This blog starts with a stoppage, or at least the threat of one.
I got into the office on Wednesday morning to find on my desk a present from the management: a drawstring bag containing a T-shirt, a scribble pad, a pen, a memory stick and a book of vouchers offering discounts at local shops and restaurants.
On Wednesday afternoon I attended a meeting of the National Union of Journalists at which it was decided that we should tell that same management that we are going on strike for three days in November.
The logo that was emblazoned on that drawstring bag and every item of its contents provides a clue to this seemingly ungrateful behaviour.
My employer, which until Wednesday morning was Telegraph Publishing Limited, is rebranding itself Telegraph Media Group – or, as the new logo (wonder what that cost?) has it, telegraphmediagroup. It has moved from London’s Docklands to Buckingham Palace Road, and has begun delivering the news not just in print – as it has been doing since 1855 – but in podcasts and vodcasts. In leaving an old office and entering a new digital world, it has sacked more than 130 staff, including more than 50 journalists. Now it has plans to change the working patterns of those who remain.
You can expect to hear more of this in future.