…or at least that was the opinion of one desk editor from a national newspaper that I met during my London trip.

I had asked him why there were not more regional journalists breaking into the nationals.

His response was that staffing cuts at regional and local newspapers meant journalists at that level were not given the time to develop proper investigative and writing skills.

“We no longer see the regional newspapers as a source for staff,” he said. “We find that training graduates ourselves produces better journalists.”

He added that they had a few regional journalists who were trying to break in to London by working shifts, but they didn’t have the skills the newspaper demanded from someone with a staff job.

This had me reeling.

I had always been told that regional journalism was one of the best ways to cut your teeth in the trade and could – if you wanted it to and were good – pave a way for a career in the nationals.

Now it seems national newspapers may regard themselves as an entirely seperate industry.

Is it really the case that regional newspapers no longer train good journalists?

In this Seesmic post Kevin Anderson, Blog Editor for The Guardian and co-author of Strange Attractor, pretty much covers many of the things I’ve wanted to say, but better:

Kevin Anderson on Seesmic

He is answering a question posed by Birmingham City University’s Paul Bradshaw – with recent job freezes/cuts at UK newspapers, is there any point in universities running journalism degrees training students for the newspaper and broadcasting industries?

• paulconley: A threat from an unlikely place
  “There are thousands of business reporters covering hundreds of beats at newspapers across the country. And odds are there’s at least one who would pose a competitive threat to any B2B publication you could name.” (via Adan Tinworth)
  (tags: blogging)

So, just before I pack my bags and spend a small fortune filling up the car with fuel, I thought I’d let you know what I’m up to during my weekend jaunt to London.

It’s looking busy!

Friday:

Morning: The Tuttle Club – where I am looking forward to meeting some well-known social media types such as Lloyd Davies and Steve Lawson.

Lunch: Meeting up with an old friend and mentor from The Times, who I haven’t seen for years.

Afternoon/Evening: Free. Anyone wanna meet?

Saturday:

Family things

Sunday:

SHOPPING!!!!

Monday:

Morning: Meeting the veritable mine of blogging knowledge that is Adam Tinworth and fellow digital journalist in crime (amongst other things) Gary Andrews.

Lunch: Tour of The Guardian. {muffled squeak of excitement about this one!}

Afternoon/Evening: Off to Trinity Mirror Towers aka Canary Wharf to meet colleagues including über boss David Black.

• Twitter Buys Summize For About $15M: Gets Search – And Maybe A Business Model
  Twitter has purchased search engine Summize, a deal that leaked out last week but didn’t wrap up until the last few days.
  (tags: twitter summize)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4OvQIGDg4I&hl=en&fs=1]

Taken from Do Start-ups need Community Managers? on ReadWriteWeb.

• WordPress Gears « WordPress.com
  On WordPress.com it is used to store all images and other web page components from the admin area to the user’s PC, speeding up access and reducing unnecessary web traffic.
  (tags: blogging google wordpress)
• Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog – Act One
  (tags: drhorrible)

• Threading Some Trends Together | chrisbrogan.com
  I think that employers are definitely in a spot where they might have to consider how their employees work. On one side, the management challenges are huge… On the other hand, there are cost savings to be had
  (tags: business internet journalism)
• BBC NEWS | Technology | Firms ‘miss’ social site success
  Businesses are missing out on the huge potential that social networks present, a leading information technology company has warned.
  (tags: business journalism social)

• A photo gallery of being made redundant from the San Jose Mercury News
  ” it was my dream job to work here. it was my home and family. now, it’s like i don’t even know this person anymore. i just feel horrible for the people left behind. they’re overworked creating an inferior product with zero morale.”
  (tags: newspapers)
• Is it curtains for critics? | Art & Architecture | guardian.co.uk Arts
  An army of arts bloggers is posting internet reviews on subjects from grand opera to soap opera – instant, global and free. US newspapers have begun to ditch their reviewers as digital alternatives flourish. Could it happen here?
  (tags: bloggers blogging newspapers)
• Home | Sprout Builder – Create living content.
  Sprout is the quick and easy way for anyone to build, publish, and manage widgets, mini-sites, mashups, banners and more.
  (tags: blogging development mashup flash multimedia)

Out of my post about naming newspapers in a Web 2.0 world another interesting debate has start to develop.So, I have decided to turn it into a post.

The Birmingham Post forum, which launched in February along with the companion website, is looking a little sorry for itself and perhaps needs a little TLC.

It’s a topic I’ve been mulling over since Alison Gow’s post on the subject.

At the moment, there are links at the bottom of our stories linking to our forum:

When the forum link is clicked, this takes you to a registration page. If you have registered then you have to go on to another login page.

Some have commented that this is a labourious way to enter a forum and that they feel many people will just give up.

This is not necessarily true however, I note that The Stirrer forum requires registration and yet that seems relatively active.

So, I would like to make it easier for people to use the forum. Thought it might be nice to involve people in how it might work.

Obviously there are no promises as I have very little understanding of what we are technically capable of doing, but I do promise to make enquiries and make any improvements that I can.