Exhibit JC42 - The Leveson Inquiry

For Distribution to CPsHacks and Dons - Teaching at the London University Journalism School 1919-1939: Its origin,development and influence.were four weeklies as well as the daily when I went to Cambridge 29 years ago.Today all four are incorporated in our weekly - the youngest of the four - and Ithink it is true to say that the long reports in the daily had not a little to do with thefailure of those weeklies.If you have a distinguished visitor speaking on a subject of national orinternational importance, then a column report may be as informative as one ofthose four-column leader page articles in which our national dailies delight, forwhich, I have no doubt, they pay pretty heavily.In the provinces shorthand was still very necessary. In a Town Councildiscussion, at a political meeting, or a Union Society debate the speaker’s wordsand not the reporter’s paraphrase of them were often wanted. Fleet Street men whodid not know shorthand often had to rely on the ’locals’ to help them out.The letter that lands the jobSometimes after advertising a post, said Mr. Stuart, I have been astonished bythe replies. Some send a few lines and refer me to someone else if I want to knowmore. Another, perhaps attempting to be bright and original, writes a ’perky’ lettersuggesting that he is the one man needed on our staff to make the paper a successand telling me to be sure and not do anything until I have interviewed him. To methis makes no appeal. Nor am I greatly impressed if a man informs me that heknows half a dozen languages and has passed all sorts of examinations. I should bemore impressed if I were satisfied that his English were all right.What I do like is a letter written with care in which an applicant states hisqualifications concisely and modestly but not without a certain confidence. I like toknow about his experience, his studies, his special interests, if any. It is anadvantage if he can say, with truth, that he is a cyclist and that he takes a verbatimnote and can turn out his copy neatly, promptly and accurately. It would be betterstill if someone else said that on his behalf. It is surprising how many trip up onthese simple things.Don’t get bored with your work, he urged whether it is a British Legion supper,a Women’s Institute meeting or an Infant Welfare Centre gathering. You may evenget a ’kick’ out of that if the organisers should ask you, as they once did an 18-year-old had on our staff, ’Have you brought your wife and child?’Just at present it seems to be the fashion for young publicists to parade theirpersonalities in pages of pithy paragraphs. Apparently proprietors are prepared topay preposterous sums for the privilege of print the piffle. (Cheers).Fleet Street is not the only place in the world. You probably won’t makefortunes in provincial newspaper work, unless you happen to have some shares inthe business, but you will make hosts of friends. And you will have Peace of Mind,which believe me is worth a lot.295MOD100051466