Comments for Shane Croucher

Comment on How much does City of Lincoln Council spend on advertising in the Lincolnshire Echo? by VentnorBlog

VentnorBlog — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:13:11 +0000

Very interesting to see the varying costs of the same job ad. I wonder which one actually brought the successful employee?

Comment on Do your own bloody work! by Elizabeth Fish

Elizabeth Fish — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 21:21:25 +0000

I used to get this a lot when I was Culture Editor. Take up the offer of the interview, ignore the rest.

Comment on Let them come, don’t about turn by Daniel Ionescu

Daniel Ionescu — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:18:21 +0000

This is indeed a poor practice. Thing is, most of these sites have a smaller online readership than in print (because of poor online practices, again), so it’s mainly a dead end. Unless they are willing to change, of course.

Comment on Let them come, don’t about turn by shanecroucher

shanecroucher — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:46:49 +0000

In actual fact I said ‘the echo’ not ‘The Lincolnshire Echo’. I used ‘echo’ as a general example, it could have been any of the numerous echos up and down the country. Including the Evening Echo from my home town, who also do this.

So, really, I didn’t name any sources.

It was a quick blog-post, not an essay.

Comment on Let them come, don’t about turn by Jp Thackeray

Jp Thackeray — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:32:22 +0000

You’ve only mentioned one form of ‘local newspaper’ that encourages readers to get the latest print edition to read more ‘The Lincolnshire Echo’ admittedly other local newspapers do this like the ‘York Press’ , ‘Selby Times’ but you’ve said ‘There are a lot of local newspapers that use their websites to try and drive people to their print versions’ and only mentioned one source.

Comment on Let them come, don’t about turn by Liam Haynes

Liam Haynes — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 11:44:20 +0000

I think it’s about playing to the strengths of each medium. Putting your carefully crafted long-form content in a print format where people can digest it at their own pace, pick it up and continue reading, etc. Then extending that, as you said, with tie in content online that plays to the strengths of that medium, multimedia or integration with other services (Spotify streams for music content, film trailers etc for your film content).

I don’t think it’s about turning people away from or to either format, it’s giving them content with each that plays to the respective format’s strengths.

Comment on Is PR killing real journalism? by shanecroucher

shanecroucher — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:23:47 +0000

Hi Katy,

Cheers for the comment!

It’s just a habit for me to refer to PRs, I use it as a catch-all term for those working in the PR industry (officers, execs, etc).

I agree that it isn’t just PRs who sell-out for cash, but I was just making the point that defending a vested interest and getting your hands dirty in the process may be softened by a hella-load of cash monies at the end of it all!

Comment on Is PR killing real journalism? by carli smith

carli smith — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:13:39 +0000

Fantastic article Shane

Comment on Is PR killing real journalism? by Katy Shinton

Katy Shinton — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:42:00 +0000

Nice to see the article written in a very open, honest and balanced way.

I totally agree with your points raised; which is refreshing after Rob Well’s article on The Linc, and even the debate itself. Mudslinging, namecalling and one-lane blame is not the cause for the fall of Journalism…. there is a much bigger picture, with both controllable and unavoidable factors.

You are right in saying that you can get good and bad practitioners of both professions; it takes a kind of PERSON to behave unethically, NOT a profession. But in your response to the comment, ‘a large pay-cheque probably helps too’… I think this is a little unnecessary. There is many issues about pay; there are tirelessly hard, yet poorly paid jobs out there, but on the flip-side over-paid and ‘easy’ jobs (the celebrity arguement). It is your motivation for the profession, and your drive to achieve, that is the fuel behind how good a job you do (well should be). Not the pay-cheque. But then again, if times are hard enough, then some people DO sell themselves out for the cash. To re-iterate though… this is not just PRO bound, and it was wrong to suggest this. I am sure many journalists/papers that have been sued for ethical breaches were thinking about the revenues as their motivation…

To reiterate Andy Green’s idea; With the ‘citizen journalism’ on the up (facebook… Twitter… The ‘poorer quality’, but in a lot of cases the quickest and most widespread) I feel it should no longer be about 2 separate enemy camps, but rather making sure both sides are adequatly armed to offer the best quality,
most credible service to counter act the viral rumour system that is
social networking!

Point to raise in the last paragraph; I think it should be ‘PRO’s (Public Relations Officers) as opposed to ‘PR’s'? If you are listing the proffession?

A great read nonetheless.

Katy

Comment on Trying my hand at a bit of subbing… by shanecroucher

shanecroucher — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:50:07 +0000

Lucky I don’t want to be a sub then!

Fair call, libel laws are ridiculous. Particularly no-win no-fee. Perhaps I’m looking at it too much from the safety of a lecture theatre than the reality of a newsroom.

In some cases it’s still worth the risk, though. That said, a story about the Horse and Groom probably isn’t!