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Catching up on local news, this caught my eye on the News Shopper website…

It’s a horrifying tale for sure, with a man being told he should “burn in hell” because “men should only lay with women”. Indeed, you wouldn’t find such views pushed through people’s letterboxes under the guise of a “local newspaper” which had rewarded their author with a free pen, would you?

Wonder what happened to that free pen? Wonder what it’s being used for now?

The Snooze Shopper hasn’t learned its lessons from that attempt to start a row, though – last week it launched a campaign against Staffordshire Bull Terriers, demanding its owners make the dogs wear a muzzle in public.

“Over the next few weeks we’ll be bringing you some harrowing stories involving victims as young as nine and as old as 90. We’ll also be calling on you to Shop a Dog.”

Tasteful. Just like the logo with the blood-splattered tag.

I won’t link to it, because the website hits are all they judge success by, and I’m sure the champagne corks are already popping in Petts Wood over a 205-comment thread of bile at the foot of the story. But I’ll happily link to Battersea Dogs’ Home’s response:

“By encouraging Staffordshire Bull Terriers to be seen as dangerous, your campaign is fuelling the abuse and abandonment of a much-maligned breed which does not deserve its negative reputation.”

Still, when there’s a vigilante attack on a Staffie owner next year, I’m sure the News Shopper will be first to bring us the news.

(Thanks to Nick at Brockley Central for the tip-off on the homophobic attack, and Brockley Kate for the Battersea link.)

Fancy blagging yourself a free pen? You won’t get one for penning a rant to the News Shopper any more…

So that looks like the end of that, then. Two weeks ago, the News Shopper rewarded a woman with a “star letter” pen for branding gays “perverted”. Now, Websters Pen Shop isn’t supplying any more pens. Maybe it was running out of green ink.

As Tom Royal reports, because of the News Shopper’s early deadlines – the letters page goes to press nine days before publication – it took a fortnight for the “debate” it apparently wanted to make it into print. Of course, while the paper was happy to capitalise on the original letter’s notoriety by putting it on its website, it hasn’t done to the same for the correspondence which condemns it for chosing a bigoted rant as a “star letter”, so here’s the letters page from the Greenwich and Lewisham editions so you can take a look yourself. (Thanks to the 853 reader who took the time to scan it in, by the way.)

Mind you, while the paper printed criticism, there’s no word from the paper or editor Richard Firth on why it decided to give a prize to this hate-mongering crap. Never apologise, never explain, seems to be the motto of a paper which has done its best over the past fortnight to alienate a chunk of its readers. Its Twitter feed, which the paper used to confront its critics instead of engaging with them, has been silent since the Metro Centre charity complained last Friday.

Has the Shopper learned anything? Doesn’t look like it. As for the “debate” it wanted to spark by publishing Mrs Fitzsimons’ bile online, here’s the quality of it at the moment. Perhaps the News Shopper thinks “debate” and “defamation” are the same thing…

Still, we could always look to the Shopper for coverage of the vital Greenwich Market inquiry… except that despite sending a hack, it still hasn’t reported on it. (The Docklands managed it.) But they have managed to plug plans for a free school in Shooters Hill, just like they plugged plans for one in Deptford six weeks ago. There’s a big wide world out there – if only this strange paper would get out and report properly on it for once, instead of trying to whip up scandal and rows.

A group which provides counselling for gay and bisexual people has criticised the News Shopper’s awarding of a “star letter” prize to a correspondent who branded homosexuality “perverted”.

The Greenwich-based Metro Centre has cancelled its advertising in the weekly freesheet until it gets a reply from the newspaper.

Chief executive Marguerite McLaughlin branded the letter, purportedly from a Mrs S Fitzsimons of Lewisham, a “hate-filled rant against lesbians, gay men and bisexual people”.

She continued: “Is it your intention to cause distress to your gay readers who have read this attack in your newspaper? Mrs. Fitzsimons actually uses the word perverts.

“Do you feel that some of your readers deserve more respect than others do? Perhaps the impulse in awarding this biased and prejudicial letter a prize is simply to create some brief, tawdry controversy?”

The News Shopper, part of the Newsquest group, has always maintained that the letter was included to “create debate” – but no letters criticising Mrs Fitzsimons’ comments, which won her a pen, have appeared in this week’s edition, which the newspaper says is because of early print deadlines.

Ms McLaughlin said the centre had placed advertisements in the newspaper for several years. Funded by Greenwich Council and NHS trusts across south London, the Metro Centre provides support services for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people as well as training for employers and youth workers in sexuality issues.

“The very least your gay readership deserve is an apology from you, and yes we are your readership – from all backgrounds, ages, religions and cultures,” she added in the letter, published on greenwich.co.uk.

Scores of readers criticised the newspaper on Twitter, while Greenwich councillor Nigel Fletcher branded the decision to award the letter a prize “inexcusable”. Sponsor Webster’s Pen Shop, which supplied the prize, issued a statement disassociating itself from the letter.

But the News Shopper has stood by publication. Asked on Twitter if the paper had considered the consquences of rewarding the letter with a prize, web editor Simon Bull said: “I don’t know how much it was considered, if it was. [The] letter doesn’t incite anything.”

He added people were “more than welcome to challenge” the letter by responding via the newspaper.

The paper received national criticism too, with the Conservative LGBT Group calling the prize “inappropriate” and Bad Science journalist Ben Goldacre accused Mr Bull of “acting like a dick” in defending the award.

More on the Metro Centre’s letter at greenwich.co.uk
Full coverage of the News Shopper anti-gay letter row.

Wow. I knew the News Shopper deciding to reward the writer of a letter branding gay people as “perverted” with a star letter prize would create a stir – but I was taken aback by the strength of feeling it generated. Naturally, it was picked up by the gay and lesbian media (G3, Pink News, So So Gay), but it also hit media trade site journalism.co.uk and Londonist.

After letters page sponsor Webster’s Pen Shops distanced itself from the letter, it’d be natural to expect the News Shopper to adopt a more concilliatory approach to the avalanche of criticism it faced. Instead, it tried to capitalise on the row by publishing the letter on its website and inviting readers to comment there.

Over on Twitter, despite its sponsor having to disassociate itself from the letter, News Shopper web editor Simon Bull seemed proud to have angered a chunk of its readers. Here’s a few exchanges.

So it’s a thank you for upsetting readers? Keep on digging, Simon… sadly, that exchange was with the Greenwich Conservative councillor who’s led that party’s attack on council propaganda paper Greenwich Time, somebody the newspaper might like to keep on side. Whoops.

But people don’t ask to receive the News Shopper. It comes through people’s doors. People might not want to get this crap pushed through their letterboxes. Highlighting that intolerance is still out there? You don’t need to reward it with a nice pen from Webster’s. I came across some National Front graffiti in Deptford a couple of weeks ago. Did I laud it as an expression of free speech? No, I got Lewisham Council to paint it over.

So the gays are an acceptable target, then? Oh dear.

The problem here is that the News Shopper, a local paper, thinks it is starting a debate about morals. What it actually got was a debate about its own conduct – and when it realised the game wasn’t going its way, it responded with insults and sarcasm.

Yet nobody woke up on Thursday or Friday and thought – “let’s pick a fight with the News Shopper”. Even I don’t want to completely fall out with the paper, despite my criticisms, I’ve tried to maintain a cordial tone – after all, local papers can come in handy, whatever their shortcomings. Yet it seems determined to burn its bridges with a load of its readers – especially ones who know what they’re talking about.

Many of those taking part in the debate were media professionals themselves – other journalists, PR people, web experts – with experience of these issues. They weren’t there because they wanted to pick a fight, they were there because they were horrified at what the News Shopper had done. Brockley Kate, herself an ex-national newspaper journalist, had a similar Twitter run-in with the paper last month over its reporting of the Tidemill School story. She hit the nail on the head in a comment on this site:

What I find amazing about both cases was that News Shopper was, primarily, being criticised by other journalists, many of them very experienced. And yet whoever runs the News Shopper Twitter feed either didn’t realise or didn’t care that they were being roundly trashed by their peers. Not by the ill-informed, unpredictable consumers who all journos moan about from time to time – but other hacks. And yet they were totally unwilling to even engage.

What hope is there for a local paper which doesn’t have the respect of journalists in its area, for heaven’s sake? Hug The Mercury close, it’s all we’ve got.

Still, the News Shopper was defended by Lewisham Labour councillor Mike Harris, who seemed to completely misunderstand the questions being asked.

The paper also boasted of having this endorsement from someone called Andy Dedman, who tweeted: “Hilarious letter from a religious nutcase. Quite rt 2 publish it! How ppl cnt get when yr tongue is in yr cheek is beyond me!” [sic]

Hilarious, eh? In the real world, encouraged by seeing views like the ones rewarded by the News Shopper, people are attacked for their sexuality. That’s people who might even read the News Shopper, or whose family, friends and loved ones might read it. A handful, sadly, have been killed because of it. Two years ago, a man who lived in the street behind mine was killed after a barrage of homophobic abuse.

Still, homophobia’s hilarious, eh? Shame on you, News Shopper.

(UPDATE 10:45AM – I added the Twitter message at the top of the page to illustrate my point a little bit further. The Guardian’s Ben Goldacre joined the row last night.)

The sponsor of the News Shopper’s letters page has distanced itself from the winner of the paper’s “star letter”, which brands homosexuality “perverted”.

Webster’s Pen Shop acknowleged the letter had “caused offence to readers”, but said the family-run firm had “no influence” on the newspaper’s choice of letter.

It said in a statement: “Webster’s Pen Shop would like to reiterate that the views expressed in this weeks News shopper does not reflect the opinions of Webster’s Pen Shop or its staff.”

When asked if the company would be reviewing its relationship with the newspaper, managing director Andrew Webster declined to comment.

The letter, published in editions delievered to homes in Greenwich and Lewisham boroughs, said the newspaper was “promoting perversity” by highlighting a local hospital being mentioned on a website as a place where gay men could meet for sex. A pen from Webster’s, which has branches across the south London suburbs and in Brighton, is to be given to the writer of the letter, which was signed Mrs S Fitzsimons of Lewisham.

The Orpington-based company was unaware of the letter’s contents until it began to receive calls about the issue on Thursday.

The News Shopper has both defended its story and attacked its critics. Web manager Simon Bull used Twitter to say on the paper’s behalf: “Well, the letter in the Greenwich edition this week seems to have hit the spot for getting lots of attention and sparking a strong reaction. Just because a letter wins the pen, it’s in no way an endorsement from us of the author’s views.

“In fact, it’s surprising so many people are having a go at us about it instead of responding to the author and what she thinks.”

Bull’s comments – posted two hours before he linked to any stories from the paper’s website – only served to increase criticism of the newspaper, with even a California-based Twitter account, NewsWorldToday, spreading the story. Greenwich Conservative councillor Nigel Fletcher called the letter “bigoted” and said it was “very poor judgement”.

The Eltham North representative added: “And [it's] a big mistake to crow it’s ‘hit the spot’ in sparking disgust.”

The newspaper, based in Petts Wood and part of the Newsquest media group, directed people to its web forum to debate the letter’s contents. By 1.45pm on Friday, nobody had used the newspaper’s forum to comment on the letter.

See also Londonist, Tom Royal, and Blackheath Bugle.

The News Shopper's Simon Bull also had some words for me on my story, and my observations on the paper's web strategy...

...although I'm not sure they can be taken as complimentary.

Phew. I know the News Shopper does have a reputation for reacting really badly to criticism – take a look at the bizarre comments thread tagged onto this odd little story about a patch of blood being found outside their offices. But I’m amazed at the spite in its reaction. Twitter has got a high proportion of journalists and other media types using it. Many of those people criticising the News Shopper were journalists who live in its circulation area. Wouldn’t it be wiser to engage with its critics, instead of going on the attack?

Suppose you ran a local newspaper, and you were looking for a cogent, witty piece of correspondence to head your letters page with. There’s a nice pen as a prize from Webster’s Pen Shop, so you’d better make it something which really hits the spot. Of all the ones to choose, how about… this?

Yes, that’ll be the one that calls gays “perverted”. That’s worth a prize, isn’t it? I wonder what Webster’s Pen Shop thinks about its products being used to reward such an unpleasant little rant?

It’s someone else’s opinion, but it’s the News Shopper’s choice to reward that opinion with a prize.

What’s the News Shopper’s obsession with homosexuality, anyway? Is its editor hiding something?

Unfortunately, it’s all a game for the News Shopper – they’re clearly hoping people will be so outraged they’ll flock to its website to complain. But alienating a tenth of its readership, and many more besides, is just a childish way of doing it. But when your paper can’t be bothered to do boring things like attend council meetings, whipping up false controversy is a cheap substitute for actually bothering to gather news. This isn’t responsible local journalism, it’s the equivalent of a child taking a dump in the kitchen to get attention.

The Shopper recently had a vacancy for a web editor. As a critic of the paper – but someone with a decade’s experience in online journalism – I thought about going for it because I think its website strategy is all wrong – desperate attempts at interactivity like boring rants that nobody responds to, blog entries from complete loons (and don’t start slagging off places in your circulation area), a blind eye turned to offensive comments placed at the foot of news stories, and a web forum which hardly anybody contributes to. For a paper with a circulation area containing about a million people, that’s a failure.

Any sensible newspaper would sweep this crap away and start again – there’s a whole world of possibilities for local newspapers to interact with their readers, to create a trusted guide to a local community. I even enjoyed putting a few ideas together for it, but in the end decided against applying.

Because the big cross against it was that the News Shopper’s attention-seeking brand of pretend journalism seemed set in stone, and it would be hard to find room to change things. Endorsing an anti-gay rant in its letters pages proves that for me. You might expect something like this in a distant backwoods newspaper with a four-figure circulation, but in a paper distributed to two inner-city London boroughs, which together have the same population as Liverpool, it’s downright stupidity.

Sadly, if it’s going to endorse crap like this, the best place for the News Shopper is in your recycling bin. Alongside Greenwich Time. They deserve each other. And people wonder why local papers are dying?

(Huge thanks to Clay Harris for the tip-off and the scan.)