Speaker’s press aide quits after misleading journalists

Posted by Paul McNally on 24 February 2008 at 08:03
Tags: Journalism, PR

Mike Granatt, the press officer for Commons speaker Michael Martin, has resigned after he inadvertently misled journalists about the office’s expenses.

Granatt admitted he had not told reporters the truth about £4,000 worth of taxi bills for shopping trips that had been claimed on expenses.

“I had been led to mislead journalists over material facts,” Granatt said last night. “The statement was approved by people who knew the fact. This arose through no fault of Mr Speaker”.

Best practice ‘churnalism’

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 22 February 2008 at 10:35
Tags: PR

In the wake of the ‘churnalism’ row, spawned from Nick Davies’ Flat Earth News, PR Week has advised PR specialists on the best market research methods for producing a “genuine news hook that can be associated with a brand”.

Jan Walsh, former consumer editor on the Daily Mirror and now MD of market research company Consumer Analysis told PR Week that journalists wont use research-based stories if the research is taken from a low-cost small sample of between 100 and 250 people. She said: “These days journalists don’t see that as a robust enough sample, and PR people have stopped using them to avoid wasting valuable media contacts’ time with non-credible stories.”

PR Week explained four techniques “that help grab headlines” - Tickbox ‘combo’ survey, Consumer Analysis Hybrid Survey, YouGov’s Brand Index and Kadence insight generation.

Churnalism: More reactions to Nick Davies’ book

Posted by Martin Stabe on 5 February 2008 at 10:01
Tags: PR

More media bloggers have been reacting to Nick Davies’ new book, which argues that that “churnalism” is displacing journalism.

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Journalism or ‘churnalism’ - what happens in your newsroom?

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 31 January 2008 at 09:38
Tags: Journalism, PR

Guardian writer Nick Davies launches a searing indictment of what he calls “churnalism” in this week’s Press Gazette.
Citing new research carried out by Cardiff University’s journalism department - he claims that 80 per cent of home news stories in the main quality UK national newspapers are at least partially made up of recycled material from [...]