... to Matthew Holehouse, former Stu editor, who has been nominated for the only interesting category at the NUS Awards 2008. The results come out on Monday 9 June.
MH certainly deserves a prize for his journalism, but Aldate isn't sure it's worth sitting through the announcements of "Endsleigh Student of the Year" and "Course Representative of the Year" to pick it up.
Strange the 'Stu didn't get nominated for "Students' Union Publication of the Year". Then again, how could you say no to the Sheffield Steel Press?
Nice classroom.*
* although the interviewy bits are actually quite tight
4pm Iffley Sports Centre, for anybody that wants to see journos outside their office habitat.
Team line-ups are a closely guarded secret, but Aldate can exclusively reveal that Cherwell's 11 players will have up to 15 surnames, of which three are hyphenated.
Aldate isn't sure whether "He's back!!!!!1111one" is the best way to open a headline. Sure, it adds cheeky tabloid indignation to the whole affair. But to others it could easily be substituted with "90% of this copy will be rehashed arms dealer story". Still, Aldate is sure the donations thing is of interest to those with a conscience. Must be an OUSU thing.
A bit like running a pirate radio station for two years. PR tip: if you're doing something dodgy, don't use it as an argument on a blog primarily read by journos. Many DJs will be glad to hear that the journo in question is going into exile next year. Aldate, however, will still be here to aid the station in its leaps forward in professionalism, to use the party line.
Cherwell news was far too dominated by Wadham, but both papers came out with strong news sections. The beer-swigging examiner story isn't as strong as it looks, the clue lying in column 2:
"However it is not known when or where the photograph was taken. If it is an Oxford examiner..."
I guess the EXIF data saying it was taken two years ago isn't enough to go on.
The OUSU week in quotes (with accompanying translations):
"Oxide has improved immeasurably this year" (Rich Hardiman) There was no improvement to measure
"It's not an easy project but I don't think we have had a proper review" (Lewis Iwu) It won't happen but at least I have an excuse
"I don't think it's insurmountable in terms of the cost of the licence" (Martin McCluskey) What's a licence when you're £250k in debt?
Which reminds Aldate... wasn't it roughly this time last year that a certain OUSU-sponsored paper pissed away a front page with the headline "UFOs give Summer Eights a go"?
Strange. They manage not to print the same page twice on the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, People, Daily Record, Sunday Mail, Racing Post, Laif, RecordPM, Sunday Sun, Birmingham Mail, Birmingham Post, Sunday Mercury, Coventry Telegraph, Polish Express, Echo, Daily Post, Examiner, Evening Gazette, Chronicle, Citylife, Newslanka, FTN, Catholic Times, The Nation, Gair Rhydd, The Courier, Islamic Times, The Universe, The Door, East End Life, Eastern Eye or North West Angler.
Aldate has been thinking a little more about the podcast thing.
All it takes to get quotes on news stories is a quick phone call, and cutting them into useful chunks doesn't take too long at all. So maybe the Oxide news team should think about a weekly news podcast, speaking to the people involved in the stories that the papers have covered.
Given that the OxStu are in the room next door, getting the contact details needn't be a huge problem either.
A quick response to a comment in the liveblog post:
Having carefully read Aldate's advice, it seems to me that he'd have us scrap Oxide as a live medium
True.
and use it for podcasting only;
Also true.
(although he doesn't think anyone will actually listen to the podcasts
Wrong. Aldate said "not many people would listen to them unless they were really tightly produced". Is the commenter suggesting that Oxide are incapable of this? Aldate is sure they aren't - people with the expertise are in there, somewhere, but they need to take a more editorial role.
whereas, contrary to his belief, people DO listen to Oxide).
Aldate is yet to meet anybody who either listens casually, or goes out of their way to tune in to a show. The same goes for Aldate's counterparts. The figures Aldate was promised haven't come through yet.
Aldate extends his sincere thanks to HK. Michelmas' listings brought back happy memories of when OxStu could observe the basic rule of printing the right things on the right pages..
A bit like running a pirate radio station for two years. PR tip: if you're doing something dodgy, 
