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Journalism - Vyoos

'The Spectator' arrives in Australia

October 8th 2008 06:10

Britain's venerable The Spectator, part intellectual magazine and part institution, has just launched an Australian edition, Spectator Australia.

The Spectator, which promotes itself as "champagne for the brain", has appointed Oscar Humphries as editor of the Aussie version, which will be "printed and partly written" in Australia.

Humphries, aged just 29, has Australian blood heavily camouflaged by a British accent of the frightfully proper kind. His job will to prepare 12 pages of Australian content for each issue.

It will be interesting to see what mix Humphries offers (or has been instructed to offer). In the UK, the 180-year-old magazine, owned by Conrad Black, is a powerful political voice and, while it tolerates some of its writers presenting left-wing viewpoints, editorially it is solidly to the right. The web page (link) offers the following overview of a piece in this week's UK edition, "Our current financial turmoil is not the fault of greedy bankers, says (writer) Dennis Sewell. In fact, the banks were bullied into lowering their lending standards by left-wing idealists intent on equal opportunities at any cost."

The heading is "Clinton Democrats are to blame for the credit crunch". Ah, well, at least they're not blaming Tony Blair. For a change.

Editorship of the magazine is a well-paved route into British politics, with three former editors having gone on to become Cabinet members, all Conservative Party of course.

Established contributing writers for The Spectator in the UK include Australian comic genius Barry Humphries, who has agreed to come out of retirement and pen a few pieces for Spectator Australia. One hopes he can meet the standards of Oscar Humphries, his new boss, and also his son.

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Journalism

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Huckbody's in fashion

September 27th 2008 00:09

It's enough to make you think the fight for gender equality is being won. Hooray! I thought when I saw the news. A small step for journalism, a giant leap for ... men. Yes, a man has just been named editor of Harper's Bazaar magazine for the first time.

Jamie Huckbody now occupies the desk formerly occupied by Alison Veness-McGourty and, before her, Karin Upton-Baker. It says much for Huckbody that, not only has he broken a gender barrier, he has reached these dizzy heights of fashion publishing leadership with only a single-barrelled surname.

Harper's Bazaar has been presenting its female-led glossiness for 10 years, making it a newcomer alongside the competition, the 50-year-old Vogue. No man has yet to darken the editor's office of Vogue.

Huckbody is impressively qualified for the job (a reminder of the many women that have trail-blazed paths into private and public sector leadership positions by virtue of being, say, twice as qualified as any man on the short list). He started in journalism at the Evening Standard in London, then became fashion features editor at Elle magazine, fashion and features writer at The Independent newspaper, and fashion and features writer for i-D magazine.

His byline has appeared in the US and British editions of Vogue above stories about everything and everybody in fashion, including up-close and in-depth interviews with Karl Lagerfeld, Donatella Versace ... oh, let's just say he knows everyone.

It's a long way from the village in Yorkshire where he grew up.

Despite all that, there have been plenty of raised eyebrows and catty comments. Which led Huckbody, in his first editor's letter in the June edition of Harper's, to write, "Some have been quick to ask, 'What does a man know about women's fashion?'

"Well, the names Karl, Giorgio and Viktor and Rolf ... resonate just as much as Donatella, Frida and Stella."

He'll do well.

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Why you should love your sub-editor

August 6th 2008 08:40

TimmyH has posted on his blog here a rant by a writer against a sub-editor who deleted an indefinite article without just cause. The writer is right that the sub is wrong, and the oh-so clever denigration of the guilty sub-editor is entertaining. But in the greater scheme of things, the criticism makes an ass of the writer, not the sub-editor.

I spent about 20 years as a broadsheet newspaper sub-editor and I've seen my share of confrontations between irate writers and sub-editors. When they reach the shouting stage, there is pretty much always a sub-editor's error behind it, and the sub has no choice but to raise both hands and say mea culpa.

But it doesn't happen very often, because for the great majority of the time the reporter-sub relationship in major newspapers is as well-oiled as it is crucial. Newspaper sub-editors make hundreds - probably thousands - of editorial decisions a day, all aimed at consistency and quality of presentation of the words before them. For the great majority of the time, they go about the business of changing copy in terms of grammar, syntax, house style etc, and never a demurring word from the author.

I once read that the average major metropolitan daily newspaper contains about as many words as an average novel. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but it makes the point that it is a huge undertaking to create a serious newspaper every 24 hours, much of it under time pressure. And given that, obviously, mistakes will happen.

Just as reporters will, under pressure and over time, make mistakes. It's something that both sides understand. And therefore, when it does happen, they generally just get in with it.

Let me say that, in case posted by TimmyH, I agree with the writer that the sub-editor made a big mistake. The removal of that indefinite article is indefensible, and suggests inexperience, tiredness or simply an idiosyncratic - and wrong - view of what works in that sentence.

Now let me say also that these things will always happen, because you can't always have an experienced, energized sub-editor completely free of idiosyncratic opinion.

So when it happens, you have the choice of behaving like an experienced writer and accepting the inevitability of changes that you don't agree with, or, in situations where a complaint can be productive, you complain to the relevant authority.

But recognise that the world can not always be a perfect place. Don't create a precious (to use Jayne's perfectly accurate word) hue and cry like this one, which makes one look clever, but only in a superficial way. This will achieve almost nothing. The sub-editor in question will learn the subtle difference between the presentation of the word nosh with and without an indefinite article. But that sub-editor, and all future sub-editors, will continue to work under pressure and, while trying their hardest, will continue to make the occasional mistake.

As will this writer, at which time he may be grateful for the quiet hand of a sub-editor.

So, TimmyH, thanks for the post, but I don't agree with your heading or the sentiment implied in your comment "who'd want to be a journalist?" It suggests a distinction which does not exist - when reporters and sub-editors share a beer at the end of the night and discuss the efforts of producing the extraordinary thing which is a serious daily newspaper, there is not, and never has been, any doubt that both are "journalists".

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One for the ages

July 23rd 2008 02:34

When it comes to information about the world's oldest people, the Khaleej Times may not be the place to start your search. The on-line version of the UAE-based newspaper has just reported that "the identity card of Nasir Al Hazry, a resident of Al Ain in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, shows his age as 135", although his exact date of birth has "not been revealed".

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Journalism, Odd Spot

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From Russia with crud

July 22nd 2008 02:47

Getting the Pravda spin on things

Where do you go for reliable news reporting? I have several favourites, but I'm always looking for interesting new sites. Which is how I came today for the first time to the English-language, on-line version of the Russian news agency Pravda.

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Journalism

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Bad press

December 7th 1998 03:16

I lived in Hong Kong for 16 years until 2007. In 1998 and 1999 I wrote a series of political, investment and social commentary articles for a quirky institutional newsletter - quirky in that it was intended to be as much contentious, offbeat and humorous as it was informative. I was working as an editor at the time, and I wrote the articles under the pseudonym Red Inque. I post them here for anyone interested in a look at life in Asia at the time, especially in Hong Kong just after its return to Chinese sovereignty.

Accuracy to a newspaper is what virtue is to a lady; but a newspaper can always print a retraction.-- Adlai Stevenson

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Asia, Hong Kong, History, Hong Kong 1998-99, Investment, Journalism

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