The SubScribe commentary
The party leaders recognised a bandwagon when there was one to jump on. Nigel Farage turned up sporting a giant poppy on his cashmere overcoat and was so moved that he had to turn away so that the cameras could capture his tears.
SubScribe: Poppymania Editor's blog: last post for the Tower poppies 
It was four months before our newspapers started to take the Ebola outbreak in Africa seriously. Even as the death toll rose into the thousands, the story rarely made it to the front pages. Until a Spanish nurse was infected - and her dog put down
 Photo: David Fowler
We need working-class journalists
Nearly half of the "top 100" people in the media and national newspaper columnists went to Oxbridge from private schools, according to a survey by the Sutton Trust for the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission. So much for the old story of the copy boy leaving school at 15 and working his way up to be editor as Charlie Wilson, right, did. Journalism shouldn't be for the elite 
A-level day: bring on the token boys
Ninety-nine days out of a hundred, token women are standard front-page fodder. But on A-level results day an attractive young woman who has just passed eleven A levels at grade A or A* leaping in the air is an absolute no-no. It's a cliché to celebrate one girl's achievement in such a way, so the papers search instead for irony - teachers or random boys jumping for joy. So the mockery has changed the way we think? Not quite. 
For 22 hours after Robin Williams's death was announced people were tweeting "beware of how you report this; don't kill someone else". There were constant reminders of the guidelines for reporting suicide, the Mind charity twice sent out briefings for editors and the Samaritans were on standby to offer advice.
So what happened? Our glorious tabloids stuck two fingers up at the world and blithely ignored every guideline.
She didn't get a new job, she isn't in the Cabinet, but everyone has gone Esther crazy. The Mail appraised her dress, bag, shoes, hair and make-up. The usual sexism from the men who run Fleet St? Not necessarily. That Mail spread was probably commissioned and written by women for women. If you're looking for patriarchy in action, better turn to No 10.
SubScribe Sexist nonsense Editor's blog Esther's sit-in 
Rik Mayall: dealing with death
Over-familiar, over-sentimental, over-the-top: how papers get in a muddle when it comes to reporting the deaths of famous people and how others get it right 
Give us news, not puffs
The word "free" appears 15 times on 10 front pages. Mastheads, ads and puffs take up more than half the available space. But readers tell us it's news that makes them buy 
Maxine Carr's wedding
The Sun's splash was a masterpiece of indignation. How dare the woman who gave Ian Huntley an alibi get married? And drink fizzy wine? And wear a pretty dress? - well SubScribe says good luck to her 
Stephen's Story: did we help?
Stephen Sutton had raised £572,000 before the nationals took an interest in him. When he died more than £3m had been donated to the Teenage Cancer Trust in his name. Press coverage was universally positive - but it wasn't always honest. 
Silence on Nigeria kidnap
More than 200 girls are snatched at the dead of night by a terrorist gang and the best the Press can do is a few pars on the foreign pages. Twitter puts us to shame 
Think they're cheerleaders?
Cheerleaders wear skimpy clothes, white boots and dance with pom poms. Poker players are men in dark smoked-filled rooms chewing on cigars. Forget those preconceptions 
'Cheating' for a tin of beans
A Mail on Sunday undercover team visited food banks and came back trumpeting the ways people defied the system to get free food. But was it the whole story? 
Kate Humble and an entourage of 65 cameramen, makeup artists, sound people and electricians turn a week's filming into a luxury break in a Scottish castle at £279 a night? What a scandal!
Except nobody checked the facts 
Deceived or deceptive?
What do a monster rat and a 50ft banjo have in common? Journalists were deceived by both then, caught in the lie, they blamed their sources. What about taking responsibility for what you print? 
Who needs subs?
Subs are no longer thinking, talented journalists, masters of language, mistresses of design, but 'producers', conveyor-belt handlers of copy, fit only to write a Google-friendly heading |
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