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Store giant bans reporters from speaking to staff

Retail giant Next has banned reporters on a weekly newspaper from speaking to staff at a newly-opened branch on its patch.

The Wiltshire Gazette & Herald says it spent a week attempting to interview employees at the fashion and homeware store which has just opened a branch in Chippenham.

However all interview requests were turned down, with Next initially claiming staff were too busy to comment about the opening before deciding it was against company policy.

It told the Newsquest-owned title that it would only allow quotes written and sanctioned by its public relations department in Leicester to appear in the newspaper.

Staff were allowed to pose for photographs but Next wanted to vet the pictures before the Gazette published them.

Gazette editor Gary Lawrence told HTFP he was completely baffled as to why Next should be so secretive about its opening.

“We have been allowed unfettered access to top secret military bases at Corsham and Lyneham with no problem at all. Why not a clothes shop?,” he said.

“Why doesn’t the company trust its staff to tell us how excited they are about the store opening? I really don’t understand it.

“All we wanted to do was to be able to tell our readers about the new store and talk to people that work there. Next would only supply us with some bland PR and our readers deserve more than that.”

Staff were deemed not ‘too busy’ to pose for a picture outside the new shop, although the company also said it wanted to vet the pictures before the Gazette published them.

Next public relations officer Matt King told the paper: “Our policy is not to allow staff to talk to the press. It is not that we don’t trust them, it is just our policy. We can send a quote.”

When asked whether the company cared that people in Chippenham were interested in the store opening or that 60 jobs had been created, he added: “We just have a policy. In any case the staff are too busy.”

The paper did manage to use one comment from excited store worker Becci Plowman who managed to get around the store’s ban by tweeting: “Cannot wait to go to work tomorrow, starting to set up the new @nextofficial store in Chippenham!”

25 comments

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  • November 8, 2013 at 8:09 am
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    Oh come on now, most large organisations won’t allow reporters to simply approach their staff for quotes. I bet the bosses of the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald would take pretty much the same line if a local radio station starting interviewing their staff outside the office about their work etc.

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  • November 8, 2013 at 8:31 am
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    Is it not a tiny bit ironic that a media company that refuses to comment on stories about itself is complaining about another corporate block on employees? It would be good if Newsquest exhibited the same desire of openness in this story to its own affairs.

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  • November 8, 2013 at 9:23 am
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    “The Wiltshire Gazette & Herald says it spent a week attempting to interview employees at the fashion and homeware store.”

    Why? Would they have anything interesting to say?

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  • November 8, 2013 at 9:45 am
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    Not sure what the quotes from staff would add to any story to be fair.

    A bit of colour maybe but most places don’t let you talk to staff, seems like the baby has gone out with the bath water here

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  • November 8, 2013 at 9:52 am
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    100% agree with Chris and Desker.

    The vetting of pictures before publication seems a bit OTT though, unless it was just a bloke using a camera phone the store has to have some trust the ability of a professional photographer!

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  • November 8, 2013 at 9:54 am
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    “… spent a week attempting to interview employees.” Reporters claim to have too much work to do these days. Doesn’t sound like it in Wiltshire.

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  • November 8, 2013 at 10:09 am
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    Massive over reaction Gary…Just search ‘declined to comment’ on HTFP and you get over 140 results of mainly newspapers (including Newsquest) refusing to comment.

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  • November 8, 2013 at 10:16 am
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    All seems a bit OTT for what is only a free puff after all. One par saying shop opens is usually enough. Sounds like the usual Ad have sold a space, so now we provide free editorial gig..
    The picture censorship is the real concern…

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  • November 8, 2013 at 10:26 am
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    Have to agree with Kendo, did the WGH really think they were going to get a scoop? Or is there a purpose behind this non-story? Does WGH know something about the store? Are Next refusing to advertise in WGH? Are employees being exploited (any more than normal)?
    Conspiracy theorists start your engines.

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  • November 8, 2013 at 10:37 am
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    Can’t really avoid echoing other people’s views on here, I don’t really see why Gary is surprised. As Observer50 said, would Newsquest be happy for their reporters to be quoted in other media talking about the company? I feel a bit sorry for Next, to be honest.

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  • November 8, 2013 at 11:25 am
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    Shouldn’t this be an advert rather than a news story anyway?

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  • November 8, 2013 at 11:38 am
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    Strange headline and intro – no-one can stop reporters from speaking to staff. Next can prevent staff from speaking to reporters but surely not the other way round.

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  • November 8, 2013 at 12:52 pm
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    Ahhh the classic ‘new shop opens’ story – a favourite of the local media when there’s nothing else to report on and they need to fill a page. These articles aren’t news – just a free advert for the business concerend whether they’re a big coporation like Next or a small independent shop. Get the local rag to do a story and take a picture and save a few quid on taking out an advert…

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  • November 8, 2013 at 12:58 pm
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    Ditto most comments ~ just more proof of the skewed, downward decline of weekly journalism and strange newsworthy priorities

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  • November 8, 2013 at 1:15 pm
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    I agree with all the above comments, however I don’t think it would be that unusual for a shop manager (rather than shop assistants) to be interviewed about the shop opening. A few colourful comments about how busy it has been and how pleased the customers are about the new shop… not exactly controversial, is it?

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  • November 8, 2013 at 1:16 pm
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    The story doesn’t make it clear if Next were allowed to ‘vet’ the pictures. I sincerely hope not.

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  • November 8, 2013 at 6:56 pm
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    Well said Observer50. If we are going to be journalists, let’s at least live in the real world.

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  • November 8, 2013 at 8:04 pm
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    I won’t get drawn into my friend Gary’s rather Quixotic battle with Next, but as a Chippenham resident who works for an entirely different paper, I’d just like to confirm that the opening of this store is indeed a news story of significant interest to my fellow townspeople. Maybe we should all get out more, but it would be perverse for a news editor (and I have been one for more than two decades) to ignore such a development.

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  • November 9, 2013 at 9:49 am
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    Brought back old memories!

    Do other veterans remember how difficult it used to be to get a quote of any kind from Woolworths?

    The company had some fairly draconian rules governing staff behaviour and so there often were some genuine stories coming from the source.

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  • November 10, 2013 at 7:39 pm
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    Staff not allowed to talk to reporters is fairly common among big retail companies – it’s been in my employment contract with two large retailers that we’re not allowed to talk to press and have to refer all queries to ‘corporate communications’
    As for the story’s newsworthiness – I would think that a huge retailer opening a store and creating 60 jobs is probably quite big news in any place and certainly something that people in the town would have been talking about.

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  • November 11, 2013 at 10:37 am
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    Silly policy, but the staff would have contributed nothing and why is a shop opening even a story in the first place? If you want your shop in the paper, buy an advert.

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  • November 12, 2013 at 11:40 am
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    This really could be quite quickly resolved by reporters on the Wiltshire Gazette or whatever it is disguising themselves as bushes and leaping out on members of Next staff as they leave work to get the major exclusive here which is probably along the lines of: ‘Yes, it’s a nice place to work.’

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  • November 13, 2013 at 12:51 pm
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    I’m can’t quite believe a global monolith such as Next hadn’t already got a press release complete with made-up quotes on the stocks ready for ribbon-cutting time, so kudos to Gary for wanting to do more than just regurgitate the usual dull-as-ditchwater corporate tripe which satisfies most hacks on such occasions. Jobs, even in Next, are big news in a small town and I’d like to think he was hoping to find a personal story or two among the new employees to add a local, human touch. Which would actually have made it a better story for Next, had they the wit to see it.

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