Thursday, February 19, 2009

Our 2006 survey finally gets its day in The Sun

The were mixed feelings among the Men's Health Forum team this week following our appearance in The Sun. (No, not on page three.) Despite the growth in the internet and the decline in newspaper sales, The Sun still sells over 3 million copies a day so a story quoting an MHF survey in the top paragraph is not to be sneered at.

The trouble is that the story, which appeared under the headline Why men don't want sex anymore, was based on research the Forum carried out for Men's Health Week in 2006! The Sun's headline statistic was culled from our story 18 million men have mental health problems which was not, of course, primarily about couples' sex problems.

I imagine that some eager Sun researcher - why does seeing those two words together make me snigger? - picked the story up off the internet. It shows how the media has changed in the online age and how important it is therefore that the MHF websites keep up with the development of the web. (We'd really welcome your help on this, by the way.).

Yes, the UK's tabloid newspapers may be first when it comes to sticking a camera up the skirt of the latest movie starlet but when it comes to men's health they're still way off the eight-ball. Thanks anyway, guys - we're emailing over our 1963 survey which suggests that smoking could actually cause cancer.

1 comment:

ColinP said...

The Guardian does it sometimes too, http://www.libdemvoice.org/the-guardian-dog-fouling-11472.html