A monumental bout of the dreaded ‘slow news day’ has struck like a lighting bolt at the offices of the Retch behemoth that is the Manchester Evening News today, but their “a post every 10 minutes” mantra stumbled on unimpeded.
Presumably returning from her lunch break, a hack had noticed the appearance of some new concrete blocks on the approach road outside Piccadilly Station, so immediately reached(!) for her phone and a lapel mic (practically eating the thing instead of using the lapel clip provided) and took to the MEN’s page in a Live Video. In what could be mistaken as an audition for the BBC News Channel, she managed to eek out almost 16 minutes of live reporting about the said blocks after a false start whilst constantly repeating a right-to-reply provided by Network Rail (and now I’m now gouging a story out of it, like a good SEO Writer!).
The blocks themselves are low rectangular rust-coloured things littered about the place, replacing the actual seat-shaped blocks that were there before. Apparently they’re there for “national standard” “passenger safety and security” – they’re essentially counter-terrorism car ramming stops/deflectors.
NR said that by spring they’ll be ‘adorned’ in yellow and Bee Network daubings, and new seating and flower beds installed.
Then came the comments, 420+ of them. A selection:
- Sarah Parry-Davies – Seriously, this is breaking news? The extra ones you are talking about have been there for at least a week – do keep up at the back MEN
- Chrissie Norton – Breaking news once again by the MEN seriously!! This isn’t journalism.
- Pete Hanley – All they have done is taken the plant pots away and put red blocks. The grey ones have always been there Breaking news
- Kirsty Carter – They’ve been there weeks… proper news worthy stuff this
- Leanne Sullivan – Hasn’t there been some concrete blocks there for years?? Is it a ridiculously slow news day or something??
But the bean counters will be happy. 88k views as I write this. All interactions are good for metrics and sales, no? I’ll be honest, I couldn’t make the whole 17 minutes.
Live reporting for any broadcast medium (TV/radio/live stream), as anyone that’s tried it will tell you, is incredibly hard and probably one of the most difficult things a journalist can do. So an applaud for even trying it, just a poor story choice.
