I certainly hope you're right when you say these things are coincidental but it does highlight an issue. Maybe something that needs to be brought to the attention of whoever is in charge of these things?
As the saying goes perception is reality. Those that don't attend will get the impression from that sort of picture that Wasps is sold out every week and nobody is turning up to see us.
Maybe before hitting the publish button there needs to be a few seconds spent thinking about what impression any article, picture etc could give.
Was the same on twitter during this weeks match. If you'd looked at the pictures of the crowd on the Telegraph feed you'd assume there was nobody there. Again it may not be deliberate but it wouldn't be hard to get a picture that makes it look at least vaguely busy if a bit of thought is put in.
Out of interest did you approach Wasps for the interview that led to these articles or did they approach you?
To try and give some more constructive criticism than the Telegraph is shit I think the frustration felt by some is that Wasps can say what they like and it doesn't appear to get challenged whereas when Fisher opens his trap FOI requests are flying in and independent experts being called up.
For example when Wasps published their prospectus they didn't seem to be challenged on the value of the Ricoh lease compared to what they paid for ACL and the 200 year extension. Similarly with the training ground plan, one year on and they've moved to it being in the C&W area with no actual site or any sign of progress at all and its not being built until the self proclaimed richest club in Europe get someone else to pay for it. Seems that Wasps don't get pushed for answers where the football club does.
Appreciate criticism in a balanced and constructive way.
Fully agree that more thought and time could go into image choices etc. The harsh reality is this, there are less and less of us all the time. We are under increasing pressure to deliver larger audiences and produce more stories. That means, from time to time, things slip through the net. Hopefully nothing major, but possibly things that unintentionally leave the wrong impression.
I approached Wasps for the latest interview.
I also don't quite accept that we fail to challenge Wasps. If you look back through coverage of the bonds situation, and the move in general, it would be hard to dispute we have offered more challenge than any other outlet. I'd certainly like the time and space to challenge more, but the days of being able to spend weeks on a story are long gone I'm afraid.
And frankly any notion of conspiracy is tiresome and cringeworthy. To start with, there aren't enough of us to conspire! And if we decided to try and organise a mini-conspiracy (although I still don't understand what people think our motives would be) we wouldn't have the time!