Amy MacBeath

So, in my quest for a more newsworthy blog, I have been investigating the recent trends in newspapers sales and made some more (sort of) interesting discoveries which have seemingly emerged.  And, yes, you guessed it – they come back to the credit crunch just as everything else seems to these days!

This time it is your average supermarket shopper and their change in habits which has prompted this latest dip in sales.  Due to tighter budgets and therefore alterations to frequency of grocery shopping trips supermarkets, formerly a vital outlet for papers, have seen a dramatic decline in demand for them.  Also, shoppers heading for German companies such as Lidl or Aldi for their bargains hasn’t helped since they have a very limited, if any, stock of national papers.

More common use of local corner shops has altered the distribution and offered a slight reprive for more local or regional publications.

At the same time papers like Scot Ads are flying off the shelves with Christmas coming up.  It seems either everyone is trying to flog their stuff to make some pennies for the festive season and/or we are all getting second hand presents this year.

I’ll keep you all posted for further developments as I am sure you will all be glued to my blog!

It seems that the credit crunch is taking the blame for yet another drop in sales, this time of newspapers.  You may have read that Johnston Press (owners of the Scotsman) have been suffering with shares dropping from 6 pounds to 6 pence in less than two years and regional publisher Northcliffe promising “significant” cost cutting in 2009 after profits slumped by nearly a third ….need I go on?

(Incidently since DMGT (Daily Mail and General Trust) failed to sell off Northcliffe a couple years back and instead sold off parts – one of these been Aberdeen Journals – to family run DC Thomson, the Beano publishers have been coping well.  This is largely thanks to the daily regional the Press and Journal whose sales figures have come out top with only a 1 or 2% fall in readership compared to many nationals at 7 or 8%).

With complaints that empty posts are not being filled and editorial staff cuts across the country, the finger is being pointed (not only at those with the flash cars and comfortable homes) at the lack of decent editorial for the decline in readership.  But is this fair?

As we here on the multimedia course know, the fast moving world of journalism is increasingly heading online with up to the minute updates, blogs and tweets. 

But as we have seen many of these publication simply cannot compete with budgets for multimedia equipment, training and content out of the question, which may be leaving many in the dark when it comes to the public’s daily digestion of news.

The following quotes from holdthefrontpage.com reflect a couple of interesting opinions on the subject of newspapers branching out to include multimedia content:-

“How much longer will it take for the big bosses to crawl out from under their giant pay cheques and realise sales are down because the overstretched reporters just don’t have time to dig out good stories, research them, write them, update the websites, take the photos, make the videos and sweep the office floors while they’re at it?”  Wallace

“Local newspapers want to put out quality video then they should invest in some decent equipment and employ some staff to do just that, produce video news, the BBC guys will not be expected to shoot a video and edit it whilst on route to photograph a cheque presentation, then attend a local football match.” Mr. Baxter

It will be interesting to see what happens as we spread our wings out into the big bad world of real life media!

However bad it may seem guys, I heard that a new reporter at a regional paper managed to crash the pool car today after only being in the job a week!

Last night I went along to the BBC at Pacific Quay to see the filming of a new comedy, The Old Guys.  The programme was filmed in the new high definition studio and starred Clive Swift (Richard Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances), Roger Lloyd Pack (Trigger in Only Fools and Horses), Jane Asher (actress and novelist who also developed a range of cakes) and Katherine Parkinson (Doc Martin, the IT crowd).  The comedy is basically about two guys growing old disgracefully and I have to say had a good few laughs but I won’t spoil it as it will be on tv soon enough!

I haven’t been along to anything like this before and it was really interesting learning about the mechanics of how it all works and the amount of work that goes into sets down to the tiniest detail like live goldfish and the various books and props cluttered around.  I was also very impressed at the professionalism of these actors, which may seem like a given as they have been in the business for many years, but I suppose I expected more mistakes and joking around. 

I feel I should mention the warm up guy, Tom Bins, who provided plenty of hilarity throughout and kept the crowd going…not to mention the (not at all planted BBC staff member) guy who was in front of me who cackled on cue and whose enjoyment of the programme (as instructed?) did entertain us considerably.

After the show I also managed to introduce myself to (a somewhat surpised) Jeff Zycinski, Head of BBC Radio Scotland.  It did come as a bit of a surprise to hear from Claire that I had been mentioned on his blog though, although I must have done well to hide my delightful Invernesian accent!

Paddy and Murphy, in the jungle, by a river. 

They see a man’s head sticking out of a crocodile. 

Paddy turns to Murphy and says :  “look at that flash git in his lacoste sleeping bag!”

So, Friday night at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange - Death Cab for Cutie from Washington with support from Scots band Frightened Rabbit.  At the risk of sounding like a wee indie/emo kid…(ah to hell with it!)…it was awesome!

Despite the fact I had to travel there alone and therefore was extremely sober compared to everyone who didn’t have the delights of a full Friday afternoon of uni holding them back, I managed to find everyone in time to get there for Frightened Rabbit which was pretty impressive as I rarely make it to a gig in time to see support in the same city as me.    Unfortunately they came on before I made it to the bar but I wasn’t missing them!

From memory, most of the tracks were off their latest album The Midnight Organ Fight with only one exception which I believe was from their previous 2007 offering Sings the Greys.  Scott Huchison’s vocals carried surprisingly well in the venue (I normally prefer Carling Academy for his style of vocals as they carry better) and I still managed to look a numpty singing along to ‘Old Old Fashioned’ by myself in a beer queue.  Ah well.  My only negative comment would be (and it’s not their fault) that the set was WAY too short…perhaps it just felt that way but I only remember about half a dozen songs and I know they weren’t the headliners but hey, I wanted to hear more.

Death Cab for me disappointed a little.  Considering when I got this ticket I didn’t know until shortly after that Frightened Rabbit were joining them, I was excited to see them I felt that they were running through the motions a little bit.  Don’t get me wrong I still think they were really good and if I was a huge fan of them then I am sure it would have loved it anyway, it’s just I was expecting a little more from them I guess and after enjoying their support so much it fell a little flat.  I don’t think their sound was as good either. 

Nevertheless enjoyed it a lot as I hadn’t heard a few of their songs in ages like ‘The New Year’ from Transatlanticism, the classic sing along Death Cab track ‘I will follow you into the dark’ and ‘I will possess your heart’ from this year’s album Narrow Stairs.  I also had the pleasure of being drunkenly serenaded.

Despite the fact that a treck to Edinburgh to see a gig is generally a bit of a hassle, although I can promise you the countless trecks from Inverness to see gigs make it seems nothing, the gig was worth it. 

Now all I need to do is figure out how to get a ticket to Frightened Rabbit’s sold out King Tut’s gig this month!

Going to see them on Friday!

A discussion earlier today led me to consider how it is that doorframes somehow get in my way, steps jump up when I climb them just to trip you and aeroplanes hit you on the head.

If you are, like me, born with the natural gift for injuring oneself then maybe you can help me shed some light on this.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not clumsy.  I just seem to look down and see blood, wonder where it came from and after a short search find I have managed to put a small gash in my arm.  Nothing major but how I don’t even notice does sometimes also escape me as the pain usually only arrives once you have sourced said wound.

And bruises….where do they come from. All very well when you know you walloped your shin off, most commonly, a inanimate object but where do the rest of the multi-coloured delights come from?

This morning in my usual haste I ran directly into a door frame – I mean not even shoulder bump, I am talking face on..square into the wall. 

I don’t drop stuff, I don’t spill that much and I don’t smash things very often at all (well, now I will) but I do seem to be drawn to things that will hurt me.  This could be as simple as a perfectly level and well put together pavement that gives no cause for me to fall over it…I just do.  Sadly, on recent occasions there has been nobody there to appreciate the moment and I have had to laugh to myself, ensuring I look not only daft for tripping but loony for smirking as I try to regain compusure and walk away.

While we are on the subject, a friend of mine gave me a good tip once.  If you do trip, pretend you saw a coin that you were going to pick up then do a bit of a skip to get back on your way to make it look like you meant to lean down suddenly.  Honestly, try it.

When you are sitting on an aeroplane, this is before I whack my head of the overhead compartment, you can be sure that someone will open the locker…luggage will have shifted during the flight…care will not have been taken before opening the overhead compartment and Amy will end up with a napsack to the noggin.

I have even been shut in the sliding doors of cars more than once.  And please people, learn from my mistakes – roller skates, tricylcles and kerbs do NOT have a happy relationship!  In the same way industrial fridge doors and your hands don’t.

Anyway, if anyone has any proper medical reasons why people are accident prone then please, feel free to enlighten me!

Is this you?  Feel free to share your traumas and prove that I am not alone.  We could start a group!

In the meantime, here is an interesting article claiming that your personality could be to blame.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1100347.stm

Today sees the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War where nearly one million of the nine million  men killed were British and many, many returning home wounded.  With only a handful of these veterans surviving today, is it now too late for the younger generation to learn and appreciate what the men and women did for our country?

Henry Allingham, at 112, is the oldest veteran left today of the five million who fought in Europe and together with Harry Patch, the last soldier, and Bill Stone, the last sailor, will lays wreaths at the Cenotaph in London today to pay their respects to their friends and comrades that died in the five years of battle. 

Mr Allingham, like many, did not talk of the war until much later in life when he wrote his memoirs entitled Kitchener’s Last Volunteers.  It is publications like this which will soon be the last remaining accounts of the Great War from those who experienced it first hand.

Events at major WWI battles, such as the Somme (1916) where 58,000 British troops died (a third of them on the first day), possibly the longest battle at Verdun (1917) where the French suffered massive casulties, and Ypres where the Third Battle (also known as Passchendaele) is known for the horrendously muddy conditions endured are largely unheard of to your average person on the street. 

Whilst people obviously do not necessary require any in depth knowledge of each manoevre during wartime, when you think what these men put up with it’s incredible:  Constant artilary shelling, hungry, cold, muddy conditions surround by rats, covered in lice and constantly shot at barely even covers it.

So how important is it that the younger generations know what the men of the armed forces did for their country and what those at home endured?  More importantly how do you instil the respect these veterans deserve in young people?

On Friday past I walked past a very proud veteran on Sauchiehall Street at 9am and about 3 degrees C looking incredibly smart, wearing his medals with pride.  He stood there patiently with his collection tub as people raced by him.   While those students/hippies (who get paid decent money to hassle you) chase people down the road, this decorated, elderly veteran more than likely spent many hours standing in the cold trying to do what he could while he still can for the cause. 

Some time ago I watched a documentary about a veteran pilot talking to teenagers around the country about his experience in the war, it may have been Harry Patch come to think of it.  At the end of the day I couldn’t believe how little they knew, and how little some cared.  It honestly makes me feel a bit ashamed to be one of the generation who gets bundled together and accused of not caring and being ignorant.

As with WWII and eventually others such as the Falklands and eventually Iraq, these veterans will only be able to tell there tales for a limited time.  Whilst many people do not necessarily agree with war, I firmly believe time should be taken to acknowledge and respect given to those brave men and women who came together for the nation and made sacrifices most of us will never understand.  It is after all their government who declared war – they just fought for them.

So, on this anniversary I hope everyone will take a moment to appreciate Mr Allingham and all that the millions of soldiers sacraficed for freedom and their nation.

Remember this lovable tv commercial favourite?  This is Gerald Home portraying the classic Mr Muscle that we all know and love…..

BUT

Mr Muscle now has actual muscles! 

Surely the point of making the face behind the cleaning product skinny, pale and dare I say it, a total dork, was to emphasise the grease busting power of the spray.  It worked so why mess with it?

FROM THIS -

TO THIS!!!

Travesty…

Fellow shorthand learners who have embarked on this journey of discovery that is trying to learn a seemingly nonsensical and ridiculous written language will know how difficult the concepts are to grasp.

Did you catch all that?

Just when you think that you are getting somewhere, in flies a new blend where you miss out letters with absolutely no explanation other than ‘it just is’.

So I thought I would look back over the history of Teeline, the most popular form, seen as we probably spend the best part of 8 hours a week learning it.

Pitman shorthand was invented 160 years ago by Sir Isaac Pitman but Teeline shorthand was invented by James Hill in 1970. He was previously a Pitman shorthand teacher who decided that there must be an easier way before developing Teeline shorthand based on the alphabet.

This system is just like learning to write again and much easier to get to grips – allegedly!

A skeleton alphabet is learned and involves omitting vowels and unecessary letters to shorten words.  Because T is one of the most commonly used letters in the English language and because it blends with other letters to give word endings, this is the letter which gave the system its name – Teeline.

Now don’t you feel better for knowing that!  You may also be pleased to know that the upward ceiling for speed is only 150wpm.  That’s all.

If you are ever feeling a bit flustered or despairing over why you are learning shorthand, just remember why it is so important for us “modern” journalists:

*  You don’t get sued!  In other words your employer can depend on a proficient shorthand writer if the publication is accused of making up a quote as (fingers crossed) your notebooks and a 100wpm certificate should get you out of hot water.

*  You can take that precious notebook anywhere – whether in a field or in Council meeting your notebook won’t crash or run out of battery.  Just remember a spare pen!

*  You don’t have to spend hours listening to your recordings to find what you are looking for and provided you are organised you will be able to flick to your quote in no time.

*  You can take notes in Court and without a recording it’s the only way to accurately take down the proceedings and quotes.

*  Quite importantly, the old fashioned way isn’t as intimidating as putting a dictaphone in between you and your interviewee or sticking a microphone in their face.

However useful the outcome may be it doesn’t mean that some of us won’t be banging our heads on the desk or resisting the urge to throw something at the wall when it comes to writing at speed.  As mentioned there appears to be little or no logic behind several of the outlines (on the other hand??!) but just remember practice makes perfect…..practice, practice, practice! 

For those who feel they are doing this but getting nowhere here is a link for the top ten tips to learning shorthand: -

 http://www.shorthandworld.co.uk/index.php/2008/10/shorthand-exams-10-speed-tips/

“I’m often finding myself thinking WTF does “chrfl” mean and having to read on and then realise retrospectively from the context, “cheerful”,” some guy called Paul Makepeace’s opinions on the challenges of learning shorthand.

So remember teeline friends, it will hopefully all be worth it when we are standing in a cramped field trying to take down a statement accurately whilst not intimidating anyone at speed.