Here's a rare sight, you may think. A business story on the front page of a newspaper which isn't all gloom and doom. Click on the link below to read the story;
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Leicester-Factory-workers-163-57-000-thank-helping-save-firm/article-1804092-detail/article.html
The Mercury, as well as other media outlets, have been criticised during the recession for focusing too much on the negative.
However, I would say at least 75% of the business stories I have written in the past 18 months have been positive, in that they were either about a company creating jobs, increasing sales or winning orders, or about an initiative designed to help them.
The problem is negative stories become magnified during an economic crisis, making it look like the newspaper is being written by doom and gloom merchants.
Like many of the business stories I write, I found out about this by talking to a business person hoping to get a good positive line for the daily business pages. In this case Stuart Kellock's PR agent had sent a press release which I thought I could expand on. It ended up being so good it was elevated to the front page.
What helps, of course, is that Mr Kellock knows the value of good PR. He was willing to talk me through the problems which had been faced by his company in detail. It's not something a lot of people would be prepared to do with a journalist.
As I say repeatedly when accused of only being interested in gloomy stories, I know there are plenty of uplifting ones out there, it's just getting people to tell me about them.
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Leicester-Factory-workers-163-57-000-thank-helping-save-firm/article-1804092-detail/article.html
The Mercury, as well as other media outlets, have been criticised during the recession for focusing too much on the negative.
However, I would say at least 75% of the business stories I have written in the past 18 months have been positive, in that they were either about a company creating jobs, increasing sales or winning orders, or about an initiative designed to help them.
The problem is negative stories become magnified during an economic crisis, making it look like the newspaper is being written by doom and gloom merchants.
Like many of the business stories I write, I found out about this by talking to a business person hoping to get a good positive line for the daily business pages. In this case Stuart Kellock's PR agent had sent a press release which I thought I could expand on. It ended up being so good it was elevated to the front page.
What helps, of course, is that Mr Kellock knows the value of good PR. He was willing to talk me through the problems which had been faced by his company in detail. It's not something a lot of people would be prepared to do with a journalist.
As I say repeatedly when accused of only being interested in gloomy stories, I know there are plenty of uplifting ones out there, it's just getting people to tell me about them.
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