When The Going Gets Tough… Hacks Become PRs

March 27, 2009

flat-earth-news.jpg

Speaking for himself, as a scribe, Blade has no problem with PRs. They do their job, and journalists do another. There are those, such as Nick Davies, who aren’t convinced that the PR industry is a force for good, but Blade believes that across its various sectors, from legal PR to environmental PR, even including property and accountancy PR, there are good eggs, bad eggs and some boring old indifferent ones.

But those who agree with Davies – who believe that PR is the dark side, while journalism is all baubles, joy and light – will be aghast at this story from the Press Gazette. It appears that financial impoverishment thanks to the recession has led many journalists to seek a new career in… PR.

As the Gazette has it, the National Union of Journalists has even organised a conference in Bristol to introduce out-of-work journalists to the PR industry. The NUJ regrets having do this, calling it a “sad indictment of the newspaper industry”, but for those not so squeamish Saturday 4th April is the day for your diaries.

Blade does have one or two concerns. If there are diminishing numbers of journalists, and increasing numbers of PRs, won’t there be something of an imbalance? And if the trend continues, so that everyone becomes a PR, who will write the stories? Once they’re written, who will they give them to? And if newspapers keep closing, who will publish them?

Perhaps we’re heading for a world full of stories which are destined for homelessness, ones which will be written but not told. At that point, one hopes, we’ll be emerging from the recession and the new PR/Journalist will become… a newspaper proprietor.

 

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Supreme Court on Twitter

February 6, 2012

Something remarkable happened today. Yes, the Supreme Court launched its Twitter feed. It even has a Twitter policy, one of caveats, disclaimers and little by way of illumination but regardless: who would have thought that the successor body to the House of Lords would stoop to engage with the world of tweets, hashtags and retweets?

We look forward to the day when court business will be conducted via Twitter. Meantime, check out this link for an excellent blog on the Supreme Court.

Not so right said Fred

February 2, 2012
fred hat

So Farewell, then, Sir Fred Goodwin.

Now you are just Fred.

Not Right Said Fred, but plain Fred.

The Forfeiture Committee did for you.

No one had heard of it before,

But Dave said it had to act, and it did.

Trouble is that no one knows what to think.

Is it ‘Alas, poor Fred‘,

Or ‘Hurray! Sir Fred is dead!’?

We don’t know.

Do you?

By A. Mob, aged 1,378 and a half.

London Goes AWOL

January 31, 2012
CNN

STOP PRESS:

Fed up with being stuck on the Thames in south-east England, London yesterday decided to move. In a dramatic gesture which augurs ill for the Olympics, the city upped sticks and relocated to East Anglia.

Lawyers were not consulted about the move, and the city’s precise motivation remains unclear. However, financiers fear that London’s decision is a sign that it wishes to downsize. Moreover, a source from London said: “We no longer want to be Britain’s seat of power. If the Scots can deregulate, why can’t we? East Anglia is a nice place where nothing happens. It’s time for a quiet life. Please respect our right to privacy.”

Elsewhere, Birmingham did not do anything, but Manchester was seen to be packing its bags. “There’s an opportunity for us,” said Manchester. “We can become London.”

East Anglia said: “We don’t mind. It’ll be refreshing to be associated with something other than fens and flatness.”

A cartologist at CNN, which broke the extraordinary news, was later fired.