Ben Brogan is one of Guido’s favourite political journalists, so it was of some concern when Guido was told last night that he had been stripped of his “Deputy Editor” title. He is still a columnist and author of the best morning politics email in the trade. Of course if he resigned he would lose out on any payoff…
The new American Telegraph boss Jason Seiken gave a buzzword filled presentation to hacks yesterday which has done nothing to reassure newsroom sceptics about the digital promised land into which they are heading. When he was asked were they still the “Torygraph” the answer was less than resounding; yes, in the printed paper that was a “differentiator” though the online version might be different, he told them.
The joke doing the rounds following the sacking of Tony Gallagher is that his replacement is an Acting Print Editor (APE). He will answer to a new Coordinating Head of Internet Media Projects (CHIMP) who will in turn take orders from a new parent company Barclay And Barclay Offshore Online News (BABOON). Appropriate given the new digital content costs peanuts.
An author commissioned to write an article for online only tells Guido that she was expecting to be paid between 50p to a £1 a word and was shocked when she was offered a free three month subscription to the Telegraph online worth £5. She told the cheeky monkeys to forget it…