The American newspaper has been around for approximately three hundred years. Benjamin Harris’s spirited Publick Occurrences, Both Forreign and Domestick managed just one issue, in 1690, before the Massachusetts authorities closed it down. Harris had suggested a politically incorrect hard line on Indian removal and shocked local sensibilities by reporting that the King of France had been taking liberties with the Prince’s wife.
First printed in the New Yorker, 10th April 2008
Mark Anslow 15/05/2008
When it comes to selling incinerators, only the best PR will do. Mark Anslow reports
Would you be more inclined to believe something crazy if Stephen Fry told you? How about Michael Buerk? Tony Robinson?
These three are among a list of friendly celebrities that PR firm Munro & Forster believes could help the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) convince the public that building more incinerators is a really good idea.
A leaked PowerPoint presentation obtained by Friends of the Earth shows how the Government has sought pitches from branding agencies in order to deal with what it describes as ‘residual waste’, rubbish left over after recycling and composting. Under this scheme, incinerators – which routinely emit cancercausing dioxins, heavy metals, PCBs and particulates – become just another brand, like the latest heart drug or anti-wrinkle cream.
The CBI has issued a report claiming that clothing retailers have just experienced their worst month for quarter of a century. I can only assume that this fall in sales must be down to an underperforming high street, because the online fashion industry is booming. Our Apparel and Accessories category is currently the fourth largest retail sub sector (behind Auctions, Department Stores, and Rewards and Directories), accounting for almost 1 in every 10 UK Internet visits to an online retailer. As the chart below illustrates, traffic to fashion retailers has shot up over the last three years.
“ The ‘tipping point’, the magic moment when ideas, trends and social behaviours cross a threshold, tip and spread like wildfire.
— Malcolm Gladwell
