The Staff at Bobballs have discovered the Newsletter pushing a press release as a piece of journalism… Slugger can see why they bought it as such, since as a press release it’s not a bad piece of journalism… But it’s still a Press Release… Well spotted, and congratulations to The Staff at Bobballs…
Great little review of Listening to Van Morrison by Griel Marcus… It’s a short book, not a biography or a career survey, but an attempt to follow those moments in Morrison’s music, as he’s made it from his first records with Them, from Belfast in 1965 to the present day, when something happens that breaks [...] read our review »
Which reminds me…. Platform for Change’s driving force Robin Wilson has produced a corrective to the notion that the lessons of the NI conflict are easily exportable. Like myself, Robin is associated with the Constitution Unit. He introduced his new book in a CU blog which I here reproduce. The water crisis in Northern Ireland [...] read our review »
The oft-quoted verse from the book of Proverbs, ‘where there is no vision, the people perish,’ (chapter 29, verse 18) opens a new book by Gerry O’Hanlon, A New Vision for the Catholic Church: A View from Ireland (Columba Press, 2011). That verse could be considered an apt summary of the current state of the [...] read our review »
No surprise here. Churnalism is alive and well! Most PR companies try very hard to write press releases like editorial. These are used widely by most local and national papers. I have sometimes played a little ‘spot the press release’ game and it really is widespread. Sign of the times with depleted newsrooms I’m afraid.
No surprise…NL staff are apt to describe their working practices as ‘like a sausage factory.’
The NL has had problems for years – it’s changed hands several times and each bunch has sought to wring more ‘efficiency savings’ out of it which basically means less journalists. Furthermore working class Prods have made it clear they’d rather buy The Sun and there’s no way they can compete with that.
Johnston Press the current NL owners are in pretty weak position as a combination of cyclical and structural problems hits the bottom line.
Their response to this is twofold – cut more jobs and put everything on the internet for free. Then they ring up Darwin and ask him why he isn’t selling any copies.
Pretty shocking in a national paper. If you took press releases out of the local press though they’d be nothing but adverts and people on the rip.
At least they were embarrassed enough to run it under the “staff reporter” byline, which by tradition (well at least at every paper I’ve worked for) is as good as saying “someone sent us this and frankly we couldn’t be bothered checking it out.”
Hardly surpising…most of the “hard news” in this particular paper consist of articles where 95% of the text are quotes by unionist (usually DUP) figures, which is then presented as some kind of fact. Apart from Alex Kane commentaries and the occasional Liam Clarke article (which are noticeably dumbed down if not outright bizarre compared to his Sunday Times pieces) does anyone besides the familiar “staff reporter” does anyone actually write for the News Letter.
I issued a newsletter article as a press release at least twice recently,
(1) Sex offenders may be in our schools,
(2) Crucifixes to be banned in NI schools by SF anti-God zealots.
I’m paraphrasing, something like that.
I cop to the cut and paste of Northern Irish Lobbying…
“Apart from Alex Kane commentaries and the occasional Liam Clarke article (which are noticeably dumbed down if not outright bizarre compared to his Sunday Times pieces) does anyone besides the familiar “staff reporter” does anyone actually write for the News Letter.”
Phil Bradfield, the rest of them won’t talk to me, they say I’m always going on about brothels, or prostitution or trafficking.
Alex Kane talks to me, but I don’t really count him, because he is a co-leafleteer.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/leafleteer&
That’s a real word, we are both that.
Perhaps you should release a PR saying that Republicans are killing sex offenders. That ought to confuse the buggers.
I am actually doing or re-issuing an old Outrage! one. I might mention the (Poof) IRA in it,
I don’t want to re-write it too much. SF did cut my tree down! Where’s Willie Frazer’s camera?
Baz,
My advice is to arrive into the Newsletter reception without an appointment. Make sure you have loads of files, preferably in Asda bags; they’ll be delighted to see you.
‘My advice is to arrive into the Newsletter reception without an appointment. Make sure you have loads of files, preferably in Asda bags; they’ll be delighted to see you.’
I tried that, I told them it was ‘performance art’, they told me to put my trousers back on or they’d call the PSNI.
They’re not as welcoming as people try to make out. The BBC on the other hand, just said “hello Grieg, we need you for Nolan this morning”
Hahahahaha, while the story may have simply carried the staff reporter byline on the website, a cursory glance at the News Letter reveals the article was, ahem, “written” by none other than political correspondant Stephen Dempster!
Gregory,
“I’m paraphrasing, something like that.”
You paraphrase everything you say!
I wrote a book about paraphrasing in the 1970s,
I used a different name, Yvette O’Tory, it was about mono-cycling & group sex in Amsterdam
I’m therefore resigning from Slugger, to spend more time with my teddy bears.