“Charles Sturt Council has asked media representatives to sit on opposite sides of the chamber’s gallery in each meeting in order to get a different perspective of the debate.

“The council’s staff approached a Weekly Times Messenger Reporter last week and asked her to stop sitting on the same side of the chamber each meeting.

“Charles Sturt CEO Mark Withers said: ‘An inquiry was made whether sitting on both sides of the chamber from time to time they might see a different perspective of the debate’.

“Reporters have been asked to keep a record of which side they sit on and alternate at each meeting.”

Well, it’s hard to know where to start in commenting on this.

I think back to the various council meetings I used to report and most had a designated press desk. A couple of smaller ones actually asked me to sit at the main council table.

Of those that required me to sit in the public gallery, none ever directed me where to sit, nor can I imagine them ever doing so.

I probably would have told them where to go, if they had directed me without good cause, unless the shock overcame me.

What a lame excuse to say the vantage point may offer a “different perspective”.

More likely, one particular councillor doesn’t have line of sight to the reporter and wants to establish that contact.

I thought the paper was very restrained, but correct, in reporting the story matter-of-fact. The headline was excellent (Reporter asked to cross floor).

A company called Fraxion Payments has now made it possible for bloggers to charge as little as one cent per article.

“Creators of quality content can now charge for their work,” says Chris Wilkins, co-founder of Fraxion Payments.

“Those who create the content will get the lions’ share of the revenue. This is the way it should be.”

The company says bloggers will be paid up to 85 percent on a monthly basis for purchased articles, “which may well be a huge boost for citizen journalism”.

The payment is actually 60 percent for total royalties of less than US$100 per month.

Readers need to register for both a Fraxion account and the blog they wish to pay for content. I find that a little clumsy and it could deter some casual visitors who otherwise wouldn’t mind parting with 10 cents to read a story. The Fraxion people say they are working on an update where people won’t have to login, but “don’t ask when it will be ready”.

My “Fraxion Payments Account Registration” email went to the spam box in Gmail too, but I guess that can happen with any automated message.

Once registered, readers need to purchase Fraxions, which are about one US cent each.

The system looks easy enough to use from a blogger’s perspective, with payments made through PayPal when US$200 is accrued.

I can’t imagine readers paying for content on a personal blog like this one, but niche sites and citizen journalist sites may succeed in attracting payments.

It’s an innovative concept and one that I suspect will grow in usage.

It defies all grammatical rules for a name to be uncapitalised.

I’m a ruthless anti capitalist and kill stray capitals whenever I see them, especially in titles. The president of the Lions Club does not warrant a capital P.

With such a knife-wielding attitude to capitals, one might assume that I welcome the radicalism of names being uncapitalised, but I don’t. It’s an affront to decency, a marketing ploy that has corrupted the language.

How can I justify to readers and cadet journalists that a sentence may begin with a lower case letter? It’s just not on.

A name is a proper noun and should carry a capital letter; eBay should be Ebay, mBox should be Mbox.

Being a cynical, paranoid type I seriously suspect the influence of marketers in shaping this evil practice. They create these names so they will stand out. And they do, like the proverbial anatomy of an unhairy dog.

Earlier this year the worthy charitable organisation Anglican Community Care changed its name to the grammatically dreadful ac.care. What a conundrum for newspapers!

As an editor I dread seeing stories about them because of the linguistic ethical dilemma. I wax between grief and anger every time I see the name.

It’s just wrong. They pronounce it AC care, not ac care.

Of course I avoid starting sentences with uncapitalised names, I just can’t bring myself to do it. But a name is a name and if it appears in a sentence it should be spelt as the name appears. Cringe.

We live in a highly regulated society, however it astounds me that while you have to wear a helmet to ride a bicycle 200 metres there are no limits on bastardising the language.

There should be a law against names without capitals. It should be impossible to register them or trade under them.

The controversial question was: “Should young children be led to believe in Santa?”

I had more complaints about that than anything else in the past 12 months, including the dead cat photo on page 3 (dumped in a recycling bin) a few weeks ago.

My previous provocative piece was at Kalgoorlie when we published a photo of an escaped surgical patient running naked (except for his theatre gown) down the main street with a catheter attached.

The callers today were concerned that young children might read the Santa question and have their innocence shattered.

Hello there! A lot of what we print in the paper is much more confronting.

Some items that come to mind include reports about child sex abuse, animals being abandoned, domestic violence, etc.

Anyhow, I explained to the callers that my youngest children are five years old and will probably believe in Santa until their are eight; that children below 12 rarely read anything in the paper except look at pictures and the kids’ page.

It’s funny what people can become agitated about.

The girl was drunk when she spoke to the newspaper, which is what the story was about. I remember reading it.

The story was on “ladettes” … young women who drink a lot, swear and party hard. Or as Wikipedia describes them: “loud, foul-mouthed, uncultured and unpleasant young women, who like to drink and smoke and who are often sexually promiscuous.”

The reporter went out on the town and spoke to some hard-drinking party girls.

The relative of one girl complained to the press council claiming she was not in a fit condition to give her consent.

I have a problem with this ruling. The girl was in a licensed establishment and was deemed to be fit to continue drinking (ie she wasn’t under the table and she wasn’t thrown out for drunkenness).

She gave her name, age, occupation and suburb to the newspaper. She knew she was speaking to a journalist on the record.

How is a reporter or editor supposed to assess someone’s suitability to be interviewed? Common sense is the only answer.

Someone might claim after a story has been published that they were depressed or on medication. The press council would have to uphold their complaints too, if they’re going to be consistent.

The press council is a toothless tiger which rules against complaints more often than it upholds them. It has an important role however, and I suspect this decision will be fiercely debated in newsrooms and journalism schools.

I wouldn’t stop a reporter from interviewing a person who’s drinking on the basis of this decision, especially if the person’s behavior is relevant to the story.

Here is the full text of the press council’s decision:

“The Australian Press Council has upheld a complaint lodged by a family friend of an 18-year-old woman whose photograph, and comments about drinking and behaving like a “ladette”, were published on the front page of The Sunday Age.

“The complaint revolved around the issue of informed consent. The Press Council believes this is an important issue for publications to consider, particularly when a story or image involves young people and alcohol.

“The young woman was interviewed, and was posed with friends for photographs, while drinking at a Melbourne campus bar. The complainant said the woman was inebriated on the night, and could not have given informed consent for the newspaper to publish her comments and picture. He said the woman’s privacy had been unfairly invaded and the article had portrayed the woman and her friends in an unflattering light.

“The newspaper said the editor discussed with the freelance reporter and photographer the issues of consent and privacy of the young women in the article. They stood by their belief that she had knowingly consented to the interview, and she told the paper her name, age, occupation and home suburb.

“The Council accepted a statement from the young woman, admitting that she has been drinking heavily before she met with the journalists. Given her condition, the woman was not capable of consenting in an informed way to participating in the posed photo session. For that reason, the coverage, despite the journalists’ belief they had informed consent, was unfair to the woman.”

I respect the man and he expressed a commonly held view, so I don’t deride it.

As an editor, it has always been my philosophy to choose a good positive story over a good negative story, if I have a choice between them for the front page.

A lot of factors influence my decision making and most of them are played out instinctively every day. There is no formula and often there are several options which could be equally valid.

A key consideration, but not the only one, is to sell newspapers. People are interested in stories about other people.

They like to read about crime and they like to read NEWs. NEWs is something they don’t already know; something that’s new.

Paid newspapers (those that have a cover price) have to be sensitive to what people like to read, otherwise they would go out of business.

We’ve seen a trend in Australia that free newspapers take a fluffy position, all warm and fuzzy. This affirms the view among some people that paid newspapers are focused on doom and gloom.

I don’t think that’s the case.

When it comes to my responsibility, it’s to reflect society back to itself; the good and the bad. I don’t feel a responsibility to be positive, but I accept one to advocate on behalf of the town.

A journalist’s responsibilities (which I share) are to be accurate, fair, ethical and balanced.

A PR consultant has a responsibility to be positive and I don’t think some people understand the distinction.

Newspapers are not public relations vehicles. They are … newspapers.

An example of our so-called negativity I heard today was placing on the front page the story of an engineering firm going bust, costing more than a dozen jobs. I knew we had that story exclusively (because our company is a creditor), therefore it’s NEWs.

The fate of that business is important to more than a dozen families. And many creditors are unhappy they will receive five cents in the dollar at best. It’s an important story and it needed to be told.

So to critics of negative stories, I say they are part of life. They are also an important part of our business, which is to sell NEWs.

The required skills were good English, an awareness of current affairs, curiosity and effective communication.

I asked each of them 11 interview questions. They all performed okay during this stage, and it gave me an idea of their personalities.

Then I gave them a spelling test of 20 words and a general knowledge quiz with 20 questions.

The results were remarkable.

I won’t divulge more for privacy reasons, but there was a real cross-section of scores and I found it a really effective exercise.

Applicants who present well are not necessarily the ones with the best general knowledge and writing skills.

I’ll let the dust settle and write a more detailed review in the future.

Grandin won 7-6, 6-4.

I felt like gadget man, wired with a mini laptop, mobile phone, camera and video camera.

I tweeted live scores and these were picked up by at least one website in the United Kingdom.

Some of my photos are online here. I think they’re pretty good for a small $450 camera.

It was a great contest to watch, plenty of rallies and not too many unforced errors. The match lasted just under two hours.

Here’s a video of the last two points:

I’ll be posting scores to Twitter from 3.30GMT.

After mentioning the possibility yesterday, a couple of British tennis websites linked to the Twitter address. Although the match will be played in the wee hours their time, there might be some keen fans following it.

I have this fear that my phone battery will die half way through, so I’m taking the mini laptop as well. Between the two of them I should make it to the end unless it’s a long three sets.

I’m also going to try taking photos and some video.

Mildred works for a family owned newspaper, the Beacon-Observer. Her desk looks a lot like mine.