Monday, 22 February 2010

Indy and Guardian: When two tribes go to war


This isn't going to help the already strained relations between the Guardian and the Independent. Both papers' media sections feature stories about each other today.
Ian Herbert's piece in the Independent is about the bitterness felt by the Manchester Evening News staff over its sale by Guardian Media Group. It contains this par: "The abiding sense among MEN staff that The Guardian occupies another world to them was never felt more acutely than when the journalists from the Manchester trade union chapel headed to London last year for a crucial meeting with their highly supportive Guardian counterparts - only to be told that they must wait around for a meeting room to become free, as it was being used for a yoga class. 'Nothing against that but we were fighting for our professional lives at the time,' says one Manchester staffer."
Media Guardian leads on a piece by Peter Kirwan on the hidden costs involved in the sale of the Independent which speculates that ex-KGB agent Alexander Lebedev may even get the title for free. His article also contains a quote from a media analyst, Douglas McCabe of Enders Analysis, saying of the Independent: "They have a real problem of scale. At these levels of circulation, you start to drop off the radar screen at advertising agencies. The Independent's circulation is now the size of a big regional newspaper."
Let the postings begin.
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3 comments:

  1. Unknown22 February 2010 at 13:48

    Well, at least they can agree on one thing: both publications have used images without paying the photographers: http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=873381

    and

    http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=872809.

    And they both got caught :-)

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  2. Busfield23 February 2010 at 02:58

    Actually, I think that both are valid pieces of media reporting. We looked at the financing of the deal to sell the Independent to a Russian billionaire. And why it is likely to go ahead. To be fair to Lebedev, I think he has not done a bad job with the Standard. And we have to admire his efforts with Novaya Gazeta.
    Meanwhile the Indy has a legitimate look at the GMG/MEN deal. It raised strong feelings and debate when we wrote about it on MediaGuardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/feb/09/guardian-historic-link-manchester

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  3. Jon Slattery23 February 2010 at 08:50

    Thanks Steve,
    Fair point. I think I was anticipating an angry reaction from the Indy along the lines of what happened when MediaGuardian wrote about the paper's finances last May http://jonslattery.blogspot.com/2009/05/angry-indy-hacks-give-guardian-posting.html
    Perhaps, now they are more resigned to their fate.

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