Open Letter to Money Editors: New Voices, Please

I was speaking to a pal of mine, an editor of a money title, yesterday.

He’d read a couple of my blog posts, including this one, on how it JUST ISN’T RIGHT that the same old IFAs and mortgage brokers get quoted day-in, day-out in the media.

And guess what? He completely agreed.

Interestingly, he also said he’d banned one IFA from ever appearing in his title again: for the simple reason that he was bored to death of seeing this guy when there are thousands of other advisers who deserve to give (and are fully capable of giving) their views.

Thing is, I know that a number of other senior journalists think the same, but for some reason nothing is being done.

Open letter

This made me think that sending an open letter to the money editors of the national media may not be a bad idea, after all.

The letter would be simple: it would basically ask the following question:

“Why do your journalists always quote the same financial advisers and mortgage brokers, day-in, day-out?”

We will then request a week of articles free of all (for want of a better term) ‘rent-a-gob’ IFAs and mortgage brokers.

Instead, the money journalists will be required to pick up the goddam phone and call up an IFA or broker that they have never spoken to before.

Someone who’s less well-known.

Terry from Cinderford

I want to see an IFA called Terry from Cinderford give his top fund tips, or Linda, a broker from the Mumbles, offering advice on the best five-year fixed rates.

Jesus, how hard is it for these journalists to go to Unbiased.co.uk and search for a new source?

Or use Google.

I used to use Unbiased 12 or 13 years ago when I was a journalist so I’m at a loss why today’s personal finance journalists seem unaware of it.

Critical mass

If you’d like to see this open letter sent, and I’ll post it on this blog beforehand so that you can make any comments and suggestions, please tweet or like this article.

If enough of you do, it’ll be game on.

#democratisethemedia