Bleacher Report UK launch: B/R with a British accent

The standard of writing is not that high. Random example from a featured columnist who wrote an article titled ‘Manchester United’s 10 Most Influential Transfers of All Time’ (a headline that doesn’t really explain the article – a transfer can be a player signed or sold, but in this case it is entirely about signings, hence, it should read ‘Signings’ not ‘Transfers’, but then I guess that wouldn’t go down as well with SEO, so let’s throw out sense to appease the Google spiders. The intro is an exercise in waffle that would be torn to shreds by an experienced sub-editor on a national newspaper. “Manchester United have had—without exaggerating—hundreds of world-class players walk through the gates of Old Trafford at some point or another.” To the average punter, that may seem fine, but to a professional, it is an utterly subjective, highly questionable statement (emphasised by the use of em dashes before any statement has even been made, to claim it will be “without exaggerating”) that would be better written as something like, “As one of the most successful clubs in European football, Manchester United have fielded some fantastic footballers through the years.” The next line states, “So to pick the greatest transfers of all time certainly isn’t an easy feat.” There is no such thing as an “easy feat”, a feat being an accomplishment that is by definition difficult. Now, these points may seem trivial to someone who isn’t a professional sub-editor, or to anyone more concerned with SEO, but these are the kind of things I would describe as contributing to “high standards”. When I was a child, I read printed football fanzines with content that appealed to me but were, with hindsight, terribly written. Such fanzines find their equivalent with much online content these days. Poor grammar and story construction won’t be a barrier to page views, if that is how you judge quality. My concern, as stated previously, is that such ‘quality’ is being applied to news gathering and reporting. The ‘quality’ of the media we consume will increasingly be driven by popularity, rather than experienced judgement, which could have dire consequences for the standards of news reporting.

Thanks for chipping in, Richard. Just one thing: That 25 percent figure is way off. In the last two months, the application approval rate is 4.6 percent. That rate has been pretty steady, hovering around 3 to 5 percent, for much longer than that.

By the way, if it is true that “there is no daily media outlet that doesn’t publish stories that can be criticized in the ways [I] critiqued that Manchester United story”, that is something to lament. Just because another media outlet else may publish, for example, an obvious oxymoron in a piece of edited work, does not make it any less of a mistake. But then, as you said, anyone can cherry pick poor or outstanding stories on any day, from such media outlets. I didn’t cherry pick that particular story, but in the interests of fairness I have gone back to the B/R football page and clicked on one of the top billed stories, ‘The Mechanics of a Modern Transfer Deal’ (filed under ‘Transfer News’ – although, B/R doesn’t do news, apparently). This story was written by a staff writer named Jerrad Peters and, it is fair to say, is grammatically sound. However, as someone with personal experience of the business of Premier League football, I found the article to reveal little beyond an extremely basic, common sense interpretation of the mechanics of a modern transfer deal, gleaned from little or no research to compensate for the total lack personal experience on the author’s behalf. There is no real insight into the subject, no interviews with anyone qualified to provide any first-hand insight and it is, therefore, a very disappointing read. It is, to be frank, an article on the subject – spelling and grammar aside – worthy of a secondary school student. But then, it is quite possible, given the amount of content you probably publish, that I was just unlucky and didn’t stumble across one of those outstanding stories you mentioned, even if this particular article was written by a staff writer.