Award winning UK journalist Brian Deer spoke to a packed Eaton Lecture Theatre at Ryerson University Wednesday morning, talking about his seven year investigative piece and offering advice on how to succeed in the highly competitive newsroom.

“The ultimate goal is to keep the marginal story out of the paper,” said Deer. “If you can deliver the story that keeps the crap out of the paper, news desks will love you.”

Brian Deer

 A veteran of the newsroom, Deer is best known for his investigative piece that denounced the fraudulent research of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, for the Sunday Times in London. Dr. Wakefield did a search linking the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine to regressive autism in 12 children.

“What builds an audience is fear or pity,” said Deer, quoting the famous philosopher Aristotle. The vaccine story offered both: pity for the children and fear of the vaccine. After reading an abundance of articles from the Lancet and papers such as Mail on Sunday, Deer questioned, as many eventually did, how they got away with such poor research. Deer’s answer, “They’re just another magazine.”

According to Deer, what news editors want is a group of well written, well researched stories. Deer makes the comparison to television, which he says is “so easy, and so much fun that pretty much anybody can do it.” Deer explored the television medium when he produced and reported an hour long television program.

This television program lead to his only physical encounter with Dr. Wakefield in late 2004, while chasing Dr. Wakefield through a crowded conference room, camera crew in tow, Deer shouted after him, “Dr. Wakefield, sir, can you not stand your ground? Parents have questions for you!”

Ask difficult questions. Find the question people don’t want to answer. This is Deer’s advice for new journalists when it comes to getting a great story. Producing the television show was amongst the greatest moment in his professional career, and lead to a 2.2 million people viewer rate for the show.

Deer reflected on his decision of going into print media, which he admits he does regret a little, but as one of his greatest moments was when he was taken onto the staff at the Sunday Times, Deer said, “Magic is in television, but the romance for me has always been in newspapers.”

 

 

Brian Deer struggled with an ethical dilemma of using a false name while interviewing the mother of one of the vaccinated children. He decided to replace his last name with his middle name and went by Brian Lawrence.  See the interviewee’s reaction to the lie here:

It is no surprise that the newspaper industry is in trouble. Printing presses cost a fortune to run, set up to produce the same information accessible on the web for a fraction of the price—nothing.

Laptop Man photo by Ed Yourdon

While there has been no lack of attempts to generate revenue from online news‘paper’ subscriptions, few can speak of success. The New York Times has attempted at least twice, first with QPass and then TimesSelect, neither successful.

“Banner advertising generates my revenue. I do not charge a subscription,” says Tony Veltri who launched his online news site, madhunt, in 1999. “I have loyal advertisers, big names like McDonald’s and Home Hardware included.”

BlogTO uses similar ways to cash-in explains Tim Shore, an editor for the site, “Generating revenue is a function of the traffic (page views and unique visitors) a site receives plus the site’s ability to successfully sell available ad inventory to advertisers.”

“Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is Journalism,” writes Clay Shirky. But Veltri begs to differ, “Every morning I purchase and read The Globe and Mail, The Star, and The Sun. I can’t live without my print papers.”

Maybe the Golden Mean here would be Shore’s suggestion that, “Strong print publications will continue to exist…they need to reorient themselves with a web-first approach.”

What this may mean is to establish a paywall system in lieu of the lost profits from print sales. Although Veltri doesn’t have print sales to replace, but the idea is not out of sight and definitely not out of mind, “one day, I can envision charging a subscription fee, but that’s a long way off.”

Finding out the latest trends and who is the next up and coming designer will never go out of style for fashion lovers.

The who’s who of fashion writing starts from the leading fashion magazine Vogue and trickles down to fashion bloggers such as Cocoperez. So what is it that keeps readers coming back for more?

These four rules are key to keeping current in the fast-paced-no-nonsense fashion world:

Read, read, read!

It is important to educate yourself on what’s going on in the world of fashion.  Use a variety of sources to get an educated insight of what is hot.

Vogue cover July 1945 photo by Alfonso Contreras

 

Always be a year ahead

If it’s hot now,  you should have written about it months ago. In order to establish a readership people want new information- not something that is all over the city. Be a leader not a follower.

 

Know the lingo

Nothing compliments a fashion critique more than using terms like “A-line” or “bodice” instead of “flares a little” and “top.”

 

Don’t be afraid to hurt people’s feelings

In order to be a successful critic sometimes you have to point out the bad. If you can’t recognize when something is bad- why would your readers believe when you say something is good?

Taylor Momsen- Warped Tour Kickoff. Photo by Karen Curley

Here’s a video of the top-fashion-offenders of 2010

After the identity crisis many of us were faced with yesterday I thought I would post an update from a semi-reliable site. Note how Perez and I both mention having Zodiac tattoos…maybe I am destined to be a future blogger?

Attention all horoscope junkies- there has been an alleged shift in the stars giving many people a new Zodiac sign. So should you start reading a new daily horoscope section and reevaluating every personal trait? Not quite, the Toronto Sun reports.

The thirteenth sign, Ophiuchus, is the new sign of those with birth dates between Nov. 29-Dec.17. This shift will limit Scorpios to a six day gap (Nov. 23-Nov. 29) and in turn shift all other signs. Many former Virgos will now become Leos, Geminis will become Tauruses and so forth.

Ophiuchus, the snake, is associated with healing, enlightenment, medicine and higher education.

The precession, or change in the Earth’s axis over years, has shifted the view for astronomers over thousands of years. This opens up a new set of stars no longer hidden behind the Sun on the astrologically appointed dates.

But, for those of you worried about that tattoo of your “former” Zodiac sign on the back of your neck- don’t stress too much. The new sign is recognized by astronomers but not by astrologers.

According to astrologer Anne Massey, the change is nothing to write home about. She says that Ophiuchus has been known about for years. She notes that the change is symbolic and follows a certain symmetric geometry.

According to scientists, the following dates should be used by modern astrologers:

Capricorn: Jan. 20 – Feb. 16
Aquarius: Feb. 16 – March 11
Pisces: March 11- April 18
Aries: April 18- May 13
Taurus: May 13- June 21
Gemini: June 21- July 20
Cancer: July 20- Aug. 10
Leo: Aug. 10- Sept. 16
Virgo: Sept. 16- Oct. 30
Libra: Oct. 30- Nov. 23
Scorpio: Nov. 23- Nov. 29
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29- Dec. 17
Sagittarius: Dec. 17- Jan. 20

Residents of southern Sudan have begun voting on a referendum on independence that would split the largest country on the continent in two, the New York Times reports.

Pray for Sudan Photo by Maureen Didde

Tens of thousands are returning to southern Sudan to take part in the referendum and all signs point to the people here voting overwhelmingly for secession.

Some analysts warn that south Sudan could be the next Somalia, awash in violence. Aid agencies are ringing the alarm about a lack of food, water, health care and sanitation.

But after all the years of oppression at the hands of the Arabs who rule Sudan, people here are deeply invested in holding a peaceful referendum and building the world’s newest nation.

As it stands now, southern Sudan is one of the poorest places on earth. Most people here scrape by on less than 75 cents a day. More than three-quarters of adults cannot read. Many northern Sudanese who work in the south are now fleeing.

Stocks of goods are going down; prices are going up. People are still talking about what-ifs and the possibility of war, because even after the referendum, some very thorny issues need to be carefully handled before the south can peacefully break off.

Here is a video tracking the beginning of the voting

Sudan