A RollOnFriday reporter has won a prestigious award.

Jamie Hamilton, presumably after a couple of wines, went on to the website of Finance Monthly and nominated himself for an award. He said he was a Cypriot water taxi operator. He even gave his RollOnFriday email address. And he has won! He is the proud recipient of a Finance Monthly Game Changers Award, which recognises his "outstanding achievement over the past 12-18 months".

   

Finance Monthly is owned by Universal Media, which also runs Lawyer Monthly and CEO Today. RollOnFriday raised questions about the legitimacy of Universal Media's prizes when Shepherd & Wedderburn described an award from Finance Monthly as "prestigious". Critics have suggested that many legal awards businesses operate as awards factories, giving prizes indiscriminately in the hope that recipients will pay for winners' profiles in the magazines. But now award-winning RollOnFriday is happy to confirm that prizes from Finance Monthly and Lawyer Monthly are entirely legitimate, prestigious and not a sham at all.

According to Finance Monthly, the 2018 Game Changers Awards "celebrate the success, innovation and strategic vision of some of the world’s most recognised professionals across a wide variety of sectors and industries". Including Hamilton, for an entry which he thinks described how his Cypriot water taxi business called something like 'Andreus & Papadopulous Waterzoom' had opened up routes between Famagusta and Turkey.

  Too cheap to spring for a real trophy, Jamie collects a cardboard award from Mark the building manager outside ROF Towers.  

The only problem is that Waterzoom does not exist, which makes Finance Monthly's claim that nominees "are investigated by our large team of researchers who work throughout the year contacting organisations and clients" look slightly dubious.

RollOnFriday phoned Finance Monthly to purchase a £2,495 winner's package (a four page profile and the front page of Finance Monthly), but the Awards Manager fell silent and said he would call back later. He did not. However, Universal Media founder and director Andrew Palmer provided a statement claiming that the nomination was actually received from a third party recognising Hamilton's work at RollOnFriday, and had nothing to do with his fictional Cypriot water taxi business. Palmer also claimed that RollOnFriday was "unethical, negative and has no point", and that it had "a history of creating fake news", which makes the win all the more remarkable. And he dared RollOnFriday to publish his statement. Enjoy:

"Dear Jamie,

Where does it say what the award is for? It does not. It lists you as a Game Changer. Not as an operator of a taxi firm and therefore you have not won the award for your self-created venture.

How many votes did you receive? Who were they from? Under what company did voters nominate you? – You are not privy to this information and therefore it is not possible for you to determine the fact that you received votes from 3rd party voters recognising ROF which is in fact the case.

Your attempts to discredit the publication and the awards are very concerning and immoral not to say dangerous for you.

 As mentioned before we appreciate you writing articles about the magazine. It is leading to high levels of social media volumes which in turn is pushing our revenues up and up. We have had to take on more members of staff to accommodate sales and the additional work! So thank you for your continued interest in our publications.

I would also like to draw your attention to our historic conversation where I explained that whilst we appreciate you writing about the magazines and hope you will continue to do so, our legal team monitor all articles in which we are mentioned.
We take libel very seriously indeed and damaging material or statements that are false will result in the strongest of legal actions against you/ROF. I refer to an injunction/damages/legal costs.

You have a history of creating fake news and false statements designed to damage people and company reputation. This is unethical, negative and has no point. Will you publish this statement?

Please refrain from ever contacting me, or any other person at Universal Media ever again. We do not have time to engage with you or comment on fake news for your blog.

No more emails, no more phone calls, no contact whatsoever.

Andrew Palmer"

Now that all contact with Palmer's business is forbidden it is not clear how arrangements will be made for RollOnFriday, Game Changer, to appear on the front page of his magazine.

Try to win your firm a prestigious award. Take the RollOnFriday Firm of the Year 2018 survey

If you're an in-house lawyer, yours is here. 
Tip Off ROF

Comments

Anonymous 15 December 17 06:39

Does Palmer really expect people to believe that Finance Monthly, which was previously exposed by RoF, went ahead and decided to give RoF a prize for its journalism? He doesn’t strike me as the forgiving, magnanimous type.

Anonymous 15 December 17 08:09

RoF can probably show the emails it sent to the company describing the water taxi business. Also does Palmer really love RoF so very much and think it is great (despite thinking it produces "fake news") that his company would nominate JH for an award based on his sterling work for RoF?

Palmer says his company is coining it in from this kind of publicity. That sounds unlikely to me.

Anonymous 15 December 17 09:05


“Your attempts to discredit the publication and the awards are very concerning and immoral not to say dangerous for you.”

Better watch your back, Jamie!

Anonymous 15 December 17 09:11

Sounds like Jamie needs to make a subject access request to get hold of all those "votes"

Anonymous 15 December 17 12:09

This a joke. Jamie, your water taxi service is shit. Everyone knows the only water taxi service to use in Famagusta is mine, Costa's water taxi, is the best, is only water taxi service to smell of fish. You ripped off my idea Jamie. We had a verbal contract. And you do not break a contract. Not without consequences.

And look at you with your red beard and white hair. What are you, silly red white man, eh?

Call me Pop...

Anonymous 15 December 17 12:25

You've blown your chances of winning the monthly raffle now.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BT341fHhYf_/

Anonymous 15 December 17 12:36

Jamie should file a subject access request to learn more about all these third party nominations for his great work at RoF...

Anonymous 15 December 17 14:17

I liked the bit about not having the time to engage with you..... is that because they are spending all their time on their "rigorous process with their large team of researchers..... If there was any fake news involved, that was it! What an absolute tool...... I guess they must be a one man band....

Anonymous 15 December 17 16:22

I was delighted to be informed I had won UK Law Firm of the Year a couple of months back until I remembered that I don't actually work for a law firm.

Not by these guys but another entirely similar operation. Seems to be a lot of them around.

Roll On Friday 15 December 17 16:23

Plenty of scope for sequels:

https://www.acq-intl.com/awards
https://www.europeanceo.com/awards/
http://www.corp-intl.com/awards/

Am sure there are more to add.

Let's see if Jamie can cover his desk in awards by the end of...ooh...February?

Roll On Friday 15 December 17 16:34

Oh, and
https://www.worldfinance.com/awards
http://www.dealmakers-monthly.com/login.php
http://www.lawyers-world.co.uk/awards/
http://intercontinental-finance.com/leading-lawyer-500/

Anonymous 15 December 17 21:47

Another vote for a subject access request.

In fact, are they registered with the ICO as data controllers? Someone should check (I'm way too important for that...)

Anonymous 16 December 17 21:33

These companies are essentially practising fraud. Someone should bring them to the attention of the police.

Anonymous 16 December 17 22:18

I am so glad you have exposed these guys. I won an "award" recently and they wanted me to pay £250 for a glass engraved award. I've been shortlisted for other legitimate awards but I have to say that they are all a bit of a money spinner as attending the dinners costs £250 plus VAT. I have soon learnt that one pays to win an award- for example o worked for BLM who won insurance law firm of the year. Now look at them!

Anonymous 16 December 17 22:21

This is what I received.


FINANCE MONTHLY GLOBAL AWARDS 2017
SECTOR WINNER
Legal Advisory Firm of the Year
Legal

Trophy
The Finance Monthly Global Awards Edition will be published in October and we have commissioned a unique trophy to serve as a permanent memento in recognition of your achievement as a Finance Monthly Global Award Winner for the year 2017.
The laser engraved award trophies will display the following;

The official Finance Monthly Global Award logo
Category win
Region/Country referenced
Your name/firm name
Your firm logo (if requested)

To see the award design please open the following link:
Awards Trophy

You will of course be shown the final design before we commence production to ensure accuracy.
Please note that you can order trophies even if you do not wish to be included within the awards publication.

Prices:
1 x FM Global Award Trophy - 249.00 GBP + VAT (if applicable) + P&P

Please can you let me know how many you would like to order?

Certificates
We are also producing framed and wax sealed stamped A4 certificates (portrait orientation)
To see the certificate design please open the following link:
Awards Certificate

Please let me know how many you would like to order
1 x certificate - 195.00 GBP each + VAT (if applicable) + P&P

Personalised Logo
Our production team will shortly be creating personalised winner logos for individuals and firms. These are ideal to incorporate on your website, email footer or various marketing platforms.
Your winners’ logo will incorporate the award win (category), country and firm and or individual name. These are hi-resolution logos and can be produced and delivered in multiple formats.
Purchasing the logo gives you the full rights to the logo to use for any of your internal or external marketing initiatives.

Please let me know if you would like to order
1 x personalised logo - 249.00 GBP each + VAT (if applicable)

You will have until Friday 13th October to confirm which option you would prefer.

I look forward to hearing from you shortly.

Anonymous 16 December 17 23:18

These guys are utter sh*sters - I’ve blocked them and many others yet they still keep contacting me and want to give me some award made from loo roll and macaroni for work I don’t even do for just £500. So I find it hilarious that they warn someone not to contact them when I would LOVE them to leave me alone and ideally bvgger off altogether.

Anonymous 20 December 17 03:53

And now this:

Please can you let me know if you have had the opportunity to review the interview invitation proposal I have sent? If you wish to be included in the publication I require a decision from you within the next 3 working days.

If you are interested in being interviewed for the magazine and have any questions regarding deadlines, costs, interview format or anything else please let me know so I can provide a solution that meets your needs.
If you are not familiar with the publication please see a recent issue here: www.lawyer-monthly.com/lawyer-monthly-magazine/

Lawyer Monthly - Pioneers of combining engaging articles with SEO and public relations for measurable results
If you want to claim your place on the news agenda and keep ahead of your competition, then we can help. We are pioneers of combining engaging articles with SEO and public relations for measurable results – ensuring your article has maximum visibility online and on social media platforms. We understand, better than anyone else, that each magazine interview must have a great PR and marketing campaign behind it as this impacts your search results, your brand visibility, your social reach, your traffic and every metric in between. Our digital marketing and PR team will work hard to ensure your published interview is seen by more people, more of the time.

Next Steps and Deadlines
If you would like to take part with the interview (to be conducted via Q&A mail or phone) please let me know your preferred option choice in the next 3 working days as we are planning to conduct the interview in the next 38 days.
If you are happy to move forward, please can you let me know your preferred interview requirement?
Once I have received this my editorial team will be in contact to coordinate.

Interview Options and Associated Costs
Option 1
1 Page interview – Approximately 700 words
Full contact details and logo to be incorporated if required + Photos and images to be included
£395 (Plus VAT if applicable)

Option 2
2 Page interview – Approximately 1400 words
Full contact details and logo to be incorporated if required + Photos and images to be included
£595 (Plus VAT if applicable)

Option 3
4 Page interview – Approximately 2800 words
Full contact details and logo to be incorporated if required + Photos and images to be included
£995 (Plus VAT if applicable)

If you have any questions please let me know.
I look forward to hearing from you shortly.