FOLLOWING last week's fun trying to define what "baking" means here's another word which has caused a lot of contention. Exclusive.

I ask because this morning's Skelmersdale Advertiser has this story on its front page, which is being sold as an exclusive:


Or rather, it would be had my colleague Henry James not written a strangely similar story, which appeared on the front page of this week's Skelmersdale Champion - without the word "exclusive" appearing anywhere - yesterday, as you can see from the screenshot below:


I don't know whether the word "exclusive" has been redefined in the past week or so, but evidently its new usage has caught on outside of West Lancashire. Witness this "exclusive" on yesterday's Midweek Visiter, about new funds being granted to restore Rotten Row, in Southport, to its former glory:



And here's The Champion coverage of the same story, even if it is back on page 19:




The second story on The Midweek Visiter front, in case you're interested, is also in The Southport Champion which was published on the same day, on page 5.

This isn't about sour grapes - as the front of this week's Ormskirk Advertiser shows, our friends do get some genuinely good exclusives, and full credit to them when they do - but can you really put the word exclusive on your front page when another paper's run the same story a day earlier, or even if there's the remotest chance both papers will publish it on the same day?

I'll let you make your own mind up.

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