How sad is this news? The Press Association has appointed two correspondents in the United States. That should be good news, shouldn't it? With newspapers closing foreign bureaux, it's terrific to see Britain's major news agency stepping into the breach.
But I omitted a key word between "two" and "correspondents": entertainment. Yes, PA is boosting its so-called "premier showbiz service" by sending Shereen Low to New York and Ellie Genower to Los Angeles, where she joins video journalist Katie Spencer, in order for them all to file entertainment editorial.
Both women sound delighted about their new jobs. Low bubbles: "The challenges of working abroad are both exciting and daunting." What? As daunting as covering the war in Iraq? As exciting as following the US presidential campaign trail?
She explains the excitement thus: "My main aim is to further develop our multimedia coverage so that I can deliver a complete package to customers." I sincerely hope she didn't say that without a little help from a corporate suit otherwise her copy will be somewhat less than riveting.
As for Genower, she enthuses: "I'm really looking forward to my new role, I think it is important to have a journalist covering LA as it's a major hub of entertainment news." Important to whom? Oh yes, PA's customers, the popular press, that bit of the industry that is fast declining as it goes on publishing entertainment rubbish day after day. Doubtless the customers will also include the provincial press, which ignores so much local news in favour of celebrity claptrap.
Are we training journalists for this? Must we cut down yet further on the coverage of courts and councils and inquests and crime and the rest of the traditional news agenda in favour of yet more entertainment material?
It's more evidence of the flight from public interest news (which doesn't return a profit) and the growth of news which interests the public (and therefore makes commercial "sense"). I know I sound like a grumpy old man. But I've been saying it for years, when I was (relatively) young... and also grumpy.
