Comments for Chris Wheal

Comment on Six Ws by whealie

whealie — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:14:06 +0000

Typo corrected – thanks. I have never heard it called “see”, only “keep”. The poem is known by the first line, as far as I know.

Comment on Six Ws by Susan Yingling

Susan Yingling — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:00:05 +0000

Thanks for this…I appreciate your the background information that you provide for Kipling’s poem. Do you know if it has an official title? I often see it called “I See Six Honest Servingmen,” but do not know whether that is just because it is the first line of the poem.

P.S. You need an “f” in of–”…due to the number o questions she asked, she was known in the family as “Elsie Why”

Comment on End of an era? by Martin Cloake

Martin Cloake — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:03:51 +0000

Chris, it’s been great working with you and the team. As well as the very welcome regular work, it’s been an education working on developing a digital news site and finding a direction. Your willingness to experiment, to push the envelope (that’s a digital term too!) and to handle the inevitable bumpy moments have been essential, and it’s been a pleasure working with you and the team. Hopefully we’ve also managed to give the site some identity and change the way many readers see the world of finance at an interesting – if often alarming – stage in history.

Comment on End of an era? by Guy Clapperton

Guy Clapperton — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 16:42:55 +0000

My own experience was and is a little different. Chris’ offer of regular blogging for DailyFinance came at a time of personal difficulty – we lost two family members over 2010 and that was just the start, plus my wife’s redundancy – so any hint of a steady and reliable income stream at least took some of the practical concerns in my life away. It was also great to be working as part of a team rather than as a lone freelance, and working on something brandable rather than one-offs.

In terms of the discipline I’ve found – and in the guise of AOL Money am continuing to find – huge benefits in having something that forces me to scan the news in my area every day. It’s so easy to assume you know stuff, rest on a few laurels, but a financial incentive to keep up and keep contributing has undoubtedly sharpened the rest of my work.

Working with Chris and the team has been one of the happiest times in my professional life as a result of all of these things. I’m delighted it’s continuing – and no Chris, a rebrand and redesign isn’t a hint that we failed. It’s an evolution and I’m really happy to continue as part of it.

Comment on End of an era? by Michael Cross

Michael Cross — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:19:02 +0000

Chris, thanks for your efforts. I’m afraid I just couldn’t make it work as a contributor – I’m not massively in demand but when I sat down to write a piece there always seemed to be something more remunerative or more interesting tugging at my sleeve. Fiddling around sourcing and sizing pictures was the final straw. I’d be interested to hear how my more successful colleagues managed. Greater self discipline?

pip pip

Comment on Sink designs by pj white

pj white — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 15:01:34 +0000

What are you on about? That’s not a sink. It’s a wash basin.

Comment on Mad Monbiot by whealie

whealie — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:13:29 +0000

@Michael Cross – income tax filings would be misleading too. My company has paid thousands in VAT and corporation tax – and had employed people so paid employers NI as well as working families tax credit – but my personal income tax is based solely on having a motorbike as as company vehicle. If you looked at that alone it would not show up as much. Your solution is also, sadly, too simplistic.

Comment on Mad Monbiot by Michael Cross

Michael Cross — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:01:09 +0000

Thanks for the name-check, PJ. My feature in the current number of The Journalist http://issuu.com/nujupload/docs/journalist_augsept (p16) sets out some of my thinking on transparency.
I suspect pay revelation is a bit of a red herring. As it happens, I think everyone should be required to publish their earnings – by the simple mechanism of making income tax returns publicly accessible documents – but I don’t see any compelling reason for journalists to lead the charge.

Comment on Mad Monbiot by Kim Thomas

Kim Thomas — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 10:17:18 +0000

Well, he may have told the editor. I very much doubt it, though, as I know the editor in question, and I don’t think the piece would have been published if the editor had known how he got it. The key thing, though, is it that the readers didn’t know – and that surely would have made a difference?

On the whole, I think the more transparency the better. Remember when the FT sacked Roger Scruton as a columnist when it found out that Scruton had been receiving money from a tobacco firm to write favourably about them? That seems a fairly clear-cut case of how journalists can be compromised by their relationships with third parties.

Comment on Mad Monbiot by whealie

whealie — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:35:27 +0000

@Kim Thomas - he may have told the editor exactly how he got the story. I have done that in the past too and still been commissioned. If I am making an insurance claim and get bad service and the man dealing with me says he can't get anyone to help because the company has just announced they are closing the office and all the staff are to lose their jobs, am I supposed to refuse to use that information because I have a financial relationship with that insurer?

Journalists stumble across all sorts of stories. Most of our mates have been case studies for articles. We write positively about organisations that have never given us anything and may even have cost us a fortune. We are capable of making decisions that are not influenced by money.