A tirade of criticism of a weekly newspaper and one of its staff has appeared on its official Twitter account.
The rant appeared on the Stornoway Gazette’s Twitter feed on Monday evening, describing the Johnston Press title as “pretty dire.”
The poster also took aim at a “big hack from Glasgow” hired by the newspaper, who is criticised for their reporting of the SNP and rural communities.
According to a report on the BBC’s Highlands and Islands website, the Gazette has confirmed a member of staff was behind the tweets. A Johnston Press spokeswoman said the company was dealing with the matter.
The content of the tweets, published at around 9pm on Monday reads: “We’re a pretty dire newspaper all round it has to be said.
“We were once a proud broadsheet…..Then we hired a big hack from Glasgow whose only intention was to slam the SNP, he has no idea about rural communities.”
The Tweets remained on the Gazette’s feed for most of yesterday before finally being taken down in the evening. A post about editor Melinda Gillen posted on the paper’s Facebook page at around the same time was taken down shortly after being posted.
It is understood that the posts were made by someone with legitimate access to the account.
A spokeswoman for JP said: “We do know who is behind it and are dealing with it appropriately.”
The Gazette made the switch to a tabloid size, after 96 years as a broadsheet, during a company-wide relaunch programme which took place across JP in May 2013.
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Oh dear, someone’s struggling with the changes – “We were once a proud broadsheet.” Sure, so were lots of papers, but those days are gone for good and you may not even be a not very good tabloid in a few years’ time. Let’s face facts, folks, it (in the way we knew it) is over.
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“We are dealing with it appropriately” or, put another way, “we are desperately trying to find out what our now ex-employee changed the Twitter password to”!
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Moral of the story: Drink and the internet will almost always cause regret.
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Most papers have gone down the pan, at least their tweets are accurate.
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The facebook post and the related comments – before it was pulled – was more interesting as that was direct reader feedback on the laundry aired!
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Reminds of time when JP got excited about Twitterfall appearing on big screens in offices so staff could spot possible news stories. Not a bad idea in itself , but one small problem. They axed so many staff they couldn’t spare anyone to stare at the screen for hours on end to hear about the latest cat up a tree.
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Dire newspaper
Once proud broadsheet
Scottish big wig
No idea
Is this a piece about Archant ?
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Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz………………………………….
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One of the few pleasures the industry gives me these days is seeing how funny it is watching the old boys trying to get to grips with this brave new dawn. You can’t beat an instagram picture of the back of a policeman’s head posted by a 56-year-old editor who wishes he’d taken that job at McDonalds.
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if more regional press groups had an open,honest and unconditional internal facility where staff could air views or give opinions on proposed plans or current working then fewer people would need to resort to this kind of SM rant or to put their views across on sites such as HTFP
Posters to HTFP ( with a few exceptions) provide good views,debate and alternate viewpoints often from within the companies making the news and long may it continue to do so,its only the heirarchy in RP who deem all views and opinions other than their own as negative or whingeing,part of the reason the regional press is in the state its in now,too many yes men happy to give their views across a desk or by the kettle but happy to be seen to tow the line when challenged.
shame this perosn has chosen this route and could face repercussions but i think we can all appreciate and sense the frustration behind it.
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