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Today is the final day for applications for the first round this year in the Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund. Last year, Trinity News was the first student publication to apply for funding from the fund, which they used to send three student journalists to Delhi, India and produce a special supplement on educational development. They also blogged from Delhi for the short time they were there.

Student media should take advantage of opportunities like this. Not only are we the most in need of additional funds, it’s also an excellent experience. Further, the media fund themselves are quite keen to have student involvement. Now, since the deadline is today, I probably should have written up this post a month ago. But, if you’re in a college publication (or any other, for that matter) their website might be worth checking out. The other deadline for applications this year is Wednesday September 30th.

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I’ve been rather busy this week, but I’d like to point you all in the direction of this post by Mark Potts on the odd pricing structure of WSJ.com (the Wall Street Journal). It transpires that a subscription for print-and-online costs about half of online-only.

Huh? WSJ is frequently referenced as the holy grail of online subscription models. It’s odd to see the smoke and mirrors in their logic. Trying to artificially inflate print subscription figures, perhaps?

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I’m all for the new wave of press regulation in Ireland, but this article in the Irish Times is a little worrying. Irish Independent journalist Kevin Myers lodged a complaint to the Press Council of Ireland after the Irish Times published a news report regarding Mr Myer’s own piece, titled “Africa is giving nothing to anyone apart from Aids”, being criticised by the Press Council.  Quoted for convenience:

The Press Council said Mr Myers’s complaint centred on the opening paragraph of the article. It had stated that: “The Press Council of Ireland has upheld a complaint against the Irish Independent that an article by its columnist Kevin Myers breached its Code of Practice relating to incitement to hatred”.

Mr Myers claimed that this summary of the Press Council’s decision not only failed to mention the several complaints that had not been upheld, but gave the impression that the one complaint which was upheld under principle 8 of the Code of Practice related to incitement to hatred, whereas in fact it related only to that part of the principle dealing with material “likely to cause grave offence”. The council said it accepted that the summary of the council’s decision in the opening paragraph of the article was “inadequate and likely to create a seriously misleading impression”.

Now, I’m sorry, but to me this really seems like a case in which the Press Council is editing for style. A lack of specificity is only to be expected in the opening paragraph of a news report: it’s called the inverted pyramid, and is designed to give the most important and interesting information first. And since the Press Council is partly made up of representatives of the press industry, I’m quite surprised at the decision.

Unfortunately, the decision doesn’t seem to be available on the Press Council’s website yet. The decision against Kevin Myers, however, is.

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Jennifer O’Connell wrote a piece on page 5 of the Sunday Business Post’s Agenda magazine today about the problems facing the newspaper industry. It’s interesting for two reasons: first, it’s a working journalist in the Irish media writing about it, and second, it’s published in the main column space of the magazine, bringing it into the mainstream.

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t exactly call it insightful or ground-breaking.

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It’s been a busy few weeks, and I’ve yet to write about the fact that on the 3rd March, I was elected as Editor of Trinity News for the coming year. This is a great opportunity, and over the coming months, I will not only be far more active in student journalism, but I’ll be developing a whole new skillset too. I though I’d share some of the things I put in my application and what I’ll be doing over the next few months.

Firstly, I’m a very lucky man to get this job in particular. Trinity News is an amazing college newspaper. Almost two years ago now, then-editor Gearoid O’Rourke created a Staff Manual, an excellent document which essentially worked as a policy manual for the paper. In his introduction, he wrote:

TRINITY NEWS is not a “student newspaper”. It does not aspire to such a lowly goal. This newspaper aspires to being a broadsheet newspaper of the highest quality that also happens to be produced by students. Remember this and your contribution will always be of the standard required.

Now, Gearoid’s year wasn’t perfect. I’m sure mine won’t be either. But the above quotation pretty much summarises the main strength of Trinity News: a constant reach for the highest professional standards. He and my other predecessors have left me with some big shoes to fill, and here’s some of the things I plan on.

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