Norf / Sarf

I was on the southbound Northern line coming into Goodge Street the other day. At exactly the same time, a northbound train pulled into the opposite platform. There we were herds of ‘Norf’ and ‘Sarf’ Londoners walking up the stairs together and getting cosy in the lifts before heading off on our daily business.

Hacked Off Flack recently highlighted this ‘Norf’ / ‘Sarf’ divide that can exist between journalists and PRs (http://tiny.cc/tu2lg). Now I know this not true of everyone but I’d love to hear from a journalist who has never once been frustrated by a PR or vice versa. These days we’re probably spending a lot of time talking both online and on the phone, so invariably prone to winding each other up a little more.

Will this tension ever disappear? Well like most North Londoners, I would never really choose to live in the South. Likewise, I imagine many people from there would feel just as strongly against coming over to my neck of woods - but there are plenty who are able to make the switch.  We also see PRs and journalists who are just as comfortable switching trades, jokingly referring to it as moving to the dark side with PR or light side when going over to journalism.

Call it what you like: ‘Dark and light’, ‘Norf and Sarf’ or even Yin and Yang.’ It’s clearly an important relationship, as the outcome hopefully ensures a story is balanced between the voices of the readers and clients. In serving these needs there is probably a lot more common ground than we sometimes feel.