Is it just me, or are there other agri-hacks, becoming increasingly annoyed/disillusioned at the blatant favouritism being shown by some PRs to Farmers Weekly?
The desire to get material into the Yellow Peril – not terribly well read in Scotland and several other regions of the UK, please do remember – means that those of us in the sticks often don't get news releases on many issues until the day they appear in FW.
The Royal Agricultural Society of England and Oxford University are the latest to indulge in the not very pleasing "let's give the news release to FW first" syndrome.
FW appear not only to have been given first sight of the appointment of John Torode as the new president of the RASE, but also granted an interview with the Aussie who is a BBC MasterChef presenter and owner of the restaurant Smiths of Smithfield.
FW were on Friday able to trumpet the appointment on their news pages and then over two feature pages conduct an in-depth interview with Mr Torode.
That's clearly not something that was stuck together as FW went to bed on Wednesday of last week, rather something that had been well-planned by the RASE.
But why the favouritism? Why were the rest of us left with just the news release and no opportunity to speak to Mr Torode?
Even more annoying though was Oxford University's decision to give its report on the milk sector to FW who was then able to give it decent show over its business pages.
When did the rest of us receive the report? Yes, 11.18am on Friday morning – hours after FW hit the streets.
I can see why PRs want to get material into FW as it is allegedly the country's leading farming publication.
What they are, however, forgetting is that in many areas of Britain it is the regional newspaper or another specialist farming magazine which has the bigger agricultural readership.
My plea is to end the favouritism and for everyone to be given the same opportunity.
PRs might then find that their clients receive coverage Britain-wide rather than in just one publication. At the moment they are merely alienating themselves, and their clients, as once the story appears in FW it dies a death for the rest of us, unless it happens to be so significant that it can't be ignored.
What do you think? Are you an agri-hack who is annoyed, or are you one of the guilty PRs? I'd love to hear your views and to stir up a debate on the issue.
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2 comments:
I’m sorry you’re feeling neglected, Joe.
Surely, as a fellow journalist and chairman of the Guild you should be applauding good journalistic practice – like securing exclusives.
You won’t expect me to share the details about these particular stories – but on a general level this is always going to happen because PRs know they’re likely to get more coverage from a title if they give it a tip-off or work with it exclusively.
Fact is, too, we’re not part of some information-sharing cabal. We’re in competition with each other.
Incidentally, it was a very nice lunch I had a John Torode’s restaurant!
The announcement of the president of the RASE is no more an exclusive than fly in the air. It's an annual appointment and the RASE has long had an association with FW. I suspect this is an exclusive more spoon fed than the result of journalistic endeavour. It certainly looks that way from here.
Oh and exclusives only apply if you have them to your yourself. This "scoop" went out on Thursday via a press release from Denis Chamberlain, a former editor of your organ, so it could appear elsewhere at the same time as FW.
The Oxford milk story is also spoon fed by the look of it.
Oh and this blog reflects my personal views, not those of the Guild, as it said in the original disclaimer.
Competition is a good thing, I like it and thrive on it. If you want to read proper exclusivse then look elsewhere.
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