‘Enemies of journalism?’ Ex-Mail editor Geordie Greig blasts 'Tory press'
And we reveal how British GQ is preparing for life without Google and why 5 News political editor Andy Bell thinks there has been too much focus on polls in UK election coverage
Good morning, and welcome to your Future of Media newsletter on Thursday, 27 June.
Declining trust in journalism appears to be at the heart of many industry challenges.
Few would pay to read a publication they do not trust.
And last night former Daily Mail editor Geordie Greig appeared to lay part of the blame for declining trust in news with right-wing newspapers which supported Britain leaving the EU.
He also blamed his former title for the current woes in the Conservative Party noting that it (and the Telegraph) supported Liz Truss’s disastrous stint as Prime Minister and saying it has failed to hold the party sufficiently to account since he left.
He said: “Not enemies of the people exactly, but perhaps enemies of accurate, prescient journalism?”
Delivering the annual Hugh Cudlipp lecture in London, The Independent editor issued a clarion call for a return to core journalism values and striking a balance, as Cudlipp’s Mirror did, between journalism which stands for something but that also understands the difference between news and opinion.
You can read the highlights of his speech here, which included the first detailed account of events which led up to him being fired as Daily Mail editor in 2021.
He ends on an optimistic note, trumpeting the commercial success of The Independent which now (with the former Buzzfeed brands it acquired in March) claims a monthly audience of 80 million.
He notes that UK election campaign coverage has been dominated by reports on polling rather than policy. When the only poll that matters takes place on 4 July (and given opinion pollsters have got it wrong in the past) wouldn’t we better off giving voters a clear impression of what the parties stand for, he asks?
New from Press Gazette
‘Enemies of accurate, prescient journalism?’ Geordie Greig hits out at Mail and Telegraph
“The moment my tenure ended, Johnson could be forgiven for thinking he’d gone to heaven. The paper downplayed the scandals that eventually forced him to resign. You might say they wallpapered over them.”
Less on polls, more policy please says 5 News political editor Andy Bell
“We think we know what’s going to happen, but actually we don’t. I remember opinion polls in 2017 telling us one thing, then Theresa May lost her majority. In 2010 David Cameron was going to win a majority and he didn’t.”
What happened when British GQ stopped trying to ‘feed the algorithm’
Neha-Tamara Patel explains strategy shift that saw GQ stop always trying to "feed the news cycle".
Previously on Press Gazette
‘So many damn follow-up emails’: Jay Rayner tells PRs to stop ‘driving me nuts’
Campaigners claim victory as Julian Assange freed after five years in Belmarsh
Top 50 news websites in the world: BBC fastest-growing among ten biggest brands in May
Nigel Farage goes to war with Mail titles over coverage of Ukraine comments
Mind the London news gap: The boroughs which have little coverage of council activities
Has Rishi Sunak already lost support of The Sun? Press general election bias tracked
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Am I right in understanding Jay wants only print press releases?