Nothing really, except that much of what you read in maritime publications is stodgy and uninspired. Now and then, you find some interpretative reporting, an attempt to analyse industry developments and their ramifications. On the whole, however, it’s plain recitation of facts – what company did what, who got promoted or fired and how much it now costs to ship from Asia to the US West Coast. Surely there must be more?.
Having swam for a long time in the ocean of marine business journalism, we appreciate the value of straightforward, factual reporting. Sometimes a short news article can have a huge impact. The now-defunct Seatrade Week once carried our dispatch about the Filipino crew of a Greek-owned vessel threatening to run to the ITF because they had not been paid for several months. The vessel’s owners got to read the item immediately as they were based in Pireaus, where the newsletter was being published. And they knew the article was about them because we had identified the ship, though not who owned it. The upshot was that the Greek company settled its obligations pronto – all unpaid crew salaries plus the manning agent’s fees covering not just one but five ships.
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Maritime publications should start emulating television news channels such as the BBC and CNN – that is, present the news in capsule form. For the readers, this would be like sitting in front of the idiot box, or more like popping a pill, but at least they get the gist of the matter straightaway. A little more space can be devoted to really big stories such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill or those that explain some new technology. There’s plenty of the latter to be found in the trade journals, but why can’t they discuss technical and even non-technical stuff in more interesting fashion? Jazz it up a little, dear Sirs, but don’t go overboard and sound tabloidish like the TradeWinds newspaper.
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No less a bane for the maritime press than insipid writing are the press releases constantly churned out by corporate communications units and PR agencies. Press releases can be a great source of information, and we’ve been using them in our blog. But many are self-serving. Surprisingly, print and online publications tend to carry the same press releases all at the same time, which transforms the maritime press into a global cloning machine. These PR dispatches often contain deadwood – superfluous sentences or paragraphs, such as quotations attributed to the company CEO which make the fellow look good but really say nothing.
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Fortunately, the computer keyboard provides discerning editors with an easy fix for this sort of verbosity: the Delete key. ~Barista Uno
