising a public meeting on Journalism in the Age of New Media and Blogging. I will be chairing the discussion, which will be led by New Media expert Gary Herman and Chris Ratcliffe who runs the Hebweb. It's at the White Lion 7.30pm and all welcome.

DIVERSIFICATION - NOT ALWAYS PLAIN SAILING

Back home from London today to find my bi-monthly copy of The Journalist on the doormat. On the train I was having a conversation with a colleague who is taking a job in a hotel to survive so it was with some irritation that I read an article in the latest edition on how marvellously liberating life could be after redundancy. The last word is of some importance because most freelance journalists are NOT " made redundant." They just don't have their contracts renewed so there is no financial safety net or recompence at all for what can be years and years of service. You are just Out On Your Ear

Yes, there are those who have the skills to set themselves up as Susan Press International Media or some such equivalent and good luck to them. The reality is that such projects require money and that in order to survive a lot of freelance journalists who lose their core income simply have to pack it in entirely. And that, for the freelance sector in the north, things have never been worse. The market is crowded and, over 50, you're not going to be top of the pile.

I don't mind diversifying. My initial foray into bookselling has been a bit of a minefield and I've made some mistakes , as I was bound to, but I'm confident it can earn me a couple of hundred a month in time. What writing work I have left pays the bills ( for now) so in theory I just need another 15 or 20 hours a week work to keep head above water.

But that means accepting the reality that the halcyon days of regional journalism are over, and that in order to make up the shortfall I'm likely to have to take on work I would never have considered before. And I think The Journalist should make room for such stories in future editions. It really isn't that easy..........ask my friends.

FREELANCE MONTH

It's kind of ironic that this month is designated by the NUJ as Freelance Month as this month is when I cross the Rubicon from scraping by to being seriously skint. Of course, I'm far from being on my own. Which is why the NUJ is highlighting the plight of freelances.

Most journos I know are either facing redundancy, scratching their heads and wondering how on earth they are going to replace the work they have lost, or seeking alternative means of employment.

At 51, the reality is that my chances of getting a staff job ( if they still existed) on a local paper are precisely zero. My only option is to contact as many people as I can and try and pick up PR or other forms of writing work to tide me over. But I'm not particularly optimistic.

My young nephew is a hotshot on using the internet to make money and has informed me of one or two sites which pay up for reviews of books etc. This blog earns me a tiny amount of money and I'm thinking of setting up a credit crunch blog to cheer up others in the same boat by sharing tips on saving cash.

One step I have taken is to lock away what remains of my savings to ensure they do not fritter away - so that if push comes to shove I will have to take whatever work I can find. It is probably time to stop going to the pub and to invite friends round, get the pulses out of the back of the cupboard, and hope that at some point in the future things will improve.So, solidarity to all the other freelances I know who are prowling the supermarkets for red stickers, discovering the charity shops, and harking back wistfully to the days when we took all that well-paid work for granted. In the meantime, I am open to offers.........and please click the ads!

WHERE NOW FOR REGIONAL JOURNALISTS?

I learned this week that yet more of my friends and former colleagues at the Manchester Evening News are to be made redundant. Highly skilled, experienced writers and subs in their forties and fifties suddenly find themselves without work - and little prospect of finding anything comparable with the wages they are used to. Today, I read on-line that the MEN's TV wing, Channel M, is also to lose half its staff. These are terrible times for journalists everywhere , but in the regions things are getting desperate.

The only reason I am currently recession-proof is due to the fact I am now living off the earnings which I saved in the good years as a freelance. Those who were less circumspect with their money face the prospect of mortgages they can't pay, children they can't help through university, and the sheer misery of being flung on the scrapheap at an age when they still have years to give.

A couple of years ago some friends of mine tried to be inventive and set up a radical PR agency - but that was before the recession and that didn't come to much either. The reality is that staff jobs are geting fewer and freelance work has dried up. Yet thousands of teenagers are still signing up for journalism and media studies degrees and dreaming of a glittering career. This is good for ex-journos who need an alternative source of income . I did some teaching last year and will be touting around my CV again in the hope of further employment. But, if I'm honest, my advice to the starry-eyed youngsters would be to choose an alternative degree. Journalism, as we knew it, is dead.

AT A CROSSROADS.......

It's nearly Easter and I am looking forward to a bit of a break after a hard few months canvassing for support as a PPC in two constituencies. The Calder Valley hustings are next Thursday and, win or lose, I will continue to be based in Hebden Bridge but the nature of journalistic remuneration these days is that I may have to cast my net wider for paid work.
On Tuesday night I headed up to the Lakes with a friend who was writing an article about a five-star hotel and needed a companion to assess its merits. Nice work if you can get it but actually on our current rates of pay a standard B and B would probably be beyond us . However, everyone goes through bad times workwise and we were lucky to start out in regional journalism more than 20 years ago in the days when it still WAS journalism.
There were daily press conferences, lots of press calls with the great and the good. We even got the chance to interview our favourite writers face-to-face and did theatre and cinema reviews. In my case as a local government reporter, hefty council agendas were a daily task to be ploughed through and we always went to important council and committee meetings in Manchester.
Those days are gone. Most regional papers these days just regurgitate press releases and everything is done over the phone - if at all. Syndicated copy is the norm and swingeing staff cuts and bad wages have taken their toll on even the best of the regional press.
The NUJ is admirably trying to find a way out of this morass but I must be honest, I am not optimistic. There may be other ways of generating news and indeed getting it to a wider public using new technology and small community enterprises but the glory days are gone. Along with most of my means of earning an income.
So, after a year putting things on hold while I carried out Town Council duties as Mayor it is probably time for a re-think.

MEN-RIP

For much of my journalistic life I was one of the key freelancers at the Manchester Evening News. You name it, I did it. MEN Diary, Women's Page, feature interviews with tbe great and the good. Plus the more mundne task of covering local news stories for the newsdesk. They were good years both financially and professionally and my colleagues were all excellent, meticulous journalists. I was a freelance negotiator with the management and did so much work that most thought I was a staffer. I wasn't.
Some years ago the MEN got rid of most of its freelances - me included - and the only vestige of my previous life is a page I write weekly - which I have done for the past 14 years .
This week, MEN journalists learned their workfocce is to be reduced by half. The paper is already a shadow of its former self and I cannot envisage how it will survive with further cuts.
All the weekly newspapers owned by the MEN are to, effectively, close. These are sad days for journalism and I will do my best to attend the lobby of Parliament on March 25 on this issue. I noted the other day that the MEN's business pages reported that 1 in 10 people are soon expected to be out of work. That's a figure which will resound with anyone who grew up in the Thatcher years. UB 40 immortalised the number with a song we all remember. Truly looks as though we're heading back to the 1980's .

BAILING MYSELF OUT...

In recent weeks I have pondered various ways of making extra money. The latest was a book called Credit Crunch Tips on the lines of those household hints you see in women's magazines. I've had some good ideas. In Haworth on Saturday a friend and I came up with the idea of sharing pub lunches ( half the cost, half the calories) and , given the size of meals in Yorkshire, you don't even go hungry. I've also just signed up to something called Freecycle in the hope of culling a re-conditioned vacuum cleaner ( the cat has so far dispatched two this year) for nothing. Then I got an e-mail from a contact saying there would be no commissions for several months and reality broke into this whimsical musing. I'm now at that crunch moment when outgoings are exceeding incomings. I'm also a bit sick of red-stickered food and Christmas is staring me in the face with no prospect at all of new freelance work. In short, it's time to look for a full-time job. Labour movement, media-related. I give myself six months to find something and if that fails well, plan B.

THE GANG OF FOUR......

Blogging sparse of late due to family stuff but hopefully now more time back to keep up to speed on the political world . Am glad to read on Union Futures that my union the NUJ has won another battle . In a postal ballot at the Northcliffe-owned South West Wales Media, journalists at the South Wales Evening Post, Carmarthen Journal and Llanelli Star voted by 45 to 34 in favour of formal recognition of the NUJ. Well done Lawrence, (the full-time organiser in that part of the world) Today, also, the NUJ will formally launch a new coalition with the RMT, FBU and the PCS at a fringe meeting at the TUC Congress. None of these four are affiliated to Labour.In my union's case that would be an impossibility as we're supposed to be politically neutral ( yes, I know) .The others, sadly, do not want to be part of the Labour Party. But they do have groups in Parliament and one of their most active champions is John McDonnell MP who will be at tonight's meeting. I wish the venture well and look forward to finding out how it goes in the weeks and months ahead. Am sure it will be on the agenda at our next ADM in 12 months' time.

A NEW "AWKWARD SQUAD" ?

Hat tip to Milesfor the intriguing possibility that my union the NUJ is going to be teaming up with three others in what could be seen as a similar idea to the alignment of the "Big Four" in the dying days of Blairism. The PCS, RMT, FBU and NUJ are allegedly negotiating to work together and take on New Labour and the TUC .

OK, these are small unions in comparison to the big beasts like UNITE and UNISON. But let's be honest when push come to shove their "awkwardness" melted into sycophancy. So this re-grouping, if it happens, is interesting on several levels.

None of these unions is affiliated to the Labour Party.But two ARE affiliated to the LRC. Mark Serwotka, Matt Wrack and Bob Crow pull no punches in opposing neo-liberalism.And it's hardly a state secret that my General Secretary Jeremy Dear is a long-standing LRC supporter.

So as an NUJ member, I'm delighted if this is the case. My union supports measures like the Trade Union Freedom Bill, is way to the left of New Labour, and I'm proud to be in it. Expect an announcement, apparently, in September........just might coincide with Labour Party Conference apparently

ARCHANT, THE BNP AND EARNING A LIVING

I'm horrified to learn that newspaper and magazine owners Archant have been accepting advertising from the BNP. Why? Because I have been a contributor to Archant titles for seven years.
The pay is pretty bad, and the magazines are largely lightweight stuff about fashion and lifestyle. So why work for them? Sometimes, as I have said before, freelances often have to stray far from what they would LIKE to be writing and bite the bullet of hackery to pay the bills. However, In London, it seems two local Archant-owned newspapers ( whom I hasten to add do NOT work for) have taken adverts from the far right. That's completely unacceptable and makes my position as a freelance working for them rather untenable.As I'm casting round for work anyway now teaching is about to end for the summer, seems am going to have to cast the net wider.....

NOT WAVING .....NOT DROWNING!

Blind panic this afternoon as flooding announced in Hebden Bridge. Evacuated teaching early to find out if town under water as reported. Would my cat have the sense to leg it to the attic ( cue for withering look from Kitty) would my computer be under water. Etc Etc etc In the event, some local flooding further down hill but near me a lorry had gone into the river and basically caused most of the mayhem. Business as usual by tomorrow.... still, gave me extra time to mug up media ethics classes for tomorrow. Quick Cook's Tour through Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, J S Mill, Nietzsche, Sartre (pictured) Marx and of course quick reference to...... the NUJ Code of Conduct.
I have also been provided with this quote by K Marx. "Philosophers only interpret the world. The point is to change it."

STANDING UP FOR JOURNALISM

About to head off into Manchester to suport the NUJ's Stand Up For Journalism demonstration . Then on to Widnes to take some pictures of restaurants. The latter is something I would never have done until recently . But, increasingly, in this digital age, writers are being asked to take pictures and vice-versa. In an ideal world, we wouldn't do it. Reluctantly, the NUJ agreed last year that in the real world this is what happens. And freelances , in particular, just cannot afford to turn work down on the basis they won't overlap. Teaching, wriiting and taking photographs are all part of many journalists' portfolios these days. Without the multi-skilling, we just wouldn't survive. Anyway, on to Manchester......

HELLO MRS CHIPS

On Monday, I will be in Manchester as part of the NUJ's Stand Up For Journalism day. Ironic, I suppose, that the following day I will be heading off to a local college to hopefully resume a teaching career I abandoned 23 years ago in favour of journalism.

Since 1984, when I taught English at an ILEA (Inner London Education Authority) college in London, media studies and related subjects have mushroomed - so much so that there is often more work for freelances TEACHING journalism than there is in writing it. The freelance world has been pretty tough of late so I am hoping a part-time return to the classroom may also herald an upturn in my fortunes. And, no, Google Adsense does not bring in lots of dosh!

STAND UP FOR JOURNALISM AND THE BBC!

Just been watching my NUJ colleague Jeremy Paxman give BBC bosses a grilling on Newsnight. Rightly so. Tbe BBC is proposing to axe thousands of journalists' jobs in the interests of ..... what?
Programmes are dumbed down (what happened to BBC Drama ?) and gobby "superstars" are paid millions while the overall standard of programmes declines, Unions may decide to ballot staff today and any strikes could take place within weeks, affecting flagship shows including the news, live entertainment ratings winners such as Strictly Come Dancing, live sports coverage and, if the action is sustained, even long-running serials such as EastEnders.
The job cuts are likely to be divided in the main between the news and factual divisions, with factual reportedly losing up to 735 posts - probably translating into as many as 660 redundancies.
News in London will see up to 490 post closures, resulting in up to 370 redundancies
Let's get our priorities right.Let's stop wasting money "dumbing down." stand up for quality programmes like Today, Arena and Newsnight and stop the erosion of intelligent programming which, frankly, is turning more and more people off.
In a couple of weeks' time I will be joining my trade union colleagues in Manchester to protest at a media culture which puts profit before quality control. In my 20-odd year career as a journalist,standards and wages have continued to fall . Mine included. We need your support. Here's what the NUJ will be doing on Stand Up For Journalism day.

"Journalists from across the UK will descend on Manchester on November 5 to urge their bosses to stand up to media owners.The National Union of Journalists is organising a lobby of the Society of Editors conference at the Radisson Hotel on Peter Street.
Union president Michelle Stanistreet, who works for the Sunday Express, said: “The media is owned by a smaller and smaller group of extremely wealthy corporations.They make big profits but they want more. So journalists face a constant round of job cuts and dwindling editorial budgets. This means that more and more news is just recycled press releases.
“We want our editors to join with us and stand up tothe culture of cuts. If they believe that journalismis important for democracy and for local communities they must take a stand.
”The Manchester event is one of the focal points of Stand Up For Journalism Day which will involve events all over Europe.There will be lobbies at the European Parliament,French National Assembly, and in towns and cities across the UK.
In Manchester journalists and their supporters will gather outside the offices of the Manchester Evening News on Hardman Street, off Deansgate at 12.30pm onNovember 5.They will march to the Radisson Hotel, on the site of the old Free Trade Hall, to lobby the editors’conference. There will be a rally in defence of journalism at 1.30pm in the Friends Meeting House on Mount Street.Michelle Stanistreet and NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear will be among the speakers.