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Ex-editor brands regional news site ‘idiots’ for covering Mourinho sacking

Mourinho 1A former regional daily editor sparked a Twitter spat after branding staff at a regional news website “idiots” over their decision to cover the sacking of Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho.

Mike Lowe criticised Gloucestershire Live after the site began running a live blog about the shock departure of  the Portuguese boss, pictured, from the club yesterday morning.

Mike, who edited the site’s Gloucester-based sister print publication The Citizen when it was a daily, took to Twitter to call for Gloucestershire Live to “try a bit of local news” instead of covering the sacking.

But Gloucestershire Live hit back at Mike’s criticism via its official Twitter account, while journalists working for the site also waded into the row.

Responding to a Twitter post by Gloucestershire Live encouraging readers to follow its coverage of the sacking, Mike wrote: “Yes, I’m absolutely certain to follow GlosOnline for the latest Manchester United news instead of the 373 more informed sources I already have at hand. Idiots.”

In turn, the Gloucestershire Live account responded: “‘Idiots’? Charming way to describe our hard-working journalists seeking new ways to engage with people. If you have constructive things to say, why not DM [direct message] us rather than this public insult?”

This in turn prompted a further reponse from Mike, who has also previously served as editor of the Derby Telegraph and Bristol Post and who now edits the Archant-owned Cotswold Life magazine.

He tweeted: “Hard work? Lifting it from [Manchester Evening News chief Manchester United writer] Sam Luckhurst on a sister paper? My, you’d better go for a lie down. ‘Seeking new ways to engage people’? Try a bit of local news.”

Gloucestershire Live journalists then weighed in with their thoughts on the matter.

Digital content editor Sophie Flowers wrote: “We just don’t think you should say things online that you wouldn’t say to someone’s face Mike. That’s all. You’re more than welcome to come in and say hello to us ‘idiots’ any time.”

Mike, a lifelong Man Utd fan, replied: “You really think I wouldn’t say it to your face as well? Grow up. And don’t come that pious ‘hard-working journalists’ crap just because the nasty man has upset you.”

Mike’s initial “idiots” comment was itself included on the live blog, in a post rounding up various Gloucestershire residents’ reactions to the news.

Blog Mike

On Twitter, the site’s breaking news editor Phil Norris told Mike: “We’re not upset. Just disappointed that you use this kind of language to journalists in public.”

Mike responded: “What? Idiots? I never realised I was dealing with such a bunch of shrinking violets. Anyway, I’m off to lunch with someone far more sweary than me.”

Gloucestershire Live has declined to comment further on the exchange, while HTFP has also approached Mike for a comment.

28 comments

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  • December 19, 2018 at 8:51 am
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    As most Manchester United ‘supporters’ are from anywhere BUT Manchester I think this is a very good example of hyper local news.
    and hardly worth getting worked up about is it, goodness me,I’ll bet Mr Lowe is the life and soul of any party.

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  • December 19, 2018 at 9:55 am
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    It’s what we journos from a different age have been saying for a long time. The local aspect of news is largely gone and there’s a race to be in on the clickbait prize :(
    Clunky websites, a poor digital offering and those left behind vigorously defending the approach – until they, like Mike, leave and see it for what it is.
    Terrible.

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  • December 19, 2018 at 10:20 am
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    I wasn’t going to continue with this silliness but the key point is timing. TWO HOURS after the rest of the world knew about Mourinho’s sacking GlosLive, that renowned source of inside information on Manchester United, posted the story as “BREAKING”.and urged readers to keep in touch for updates. If that’s not Idiocy, I don’t know what is.
    As for the fragility of those complaining about my vicious insult, it seems that there’s no shortage of snowflakes in Gloucestershire this Christmas…

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  • December 19, 2018 at 10:21 am
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    Readers aren’t killing the news industry, journalists are

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  • December 19, 2018 at 10:48 am
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    I think Glos Live should check Mike’s comment and realise he wasn’t calling the journos “idiots” but the decision to cover Mourinho’s sacking. More interesting is the fact that they don’t seem to be challenging his accusations that they lifted the coverage from the Manchester Evening News OR that a local website should focus more on local news.

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  • December 19, 2018 at 10:51 am
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    Mike the Hammer, you nailed that one.

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  • December 19, 2018 at 11:02 am
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    Let’s get real. This is a national story not a local one. It’s called jumping on the bandwagon.
    So-called “local papers” try to same trick, filling their pages and web screens with non-local stories. It alienates what few readers and viewers they might have but bosses only see it as hyper news, otherwise known to the rest of the world as space fillers and clickbait.

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  • December 19, 2018 at 11:03 am
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    It’s not local news so it shouldn’t be covered. End of. And before anyone suggests otherwise, I’m a young* journalist who generally supports trying new things like data journalism, video, animation, infographics and so on.

    However, your localness is your bedrock and your USP. Other outlets will do the national stuff far better than you can and it’s better to build a loyal, engaged audience for your advertisers than to chase large volumes of disparate clicks from people who may never visit the site again. (Especially not if it’s a Seventh Circle of Hell of pop-up adverts, autoplaying videos and the like).

    I’m far from a Luddite but if you’re going to “do” digital I don’t see the point in having a “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” mentality.

    *under 35 is still young, right? Guys?

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  • December 19, 2018 at 11:21 am
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    Interesting that the first comment on an article about local journalism churns out a tired and lazy cliche which has nothing to do with the reality of the situation.

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  • December 19, 2018 at 11:44 am
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    Jimbledon. Over 30 is ancient in today’s Babes in The Wood world of journalism. Sorry and Happy Christmas.

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  • December 19, 2018 at 11:55 am
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    If GlosLive had broken this story, then I would have no problem with them milking it to death, local or not, because a lot of people are talking about it. But two hours later? Guys, that’s playing serious and ultimately futile catch-up, something this industry has been doing for far too long.
    And Jimbledon, fear not, under 35 is very young. It is to me, anyhow.

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  • December 19, 2018 at 2:17 pm
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    Any quick survey of a handful of so-called ‘local’ news websites will at best reveal only a smattering of real local news with the rest being national news syndicated from elsewhere – that is, of course, if you can get past the barrier of ads (again the majority of which are not local).

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  • December 19, 2018 at 2:44 pm
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    Very well said Mike. Presumably Gloucestershire Live didn’t do this after Cheltenham Town sacked their manager recently. And presumably the Reach story on HTFP today about football coverage ultimately means more of the same, so South West readers can look forward to up-to-the-minute news about Huddersfield Town – as long as they’re in the Premier League anyway.

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  • December 19, 2018 at 3:02 pm
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    New book just out – A Fleet Street in Every Town: The Provincial Press in England, 1855-1900- is a fascinating look at the blossoming of a local/regional press. What emerges is the way in which local issues, community issues, dominated the agenda of such newspapers. There cannot be any shade of doubt in this matter: Mike Lowe was correct. The desperate search to generate online traffic is being carried out at the expense of proper local accountability journalism.

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  • December 19, 2018 at 3:12 pm
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    I’m 100% siding with Mike Lowe on this. The story was not about Gloucestershire and was hardly ‘live’ hours after the event. Just one more examples of desperate clickbait churning by Reach’s no-longer-local websites. A sad, sad example of the decline of the regional daily press.

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  • December 19, 2018 at 3:37 pm
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    I fear this story may have topped the Gloucester site stats yesterday – were this the case would it have been the correct decision?

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  • December 19, 2018 at 4:34 pm
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    Straight off the wire, no subbing and it fills the space – that’s how it is done these days isn’t it?

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  • December 19, 2018 at 4:34 pm
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    Mike Lowe sounds like he’s cut from the same cloth as some of the fearsome news editors I encountered as a young reporter – the newsdesk was THEIR domain where sub-editors feared to tread.

    It was either their way or no way – and they were almost invariably right…as Mike is on this occasion…

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  • December 19, 2018 at 4:57 pm
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    These people keep chasing clicks. In the full knowledge there is hardly a bean to be made from them, and that publishing non-local stories on local sites turns reader after reader and advertiser after advertiser off.

    Beancounter – even if it topped the charts, just no. It is ruining decent local news coverage. Guess what – the nationals and the Manchester Evening News will do it a heck of a lot better.
    Want to know about the fire up the road? Tough, we’re all cutting and pasting what nondescript people are saying about a football manager well off the patch.

    Look at the comments. ‘One person said’ and ‘another added’. How informative.

    I’ve stopped looking at my old sites for this exact reason.

    I like Mike.

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  • December 19, 2018 at 7:52 pm
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    I’m also a former Gloucestershire daily editor who, earlier in my career, had the privilege of being Mike Lowe’s news editor in Bristol. The real “idiots” here are the Reach suits at HQ who insist that the overworked digital teams post this sort of click-bait nonsense. One day those suits will realise that they will achieve the digital audience their advertisers need if they stop posting irrelevant stories that are turning readers away in their thousands. The clue is there in the name of the website. GLOUCESTERSHIRE Live.

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  • December 19, 2018 at 10:21 pm
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    See my comment on Reach;s latest sports changes. Mike Lowe is absolutely right.

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  • December 20, 2018 at 8:37 am
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    paperboy – that’ll cheer up my newsroom no end, with three of the five of us being over 30 (and one over 35)!

    On the plus side, does this finally give me the right to yell at clouds and tell pesky kids to “get off my property”?

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  • December 20, 2018 at 11:30 am
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    If the paper had managed to find a local fan(s) of Man U who spend a fortune following their team and how devastated or not they were then that would have been a story of sorts. The sad fact is that they would not have been able to pursue that angle because there are too few reporters available to ring around and people don’t come into newspaper offices in the way they used to do when I started in 1965.

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  • December 20, 2018 at 12:01 pm
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    The only interest on this thread is the statement that a book on the history of the provincial press entitled A Fleet Street In Every Town has been publiished. Sounds like a must read until you see the price of it, £34.95……

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