Firstly, I have to apologise for my previous post. Its headline should have read 'Why the vast majority of PRs should die (or just have a bad day)'.
Judging by the comments (some of which came without editor's notes) I have touched a nerve and upset our PR brethren.
I hang my head in shame. I have been crass, sexist, and ill informed.
I am both upset and disturbed.
Not for voicing my opinion, however. Or swearing. Or writing what I felt on that day. Fuck it, it's my opinion. Read it, don't read it, I could not care less.
No, I am both upset and disturbed for the fact my chod got more comments than a recent tale on my newspaper's website (unique users = many 1,000s a month) about a scrote getting just three years for kicking someone to death outside a pub.
It got more comments than a story about a kid getting run over by a drink driver who walked free from court on a technicality.
More comments than a council's decision to evict five OAPs from the homes their families grew up in. The homes they thought they would live in until they died.
More reaction than our campaign to save a kid dying from leukaemia.
In the last two days more than a quarter of the total readership of my blog has come on to read and comment on what is, in essence, a load of made-up shit written by a self righteous, opinionated idiot.
Is this what really gets us riled? Is this the future of news? Why do you really give a shit? You don't even know who I am.
Welcome to the internet's world of meaningless shat and massive indifference.
Tune in to my next blogs. 'What I did in my Holidays', 'Why I think Hitler was pretty cool' and 'Why I reckon your mum is a whore'.
Or go and have an opinion on something that actually matters.
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"...my chod got more comments than a recent tale on my newspaper's website ... about a scrote getting just three years for kicking someone to death outside a pub."
ReplyDeleteYou sure about that? I know you're a professional journalist so will have fully researched things before writing, but are you sure people didn't find others ways and places to comment on this story?
Is it not just possible that your news site's shitty commenting feature that requires log-ins or where comments sit in a moderation queue for days maybe encouraged people to do their talking elsewhere? (Clue: Facebook, Twitter etc)
You did consider that, right?
compelling though...
ReplyDeleteAs First Anonymous says,if you are still chained to one of the larger monstrosities formerly known as regional NEWSPAPER groups, it is quite likely that the website is wank and is as easy to navigate through / post a comment as undoing car wheel nuts with a plastic spoon.
ReplyDeleteToday I revisted the website of a paper I last worked on 6 months ago. The district reporter, news ed and ed, all made redundant then, are still listed as the 'Contact Our People' gang. There are even fetching piccies of staff you haven't been able to call for months.
And this is one of the major publishing groups who screeched about the BBC's plan for localised news sites.
Never mind your language mate, this is well worth a FOR FUCK'S SAKE.
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ReplyDeleteIt wasn't so much 'fiction' as hyperbolic opinion, wasn't it? Opinion will always get people riled. And so will blatantly offending a big subset of your readers.
ReplyDeleteYour argument above sounds a bit like a complaint about how a single death in the UK will often get frontpage coverage, whereas the deaths of dozens of people overseas will be buried back in p96.
Readers respond to what's relevant to them, and so editors select stories/commentaries accordingly. Nothing wrong with that...
You're a real INSERT NAME HERE
ReplyDeleteSo, the hack/flack love-in perpetuates itself with another round of whispered sweet-nothings!
ReplyDeleteI have to comment on the 'PRs Should Die' blog even if just to live up to sterotype.
ReplyDeleteI'm not offended by your blog just a lottle confused and if anything it would seem your rather unecessary level of anger is connected to the relationship that has been built between PRs and journalists...
One journalist i speak with often has referred to it as that of a 'leeching sadistic' relationship and one that is necessary.
I know sometimes press releases can be ill-targeted, but a lot of the time we're just sharing information that you guys then have free will to do with it what you wish.
Your Sincerely,
A lowly (very low but sadly bot yet immersed in a coffin under the ground!) PR
Seriously? You are an editor? Hells bells, I knew standard had dropped on regional newspapers, but, well, wow.
ReplyDeleteWay to go to promote the industry!
Sadly, if most PRs have the writing skills of Hannah J I can see why Blunt advocates death to the PR monster.
ReplyDeleteHave only just discovered Blunt. Am rolling around wiping the tears of mirth from my face. Brilliant stuff.
ReplyDelete