This article has been updated in May 2014.
IT happens once a week.
Usually it comes from someone in PR. Or other media people. Or restaurants to which we’ve given bad reviews.
It goes like this: “Everyone knows that Manchester Confidential’s restaurant reviews can be bought”.
That’s simply not true.
By being brave the commercial media doesn’t have to suck up to advertisers, it can make itself so indispensible that advertisers want to be part of the brand instead.
Any food or drink review on these pages which is followed by a rating out of 20 is completely impartial. We pay for it and we judge it, without any restaurant owners leaning over our shoulders with a red marker pen saying, “You can’t put that”.
All these rated reviews are the opinion of the writer based on the experience during the review visit. They are not the opinions of the marketing team of the restaurant, nor for that matter of the publisher who has mates working there, nor of the Confidential sales force who are desperate to close a sale.
Perhaps the BBC is the problem here.
At Confidential we love Auntie and would never want her to change. But in Britain the BBC’s Olympian detachment, supported by a tax, is the benchmark for the perception of the media in the public view. But the truth is that the BBC can afford to be impartial because their staff will be paid anyway.
Because of this it would appear that many Brits think the media that is ‘tainted’ by advertising must always be up for sale and can be always bought. That’s not the case, of course.
By being brave the commercial media doesn’t have to suck up to advertisers, it can make itself so indispensible that advertisers want to be part of the brand instead. In fact we think that being impartial over food reviews, entertainment and cultural comment, over news and politics has, along with our sparkling offers and competitions, resulted in the large readership we have today.
Of course if restaurants decide to give complimentary meals for our guests or to writers then that’s fine. But it will be made clear to them that a review will never result from this. At the same time we won’t go out of our way to be nasty to advertisers. That would be stupid. But we won’t give them a good review if they don’t deserve it. Places have to earn positive comment, they can’t buy it. Hosted visits will always be stated as such in the articles.
We will write nice things about the promotional meals and food deals we offer though. Of course we will. But we will never score them out of twenty. Instead we'll put from 27 May 2014: 'This is a promotional article produced in association with...and in line with Confidential policy.'
We want people to enjoy good food so for instance we were the first magazine, in print or online, to review 63 Degrees on Church Street a while ago, or more recently Reds True Barbecue on Albert Square. We've worked with both to get readers a deal and so they can sample the food and we can make some money. While we're doing this we’ll showcase their food but we’ll never rate it.
So let’s reiterate, when it comes to scored, rated and marked reviews we’ll say it as we see it. And we’ll let you comment on the way you see things at that restaurant as well.
There’s a commonplace phrase which goes, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” That, dear readers, is not our way.
