What the papers say about the papers is worth a read

This week we offer something more than just a press review; we offer a review of the press reviews.

Seems like just about every organisation under the European sun emails out a daily roundup of news clips - produced by what must be an endless supply of multilingual stagiaires.

Here, then, is the first-ever What the Papers Say meta-press review.

The BBC, the ne plus ultra of daily news summaries, leads its Wednesday morning European briefing with a look at coverage of Denmark’s arrest of terror suspects. "‘The terrorism test is edging closer’ is how Denmark’s Politiken reacts to the detention of seven people on terrorism charges in Odense," the review begins. It further quotes the Danish paper: "The risk of terrorism becomes more acute every time, even though nothing has happened yet."

It also looks at coverage of Turkey’s EU bid in German papers: "A headline in Germany’s Die Welt describes a European Parliament report on Turkey’s progress towards joining the European Union as a ‘setback for Turkey’s opponents’."

The reliably chatty and offbeat daily review of Dutch headlines by Radio Netherlands also offers a story with a war-on-terror angle.

It mourns "the passing of yet another fine Dutch tradition. Cute little delftware miniatures of traditional Dutch houses that were filled to the brim with the finest Dutch gin were first introduced by royal Dutch airlines, KLM, years ago.

"They proved popular the world over, and now there are 87 different types to collect. But gin of course is a liquid and thanks to the threat of ‘terrorist’ liquids on board planes they’re now considered [dangerous]. So the Telegraaf reports that from now on, the miniatures will have to be sold empty by KLM."

The European Journalism Centre offers a daily roundup of stories on media issues. It leads yesterday’s offering with the news that Google is launching an online newspaper archive: "The earliest known searchable story is, Google said, from ‘somewhere in the mid-1700s’ - considerably older than the current 30-day archive offered through Google News." Somebody warn Jacques Chirac he’s got more catching up to do...

EUobserver charges a fee for its daily press roundup (humbug!), but you can get what you need for free by just reading their list of headlines. Wednesday’s offering: "EU to stall Cyprus to keep Turkey talks afloat; EU in ‘crisis’, Juncker says; EU trio to present new immigration plan; Portugal admits it allowed CIA flights;" etc.

Actually, those headlines could be from just about any day in the last five years.

Then there’s Open Europe, which calls itself "an independent think-tank set up by some of the UK’s leading business people to contribute bold new thinking to the debate about the direction of the EU." Sounds suspicious, but we’ll go with it.

This Tuesday’s top story: "Cameron calls for EU-India free trade agreement." Hm, not exactly earth-shaking, but we’ll read on. "In a speech today David Cameron will call for an EU-India free trade agreement, if world trade talks remain frozen. George Osborne writes in the Times that the UK is ‘in danger of missing the bus’ as the Indian economy takes off."

Finally, there’s Europe’s sassiest press review, European Voice’s What the Papers Say, which leads with, well...you already know.

• Craig Winneker is editor of TCSDaily.com.

This week we offer something more than just a press review; we offer a review of the press reviews.

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