Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
I have a Thing about the Haringey People Magazine
When I first lived in Haringey, I remember being interested in reading the Haringey People. From what I recall its remit was broader, covering topics like local history and the like.
Now when I read it, I see a cog in the Council's PR machine. The ONLY stories covered are ones which speak to the achievments of the council. I know of several people who have tried to get the magazine to cover local, non-political, non-contentious local interest stories. None have even had the courtesy of a reply, let alone the mersest hint of a small mention.
So what is this magazine? I'm sure it serves some purpose and does provide some information. But the type of information and the editorial spin is so very selective, I don't think I'd be hysterical in asking whether it's little more than propaganda. Look at the next/last issue and tell me what you think.
All of this led me to submitting a Freedom of Information request on the cost. I recently received my reply. Both request and reply area attached.
The reply was drafted by the deaprtment responsible for publishing the magazine. I found it rather defensive. Highlights from the reply from my perspective are:
Annual cost: £348,000 + 1,000 FTE hours per year - probably another £20,000. Total = £370,000 approx
Distribution: 100,000 - £3.70 per household per year
Quote from reply: "A clear majority of respondents say that the magazine is their main source of news about the council.....respondents see it as more important than all the local newspapers combined."
So, the least independent, least objective publication in the borough is the MAIN source of news for most people about the Council. Any alarm bells ringing yet?
It costs my road about £550 a year. That's around £25,000 for all Harringay.
Good value?
Now when I read it, I see a cog in the Council's PR machine. The ONLY stories covered are ones which speak to the achievments of the council. I know of several people who have tried to get the magazine to cover local, non-political, non-contentious local interest stories. None have even had the courtesy of a reply, let alone the mersest hint of a small mention.
So what is this magazine? I'm sure it serves some purpose and does provide some information. But the type of information and the editorial spin is so very selective, I don't think I'd be hysterical in asking whether it's little more than propaganda. Look at the next/last issue and tell me what you think.
All of this led me to submitting a Freedom of Information request on the cost. I recently received my reply. Both request and reply area attached.
The reply was drafted by the deaprtment responsible for publishing the magazine. I found it rather defensive. Highlights from the reply from my perspective are:
Annual cost: £348,000 + 1,000 FTE hours per year - probably another £20,000. Total = £370,000 approx
Distribution: 100,000 - £3.70 per household per year
Quote from reply: "A clear majority of respondents say that the magazine is their main source of news about the council.....respondents see it as more important than all the local newspapers combined."
So, the least independent, least objective publication in the borough is the MAIN source of news for most people about the Council. Any alarm bells ringing yet?
It costs my road about £550 a year. That's around £25,000 for all Harringay.
Good value?
Tags for Forum Posts: freedom of information, haringey people, local newspapers
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Hi Alan,
Publicity
I will allow, as I think most fair-minded people would, that there is some useful information in Haringey People. Things like contact addresses for Council Services and up-coming events. But this is a tiny proportion of the whole and it is questionable as to whether this needs to be produced so often, so lavishly and so voluminously.
Much of HP seems to comprise feeble attempts at social engineering. It comes across as religious-cum-corporate house magazine and this is quite irritating for those whose taxes go into it, and who know that the money could be put to better use. Another thing that annoys about HP is that there is an unrelenting picture of good news stories, progress and contentment presented, and this does not always match with people's actual day-to-day experience of real life. It doesn't seem real.
It's not just HP when it comes to council propaganda. When I see street signs telling me that the council has listened and is spending money on fixing up the roads, I think to myself, why not use the money spent on all the street signs and publicity to spend extra on fixing up the roads instead? Or, there has been I am told, a consultation on road repairs.
I don't know how much time, effort and money went into that consultation, but my thought was, don't waste time and money asking the public about their priorities for pot-holes and road repair: just get on and do it for goodness sake! Consultations are used liberally where they're unimportant and unneeded but avoided at all costs for sensitive matters, like, Do you think this Lease (where we give Alexandra Palace to a property developer for £1.5m), is a good idea? But that's another story!
The Council website
I don't hold against you the fact you are a Labour Councillor; indeed you seem to be one of the most intelligent of the Labour Councillors (sorry, I don't mean to cause you any undue embarrassment). I am not one of this Council's greatest fans, so you may believe me when I say that the Council's main web-site is on the whole pretty good. It operates at a fixed cost and the distribution costs are nil. It does not involve the wanton destruction of trees for paper. It is on the whole factual and it is only ever read by people who actually want to read it! I appreciate that not everyone has access to the 'net but this is becoming less and less true - there was a time when telephones were rare. The Council's website is a far more efficient means of communicating with the populace than HP, which involves such waste.
I have to say that I think of HP in the same way that I would the proselytizing Jehovah's Witnesses Watchtower magazine which also has dropped through the letter box in the past, unsolicited (I apologize straightaway to any Jehovah's Witness readers who are insulted by this invidious comparison).
I'm sure there's a role for a slim, factual council booklet, maybe not in colour, printed say once a quarter. Anything more starts looking like a vanity publication, IMHO!
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Seems like we're not the only ones thinking about this issue.
See "Growing opposition to council-run papers" by Roy Greenslade in the Guardian ten days ago.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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In this month's copy of Haringey People is a little postcard asking for your views on it, it asks what you'd like to see more of, less of etc. Dig it out of the reycling bin and fill it in. Its freepost.
There's also an online version here if you've already disposed of your copy of this months gripping read.
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Permalink Reply by rahman on
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I doubt they'd pay attention to any suggestions that didnt point to demand for more of the same fluff!
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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..... and I s'pose a satirical response would be out of order. No recent visits from Hazel Blears, I notice. Has she flipped her second home out of Haringey?
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Rahman and OAE, I fully endorse Liz's advice. Say what you want to say. And please copy your most original, constructive and witty comments to Hol.
I'm sure we'd all welcome some fresh ideas and a few more smiles.
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No, in fact I've never been one for binning HPM unread, or for banning it. Persuading them to improve it and make it more informative and two-way would be more my line. If I'm not mistaken, recent issues have demonstrated at least a wish to improve - and not just by including fewer apparitions of Brian and Nilgun. The inclusion of Gina's 4-page quarterly centrefold is an added attraction, but shouldn't this Local News section appear in every issue with some allowance for an interactive element from the real Harringay people? A Gina & Nilgun Agony Aunt page, maybe? And since our Council Tax is paying for it, another page from Karen & Carolyn ('Focus on Change'?) to tell us how we'll all be so much better off just over a year from now.
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SOME years ago, I had a visit by a couple of bods on behalf of the council, enquiring as to whether I was receiving my copy of Haringey
PravdaPeople. I think it was a check on their then delivery people, that the deliverers were delivering as they had been paid to deliver.
I informed the two enquirers that Haringey People was indeed being delivered at my address and was there any way that it could be stopped? They seemed a bit disappointed at this viewpoint.
Haringey Pravda could be improved by going on a radical slimming diet with the aim of getting rid of the bulging muffin top. Most of the useful stuff in Haringey Pravda could fit on a couple of pages. There is an awful lot of padding, including the kind of articles that could well be left to the local free press. There is no need to spend ratepayers money on historical articles for example.
Haringey People will never be "two-way" because the purpose of a propaganda sheet is to distribute propaganda. Nothing will get a look-in that does not gel with the grinning cabinet members of Better Haringey the award-winning, five-star Beacon Council.
The council will not reform HP because it is one of the most important planks in their overall PR strategy. As it is currently edited, HP's publication serves the interests of the current council majority group and represents a misuse of public funds.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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OK guys, what do we think of this month's HP magazine? It seems like quite a change of tack.
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Permalink Reply by Caroline on
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I thought that it was better. I did read some of it and whilst I wouldn't say that I found it either inforamative or interesting, it didn't make me quite so cross as usual.
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