Building a wall

As a journalist you sometimes write a story you know will turn a good relationship into a sour one, and which could make it more difficult to do your job in the future.

For a regional business journalist, writing a negative story about a major high-profile company can sometimes be like invoking the wrath of a big beast.

The story below, on page 3 of today's Leicester Mercury, is a prime example;

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Fury-Barratt-directors-receive-massive-bonuses/article-2757257-detail/article.html

So why did I write it?

Well first of all it's a story which chimes with the times. Many thousands of workers in the county, including those at the Leicester Mercury, have endured a pay freeze for the past two years.

Add to this the return of the bonus culture among bankers and other groups of professionals, which has been a huge hot topic in recent months, and you have a story which is going to attract a lot of interest.

Barratt, unsurprisingly, is not happy with what was written. I had an interesting conversation with its PR representative this afternoon who said that our good relationship built up over the past few years had been badly harmed. This could, I fear, now mean I find it harder to get access to the senior directors of the company when covering major stories.

I pointed out that 90 per cent of the stories I have written about Barratt, and before that Wilson Bowden, have been positive. That is the nature of regional business journalism - most of the stories you write about big businesses on your patch are going to be positive because a huge chunk of your readership works for them.

I was slightly sad that he'd taken this attitude. I had got on quite well with him, and still hope to in future.

Some would say it doesn't happen often enough, while others would say it happens too much, but in regional business journalism writing negative stories about large companies is just as important as writing about their successes.

And there's certainly no bonus in ignoring a good story.