Why a local newspaper's court and council coverage won't persuade readers to pay for news online

I read a brief from the Society of Editors conference the other day where an editor- a mate of mine, actually - told his assembled audience:"What we produce is niche. Nobody else sits in our courts every day. Nobody else scrutinises our public bodies". It's stirring stuff and I'm sure his audience swelled with pride but it's just not true.

Worst work experience email ever?

Today brought what can only be described as the worst appeal for work experience with a newspaper I've seen in two decades of working in a newsroom. It is a genuine application - in case you were wondering - and I wanted to share it, verbatim, missing caps and all, because I still can't quite believe someone thought this would be sufficient.
Names have been removed to spare blushes (honestly, I am too nice sometimes):

hi my name is *** i will love to no if i can do my work X there at the [newspaper title] will u ask your boss for me if i can cal u get back to me plzz asap thank u m8t 

 The email address was equally great - an abbreviation of the applicant's favourite football team, with the phrase 'badboy' tacked on the end.
When I was a junior reporter, a long-suffering and kindly sub gave me my own spelling book so I could note down and correct my many errors. I suspect even he would be a bit thoughtful at the prospect of tackling this applicant's shortcomings.

Anti-social media

I've blogged over at the Media 140 blog on online rudeness, bullying, Brumplum-gate and the problems of moderating communities if you're interested in that sort of thing.
It was a timely post as I'd sent the words over on Friday, and then after the whole Fry affair kicked off on Saturday it needed a fair amount of tweaking to reflect those events. Anyway, you can read it here.
Incidentally, I recommend the Media 140 blog if you don't already follow it - the latest post on there is by Henry Ellis and he's shredding the Twitter rulebook with some panache.