James Hatts

Another new low for Reach plc as the news is that… a newsreader read out… the news.

Have fun everyone!

Recently, @manchestereveningnews.co.uk started producing “premium content” created “exclusively” for paying subscribers. But we have found multiple paid articles written by reporters funded by the BBC license fee.

The MEN is paywalling articles the public has already paid for. 🧵

It's 10 years since @nationaltrust.org.uk removed public transport directions from the Handbook. Every year, I hope that (being a conservation charity) they'll change their mind. Sometimes I write to them. And, every year, disappointment. They promote car travel: parking revenues over the planet.

Very much that!

Yes, applying for SPL genuinely the most complicated administrative process I have ever done. Just mind-bogglingly complex. But it has proved thoroughly worthwhile, and my employer has generous policies.

The snail farmer of London, his mafia friends, and a £20m vendetta against the taxman Terry Ball runs elaborate mollusc-based tax avoidance schemes that are costing London councils millions of pounds. Yet when London Centric tracks him down, an even stranger story emerges.

I think this is the weirdest story I've ever reported. www.londoncentric.media/p/terry-ball...

Good luck everyone!

Unfortunate error on the official Royal Diary of Engagements

Just had this error message when trying to report missing components in an item bought from Amazon

An AI slop factory apparently tried to rewrite our article about AI not replacing workers en masse, but hit the paywall... so just summarised the paywall. If this is the robot that takes my job I'll be v embarrassed

Look at any Facebook group or online discussion. When someone asks a question, sooner or later someone else will post a screenshot of a google ai summary. People treat these summaries as tablets of stone, but they are often horrifically bad.

What strange bedfellows! Delighted to be at number 4 in You Gov's rather eclectic list. Thanks to all the brilliant work of the MSE team for keeping us there.

"A swamp of muck and crap": Martin Lewis on how journalism is broken Plus: Is London getting new Bakerloo line trains after all and the property billionaire's £3m scaffolding bill.

One of the strangest death rattles of corporate local newspapers has been the teams of “local journalists” employed to churn stories about Martin Lewis.

So I gave Martin a ring to discuss the state of British news, plus where to buy chicken wings in London. www.londoncentric.media/p/martin-lew...

Once went to a consultation event for a development near London Bridge where the people on the front desk denied any such event was taking place. Persisted + went to room on top floor where the consultants and architects were enjoying sumptuous refreshments free of any pesky members of the public

I find this genuinely disgusting. ‘Hey your money worries are all solved…. ACTUALLY they aren’t but you clicked, ha!’

How can any news organisation mislead their readers to this extent just to make clickbait?
It means grandparents with full time custody of children but it makes it sound like grandparents helping out. And £79 a week is so much money, they will create and then destroy real hope - just for clicks.

It’s seven months since i started London Centric and this is a real highlight. getting nominated for the Paul Foot is entirely thanks to the support of subscribers who have given me the freedom to do investigative journalism. Thanks to them for this. And all the people with broken legs.

1 This is one of those stacked-noun headlines (“mushroom picking alarms forager”) that is hard to get the meaning out of

2 Louise Gather is an excellent name for a forager.

The recent @londoncentric.media piece on what happens when your phone is stolen in London was spot on www.londoncentric.media/p/kitchen-fo...

- my phone was snatched in Holborn on 30 January, and recently tracked in Shenzhen, China (via Finsbury Park and Waltham Forest)

Four photos showing images from today’s Blessing From The Thames. A procession leaves Southwark Cathedral and walks to London Bridge where it meets a similar procession from St Magnus the Martyr, and a cross is thrown in the river.

From today’s Blessing Of The Thames ceremony held jointly by Southwark Cathedral & St Magnus the Martyr, processions from each meeting mid London Bridge. There are Readings, Prayers & Blessings for those who work on the river, use it for recreation or have lost their lives in its waters 1/

Staggeringly misleading & irresponsible article by Express online. Neither I nor my site've ever said that. It's a perversion of our "earn under £35k & it's worth checking a benefits calc to see if you're missing out on owt" into dangerous, trite clickbait.

Midnight Mass at St Peter's Bournemouth @spbchoir.bsky.social

Spoke to someone recently whose very nice pub was featured in a News Shopper (prop. Newsquest) piece - the journalist had never spoken to them and lots of odd inaccuracies had been introduced to the piece. They were surprised when I said it could well be AI...

The AI-generated sales pitch of this Christmas bus tour of Bournemouth is so overblown I’m looking forward to some real world reviews - definite potential for a ‘Christmas ruined’ story https://www.magicaltour.co.uk/the-tour

Filling in a survey about Tesco Old Kent Road - feel sorry for the staff being measured on their ‘festive spirit’. And it’s still November.

We want Bluesky to be a great home for journalists, publishers, and creators. Unlike other platforms, we don't de-promote your links. Post all the links you want — Bluesky is a lobby to the open web.

If you remember and still miss Nuzzel, and use Bluesky or Mastodon, have I got good news for you.

This tool shows you the most shared links in your network. Hella useful.

Reach openly explaining how it's doing barrel-scraping clickbait targeting the links served up on browser homepages.

If I wanted to put properly reported local journalism on Google/Apple News/MSN homepages, they won't take it as I'm not a corporate news outlet!
pressgazette.co.uk/platforms/re...

So refreshing just having a simple chronological feed of posts from people I’ve actually chosen to follow.