Category Archives: Evening Standard

A masterclass in tabloid blogging

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Mirror.co.uk editor Steve Purcell had a blog post on Friday that could be read as a masterclass in tabloid blogging.

The post somehow manages to combine a gratuitous reference to Celebrity Big Brother with a populist point about transport policy. Besides reality TV “stars”, the other people you are unlikely ever to see crammed into a rush-hour tube train are those people responsible for transport policy, Purcell says.

What makes it fascinating is how the post combines some traditional skills of the tabloid editor with the modern blogger skills of link-baiting search-engine optimisation. Purcell’s tags for the post are “travel, Jade, Goody, Shilpa, public transport, trains, commuting”. The post is illustrated with what might be a camera phone picture taken in the tube on the way to the office.

Funny — just a day earlier, a journalism blogger was pointing out how another newspaper was failing to appeal to the London commuter constituency with a blog about their concerns.

Coincidence?

‘Head-cam’ video voxpops at Press Gazette

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Press Gazette reporter Rachael Gallagher filmed some video vox pops this week to gauge Londoners’ opinions of the Evening Standard and the free newspapers London Lite and thelondonpaper. You can watch the results on YouTube.

But this is two stories in one. It was also a review for the Gizmos page.

Rachael filmed her vox pops on the hands-free “headcam” better known as the Cylon Body-Worn Surveillance System. The tiny camera, designed to be strapped to the side of the user’s head, records directly to an Archos digital video recorder.

The headcam was designed for police evidence-gathering, which explains the unsightly timestamp throughout Rachael’s footage. Apparently the manufacturers can make a version for journalists without this feature.

There are clearly journalistic applications for this device, particularly in areas where mobility is vital, such as war reporting. Tristan Nichols, defense correspondent of The Herald in Plymouth, recently used this camerato film stories about British troops in Sierra Leone and Afghanistan.

And it costs a mere £1,700.