Press Gazette: Yep, something's up.

Two days on from my mischievous post about the future of journalism trade mag Press Gazette comes confirmation from its website that fresh talks are indeed now under way to save the business.

My assertion that PG staff were still hard at work despite having been made redundant last week was initially met by the retort that they had just gone in on Tuesday to clear their desks and collect their p45s. But it seems to be taking them a while to do it, as the phones continue to be manned this morning.

An anonymous poster - they do have their uses occasionally - points out that the story posted last Friday night saying that the editorial team had been all made redundant has been taken down, and speculates that MD Simon Read and sales director Paul Beard may be involved in a new set-up.

The printed mag, which had a circulation of under 5,000, is clearly dead, but there is mounting speculation within the industry is that PG will indeed be relaunched as a web-only product.

Victim impact statements: credit where credit's due

Regular readers of this blog may be surprised to know that I think New Labour has done some good things in its nine and a half years in power - the minimum wage, devolution to Scotland and Wales, the restoration of London-wide governance, for instance. The problem is that most of the good things were done in the first couple of years and since then the Government's radicalism has been in short supply.

An exception, though, has to be made for the introduction of Victim Impact Statements, allowing those affected by crime to address judges prior to convicted offenders being sentenced.

I defy anyone not to be moved by the statement from Adele Eastman, fiancee of 31-year-old lawyer Tom ap Rhys Price, who was stabbed to death outside his home in North London. The scum who killed him were duly caged for life with minimum sentences of 17 and 21 years respectively.

Well done Tony. For once, you have managed to make good your oft-made pledge to "put the victim at the heart of the criminal justice system."

BlogGems

An occasional series dedicated to bringing choice quotes from the blogosphere to a slightly wider audience.
No 3.

"A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't. A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does."

From "How Men and Women Differ," on The Bailey Blog.