Lobby News
Regional Lobby hacks are up in arms - the Press Association is trying to move in on their jobs. PA has been contacting editors of regional newspapers offering a service "for a fraction of the cost" of having their own lobby correspondents drinking in the bar all day.The solution to the alcoholic regional hack problem is, according to PA, Lobby Extra, their service which supplies regular stories tailor-made for individual publications. PA doesn't recognise the National Union of Journalists, and the NUJ's president, Chris Morley bleats that this "is an attack on the diversity of journalism within our major cities outside London. Blah, blah, blah". Actually it is eminently sensible and will leave more room at the bar for Guido when his lobby pass arrives.
(Paul Linford will be on to give us the benefit of his wisdom in a moment.)
29 comments:
well you'll be drinking on your own, getting no goss, and spoon fed by another controllable and ultimately boring sanitised press release automaton.
There's an opening for you there Guido - set up a complementary service for Lobby gossip for regional publications...
Nah, they'd be Guido-killers if they dared; he's the biggest threat to this franchised-yet-disenfranchised journalism.
Once they wake up, they will try to cut you out as well. Wait and see.
Having worked as a reporter for a regional paper (though never as anything so fancy as a political corry) I suspect PA might be pushing on an open door here. All regionals want to cut costs, and next time they have a round of 'voluntary' redundancies they'll be only too pleased to 'encourage' an exit for that long-serving, bloody-minded London-based hack who's gone native down in the Smoke and forgotten his local roots.
Old-style papers would have been proud to have a London office and staff as they would act as proof of journalistic seriousness and credibility, but those days are long gone. These days, newspaper groups produce 'product' rather than journalism, and the London political correspondent is increasingly an anachronism.
Bastards.
You want the benefit of my wisdom Guido? Here it is. You've just published a five-year-old story.
Given PA and Reuter's reputations for lazily reproducing spin (e.g. those staged photos in Lebanon during the recent war there) I think anything that increases their influence would be a bad thing.
Who cares if a small group of privilged hacks are displaced by the PA. All sense to the PA for offering to deiver a cheaper service to the news media.
Lobby hacks have no sympathy from me, they have systematically covered up every peccadillo and old nasty of politicians for years, and disrespected the readers of their papers.
Get your Lobby pass Guido, but you had better deliver the goods. Otherwise you will be no better than than the slugs on the boozy gravy train as at present.
WOW, I din't realise that Gudio drank at all...how very grown up...
What exactly will Paul Linford be 'on' - in order to give us the benefit of his wisdom? Is this anything chemical?
Penfold - you talk total shit. Though I have never been a regional political hack. Must have missed the covering up. And please don't cite Kennedy at me, you stupid c*nt, as you doubtless would. You see, you need proof, and "he looks a bit pissed" isn't proof.
Secondly, I would not trust PA to report itself missing if I was a regional newspaper editor (which fortunately I am not). All you will get is press releases recycled.
PS It is a bit old, Guido but as Joan Collins's latest toyboy said, why not? I'm not busy....
touchy,touchy!!
Any sensible Editor will take PA AND keep his Lobby man. In my time I frequently got stories that the PA pricks had neither time or inclination to chase. PA will not really probe the dirty stuff. About time Guido got his pass - best club in town. And I still miss it.
If this squeezes regional news then its bad news. OK I can see PA being able to rig up a system so if "Newtown" comes up in Hansard they email it to the Newtown Chronicle- but how is anyone but a dedicated correspondant going to know that, for example, Newtown is a major manufacturer of widgets and that the new widget regulations are a major issue.
Unfortunately, too many local hacks at Westminster are already shared between loads of local papers and don't have this sort of local knowledge anyway...
Must have missed the covering up
you certainly must have missed the general agreement to give out 'the line' or be frozen out. As for Kennedy, yes, one would need proof (though how much fun would it have been to publish and watch him try and decide if a libel action was worth it?) but that's not the point. The point is that it doesn't matter who does the reporting, they will either a)swallow and reproduce the line or b) be systematically starved of information.
Not saying PA will be any better, sure they won't in fact, but they will be cheaper.
The Lobby is by it's very nature a waste of time, why would anyone bother going let alone paying for someone to go?
Labour's Lindsay Hoyle and others want to ban fireworks. I would have thought our host might have a view on this.
Mr Gisoad - he took action against the Times and got an apology. Give out the line or be frozen out? Exclusives are what it is about, I understad. Talk about something you know about matey. What would that be?
er, understand. Know any good subs?
PA isn't bad..well relatively..but there are actually few reionals left with any reporters in London, never mind lobby fodder....the accountant have zapped them all...
sad.....
fuck I'm all full of typos, maybe I should work at the Guardian....
I would rather have regional beer drinkers/hacks than spads any day. regional hacks help bring politicians closer to the people. Well more so than spads.
Talk about something you know about matey. What would that be?
well, I did cover goings on in Westminster - non-lobby, natch - so I do know a little about it, matey. Or are you saying that 'information management' is dead?
Not asking for or expecting exclusives, just pointing out that the nature of the beast dictates that it is a symbiotic relationship.
All the good subs were murdered by the Grauniad years ago to bring everyone else down to their level...
Anything that makes the NUJ miserable makes me smile.
The idea that PA is the solution to the 'lobby problem' is farcical. PA hasn't got a clue what 'tailored' stories are as it doesn't have anyone on th ground in the region to tell it what the peasants are bothered about.
PA's idea of 'tailored' is national stories quoting local MPs (yawn) and local MPs riding their hobbyhorses in front of an empty Commons (yawn).
PA - perfectly anonymous, pretty anodyne, pleases acountants.
Anyway, Linford's right - this one's as old as the hills.
Mr Gisoad - blimey, did you really "cover things" in Westminster? How was that then, captions for News 24 (not lobby, obviously)? Got an exclusive in your life matey? Are you old enough to vote? Information management will never be dead, but the role of the journalist is not to go along with that. I agree that too many do. However, what did you do that makes you an expert? Please tell. I would love to hear!
Guido - this is bollocks. I am as stunned as all that you think joining the lobby is a good idea...stay outside and like the Indie in the late 80s and early nineties get it from the BBC or anybody else....
Seriously, Guido has no intention or expectation of joining the lobby. He's just baiting them and will wear his rejection letter proudly.
Either that or he really DOES drink too much.
Who cares ? I don't want my regional papers reporting on non stories coming from the capithole. It's another country as far as I'm concerned ;-)
The lobby is illegal anyway.
Basically the rule of the club is that lobby hacks get priviliged info in return for spinning it the Gov't's way. If you break this rule you are put on the 'shit list' and denied those tasty little exclusives that editors (i.e. your boss/your advertisers) hunger after.
The Prevention of Corruption Act 1906 makes it illegal for an agent to give a consideration or gift (e.g. a story or a fancy lunch) to an employee in the hope of influencing that person's behaviour in their job.
How is it sensible to replace someone who actually writes about the area a newspaper covers with someone who sends four copies of the same story to four different newspapers?
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