The problem with Scottish business, Part 93
January 28, 2010 by Nick Clayton · 9 Comments
One of the most depressing things about newspapers is the way so much of what passes for ‘news’ is simply rewritten press releases. With ever declining staff levels journalists have little time to do anything else. The space has to be filled.
The aim of the Caledonian Mercury is different. We see a press release as the beginning of a story rather than the end. If there’s nothing to be said we won’t say it. I had assumed that is what readers and Scottish businesses want as well. Maybe I was wrong.
Yesterday I received a press release about a Scottish business that seems to be thriving through the recession. It’s expanding and taking on apprentices. All in all it’s a cheering success story.
So I asked the PR firm representing the company if I could get a little more detail. It would be interesting to know, I thought, whether the growth was part of a general improvement in the company’s sector or if it was because it was doing something better than its competitors.
I assumed the business would be delighted to get the good publicity. Instead the clearly exasperated PR person said the client had nothing more to say for the moment. There’s no point in me regurgitating the press release as it can be seen elsewhere.
For the sake of the PR person who was trying to their job I’m not going to name the company although I will say most of its clients come from the oil industry. If its boss had spoken to me it’s unlikely anybody would have read the article and immediately place an order. Reputation building is a bit more subtle than that.
Good open companies develop a sort of glow about them, which can even help through difficult times. Stories of their success can also rub off on those around them. Honestly-written positive coverage certainly does nobody any harm.
Unfortunately, for the couple of decades I’ve been writing about Scottish business, many companies have operated on ‘need to know’ basis and they don’t think the media needs to know very much. I am not saying they fail as a result of their secretiveness, but they do carry less general goodwill if they run into difficulties.
I hope companies with a story to tell won’t hesitate to contact the Caledonian Mercury and talk to us to in order to go into a bit more depth. We won’t be negative for the sake of it, but it is the job of a journalist to ask difficult and sometimes obvious questions. As any journalist will tell you: “If you want to guarantee what’s written about you is positive, buy an advertisement.”
The best way to contact me is by email via calmerc1@nickclayton.otherinbox.com (Don’t use this as my permanent email address. It will only exist until too many spammers get hold of it and it becomes overloaded. Once you’ve contacted me you’ll have my proper address and phone number for future use.)
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“One of the most depressing things about newspapers is the way so much of what passes for ‘news’ is simply rewritten press releases. With ever declining staff levels journalists have little time to do anything else…”
How true. While we (meaning the mere reading public) can see *why* this happens, it is counter-productive, as readers can pretty much see what is going on and will lose confidence in whichever newspaper/s do it. Result – fewer readers, less money, getting rid of yet more journalists to “save” money ….. quite a vicious cycle.
” … We see a press release as the beginning of a story rather than the end. … ”
That’s cheering to hear. I do hope that it works: if it does, this new bairn on the block “Caledonian Mercury” will quickly be a rising star compared to some “news” coverage. More power to all elbows involved!
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“The aim of the Caledonian Mercury is different. We see a press release as the beginning of a story rather than the end. If there’s nothing to be said we won’t say it. I had assumed that is what readers and Scottish businesses want as well. Maybe I was wrong.”
Nope! Don’t think so…
Having served my own apprenticeship in TV news I have to say I’m very much on your side Stewart. I weary much of news broadcasts that are mere extensions of the advert break. My cat has to rely on her ‘Granny’ to provide the lining for her litter box; I gave up buying papers years ago because they were full of nowt! And as far as a business press in Scotland is concerned I’d be grateful for some tips as to where it can be found…
For what’s out there jist isnae real… Certainly it doesn’t speak to me about my buiness or that of my clients or the things that really matter. Rather; the symptoms of ‘glibilisation’ scream out like a raw wound. Page after page of smug spin that reads (in the third person) like the script of some bad 1970’s american infomercial.
I’ll likely have bother walking aboot wi’ the hole in my foot (I produce corporate video for a living) but the fact is the P.R. industry has become lazy and, dare I say it, pretty dishonest. People don’t want to hear what is wrong or even face the truth. The mantra seems to be trite is right and anything that might provoke analysis is to be avoided lest the house of straw behind it won’t hang together…
The notion seems to exist that what is required is simply the right snake oil recipe, duly delivered by a puppet press that’s long since given up on reporting the facts let alone analyising them…
Personally I’m convinced people are sick to the back teeth of all this. And I think there will be a growing revolt against the traditional media platforms which shed credibility daily like a moulting dog sheds hairs…
The other thing is that one major difference between this platform and more traditional ‘papers’ is that where this will hang around indefinitely, the ‘Daily Horror’s’ destiny is to become the liner at the bottom of the cat’s S*** box and get forgotten… Online there’s no NEED to fill 40-odd pages with nothing on a daily basis and it’s actually quite a good idea NOT to fill the space with drivel that’s destined to hang arond like a bad smell in cyberspace for evermore!
Clearly the PR company you refer to above need a wake up call as do their client! Was it laziness or incompetence that cost them this particular opportunity I wonder?
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Guess which, failing, news hacks print HM Labour’s handouts? “NATS IN DISARRAY! LABOUR FURY! NATS SPLIT! NATS FAIL TO KEEP PROMISE! SALMOND ATE MY HAMSTER! SALMOND IS A BASTURT! CALLS FOR SNP MINISTER TO RESIGN!(A Labour spokesperson says …)”.
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How many years have I been waiting for an op/ed like that.
Just yesterday I was telling someone about a certain quango which was obsessed with nominating itself for the awards and recognition schemes which plague the Scottish business landscape. They got themselves an award, and the free publicity that goes with it, through the usual self-congratulatory press releases. On the very day that their feelgood press release ran in the Glasgow papers, the company called staff in to announce massive debt and massive compulsory redundancies. The fact that this was a public quango wasting your money should have been the cause of a public outcry, but the deliberate timing of the PR announcement let them get away with it. No journalist had the brains to see that.
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Donald…
It wouldn’t occur to you that much of the traditional media HAS been bought and paid for? And that those who have trained in Journalism are often faced with the choice of putting shoes on their we’ans feet or farting against the thunder of the party line?
It’s part of the great modern British Disease… Policemen aren’t allowed to police, Teachers aren’t allowed to teach, Doctors are prevented from fixing broken people, Journalists aren’t allowed to tell the truth… Heck even the bin men aren’t allowed to clear the crap off the streets!
There’s an obsession with spin and lies backed up with vacuous statistics. So-called ‘performance indicators’ that serve only to ensure the ‘ready-salted-lies are served up crisp and golden. Sadly the traditional PR industry is primarily geared up to servicing that agenda as is the traditional press…
I think the general hope and ambition is that the CM should be among the first to break away from that..
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Why is it that Scottish businesses can’t do better?
I know for a fact that Scottish businesses could generate billions in new revenue for Scotland if they only tried harder. And when I say billions, I mean billions.
There is a huge market out there but Scotland is seen as a third world country when it comes to business and that is from an International survey done by Scotland the Brand.
When asked what New Yorkers thought of Scotland a Scots student in New York said “I was asked if we had Television in Scotland”.
Almost everyone knows that Scottish Enterprise is the most unenterprising organisation out there with a very civil service attitude.
The Scottish Chamber of Commerce boasts around 10,000 members and yet if you visit their web site you simply can’t find information on their members unless you are a member yourself. What good is that doing for Scottish businesses?
Just sit down and try and find information on Scottish businesses through Google. You’ll be there for ever trying to do that and the vast majority of business people simply don’t have the time to do that.
Sure you should have your own web site but there are tens of millions of web sites out there. The BBC did a survey which showed that most people only visit up to 6 web sites on a regular basis in any given month.
And when it comes to Business leaders of our Scottish institutions their pay rates are really very low indeed and so why would a successful person want their jobs? They can earn far more elsewhere. This simply means we are not getting the quality of people running these instutions that can make a real difference.
What Scottish businesses are doing they’ve done for years now. It’s not working and tinkering around the edges is not going to do anything for them.
The tourism industry is obsessed with selling accommodation but mostly they fail to make a case for even coming to Scotland in the first place. Clearly a mentality of “cart before the horse” which is why Visit Scotland has received so much critisism.
Business networking is popular in Scotland but the same people seem to be networking all the time and benefits from that are very dubious to say the least.
In my view it’s time that businesses take some responsibility for themselves when it comes to promoting themselves. Looking at the Scottish Chamber of Commerce web site and looking at their publications it just seems to me that all they really want to do is sell you tons of consultancy. In hard economic times they shouldn’t be asking you to spend even more money. They should be promoting you to the world and doing that aggressively. In my view it’s time for members of the Scottish Chamber of Commerce to rise up and demand better service.
The world is changing when it comes to the media. The younger generation are not buying newspapers and magazines. Circulation is well down. The Herald is selling 58,000 copies of it’s newspaper and yet it only looks to Scotland for its market. In fact it’s proud to say that it promotes Scotland to local Scots and yet there is ten times the population of Scotland in the Scots Diaspora.
The Sunday Post has seen a 32% drop in it’s circulation over the past 5 years. All of this can be explored by looking at the reports from the Parliamentary commission looking into the local newespaper industry.
Look at the world today. We can see that China and India will become the new Super Powers. The USA are stuggling and have horrendous debt problems and have lost the lead in many of its industries.
We need to be more outward looking and we need to do a massive PR campaign around the world to promote Scottish business. That will have to be done over time but a determined effort needs to be made.
it’s estimated that an extra billion could be generated through the Food and Drink industry. There are many barriers out there to exports and the business organisations and the Scottish government need to take down these barriers. But Food and Drink companies seem happy with what they have and are not looking at new markets. How many times have I heard in my travels that it would be great to get a real “Scottish Breakfast”. How many times have I heard “I wish I could get Tennants Lager or McEwans 80/- ale”.
How many of the large Scottish companies are doing their bit for Scotland? They should be touting their success all over the world and thus helping to change the general attitide to Scottish business. We want those companies to tell the world about their success outside their own markets. This would very much help to change attitides.
So come on Business Scotland. Get your act together. Demand better service from your institutions. Look to the possibilities in the world. Have vision and enterprise. And don’t prove the Scots Diaspora right when they say “The best of Scots have already left Scotland and left the also rans behind”.
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Excellent post Alastair and interestingly it is echoed somewhat by a report from the Scottish Government reported today.
“Scotland ‘world leader’ in scientific research”
“Scotland is a world leader in research but needs to start reaping the commercial benefits of its scientific discoveries, Alex Salmond has said.”
“Findings from Scottish universities and other institutions have influenced work across the globe, being cited in 1.8 per cent of all scientific publications.”
“This is despite Scotland’s population forming less than 0.1 per cent of the world’s total”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/scotland/7104902/Scotland-world-leader-in-scientific-research.html
Unfortunately however the report from the Scottish Government more highlights the huge potential and recognition that Scots as a whole are not tapping this potential, rather than coming up concrete directions on how to truly capitalize on this potential.
A number of the suggestions you provide are spot on and are practical examples of how to significantly move things forward. Tapping the Scottish diaspora vast wealth of experience and indeed funds is one such approach. There are 10’s of millions of Scot’s descent throughout the globe and many of them have done exceedingly well. Sadly this has barely been tapped other than tourism and home gathering type tartan events which whilst important and valuable for the tourism industry is largely focused just on that industry rather than the many others that could greatly benefit from the wealth of the Scottish diaspora experience. Not only is the effort not being made, but when occasional successes are made to reconnect with the Scottish Diaspora they are often treated with contempt and a cringing parochial attitude. Witness the appalling treatment that Donald Trump received in particular by the Scottish main stream press when he brought plans to leverage his expertise to invest in Scotland up to £1 billion.
http://www.theinsider.com/news/2993786_Building_on_business_tycoon_Donald_Trump_s_1_billion_golf_course_in_Scotland_has_finally_begun
It is not as if Donald Trump has got remote, distant and negligible link to Scotland, his mother was born and brought up in Lewis from a long line of proud Hebrideans giving Donald likely more Scottish heritage than many of those who criticize him. There is also a detectable pride in his roots which should be embraced rather than ridiculed.
At the minimum Scotland has three bottomless pits of potential-
. Our proven world leading scientific research, which incidentally will continue to flourish and
indeed expand once Scotland regains her independence, despite all the normal
Brit Nat lies & scare stories that on leaving the generous bosom of the the British Scotland
will descend into some stone age pariah state.
. The massive Scottish Diaspora which is endowed with not only vast wealth and experience,
but also a heart-felt and deep connection to their Scottish roots.
. Natural resources which are the envy of many countries (especially England) where we
have tidal, wind, hydro, gas, coal and oil to an outstanding degree which are collectively
provide massive potential for a nation of only 5 million people especially one with
the proven scientific know how and multi-million strong army of potential backers
from the Scottish diaspora.
The potential for Scotland is almost unbelievable in it’s scale and what is needed here is for Scots to regain their confidence and fully seize the opportunities. As Alastair mentions the key missing ingredient here is enterprise and business know how to turn these towers of straws of potential into gold. Having full control of the Scottish economy will be one massive catalyst where we can focus our fiscal policies to attract and grow the industries and research which we want not the ones like Nuclear which the British try and impose on us to supply resource poor and over-populated England. “England will overtake Holland as the most populous major country – and it will get progressively worse.” see – tinyurl.com/5h9yvh
We need to run our country for the benefit of our people not be run by another country for the benefit of theirs.
There are a number of signs that things are changing and one promising sign of change is the nascent angel venture capital industry is finally starting to take hold in Scotland which will spur entrepreneurial business creation to truly leverage the potential that we have. Two interesting leaders in this area that I recommend looking into are.
Young Company Finance – http://www.ycf.co.uk &
Kelvin Capital – http://www.kelvincapital.com
Both of these specialize in helping and growing Scottish companies, and it is worth reviewing the portfolio’s they have since they demonstrate the type of innovation, inspiration, drive and business acumen that is needed to move Scotland forward. What we need is to nurture and grow these businesses, and ensure they stay and prosper in Scotland unlike many which are basically asset stripped and assimilated into the City of London which consequent loss of power, revenues and jobs to Scotland.
The potential is all there, the Scottish people just need to realize it and leverage it. I truly hope that a paper like the Caledonian Mercury which has firmly set its standard as ‘“To assert no falsehood and to hide no truth.” will fully follow through with this. So no more hiding the potential of Scotland’s oil wealth, nor the British attempts like in the McCrone report to deliberately hide and down play this wealth and potential. I look forward to some true investigative reporting of the truth behind this British prison in which Scotland resides. Rather than focusing like the Scotsman on press releases from the Scotland Office or so called ‘Scottish’ Labour party I looked forward to the truth rather than British distortions being reported verbatim. So when the likes of Niall Aslen in his economic analysis destroys the lies perpetrated for decades on the Scottish people, I hope that this truth will be carried by a paper like this.
Once the Scottish people emerge from this waking nightmare of a so called ‘Union’ which is veiled in lies and deceit spun by an obedient array of media puppets such as the London/England centric BBC and the so called ‘Scottish’ mainstream media then and only then will we achieve our full potential. So Caledonia Mercury live up to your promise and an unleash the Truth on the Scottish people so they can freely and unhindered decide on how to shape the future of our nation.
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Oh there might be a god!!!! Good riddance to the Friday drop!!
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There is one, sustainable and limitless resource that Scotland possesses and has historically excelled at; the creation of intellectual property (IP).
If it’s created in Scotland, patented in Scotland, and the head office of the business remains in Scotland then there should be massive tax incentives.
The collateral revenue will more than make these incentives worthwhile.
The problen with Scottish business is that the Scottish government denies its heritage and fails to secure its future.
Until that problem is addressed the dire state of affairs mentioned in the replies above will continue.
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