Thursday 14 July 2011

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Why dead-tree newspapers need an unfollow button

Far more predictable than death and taxes is the likelihood of a story alluding to the opinion of some random, uninformed Tweeter featuring in commuter's choice (because it's free), the Metro newspaper.

Below is a prime example...
Does EuroMillions winner come from Clacton?
Twitter abuzz with rumours

Twitter users have been speculating that the mystery British EuroMillions winner comes from Clacton, Essex, as the £161 million jackpot remains unclaimed.

The new multi-millionaire – if he or she is a single ticket-holder – has been catapulted to 430th place on The Sunday Times rich list, just behind the Beckhams on £165 million.

Rumours were rife on Twitter yesterday about where the winner or winners were from.

Some tweeters claimed they lived in Clacton or Jaywick in Essex, while others named the north-east as their home.

Others took to the social networking site to express their disappointment.

‘Really regretting my optimism yesterday – hope I can find the receipt for that Bentley,’ said one tweet.

The huge win dwarfed the previous record in Britain, held by an anonymous winner who scooped £113 million on EuroMillions in October.

A National Lottery spokesman said: ‘This is amazing news. We are absolutely delighted that a UK ticket-holder has scooped the entire jackpot.

‘This is the biggest winner this country and Europe has ever seen.

‘In addition, three UK ticket-holders in the next prize level down won £1.7million for matching five main numbers and one Lucky Star.’

The lucky winner - who has scooped as much money as the previous 76 UK Lotto jackpots put together - is already losing interest on their winnings at an alarming rate.

According to Coventry Building Society's Poppy Online Saver, the winner is losing interest at a rate of £9.49 an hour - that's £13,673.97 a day, £95,717.79 a week and a staggering £4,991,000 a year.

The winning numbers in the draw, held on Tuesday, were 17, 19, 38, 42 and 45, with Lucky Stars 9 and 10.

If the big winner so chooses, he or she could splash out on six £24.25 million Bombardier Global Express XRS executive jets.

They could secure the services of £80 million Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo and still have enough for Picasso’s record-breaking work Nude, Green Leaves and Bust.

Fred Attewill - 14th July, 2011
I passed three tramps on my way to work this morning. One of them said, "ssshpur c-c-change mate?", punctuated with a foul-smelling, booze-saturated belch. Why didn't this hit the headlines? Maybe if he'd Tweeted it from his iPhone it would have. Nothing like pushing 'an unnamed source revealed...' to new heights!

All I can suggest is that this is what happens when the chief executive of a newspaper doesn't pay their journalists to 'hack' into the phones of celebs, grieving families and murdered kids.

It's almost as redundant as some grouchy nobody whining on his blog about arbitrary text-speak posted on a gimmicky web site being hailed as newsworthy.

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