Hoary catchphrases

The boss of journalism.co.uk, John Thompson, yesterday flagged up this blog on a freelance discussion list. His chosen subject line? "New kid on the blog".

That's not surprising. As Kim Fletcher pointed out in Monday's media Guardian, subs have a considerable propensity to offer the "most hoary catchphrases as if they were fresh-minted".

I googled "new kid on the blog" with quote marks. Just over 71,000 hits. Funnily enough, one of them was from two years ago heading a story by Jemima Kiss, also of journalism.co.uk, when they launched Guy Clapperton's blog. This is still going, quiet and strong.

Anyway, I got a press release yesterday with a variation of, yawn, "young, gifted and black", that was so terminally naff that it deserved to be put in a collection. So I have. I emailed the perpetrator, Emma at corporate communications from East Sussex council, as follows:

Hi Emma

I just saw your press release headed "Young, gifted and talented". I'm making a collection of media headlines based on hoary catchphrases and yours certainly deserves a place.

Can you just tell me a bit more about it. Was it consciously based on "young, gifted and black"? If so, why? And why did you change the last word to "talented". Isn't it a bit repetitious, following on from "gifted"? Did you consider having a shorter last word, one that perhaps sounded a bit like black?

Perhaps you can also let me know whether the headline was an individual inspiration or a team effort. If it was just stuck down at the last minute, that would be good to know too.

All thoughts and additional information gratefully received.

Kind regards
Les
freelance journalist

Will keep you posted on her reply.

Les