Journalism
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It’s All A Conspiracy!
Over the weekend I decided to take a break from the news. Yes, I largely ignored bulletins for the whole of Saturday because, quite frankly, I was knackered – and getting a bit bored with the post election fallout and the jolly yet sombre recollections of VE Day. So I initially missed the story which…
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Purdahtory
So the election is over, and thank goodness for that. Not that it hasn’t been an entertaining experience. As ever, I was tasked with trying to make an everyday constituency sound interesting – and I did by bit. I also juggled with the dilemma of promoting “non political” stories beyond their usual station so we…
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British Bashing Corporation
It doesn’t really matter what the BBC does with Jeremy Clarkson, because the printed press will do anything to discredit the Corporation. On a daily basis, you can search around newspaper websites and find countless examples. Take this contribution from the Nottingham Post. On the face of it, a good news story – Songs of Praise brings…
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London’s Brilliant Creation
Next time you watch a TV news report containing a press conference, look towards the bottom of your screen at the microphones. There’s one logo you’ll probably see more than any other – that of LBC. But this is not a story of anorak spotting – it’s about the almost unseen growth of an increasingly…
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Are You Having A Laugh?
I’d like to think that somewhere up there, a wise old sub editor is looking down on today’s newspaper industry, waving a giant metal spike and shouting “Do you call this fu****g news? Get out of my office!”. And he’d be raging about some of the stories which end up making the “news” today. This…
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Nostalgia : A Thing Of The Past?
Around two years ago I posted a blog about the return of an old name to the radio landscape. Solid Gold Gem AM played its cards purely on the grounds of nostalgia. But this weekend, it will play its final tune. So what went wrong? Although broadcasting online, and with a collection of presenters based…
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Pooving A Point
“Dog shit, not Bosnia!” was how one of my old bosses described the editorial policy for local news outlets. A little flippant, maybe, but he had a point. When it comes to caring about what happens in the news, the audience for local media are more interested in what’s happening on their street – or,…
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Advertising : the death pill for local newspapers
Have you attempted to read your local newspaper online lately? It’s a brilliant resource : all of that content you’d normally fork out 50p for is there – completely free of charge. That’s if you can negotiate the ads. I’ve written about this before but in the past year or so I’m convinced that the…
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Publish And Be Dimmed
Holidays are coming, and I for one can’t wait. Billions of pounds will be spent on paid for advertising in the run up to the festive season, and these days the aim seems to be as much about getting people in a frenzy about your advert as it is buying the product. Yet some of…
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It Ain’t What You Play…
It’s the party conference season, and in the run up to a General Election the political pundits can’t wait to tell us that this is the last chance for [insert front bencher’s name here] to make their big sell on [insert policy name here]. Of course, nobody really cares about broadcasting. It’s simply not on…
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