[Archived] What's Occurring At The Telegraph?

[mike at picture]

I know this has been mentioned in other threads but there seems to be a drop in standards at the Telegraph in respect of their sports reporting. Andy Neild more often than not has not contributed to main Rovers features and a succession of other journos seem to rehash negative redtop tales of who we are losing imminently.

Add to this the love-in with Brendan Flood and it is all becoming a little tiresome.

I think it is the job of the local rag to, yes, report the news of their club but do so with an angle that appeals to it's readership with a degree of bias.

Nobody can accuse the Telegraph of that just now. You only have to hear Newcastle Chronicle sports editor Alan Oliver interviewed on the radio for an idea of how football should be reported locally.

Anybody got an inside track on the current goings on at thr LT?

[John]

Could be that Andy Neild is on holiday at the moment, and there is no real news to report, apart from the rubbish the national press are reporting.

[philipl]

Mark Hughes ought to get some "dealing with the local media" training from Ferguson.

No-one at the LT would survive beyond lunchtime when he got back.

[mike at picture]

Could be that Andy Neild is on holiday at the moment, and there is no real news to report, apart from the rubbish the national press are reporting.

Point taken. However there was a story in what I think was Saturday's LT that intimated that Chelsea were on the verge of a bid for McCarthy. There were no quotes at all just a load of rumour and inuendo from the tabloids that had been warmed over and published as gospel.

The Telegraph hasn't been like that before. If I want that crap I'll buy The Mirror or The Sun.

Rehashing tabloid Sh1te is not their job.

[Manchester Blue]

Haven't read the telegraph properly for years even online. For a paper that is supposed to be local and therefore you would expect supportive of the club, it seems to do the opposite. Often negative, many articles based in rumour as others have said. Maybe they are bitter at getting very little decent titbits from the club. Either way it has managed to turn itself from a decent source of news to a rag that I wouldn't bother with.

Maybe it's down to the internet rendering scoops out of date, i'm not sure. All I can say is compared to the Manchester Evening News which I read cos it's free and all over work, it's appalling. The MEN is almost too much the other way in it's praise of all things Man U or City but you can understand that. Strangely the LET seems to have failed to grasp they are supposed to be supportive of the local team, the most succesful one in the region at that.

[JAL]

I think whats happening at the Telegraph is that its become pro Burnley and anti-Blackburn maybe because the Asian population dont buy into the rag have little interest in Rovers thus the circulation has dropped dramatically so the editor and journos who also have no love of Rovers or are deeply jealous of the club, players and fans focus more on Burnley or at least increase the Burnley content - its something i cannot except and wont tolerate.

Now, i just read the sports section at whichever store has it on display then put it back in the rack, something i strongly recommend everyone should do, and give the finger to the editor and owners of the Lancshire Telegraph.

If Andy Neild is on holiday it definitely exposes his colleagues on the sports desk of the Lancashire Telegraph.

[Gav]

Andy Neild isn't a Rovers fan anyway so lets not pin our hopes on him fighting our corner........

[Flopsy]

i suppose another reason is that people are getting more and more info online, I know I can read the paper via mobile internet, and therefore wouldnt bother buying a paper copy

[mike at picture]

Andy Neild isn't a Rovers fan anyway so lets not pin our hopes on him fighting our corner........

If he and the Telegraph wont fight our corner nobody will. If that is the case we will be the only club that has been deserted by it's local media. I dont believe the club has done anything to deserve that.

[Tris]

Andy Neild isn't a Rovers fan anyway so lets not pin our hopes on him fighting our corner........

erm ... to be fair, he is - very much so

the sports editor isn't though ... maybe that's why the wannabe hacks submit the sort of rubbish which has triggered this thread

[thenodrog]

After having had the LET delivered for over 4 decades (RIP 'Sir' Alf Thornton) my wife cancelled he LET 6 months ago.

S'funny but the only thing that i have missed is the hatch em, match em and despatch em column.

[wilyrover]

I don't like the way Neild hardly ever calls us 'Rovers' in his articles. It's always 'Blackburn' this and 'Blackburn' that. Obviously not a 'Rovers' fan.

[philipl]

I think whats happening at the Telegraph is that its become pro Burnley and anti-Blackburn maybe because the Asian population dont buy into the rag have little interest in Rovers thus the circulation has dropped dramatically so the editor and journos who also have no love of Rovers or are deeply jealous of the club, players and fans focus more on Burnley or at least increase the Burnley content - its something i cannot except and wont tolerate.

If Andy Neild is on holiday it definitely exposes his colleagues on the sports desk of the Lancashire Telegraph.

Either the Dingles are attracting their Asian population in a way the Rovers are failing to attract our's or there are several serious logic flaws in this post.

Clearly the Dingle reporting section of LT has got its act together and the Rovers reporting section is rubbish. The LT doesn't seem to mind that the journalistic content of the Kevin Gallacher, Simon Garner and supporters blog section is vastly superior to anything ever produced by its so-called professional journalists.

[Roost]

Why not just stop buying it?

The one thing that hurts Editors, Sub Editors and Sports Editors is a decline in newspaper sales. Why do you think all the red tops are obsessed with figures..............

If I want to know about Rovers, I go on here and look. This is a better newspaper than the LET could ever hope to be.

One Love - BRFC

[bob fleming]

If I want to know about Rovers, I go on here and look. This is a better newspaper than the LET could ever hope to be.

I agree - but there's no Margo Grimshaw column on here or a weekend "What's On" guide with a picture of Winona Ryder* who obviously goes out in Blackburn on a Saturday night, probably to The Napier.

If BRFCS could introduce these features then I reckon the LT would be on it's arse within a week.

* Or Sharon Stone, or Angelina Jollie - you get the picture.

[trueblue]

There's the answer..... Margo should write the Rovers articles in the LET !! at least those articles would be more passionate than the drivel we are currently expected to read

[CAPT KAYOS]

Being out of the area nowadays difficult to ascertain what is happening here ... it used to be the case that they had area editions ie Blackburn, Bumleh, Hyndburn (Accy) etc where they covered the teams more in the respective edition area's and at the weekend dedicated couple of pages to each team - is this not the case anymore?

[JAL]

Either the Dingles are attracting their Asian population in a way the Rovers are failing to attract our's or there are several serious logic flaws in this post.

Clearly the Dingle reporting section of LT has got its act together and the Rovers reporting section is rubbish. The LT doesn't seem to mind that the journalistic content of the Kevin Gallacher, Simon Garner and supporters blog section is vastly superior to anything ever produced by its so-called professional journalists.

The Asian point was that probably not enough people in the Blackburn area were buying the paper to sustain an independent Blackburn paper.

At the end of the day the Lancashire Telegraph have basically restructered themselves by throwing all of east lancashires news into one and just altering the front and back pages to appeal to the area they are selling in with the Rovers content left on an equal footing with Burnleys sports coverage which is something many of us cant accept.

[thenodrog]

The Asian point was that probably not enough people in the Blackburn area were buying the paper to sustain an independent Blackburn paper.

Blackburn 2007....... No proper paper, no decent pubs, clubs or chippy's, no butchers, bakers, greengrocers. But a shed load of cheap downmarket supermarkets and restaurants offering hallal cuisine.*

You aussie exiles got it bang on.

* btw hot on the heels of the Shepherds Rest becoming the (very good) Spice Lounge and the Spring Mill becoming the Sylett we now in the space of a few months have the Brown Cow on Haslingden Old Road, the Audi garage on Blackburns inner ring road, Goodfello's and even the Hordens turning into 'Indians'. I know market forces rule in the end but what an insight into the way the current buzz word 'integration' is being played out in our town.

[USABlue]

The LT doesn't seem to mind that the journalistic content of the Kevin Gallacher, Simon Garner and supporters blog section is vastly superior to anything ever produced by its so-called professional journalists.

You are so right philip, usually an interesting read the guest reporters are. Oh for the days of true blue Alf, with his "slightly" biased match reports.

[RevidgeBlue]

Either the Dingles are attracting their Asian population in a way the Rovers are failing to attract our's or there are several serious logic flaws in this post.

Clearly the Dingle reporting section of LT has got its act together and the Rovers reporting section is rubbish. The LT doesn't seem to mind that the journalistic content of the Kevin Gallacher, Simon Garner and supporters blog section is vastly superior to anything ever produced by its so-called professional journalists.

I don't entirely agree with that, imo the Kevin Gallagher column is excellent, whereas the Simon Garner column is nowhere near as good and I always got the impression it was cobbled together by Andy Neild and his mates over a few beers down the local boozer. "What should we chuck in this week?"

To be fair I think when Andy Neild is doing the Rovers pieces they're of reasonable quality, but when he's off (which seems to be increasingly frequently - I think he has a young family) the other reporters on the Sports desk Gary York or Gavin Gibbon seem to recycle any old tripe.

In today's news hot off the press Gavin Gibbon is running last week's old rumours about Newcastle allegedly being interested in Nonda. (Does this site charge them royalties?) Elsewhere young whipper snappers Ronnie Clayton and Brian Douglas sign up for Rovers and the black plague hits London.

However going back to my time writing a column at the LT I have to agree that within the sports desk as a whole there there seemed to be far more of a leaning towards Burnley than Rovers. In addition my column frequently seemed to be badly edited, punctuated, or have bits missed out making it not read correctly.

Stephen Cummings' version seemed always intact and immaculately punctuated. When on one occasion I attempted to slip in a joke about Burnley conceding seven goals during a game, it was chopped about so as to make no sense whatsoever. I challenged this (as it wasn't the first time) and was accused by someone on the sports desk (not Paul Plunkett who was away) of having made an "obtuse" reference.

As for recent coverage, as mike at picture mentioned the paper might as well be renamed the Brendan Flood (life and) Times.

[USABlue]

However going back to my time writing a column at the LT I have to agree that within the sports desk as a whole there there seemed to be far more of a leaning towards Burnley than Rovers. In addition my column frequently seemed to be badly edited, punctuated, or have bits missed out making it not read correctly.

Stephen Cummings' version seemed always intact and immaculately punctuated.

as mike at picture mentioned the paper might as well be renamed the Brendan Flood (life and) Times.

I remember you complaining about that at the time Rev. It does not seem quite right. Funny though reading the dingles they seem to think the the LET is completely pro Rovers. Perhaps the delivery Dept. has Blackburn and Burnley mixed up and the Dingles are getting Blackburn copies and vica versa.

It really does need fixing and I don't know why Mr Williams is not applying any pressure, we really don't need the local paper adding to an already malignent apathy. In keeping with Mr Williams' rallying cry for the town to be painted blue and white the local paper would be a great place to start IMHO.

BTW Rev, this is getting waaay too creepy, I am always right behind your posts. I promise I am not stalking you.

[Blackburn Ender]

It is also quite probable that the club and players no longer afford the kind of access to players and staff the Telegraph's reporters used to get.

In an effort to 'control' the news agenda, Rovers may be limiting the LET to official press conferences.

Does Andy Neild have freedom to roam Brockhall talking to players, etc?

Do Rovers have a dedicated employee whose job is to give the press daily stories from the club?

My experience of their PR set up is that the whole media side of Rovers is poorly managed, at best, if you cannot get access to the reliably excellent John Williams or Tom Finn.

I'd be interested to know Andy Neild's views on the matter were he able to communicate them to us somehow.

[JAL]

Was LD Rover a columist on the Lancashire Evening Telegraph if so would be good to see what he has to say dealing with the paper.

[rover_groo]

Andy Neild isn't a Rovers fan anyway so lets not pin our hopes on him fighting our corner........

Don't agree with you on that one Gav?

Any proof of pudding on this? Have already done my research on this after hearing this comment quite a while ago! I certainly never found any proof of these rumours, so I would dish them off. With regards to the LET, I have always found it to be a very accurate and interesting read whenever I read it. I think that when July hits, then rest assured that all will be back on track.

Everyone is entitled to a break and think this thread really tosses the applecart when it's detached from the horse and in free control. In fairness if Mr Neild is away on holidays, he's taking them on a quiet period concerning Rovers and would be best to leave this to rest.