Johnny or Newspaper

I love to read newspapers or better I am addicted to reading them! I am not sure yet, what attracted me first, Johnny himself or the newspaper he was reading! The first time I met him it was in the University’s restaurant, he was sitting next to me but I could not see him very well because he had buried himself in the Guardian. Some of my thoughts then, I don’t know which was first or second, were “how dare this man ignore me!” “hm.. nice opportunity to have a quick look at the news by the infamous way of lathranagnosis”. The Rest is History! After so many years I have distinguished my favoured journalists and I follow them, one of them is Andrew Marr, an authority in British journalism who knows very well the ‘trade’ and he gives some suggestions how to read a newspaper:

1. Know what you’re buying. Who owns the paper and who it is being published for.
2. Follow the names. For the Whitehall matters, Peter Riddell of the Times and Richard Norton Taylor of the Guardian, for Books Robert McCrum of the Observer (interestingly ,he says almost everyone in the media publishing world will read him!) For restaurant Deborah Ross of the Spectator, she is the funniest restaurant reviewer!
3. Read the second paragraph; and look for quote marks. The key facts are always in the next to the first paragraph
4. If the headline ask a question try answering ‘no’
5. Read small stories and attend to page two...
6. Suspect ‘research’. Hundreds of dodgy academic departments put out bogus or trivial pieces of research to impress...
7. Remember the news is cruel! Reading the awful things that people apparently say about each other.... can be depressing.
8. Believe nothing you read about newspapers sales-nothing. Newspapers sales have been falling in Britain for a long time.

P.S So if you are a newspaper worm keep the above tips in your mind!