AT THE PROW
An ASM publication Editorial Director: Sam Chambers sam@asiashippingmedia.com Associate Editor: Adis Adjin adis@asiashippingmedia.com Correspondents: Athens: Ionnis Nikolaou Bogota: Richard McColl Cairo: Camelia Ewiss Cape Town: Joe Cunliffe Dubai: Yousra Shaikh Genoa: Nicola Capuzzo Hong Kong: Alfred Romann London: Paul Collins New York: Suzanne Smith Oslo: Hans Thaulow San Francisco: Donal Scully Shanghai: Colin Quek Singapore: Grant Rowles Sydney: Ross White-Chinnery Taipei: David Green Tokyo: Masanori Kikuchi Contributors: Nick Berriff, Andrew CraigBennett, Paul French, Chris Garman, Lars Jensen, Jeffrey Landsberg, Dagfinn Lunde, Mike Meade, Peter Sand, Neville Smith, Eytan Uliel Editorial material should be sent to sam@asiashippingmedia.com or mailed to 24 Route de Fuilla, Sahorre, 66360, France Commercial Director: Grant Rowles grant@asiashippingmedia.com Maritime ceo advertising agents are also based in Japan, Korea, Scandinavia and Greece — to contact a local agent email grant@asiashippingmedia.com for details MEDIA KITS ARE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD AT: www.asiashippingmedia.com All commercial material should be sent to grant@asiashippingmedia.com or mailed to 30 Cecil Street, #19-08 Prudential Tower Singapore 049712 Design: Mixa Liu Printers: Allion Printing, Hong Kong Subscriptions: A $120 subscription is charged for 2021’s four issues of Maritime ceo magazine. Email sales@asiashippingmedia.com for subscription enquiries. Copyright © Asia Shipping Media (ASM) 2021 www.asiashippingmedia.com Although every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this review is correct, the publishers accept no liability for any inaccuracies or omissions that may occur. All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the copyright owner. For reprints of specific articles contact grant@ asiashippingmedia.com Twitter: @Splash_247 LinkedIn: Maritime CEO Forum Facebook: Splash Maritime & Offshore News
ISSUE FOUR 2021
Shipping and the mainstream press
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t was not all that long ago that many newspapers in the Western press had dedicated shipping journalists. Now, aside from major hubs and business-orientated titles, such areas of shipping expertise are all too rare in the mainstream media. More’s the pity as the industry is a fascinating one to report on, and so vital to our everyday lives. The loss of frontline shipping journos at the newsstand has coincided with a natural uptick in ignorant reporting on the topic. We’ve all, no doubt, seen any grounded ship spewing oil being referred to as a tanker on bombastic rolling news channels, despite the clear presence of, say, containers on deck. Then, there’s the more nuanced stories, the ones that us in the trade press might have been covering for weeks or months, but which go global late on in the news cycle and, more often than not, come with all manner of sensationalist, off kilter headlines. In terms of recent evidence of this media trend, witness the frenzied scaremongering among many tabloids and broadsheets who should know better about families risking missing out on their Christmas shopping this year with all sorts of suggestions that we’re heading for a gloomy empty-shelved December thanks to congested supply chains. It is poppycock, of course, but it sells newspapers. The Christmas-at-risk
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The Christmas-at-risk headlines seem to get earlier every year
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headlines seem to get earlier every year. Who wins from this fearmongering? The retailers, of course, and the shipping lines. Where our peers in the mainstream do get it right however is coming in from an outsider’s perspective rather than always reporting from inside the shipping bubble. Moreover, those reporters who file stories for mainstream titles are less likely to be swayed by potentially annoying an advertiser, but perhaps that’s a column for another time. ●
Sam Chambers Editor Maritime ceo
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