The Death Of Click-Bait

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It’s Halloween so Richard and Marina explore horror and why it is the most bankable genre at the box office and continues to thrive. Reach is a huge media company you might not be familiar with, but you will see their content as they own over 240 local media titles. With that though comes a need for a lot of content. Does their reach mean even worse news for local journalism? Finally we need to mention the C-word… Christmas. Hallmark has announced a raft of new Christmas movies including a tie in with The Kansas City Chiefs…. aka the NFL team Taylor Swift’s boyfriend plays for. Richard and Marina explain why this is another example of companies being clever with their content, and why Hallmark are so good at Christmas.

Inside This Episode

• Local News Crisis: Discussion on “churnalism”, the importance of local journalism and the failure of Reach to serve its communities adequately. “Local news has never been more important.”
• Emergence of Hyperlocal Journalism: Highlighting successful local news initiatives on platforms like Substack, with examples like Will Haywood’s newsletter and the Manchester Mill.
• Critique of Reach’s Model: Reach is critiqued for prioritising quantity over quality, leading to ineffective journalism. “You’re not serving your community.”
• The Evening Standard’s Decline: Reflects on how the Evening Standard has failed to engage with significant local issues, citing the lack of coverage following the Grenfell Tower fire.
• Positive Examples: Mention of innovative journalism that is thriving outside traditional media structures.
• Hallmark Channel’s Christmas Programming: Discussion about Hallmark’s upcoming Christmas movies, including a cruise event and collaborations with the Kansas City Chiefs. “47 brand new movies leading up to Christmas.”
• Appealing to Diverse Audiences: Exploration of Hallmark’s strategy to attract both male and female viewers by linking with the NFL and creating inclusive content.

Media Mentions

Movies:

• Happy Howlidays (upcoming Hallmark movie)
• Operation Nutcracker (upcoming Hallmark movie)
• Five Gold Rings (upcoming Hallmark movie)
• The Christmas Charade (upcoming Hallmark movie)
• Santa Tell Me (upcoming Hallmark movie)
• Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story (upcoming Hallmark movie)

Television Shows:

• Everyone Else Burns (Channel 4)

Hot Takes

“This is one of our great newspapers… just adding to the general sort of mulch of stuff on the Internet.”

“If you’re in a local newspaper, you’re not serving your community.”

“The Evening Standard… does not serve its local community in any way.”

“Reach is… in a real death spiral in terms of journalism.”