Links - 17/12/2011

A round-up of some of this morning’s news and opinion:

• The Guardian’s standalone sports section is to be incorporated into the main newspaper as part of a cost-saving initiative.
• The Lancashire Evening Post has disabled the comments system on its website due to “persistent malicious posters abusing our comments facility.”
• FOI requests from the media are treated differently to requests from members of the public (in The Highland Council at least).
• Apple launches its iTunes Match service in the U.K.
• Was 2011 newspaper’s annus horribilis?
• David Higgerson’s FOI Friday (even though it’s Saturday)

The Highland Council’s slip-up in response to Rachel Stewart’s FOI request has brought about another request to The Highland Council, this time from Mr Doug Paulley, who has challenged them on their apparent failure to treat requests as applicant- and purpose-blind. The new request can be found here.

Links - 15/12/2011

This morning’s round-up of some news and opinion:

• Wannabe Hacks’ latest post on the top 5 smartphone apps for journalists
• Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week (iPhone only, sorry) - ‘Voddio’
• UK sportswomen criticise ‘abysmal’ coverage of women in sport, following the furore over the all-male shortlist for BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year Award
• 37-year-old woman arrested at 6.15am this morning, on suspicion of making illegal payments to police
• Royal Wedding, iPhone 5, FIFA 12, Groupon, and iPad 2 were Google’s top 5 ‘fastest rising’ search terms of 2011
• The Times, The Sun and The Daily Mail criticise The Guardian for reporting the News of the World were resposible for the deletion of Milly Dowler’s voicemails
• Newsquest launches Young Reporter scheme to give students experience of newsrooms and the opportunity to get their work published
• Johnston Press mobile versions of its 211 websites go live
• A great little essay from Journoterrorist.com: “The Editor and The Stripper”
• Checklist for being a ‘real’ journalist, from Stuff Journalists Like

Wannabe Hacks’ piece on smartphone apps for journalists is revealing some great suggestions in the comments section. As the article mentions, it follows on from my Hacks post last week on using an iPad as a mobile journalism tool.

Here’s a great video from Nick Garnett, BBC Radio 5 live’s North-East reporter, on using an iPhone on the go: