[Archived] LET

[SAS]

After all the ronaldinho confusion and the let thinking they had a scoop on the basis we weren't bidding for him. Despite a sort of confirmation by venkys on twitter.

Have they lost credibility??

I mean we all knew on here the bid was live until the let through us a dodgy report.

Is brfcs now the place for up to the MINUTE news!

[Mattyblue]

Great plug SAS

Now I don't know what lengths the LT go for a scoop, but to me they seem to take the club line hook, line and sinker on every occasion.

Presumably they ring up the press office at Ewood etc, have on the record press conferences with club staff but that is only going to get you so far.

However, being lied to by the Rao's might make them wise up a little.

[SAS]

I'd say a big embarrassment for them, I no longer purchase the paper for sports as it's sometimes news from two days ago.

[slough_rover]

Its too rough even to use as arse paper. Im afraid the let is about as useful as a chocolate tea pot.

[philipl]

So you are saying Venkatesgh Rao did not give an interview and Andy Cryer invented what he said?

[BRFCS Content]

This is Kamy.

I am going to defend the Lancashire Telegraph here. They saw the Ronaldinho story appear, so they checked it and one of the Owners denied it. Now what exactly have they done wrong here, when THE OWNER of the club is telling you that the story is not correct and is prepared to go on the record then of course they are going to run with that story, any news organisation would do the same. I know Andy Cryer gets a lot of stick on here, but he works incredibly hard to try and get factual and accurate news, the dynamic of his relationship with the club is changing with the new owners, but again what can he do if one of the owners decides to be economical with the truth.

It is the owners that need to look at their communication strategy because to be frank it is making them look like a complete joke at the moment. They need to all be singing of the same hymn sheet, the mixed messages are an absolute god send to the national press who are having an absolute field day with all of this. Venky's intentions may be good, they want to communicate with all stakeholders and that is most welcome but what they seriously need to look at is how they communicate, the current situation in terms of communication coming out of Venky's is not sustainable. They need to develop a clear protocol, if they don't want the likes of John Williams to handle media relations then they should hire a PR company.

[thenodrog]

Radio Lancs and the LT should be staunch allies of the club for the good of themselves and BRFC. This season for one reason or another they have become alienated and that can only be bad for them and bad for the club. With this lot in charge the press need to be kept on side.

[RevidgeBlue]

Radio Lancs and the LT should be staunch allies of the club for the good of themselves and BRFC. This season for one reason or another they have become alienated and that can only be bad for them and bad for the club. With this lot in charge the press need to be kept on side.

If the Desai's are being economical with the truth with the LT then they only have themselves to blame for their one sided coverage of the new owner's regime and reaction to the Allardyce sacking.

If the shoe fits and all that. Seem to recall a certain Mr. Williams possibly not being too happy about certain contributions in the LT years ago.

Short memories.

[thenodrog]

If the Desai's are being economical with the truth with the LT then they only have themselves to blame for their one sided coverage of the new owner's regime and reaction to the Allardyce sacking.

If the shoe fits and all that. Seem to recall a certain Mr. Williams possibly not being too happy about certain contributions in the LT years ago.

Short memories.

Economical with the truth OR lavish with untruths?

[RevidgeBlue]

Economical with the truth OR lavish with untruths?

Does it really matter?

The LT could have adopted a "suck it and see" approach to the new owners and the sacking of Sam but have been extremely critical and also swamped the paper with critical pieces from other ex players etc.

That's entirely their prerogative and good luck to them. In many ways it's a refreshing change from the previous stance of merely acting as the club mouthpiece.

But like I say, they can't be too surprised if they have temporarily lost the confidence of the new owners.

[jim mk2]

The LET was merely reflecting the views of the majority of Rovers supporters in criticising the sacking of Sam so well done to the sports editor and his reporter

If the new owners were more astute they could use the LET as a mouthpiece for their organisation.

Unfortunately they appear to have no idea how public relations work in the west.

[bluebruce]

Great plug SAS

Now I don't know what lengths the LT go for a scoop, but to me they seem to take the club line hook, line and sinker on every occasion.

Presumably they ring up the press office at Ewood etc, have on the record press conferences with club staff but that is only going to get you so far.

However, being lied to by the Rao's might make them wise up a little.

I think if you read today's LET, the tone struck me almost immediately as them feeling stung and lashing back. I think Mr. Rao has made a severe error by feeding them drivel. And you can't blame the LET for publishing what they did yesterday. I think in future they'll be less pro-Venkys.

[RevidgeBlue]

I think in future they'll be less pro-Venkys.

They never have been. Certainly not in comparison to their stance towards the previous owners.

[deftangel]

The LET's job is partly to report what the owner tells it. If the owners deny the story, then that is news in of itself and reporting it, true or not, is perfectly valid. The piece on Ronaldinho, in of itself was fine.

What isn't the LET's job is to take the owner's word as gospel, especially our new ones, and then pooh pooh stories from other outlets "because the owner said so and we have the inside line" type johnny big ######. Some of the comments on Twitter were inferring that only they had the *real* story which of course just sets them up to look silly the next day. I know Mr Nixon winds them up but they need to rise above it.

http://twitter.com/#!/PaulPlunkettLT/status/21846629975851008

Where it is obvious our new owners are back tracking and there is something in a story despite denials to the contrary, they should investigate properly and not be reduced to point scoring, despite the occasional provocation. The Facebook leak was there for all to see, as was it's swift removal. It was patently obvious something was going on.

The best press ally for Rovers isn't one that just regurgitates what it is fed from the club.

That said, our friends in Pune are not helping matters in the slightest.

[Jeru tha Damaja]

The LET was merely reflecting the views of the majority of Rovers supporters in criticising the sacking of Sam so well done to the sports editor and his reporter

If the new owners were more astute they could use the LET as a mouthpiece for their organisation.

Unfortunately they appear to have no idea how public relations work in the west.

Good gosh man, do they realise they're blowing the business opportunity of a lifetime?

Nobody reads that paper, so what's the point in using it as a mouthpiece when most media outlets will print the important points of what you say anyway?

Mrs Desai has presented herself as the brains of the operation and as being quite honest from what I've seen. I'm no journalist, but I've already realised that anything coming from the Rao brothers needs to be treated with scepticism until their big sister confirms it. If Cryer and Plunkett haven't figured that out yet then that's going to be a problem for them.

[Glenn]

I'm with Kamy on this one. The LET got the same rumour we all did, they took the time to verify it, then got stung when the verification turned out to be false, despite it coming from the horses mouth. Once again Venky's PR shot a potential ally in the foot. It could just have easily have been us (or any news outlet).

I've been very critical of Rovers' PR in the past, but their failings are trivial compared to the howlers of Venky's PR since the takeover.

[Jeru tha Damaja]

I'm with Kamy on this one. The LET got the same rumour we all did, they took the time to verify it, then got stung when the verification turned out to be false, despite it coming from the horses mouth. Once again Venky's PR shot a potential ally in the foot. It could just have easily have been us (or any news outlet).

I've been very critical of Rovers' PR in the past, but their failings are trivial compared to the howlers of Venky's PR since the takeover.

Lesson for the future, don't print every word you hear from talking horses.

[philipl]

Lesson for the future, don't print every word you hear from talking horses.

That's our owner you are talking about!

[rog of the rovers]

I get the LET delivered everyday and as its my local paper I will support it, but the quality of journalism is poor.

There are so many mistakes! Poor spelling is the main offender, but poor editing is my biggest bug. Some sentences don't make any sense, its like they have started to write one thing then changed their minds half way through!

A personal favourite of mine was when we signed Steven N'Zonzi.

"Blackburn's new 8 foot 6 midfielder....."

I was too young to really remember the Peter White days, but I suspect the standards where higher back then.

[the original david brent]

Good gosh man, do they realise they're blowing the business opportunity of a lifetime?

Nobody reads that paper, so what's the point in using it as a mouthpiece when most media outlets will print the important points of what you say anyway?

On what basis do you form the opinion that nobody reads the LET?! Have you got any evidence to back that up? You haven't because it's complete tosh. I happen to get the LET most days. Fair play to Andy Cryer's stance on Venkys, which has been rather sceptical at best, and reflects the views it would seem of the majority of Rovers fans

[Jeru tha Damaja]

That's our owner you are talking about!

Our owners? They own a football club, they don't own me.

On what basis do you form the opinion that nobody reads the LET?! Have you got any evidence to back that up? You haven't because it's complete tosh. I happen to get the LET most days. Fair play to Andy Cryer's stance on Venkys, which has been rather sceptical at best, and reflects the views it would seem of the majority of Rovers fans

'Nobody' was obviously an exaggeration, but the idea was clearly that very few people read that particular paper. The total circulation of the paper wouldn't fill Ewood Park (25,000-ish, not sure if that takes returns into account), so if you take away the number who already support a club other than Rovers and the number who don't read the sport pages at all then you probably aren't left with many people depending on it for stories about the club. Then consider that the paper is only available days later, by request, outside its circulation area and their website isn't advertised at all as far as I'm aware.

If the owners want to get their message to the fans then I guarantee a national media outlet or the internet would reach more people a lot quicker, rendering a local paper rather useless.

In short, the Lancashire Telegraph has more to gain from Rovers than the club could get from the paper. Just putting Ronaldinho's name and 'Rovers' on the boards outside newsagents will probably have increased their sales today, but has it increased people's exposure to the club? Well since their first order of business should have been to contradict the story they wrote yesterday and every update since it broke has been on most other media sources immediately I would think not.

So there you go, I've explained what I meant (even though I thought it would have been obvious anyway) and I've given you evidence of the limitations of the LET. Just because you read the paper doesn't mean it's an effective tool, so what other evidence have you got to suggest it would be a useful ally for the club?

[jim mk2]

Good gosh man, do they realise they're blowing the business opportunity of a lifetime?

Nobody reads that paper, so what's the point in using it as a mouthpiece when most media outlets will print the important points of what you say anyway?

Mrs Desai has presented herself as the brains of the operation and as being quite honest from what I've seen. I'm no journalist, but I've already realised that anything coming from the Rao brothers needs to be treated with scepticism until their big sister confirms it. If Cryer and Plunkett haven't figured that out yet then that's going to be a problem for them.

Despite declining circulation alot of people still do read the LET and it continues to be an important part of East Lancs life. If the new owners really wanted to embrace the town and its supporters they would do well to makde friends with the local newspaper..

[JAL]

Despite declining circulation alot of people still do read the LET and it continues to be an important part of East Lancs life. If the new owners really wanted to embrace the town and its supporters they would do well to makde friends with the local newspaper..

The restructure of the Lancashire Telegraph has meant integration of wider east Lancashire news which has diluted local news which in turn has seriously reduced its credibility within the local populace.

Its no surprise that they LT are now very weak when it comes to credibility and their back page story's over the past few weeks about Rovers have yet again shown these people up as not having Blackburns best interests at heart.

[Mr. E]

I'm still not sure why Venky's would lie about not wanting Ronaldinho though. What is the benefit of denying it?

[JAL]

I'm still not sure why Venky's would lie about not wanting Ronaldinho though. What is the benefit of denying it?

Backtracking, because they'd probably found that they had gone about it all the wrong way and found that it could cost them dearly through a fine or other sanctions. Just a thought.