Sunday Round Up: Paul Daniels, KFC, John Humphrys, News Jackers, BBC, The Real Hustle & Ignighter
What the Sunday newspapers are reporting.
The right wing tabloid everyone loves to hate has a front page splash on one of its pet peeves this morning, the BBC. The Daily Mail is reporting that producers of The Real Hustle, a street bound training regime for wannabe hustlers, had reserved its biggest con for the audience themselves. Actors approached by the paper claim they were employed by the show as stand in’s for the ordinary Joe and Jane Bloggs scam ‘victims’.
Veteran TV magician Paul Daniels is struggling to pull a rabbit out of his hat this morning after being confronted over an allegedly racist tweet in which the performer connotated the word “Paki” with the abbreviation “Brit”. Daniels made the gaffe whilst compering at the Brit Awards, according to The Telegraph, apparently unaware that racism campaigners bracket the derogatory label alongside the “n” word.
The sport of News Jacking is set to become mainstream this weekend if The Guardian is to be believed. The paper is reporting on the Urgent Genius Weekender competition in which more than 100 teams drawn from the media, including Google and M&C Saatchi, attempt to hijack a breaking news story in order to promote a chosen message.
Genial former governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, has been appointed as Chairman of the BBC Trust, according to reports in The Independent. Patten’s appointment marks a tumultuous period for Britain’s broadcasters with a known animosity between the Tory and News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch who harbours ambitions of wresting control of BSkyB.
Kentucky Fried Chicken is to drop its classic 1950s 'Finger Lickin' Good' line in favour of 'So Good' according to The Sunday Telegraph. The new line will demonstrate there is more to KFC than fat-soaked dismembered chickens.
The Telegraph has also reported that Radio Four presenter John Humprys has taken a 20% pay cut to £375,000 per year, or £2,500 per show. However, his total annual earnings which includes after dinner speaking, still amount to around £850,000 per year.
Finally the New York Times brings word of a surprising internet start up success… in India. Three enterprising Americans set up the group dating site Ignighter.com back in 2008, but failed to set the local dating scene alight, barely mustering 50,000 users. Unbeknownst to the trio however the site was making significant inroads in India. Now with with 2m users and 7,000 more signing up daily it illustrates the borderless appeal of the web.