Here is a striking front page design, and an interesting approach to bringing petitions to life in news stories.

The South Wales Argus collected 5,345 names on a petition in favour of free parking in Newport - and printed every single one of them in its paper. A good sample of them are on the front page, in place of a picture.

There can be no greater illustration of the credibility that named sources bring to a story.

After commissioning polemical columnist Julie Burchill to write an article this Sunday, The Observer has taken the rather extraordinary step of trying to depublish it.

The column in question was a stout defence of her friend, the writer Suzanne Moore, against claims that she had made bigoted comments about the transgender community, and then refused to apologise for them.

Whilst reading The Secret Footballer’s book (I am the Secret Footballer: Lifting the Lid on the Beautiful Game), I came across the player’s thoughts on the media and journalists. There was one line in particular that grabbed my attention: “I’m uncomfortable when journalists rely on shorthand rather than dictaphones, because it ends up becoming your word against theirs when a questionable story appears.”

The beginning of 2013 sees a flurry of big signings and transfer activity not just in the Premiership, but for Centre for Journalism graduates too.

Britain has developed an organic democracy. Unlike France there was little violence, unlike America it was not a new country casting off the shackles of colonialism, nor like Germany did it come as a result of war. Its birth was through the written word.

Heterosexual West Ham United footballer Matt Jarvis has become only the third footballer to appear on the cover of gay magazine Attitude.

As The Independent reports, he follows in the footsteps of David Beckham and former Arsenal player Freddie Ljungberg.

Congratulations to 10 students who began the new year in fine style with news that they had passed the NCTJ Reporting exam.

It's a notoriously tough test, so we are extremely proud of the 83 per cent pass rate in December's exam. Nine of the 10 were sitting it for the first time, which makes the figures even more impressive.

With discussions underway about changing contempt of court laws, newspapers and journalists are facing fears about the future of court reporting.

Although journalists are already doing what they can to avoid prejudicing court cases by following the Contempt of Court Act 1981 and the PCC code, the Law Commission is asking for more.

Courts may soon have the power to order that any previous articles which could be prejudicial be removed from websites. This could include articles from years before that a member of the jury might come across.

To say that Arthur Quinlan led a remarkable life would be a massive understatement.

Arthur Quinlan, who was considered a “master of executing international scoops”, interviewed every US President from Harry Truman to George H. W. Bush and was the only western journalist to interview Che Guevara. Sadly, Quinlan passed away just before Christmas but left behind a legacy that would be the envy of any journalist today.

I don't know if you saw Channel 4's 'The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2012' Programme last week. If not, there's a link for it below:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/big-fat-quiz/4od

I leave this, not to offend, but in true Daily Mail style, so that you can judge the offensiveness of the jokes before you decide how offended you should be by something you may or may not have seen over a week ago.