Wednesday 30 December 2009

Gulf News - Editor's notes?

Via a comment, did the subeditor forget to remove the government instructions from under the headline?



Original article here, still showing the strange intro text.
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17 comments:

Anonymous said...

What the fuck is a deputy community web editor?

30 December, 2009 14:05
Abu 'Arqala said...

I'm no fan of press censorship and have poked fun at Gulf News "journalistic" standards at my own blog.

But I wonder if this sub headline is meant as a summary of the comments by residents of the UAE.

That they "emphasized" so and so in their comments.

30 December, 2009 18:34
BuJ said...

This is pretty weird.. but then again Gulf News always is.

Thank God for The National, al muwa6en!

30 December, 2009 22:50
Anonymous said...

BuJ - yes, thank god for the national and for morons like you.

keep drinking national's kool-aid.

01 January, 2010 01:19
Anonymous said...

GN reaches a new low in journalistic failure in its reporting of the "suicide" of a Sri Lankan worker at and (unnamed) five star hotel. Apparently he chose to electrocute himself on the job even though he was about to head home. Seems a dispute with his employer over payments owed to him made him suicidal.

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/crime/worker-kills-himself-in-five-star-hotel-1.560543

02 January, 2010 09:22
Anonymous said...

This isn't a story. It's clearly the case of a badly-written sub headline rather than some mysterious order from above. Grow up.

03 January, 2010 10:18
Anonymous said...

Agree with Abu Arqala; pretty sure they meant that as the main theme of the residents quoted; not that they have any idea what they are talking about in most cases !

03 January, 2010 12:56
Anonymous said...

So, dubai did indeed sell Burj Abu Dhabi off in return for the bailout. It was that or the ports, or Emirates, or Al Arab I guess. Not too much else floating around. Any thoughts...
Impressed that they still got Shiekh Mo to do the honours on the opening of his flagship project, handing it over....

04 January, 2010 21:17
Anonymous said...

Gulf News is increasingly bizarre. And what language is it published in?! Also, I agree with the original post: what the fuck is a deputy community web editor?

04 January, 2010 22:27
Anonymous said...

You really need to check this out. if you thought dubai hypocrisy had reached peak level and could not get any worse, then i strongly urge you to think again...

http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20100104052847/New%20property%20laws%20help%20turn%20Dubai%20into%20global%20destination%20%20

06 January, 2010 03:42
Anonymous said...

Has anyone seen the latest develpoment to come stright out of Dubai's leading Publishing House The Media Factory.
Arabian Interactive have bizarrely launched The Brief Online at

http://www.thebriefonline.com

The original magazine that was the creative genius of the intellectual manchild Russell Frame and has singularly bombed for 3 years straight. Now Russell has moved on to become the MD of TMF's online division Arabian Interactive he seems to be struggling somewhat to get to grips with the technology as seen what could only be described as the softest of soft launches ever. No content except for latin text, its clearly just a test page but turned live anyway.
Congrats Russell you once again show your ineptitude highlighting what a baffoon you really are.
No wonder TMF are keeping you on, as along with their soon to be appointed new MD, (an accountant with no publishing experience)you once again highlight why your Dubai's biggest publishing joke.

07 January, 2010 21:49
Anonymous said...

Changes afoot at The National?


As most of you are aware we are introducing some changes to the desk.
This evolution is the result of Hassan's expanding waistline – well, indirectly.
During the last many months you have had the opportunity to lunch with the editor. The overwhelming message that came from these sessions is that reporters feel there is not enough feedback when they file a story and not enough back-and-forth as the story is produced.
Many of you feel you file into a vacuum and lose control over your work.
We hope the new system we are implementing effective Sunday, Jan. 10, will address these concerns.
Several editors from rewrite are joining the "content creation" side. Each of these senior editors (aka cluster heads) will work with a group of three or four reporters (the cluster breakdown is below).
We hope that with this direct working relationship the copy that gets sent to the production side will be much closer to "page ready".
These editors have been asked to work closely with you, acting as mentors to ensure you produce work that challenges you.
They will communicate closely with Gregg to plan direction of stories and packages, and with Ben to get early versions online faster.
Your stories will still be edited again when they leave production, but we hope any changes from this point on will be minimal.
Below is a breakdown that we hope will answer most of your questions, but we anticipate there will be more.
Gregg will be free all day tomorrow (Jan. 7) to address any queries or concerns you have.
We thank you for your cooperation in making this a success.

LOGISTICS
• Senior editors and reporters all report to Gregg Fray
• Gregg is responsible for all content decisions
• Working hours for senior editors will generally be 10:30 - 6:30 (but flexible around the news patterns)
• Working hours for reporters will generally be 10:00 - 6:00 (but flexible according to assignments)
• Reporters will be reassigned to another senior editor when the usual one is holiday or when a particular reporter is needed to work on a project overseen by another cluster head
• Gregg or Nic will meet with Senior Editors on Monday at 1:30pm for a 30-minute forward planning meeting (at the round table)

WHAT A CLUSTER HEAD DOES
• Each senior editor will work directly with the reporters in his cluster to discuss the story before it is started, monitor progress of the story, ensure all angles are being covered and interviews conducted
• Senior editors will offer guidance, training and mentoring to improve the quality of the reporter's work
• The cluster editor will give feedback to the reporter during the editing process and deliver the story as "page ready" as possible to the production desk
• Senior editors will be responsible for making sure all the reporters in their cluster are being productive and writing a minimum of 3 stories per week


HOW THE DAY WILL WORK
• each national reporter will continue to be responsible for feeding Robert Ditcham his proposed story for the day by 9:30am
• Gregg will confer with Ditcham and decide what will be pursued. He will then advise the cluster editor and the reporter of any special instructions for assignments
• Gregg will also confer with Ben Davies (or someone from online) to identify stories that require early online files and what complementary reporting can be done by the online team

07 January, 2010 23:22
Anonymous said...

Why isn't this blog being updated??

This is surely worth a new thread:

http://adnationme.com/news/top-story/media-week-staff-quit.html

08 January, 2010 14:42
Anonymous said...

So, basically, from what I understand, journalists at the National are not expected to write a story. They go and get quotes which they string together badly.

A "cluster head" then has to rewrite the crap copy, before passing it onto the rewrite team, who will then rewrite it again. (Because, presumably, it is still shit).

The rewrite team then passes it through to production, who may rewrite it again, again (still shit).

Finally, it gets into the newspaper. Presumably because it is classed "not shit any more".

Having read the National, I would however beg to differ.

Tossers.

10 January, 2010 12:07
Anonymous said...

12.07 go get a life outside your armchair.
You do not even know the J of journalism.
How do you think Reuters and all the agencies write stories?
Read the number of names at the end of every story.
sometimes I wonder if this is a media griping blog or a blog for literary critics who dont dare work in the media but know how things should be written

10 January, 2010 20:45
Anonymous said...

Which moron thought a perfectly innocent internal email about the structure of a newsroom was worth posting? Sweet Jesus, there are some twats out there.

12 January, 2010 20:32
Anonymous said...

Agree, it is only interesting in showing how little the reporters at the National have to do.

Three stories a week. Nice.

13 January, 2010 18:56

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