Brazen Babble

If you missed Brazen PR’s Twinterview with exiled Manc media commentator Tony Murray, read the entire transcript here. Conversation reads from bottom up…

@citizenofbrazen Cheers, thank you for your time. Hope you can make something useful from my ramblings!

@Tonymurray37 Thanks again Tony. Good luck in HK. Looking forward to your next How-Do Wrap. Enjoy what’s left of your evening. #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen Just so Nina can be How-Do honey of the year in 2010

@citizenofbrazen I’m off to Hong Kong to edit its answer to GQ, but plan to bring the Alternative Wrap back to How-Do too…..#brazenqt

@Tonymurray37 You can have a Tsing Tao on us next time you’re in Manchester. Where next for you then? #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen Plus I’ve just handed my notice in at the China Daily and I’m about to leave Beijing…#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen It’s my birthday and I’ve stayed sober until 11pm to talk to you, so that’s fairly remarkable….#brazenqt

@Tonymurray37 Well, thank you for your thoughts Tony – we can hear Nick Jaspan preparing a headline already. Any final thoughts? #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen To be fair they couldn’t stand me either. I needed a change – 40, divorced on my second or third mid-life crisis #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen I headed for BJ as I’d run out of UK employers. I’d decamped from Adline and couldn’t stand the Drum people/#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen Print is still enfranchising though, it just needs to be harnessed.

@citizenofbrazen Very few people in the UK have learnt breaking news from print sources since the end of the 50′s.#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen online, broadcast etc are not the future of news, they are the current reality.#brazenqt

@Tonymurray37 So what is the future? And If Mancunians are so smart why did you do one a toute vitesse to Beijing? #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen aspiration to feign sincerity and the target audience is too smart to buy it/#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen the most cynical and informed consumer strata. At the heart of corporate social media is an#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen your customers etc will fall down, because the very people buying into social media represent#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen Social media will face a similar problem. All this touch-feely corporate stuff, getting to know #brazenqt

@Tonymurray37 Online perhaps? They seem to making a good go of upping the ante on the web? Is online the future of news then? #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen MEN is a damaged brand, probably terminally. How would you persuade someone to resample now?#brazenqt

@Tonymurray37 ….and with that decline in mind, how would you suggest GMG’s bosses put their house in order? Or is it too late? #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen in on the joke. Maybe the regional press should go post-modern, send itself up a little#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen couldn’t 20 or 30 years ago. They like post-modern TV progs when they are #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen In some ways yes, the public can see through piss-poor products like the MEN now in a way they…#brazenqt

@Tonymurray37 Is that media-savvy public the reason why the decline of trad media has been so steep ? #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen media-savvy all the time.#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen The trick is to just say enough and let the reader join the dots. Respect your public, they’re getting more #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen Been sued is easy. You just have to be incompetent and not know how to cover your arse.#brazenqt

@Tonymurray37 Only been sued once? Not doing your job properly then! Isn’t provocation your middle name?. #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen the week in the Drum. Been sued once. Biggest libel blunder I made was at Uni…#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen He’s not, BTW, he’s lovely. Somebody came to beat me up in Scotland when I made his daughter idiot of #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen I once implied that Robert Harwood Mathews, then chief exec of TBWA Manc, was a cunt…#brazenqt

@Tonymurray37 Not a fan then? So, apart from that last comment, what’s the rudest thing you’ve ever said? Ever had a death threat? #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen A few tawdry columns, a bit of wire copy and some press releases. Great news for you guys.#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen They know when something is shit, and let’s face it the MEN for the last few years…#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen The problem is that regional press proprietors have underestimated how discerning the public can be.#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen It may emerge as a more campaigning, issue-focused beast#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen I believe these things are cyclical. A re-imagining of regional press is possible.#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen The regional press has foundered due to the short-term tactics of second class individuals with no vision#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen GMG’s freefall is hugely sad, but this is what happens when you put classified salesmen in charge of brands#brazenqt

@Tonymurray37 Don’t you wish, as a media commentator, you were back in Manchester, if only to witness the GMG freefall first hand ?#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen the city centre, dressed as though they had full day’s painting joists in front of them #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen Christ what a depressing place it has become. There’s a whole feral underclass occupying….#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen As to missing Manchester, well I did until I came back in December.#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen useful, I have got from Twitter.#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen Apart from learning that Oasis had been cancelled in Beijing, can’t think of anything similarly..#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen Having said that, over Xmas, I met 3 people I haven’t seen for 20 year, all through FB. #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen I’m a big Facebook fan. It’s the ideal thing for expats. Would I be as big a fan back home? I doubt it. #brazenqt

@Tonymurray37 Facebook has 300m subscribers – a true global phenomenon. Bit like Man Utd, I suppose. Missing Manchester at all? #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen As to over here, again baidu and qq are huge, but largely with students and trendy media folk. #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen And yes I am in that minority, but I am a journo who writes about PR etc. So hardly typical #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen It’s growing fast from a zero basis and has a huge drop out rate. Particularly Twitter.#brazenqt

@Tonymurray37 True, but it’s still the fastest growing media right now. And aren’t you one of that vocal minority? #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen There’s a few questions there. Has social media really exploded in the US, Europe etc..?#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen It’s obviously hip with the media and PR folk. Bit of a small explosion.#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen It’s still a very narrowcast form of media, limited to a comparatively small, but vocal group. #brazenqt

@Tonymurray37 With the restrictions in mind then, has social media exploded over there like it has in the UK, Europe and the USA? #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen Predicted Google leaving China would topple the CCP. Utter shite. #brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen There’s a lot of crap written about China. Dreadful piece in the Guardian today.#brazenqt

@citizenofbrazen It’s not really like that. China is very laid back, except when it comes to the Internet and visas. #brazenqt

@Tonymurray37 So Tony, how does a Mancunian exile deal with all that alleged censorship in China. No Google for goodness sake? #brazenqt