Print media is dead – Theresa May didn’t get the memo

OK, print media isn’t quite dead – but it no longer lives on its own. It happily co-habits with numerous other strands of digital and social media. When you invite print media to cover your event – they will come armed with more than typewriters and inky fingers.

This is a fact that clearly side-stepped Prime Minister Theresa May when entourage banned reporters from Cornwall Live from reporting on her visit to a factory on the campaign trail.

The journalists had hoped to capture the PM’s visit using live video on their social media channel. Unfortunately, because they were invited as members of the print media, they were banned from recording any video and, if you can believe this, actually shut in a room for much of the duration of May’s visit.

Jacqui Merrington, the digital editor of Cornwall Live which carries content from the Cornish Guardian, the Western Morning News and West Briton, told journalists that the restriction showed an old-fashioned attitude towards the media.

Merrington said: “It feels like either contempt or a lack of understanding of what we do in the local press generally.

She continued: “You can’t expect any local media to be entirely print-focused now and not have any digital element.”

Merrington’s reporter was only allowed two questions before being cut off.

Merrrington said: “We were being treated differently from the rest of the media. We weren’t allowed to film even the interview we had with her. It just feels likes it’s all very tightly controlled.”

A spokesperson for the Conservative Party denied any allegations that reporters were shut in a room and said: “One media organisation’s last-minute request to add a camera to a pre-arranged pool of broadcast cameras was not possible this morning. The organisation’s journalists did interview the prime minister and their photographer accompanied the prime minister on a factory tour.

“Theresa May has so far taken four times as many questions from journalists as floundering Jeremy Corbyn while his cabinet can’t even answer basic questions about how they would pay for his nonsensical policies.”