Navy News V RAF News
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Navy News V RAF News
Sat in the crewroom today and read the RAF News in 30 seconds flat (lots of very big adverts). Then I picked up the monthly Navy News full of glossy photographs and interesting articles. Got me thinking that the RAF News is not a patch on the monthly Navy rag.
Perhaps if the RAF News followed a similar monthly edition, it too could have pages of glossy colour photographs and a greater selection of articles?
I don`t wish to get into a peeing contest between RAF v Navy etc- just wish to ask for peoples thoughts on the RAF news following a similar format to make it a bit more interesting than it is now?
Apologies if this has been done to death - and if it has please delete Mods!
Perhaps if the RAF News followed a similar monthly edition, it too could have pages of glossy colour photographs and a greater selection of articles?
I don`t wish to get into a peeing contest between RAF v Navy etc- just wish to ask for peoples thoughts on the RAF news following a similar format to make it a bit more interesting than it is now?
Apologies if this has been done to death - and if it has please delete Mods!
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Who writes the RAF News? Is it a weekly or monthly pub? Navy News is monthly and the contributions are from each units PRO. Anything interestng happens on your unit and the PRO will write a dit and send it off to Navy News (Somtimes called CVS News)
RAF News used to be alright. We all used to groan every time the Brize staish was pictured opening yet another building, or whenever yet another double-page spread trumpeted the latest and greatest achievements of Typhoon or Harrier. Despite those gripes, though, it had high production values, featured "serious" news, and had a decent letters section where correspondents stood a fighting chance of getting an answer from somebody at HQ STC (as was) who actually knew what they were talking about.
Now, as Dominoe rightly says, it is a rag. It looks like it would be right at home on white van man's dashboard - where he would have chucked it after reading it cover-to-cover quicker than I could use it to wipe my @rse. Typical of the kind of rubbish stories in there now are things like "lucky husband and wife get to spend 4 weeks of their op dets together" and "local kids play basketball at Linton's PEd flt (again)". There's so much human interest cr@p in there, I'm now surprised when they actually put a picture of an aircraft in!
There was a good old moan on PPRuNe a few months ago about the TV series "Air Force Afghanistan", which all the serving members thought was tosh, but was apparently aimed at the target recruitment audience (who thought it was great). Fair enough. However, please please please can we have RAF News aimed back at us, the serving audience? The paper's only widely distributed around RAF bases so it's not much use for recruitment. I learn more from this site about what's going on around the RAF than I do from the official channels - there's only so many IBNs you can read without looking like a staff officer - so I think it is high time that the "old style" RAF News was reinstated.
I know - fat chance.
Now, as Dominoe rightly says, it is a rag. It looks like it would be right at home on white van man's dashboard - where he would have chucked it after reading it cover-to-cover quicker than I could use it to wipe my @rse. Typical of the kind of rubbish stories in there now are things like "lucky husband and wife get to spend 4 weeks of their op dets together" and "local kids play basketball at Linton's PEd flt (again)". There's so much human interest cr@p in there, I'm now surprised when they actually put a picture of an aircraft in!
There was a good old moan on PPRuNe a few months ago about the TV series "Air Force Afghanistan", which all the serving members thought was tosh, but was apparently aimed at the target recruitment audience (who thought it was great). Fair enough. However, please please please can we have RAF News aimed back at us, the serving audience? The paper's only widely distributed around RAF bases so it's not much use for recruitment. I learn more from this site about what's going on around the RAF than I do from the official channels - there's only so many IBNs you can read without looking like a staff officer - so I think it is high time that the "old style" RAF News was reinstated.
I know - fat chance.
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The RAF News was never a great read to start with, but having picked up a copy in someone else's crewroom this week, it appears to have had yet another re-launch with Sun style headlines.
Its previous content, rather unsurprisingly, gave the party line, however, after a brief read last week, it was plain to see it has the editorial integrity of Pravda!
Too much space it now given over to Air Cadets and those chislers on a career push (charities). Finally, too many adverts.
Its previous content, rather unsurprisingly, gave the party line, however, after a brief read last week, it was plain to see it has the editorial integrity of Pravda!
Too much space it now given over to Air Cadets and those chislers on a career push (charities). Finally, too many adverts.
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RAF News does seem to have had a bumpy ride recently. But my troops seem to like it. Yes, it's more The Sun than The Times but if the majority read The Sun is that wrong? Good point above, though, about Navy News having lots of good articles and stories about what ships/units etc are up to - and as noted, they are submitted by the ship's PRO. Is that our problem? We all expect our CRO (or whatever they are called these days) to send stories into the RAF News and the website. Do we actually do anything to find the stories ourselves and get them started? Perhaps we are missing a trick here by not copying the Navy and having a PRO (good secondary duty for all those career types) on each Sqn. You can see it now - Sqn Boss to keen fg off - "Now then, when we are on exercise/ops/the lash, I want at least 2 stories a month about what a graet bunch we are (that should sort my OBE)". A bit tongue in cheek, but, if we were a bit more proactive and sent the stories in, we might: a. get more coverage; b: get more stories in about ops and kit rather than kids at Linton on Ouse (who just seem to have a very good CRO from what I've heard) and; c: improve RAF News' coverage. On reflection, I think we might be as much to blame for this as anyone - I for one have number thought to submit a story about what I/Sqn/mates have been up to.
Personally, I don't like the Navy News. Too much "stand by" for broadcast. Hate the glossy paper look - looks like something my local Council drops through my draw to remind me that they are spending my Council Tax well!
Personally, I don't like the Navy News. Too much "stand by" for broadcast. Hate the glossy paper look - looks like something my local Council drops through my draw to remind me that they are spending my Council Tax well!
If you are lucky enough to get hold of a copy, the truly excellent 'Royal Air Force Flying Review' of the 1950s is quite an eye opener.
I inherited a couple of copies dated around 1953 - fascinating to see how things were back then. Including the poverty in which many servicemen existed.
Not for nothing was 'RAF News' often referred to as 'King and Country' - as Blackadder aficionados will undoubtedly agree.
My main gripe was the plethora of 'grip and grin' photos of Air Marshal Whathisname presenting some trophy or other to yet another bunch of muddy oafs.
I was once the editor of the station rag at Brize. For my 'you can do better than this' motivation, I had a photo out of an old copy of 'Air Clues' - it was captioned 'The Air Marshal looks at the impressive array of storage racks'...
and came from a stunningly blunt article about some stackers empire in some god-forsakenly remote part of the Empire. Perhaps even less interesting than the turgid 'Air Power' articles which conspired to destroy the reputation of 'Air Clues'.....
I inherited a couple of copies dated around 1953 - fascinating to see how things were back then. Including the poverty in which many servicemen existed.
Not for nothing was 'RAF News' often referred to as 'King and Country' - as Blackadder aficionados will undoubtedly agree.
My main gripe was the plethora of 'grip and grin' photos of Air Marshal Whathisname presenting some trophy or other to yet another bunch of muddy oafs.
I was once the editor of the station rag at Brize. For my 'you can do better than this' motivation, I had a photo out of an old copy of 'Air Clues' - it was captioned 'The Air Marshal looks at the impressive array of storage racks'...
and came from a stunningly blunt article about some stackers empire in some god-forsakenly remote part of the Empire. Perhaps even less interesting than the turgid 'Air Power' articles which conspired to destroy the reputation of 'Air Clues'.....
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I love it when people deliberately misspell words when they are criticising grammar and other such stuff.
Do you write a column for the RAF news?
RAF News is a god-awful, gramatically (and sometimes factually) incorrect pile of dross
but to who, exactly ?
since it's makeover anyway
Cheap as Chips,
I don't think you can lay the blame at the feet of individual units. My own unit submitted fortnightly items through our EAW's PRO during our op det last year; the most we got in RAF News was a couple of paragraphs, with no picture, buried somewhere in the middle. One article in a 3-month period! So I must admit to being slightly bemused when the same old stories (charity this, air cadets that) feature time and again, with only slight variations in location to tell one issue from the next.
Some (unclass!) operational updates, along the lines of those on the RAF's own website, would be appropriate. Not just a map, with a Typhoon next to Kandahar representing all our helicopters! Yes, I know current ops get a bit monotonous when translated to paper, but I'd rather read about operational sameyness than another identikit article about an air cadet of the month. The various elements of the RAF (especially lower down the rank structure) lack understanding of each other's fundamental roles - witness the FJ vs AT vs SH vs blunty sniping that rapidly emerges on most threads in here - so an occasional feature showing what we all get up to would be most welcome.
The internal comms machine seems to have moved completely online. I'm sure the intent is for the chain of command to pass down relevant information for onwards briefing. However, this approach cuts out all the interesting "background" stuff you might read whilst leafing through a decent newspaper. With some higher-quality articles, RAF News could and should be broadening the general service knowledge of all ranks.
I don't think you can lay the blame at the feet of individual units. My own unit submitted fortnightly items through our EAW's PRO during our op det last year; the most we got in RAF News was a couple of paragraphs, with no picture, buried somewhere in the middle. One article in a 3-month period! So I must admit to being slightly bemused when the same old stories (charity this, air cadets that) feature time and again, with only slight variations in location to tell one issue from the next.
Some (unclass!) operational updates, along the lines of those on the RAF's own website, would be appropriate. Not just a map, with a Typhoon next to Kandahar representing all our helicopters! Yes, I know current ops get a bit monotonous when translated to paper, but I'd rather read about operational sameyness than another identikit article about an air cadet of the month. The various elements of the RAF (especially lower down the rank structure) lack understanding of each other's fundamental roles - witness the FJ vs AT vs SH vs blunty sniping that rapidly emerges on most threads in here - so an occasional feature showing what we all get up to would be most welcome.
The internal comms machine seems to have moved completely online. I'm sure the intent is for the chain of command to pass down relevant information for onwards briefing. However, this approach cuts out all the interesting "background" stuff you might read whilst leafing through a decent newspaper. With some higher-quality articles, RAF News could and should be broadening the general service knowledge of all ranks.
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The RN are ALWAYS streets ahead of the RAF in publicity terms. If a local rag or TV station rings the Navy, locally the stops are pulled out and before you know it the Navy is splashed all over the media AGAIN.
Then the RAF had this dumb idea that if a unit/station/etc was approached by the media, you had to info HQSTC who would take over and treat the whole thing like a top class production, assigning a Cmd PRO to the station to supervise the whole deal. One Staish I served with told STC where to stick it and gave a local TV station access and a flight, which he personally authorised. Got good publicity. He was called down to see the CinC for a no-coffee chat.
It makes you want to tear your hair out...
But I have to agree that the Navy News beats the RAF news hands down. And the unforgivable mistakes that that paper makes, makes you want to spit.
It really needs to get its act together and at least have it proof-read by someone in light blue.
Then the RAF had this dumb idea that if a unit/station/etc was approached by the media, you had to info HQSTC who would take over and treat the whole thing like a top class production, assigning a Cmd PRO to the station to supervise the whole deal. One Staish I served with told STC where to stick it and gave a local TV station access and a flight, which he personally authorised. Got good publicity. He was called down to see the CinC for a no-coffee chat.
It makes you want to tear your hair out...
But I have to agree that the Navy News beats the RAF news hands down. And the unforgivable mistakes that that paper makes, makes you want to spit.
It really needs to get its act together and at least have it proof-read by someone in light blue.
RAF News spelling & grammar
Thanks to Scarecrow450 I had a look at RAF News and on page 1 we have:
a. the Chinnok..
b. 43(F) Sqn take last flight
c. A hero RAF Police officer
This week's correct answers are:
a. Chinook
b. takes
c. heroic
a. the Chinnok..
b. 43(F) Sqn take last flight
c. A hero RAF Police officer
This week's correct answers are:
a. Chinook
b. takes
c. heroic
Thread Starter
Soldier Magazine
Pleased to see that this thread has some interesting debate and hasn`t been seen off by the Mods. No black cars seen on the horizon either.
Apologies I didn`t mention Soldier magazine in my post. I no longer see it around these parts so am not able to comment. I do remember it being an interesting read with many articles and areas of interest. If I remember it`s more a magazine than a newspaper. Soldier magazine appears much closer in format to Navy News and the RAF News is just a thin flyer.
Any peeps in brown care to comment on your magazine compared to Navy News/RAF News?
Apologies I didn`t mention Soldier magazine in my post. I no longer see it around these parts so am not able to comment. I do remember it being an interesting read with many articles and areas of interest. If I remember it`s more a magazine than a newspaper. Soldier magazine appears much closer in format to Navy News and the RAF News is just a thin flyer.
Any peeps in brown care to comment on your magazine compared to Navy News/RAF News?
RAF News appears to be all that you can ask of it; soft, strong and thoroughly absorbent. Its other advantage over Navy News and Soldier is that you can finish it before losing circulation to your legs.
Last edited by diginagain; 5th Aug 2009 at 12:12.
Notwithstanding the merits, or not, of these two papers, neither of them ever have any bad news. The main direction of content appears to come from their single-service PR organisations (most of whom are on a two year posting with no previous experience of PR). If you want to read about a pilot getting 3000 hours on type, or a new ship commissioning then it's perfect, but why for example don't they have news on recent court martials, people getting busted for drugs/drink driving, or boys and girls heading for Colchester. You would expect this balance of news in even the worst local rag, but not in either of these newspapers, more propaganda than proper news. Get the balance right, stop pretending all is well and tell it like it is, your readers are not stupid and they deserve better.
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RAF News used to have plenty of lively and contentious stuff (page after page of JPA moans and loads of stuff on the state of air transport are two examples that come to mind) but seems to have lost its way on the way to High Wycombe!
As for Navy News, very glossy, typical Navy PR (as opposed to news) and two letters pages a month that are full of: "Your article on HMS Doings reminded me of the time in 1954 when......"
By the way, BA News used to the a benchmark for employee publications; must have taken the same avenue as RAF News.
As for Navy News, very glossy, typical Navy PR (as opposed to news) and two letters pages a month that are full of: "Your article on HMS Doings reminded me of the time in 1954 when......"
By the way, BA News used to the a benchmark for employee publications; must have taken the same avenue as RAF News.
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RAF News
I did a Media Ops job OOA a few years ago and the Journos from the RAF News asked me to send something to them every week for inclusion. I duly did so and all I saw from submitting 12 articles accompanied by lots of photos was a miserly 2 line paragraph buried in the wrong section. I was not happy and told my replacement not to bother to submit anything.
Here at my current section, we get a copy of 'Soldier' every month and I must say that it's very good. Lots of descent articles with good photos and a good selection in the letters page dealing with some real issues. It is a bit pricey at £3.50, though.
Here at my current section, we get a copy of 'Soldier' every month and I must say that it's very good. Lots of descent articles with good photos and a good selection in the letters page dealing with some real issues. It is a bit pricey at £3.50, though.