Bosses at Northcliffe Media have contacted microblogging site Twitter in a bid to discover the identity of a user who is parodying the company’s chief executive Steve Auckland.
The @UnSteveDorkland account has attracted more than 150 followers on Twitter with regular posts about the company which imply they come from an insider.
These included potentially libellous comments about editors and senior managers and details of which meetings the company’s chief executive was attending.
The regional publisher has now confirmed it has contacted Twitter headquarters in the US asking for help in identifying the mystery poster on the grounds that some of the comments have been “obsessive and offensive”.
UnSteveDorkland is the third parody account set up, with the tweeter previously posting under the account names Steve Auckland and Steve Dorkland.
The first of these was closed down by Twitter after the publisher contacted it, because of rules saying you cannot impersonate someone else.
The anonymous tweeter now posts under the name NotSteveDorkland with a photo of George Clooney as his profile image, describing himself as “The man they tried to ban! Not a media man. Not a man of the North. Fan of Voltaire. Clearly a parody.”
There have been 224 tweets on the account to date, but none since last Friday, 13 July.
In a statement, Steve Auckland said: “I can confirm we have taken action to ask Twitter for help in identifying the individual in order to protect our staff from harassment.
“We made no request for, nor had any input in, a decision to stop tweeting. Our first priority is a duty of care to all of our employees.
“Some of the recent anonymous activity on Twitter has been both obsessive and offensive. We will not tolerate such behaviour and for these reasons we sought legal advice.
“Anyone who knows me realises I am a supporter of open communication. I am very happy to engage and directly answer any questions relating to the business. I will not tolerate any form of harassment of Northcliffe Media’s employees, especially from anonymous sources.”
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Not saying it’s right at all, but bad management and bad working conditions breed such contempt and disillusionment. The reasons why so many of us feel such contempt for all in the higher echelons of the regional press should be explored
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Hope the Mike Hack account gets taken down as well. The author was clearly an employee with too much time on his hands and a very bitter mind – attacking collegues, swearing at them, abusing them is NOT the way to move forward, and your thoughts on the business should be just that – YOUR thoughts. If you don’t like it, don’t work for the company, simples. The fact that most of these ‘blogs’ spend hours slagging off the company that pays their bills, says a lot. Hypocrites.
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Free the Yorkshire One!!
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So at a time when our company needs to pull together, someone decides to air their dirty washing in public? And that helps how? Anyone can veiw that Twitter account, it’s not private, so our readers, our customers (I.e those that pay our wages!) can pick up on any negative vibes that may be coming out…….. is that right? Does that not send us even further down any slipperly slope that we may / may not be on? These idiots such as Steve Dorkland & Mike Hack should be ashamed of themselfs, they obviously have too much time on their hands and are fed too much duff information by cynical & weary (You know who you are!!) members of staff that do nothing for staff moral and spout bile with the aim of alianting departments. I hope they make an example of him. Like the post above said – if you have that much of a problem with the company, leave. Noone is forcing you to stay, noone is forcing you to pay your bills with money from a company that you have so much hate & distrust for…..
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I don’t think it matters whether anyone finds the column funny or offensive, or even if anyone thinks Northcliffe is over-reacting or trying to stifle free speech. What sort person do you have to be in order to even consider setting up an account like this, let alone regularly updating it? A bitter, former employee with nothing better to do? If that’s true, it’s just a bit pathetic. Move on with your life and find something better to do with your time.
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Hmmmm – reads to me like a lot lot of managers responding here………..
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Oliver, you wanna check out Mike Hack (ANMedianews) – based in Nottingham, thats a CURRENT bitter employee with an agender of abusing other members of staff, tweeting and bloging rather than getting on with his work. The guy is a pure bully.
It seems the main fear is here is that the public will get wind of what’s really happening within the hallowed halls of the crumbling newspaper business in this country.
@Tippex ”Air dirty washing in public” – ain’t that what newspapers do?
Regional dailies (or are they weeklies now) love to jump on the ‘job losses’ headline banner when the story doesn’t effect them.
Half the newspaper staff gets the shove, sorry, made ‘voluntary’ redundant and not a peep of it any paper.
Sauce for goose, sauce for gander.
Anyways if the tweeter is tech savvy he’ll/she’ll know what he’s/she’s doing.
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As a former editor in Northcliffe (and note I am using my OWN real name) I think some of the comments on here are laughable and clearly not from journalists.
Whether you like or don’t like the Tweets or questions the motives of the Tweeter is completely irrelevant. This is about freedom of speech and protecting your sources – two pillars of journalism that Northcliffe should be fighting to protect.
I never met Steve Aukland. I’m sure he’s a nice bloke. Doesn’t matter. He should be leading the fight to ensure people have the right to their opinion. His newspapers are publishing anonymous letters every day and his editors are protecting the right to publish them.
If he really believed in newspapers as a concept he would say he doesn’t like the material but will stand up for the Tweeter’s rights to publish it.
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It’s some years since I was a Northcliffe employee… the ‘good old days’, you might say.
The first few comments certainly read very much as if they are ‘placed’ by management. As Jon Grubb points out, no journalists worth their salt would seek to restrict free speech in this way.
But they are illuminating in that this tale betrays an extraordinary failure of corporate nerve. Any first year student of leadership knows that a boss can always fool his own bosses and most of his peers – but never the poor soul who works under him (or her).
If you’re afraid to know what your staff think of your leadership and management skills, that will tell you all you want to know.
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