It's the time of the season
It's nearly August - the silly season is upon us.
The headline of our local newspaper this week was something along the lines of - "It's hot so tourists come to Southport".
It's true, they do indeed. In their droves, to enjoy the 'classic resort' attractions of shopping, golfing and eating as well as the old fashioned fun of the pier and the candy floss. But that's hardly news is it? Or at least not front page news.
But it's not just the local press, the national are having a go too. Despite the ongoing farce with the Labour party leadership they're still writing about surveys, warnings and threats - all the stuff of slow news days.
But there are two remitting aspects to this seeming lack of anything concrete to report on. Firstly it's the credit crunch (obviously) and the fabulous side effect that spurs the media to print positive stories about business doing well (hallelujah!)
The press has been full in recent weeks of doom and gloom, house prices dropping, gas and electric prices zooming and petrol and diesel off the scale. But on the other hand there's also wonderfully uplifting and entertaining stories about those people who benefit. The Sunday Times' heartening article about the Abba Economic Index had me cheering Pizza Hut, musicals and divorce lawyers, and that takes some doing I can tell you.
The second factor is that it's summer.
No, really it is.
Summer sees the hacks and the crims and the business community all go on holiday (no, not together though that could be interesting). So news is slow and there are less people to report on it.
Now, as a PR practitioner, that can be a help and a hindrance. The media are looking for good stories to help fill column inches so that they can cover colleagues' holidays or nip off to the sun for a fortnight so you might get a better show for your story.
On the other side there's less people around to read it and the summer sales slump continues to hit the already hard pressed press.
So roll on September, the summer will be over, the weather better and we can all get on with life as normal. Oh, and I'm going to Menorca for ten days!
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