Groundblog Day

I've had two conversations with people in recent days, and the thrust of both was that the Advertiser is at fault for people's negative perceptions of Croydon. (Their view, not mine, I hasten to add).

I won't go into details as they were off-the record-conversations, the second of which might lead to an interesting project in the near future, and because I've written about it many times before.

I tried not to let either wind me up, but they still did.

There are a surprising amount of people in Croydon paid some eye-watering salaries to work solely on promoting the borough, and they seem to think they can use the Advertiser as an extension of their PR operation and berate us when we write things they don't like.

Our job, when you strip it down, is quite simple - report on things that have happened in Croydon, and present them in a manner which we think will sell the most copies. No more, no less.

Yes, we try to do it in a responsible manner but there's a small army of people earning far more than me or any of my staff charged with improving Croydon's reputation, and if it's not working then maybe they should ask questions closer to home.

Ahem. I wasn't even going to get started on that topic until I read the story on the website about Ken's secret congestion charge for Croydon - and his alleged instructions not to mention it until after the mayoral election.

I'm not sure whether it's true or not, but if it is then it's a disgrace.

Regional news journalists are never going to top any popularity charts, but unlike politicians the majority of us are at least honest about what we're doing.