Northern Rock and Halifax bear brunt of press criticism

Northern Rock and the Halifax are among the companies which have suffered the worst press coverage, according to a survey from PressWatch.

Northern Rock comes second from the bottom of the table with the Halifax only one position higher.

Northern Rock – the subject of an Office of Fair Trading investigation over the arbitrary changing of the terms of its accounts and reduction of interest paid to customers – was criticised on a number of fronts including its products, service, management and ethics.

British Biotech has the worst rating for any company in the period. Others in the bottom five include Newcastle United and the BBC.

The Nationwide Building Society has come top of the pile in winning favourable comments from the press.

Results from the study, which logged the performance of 1,387 companies in the national London-based press for the second quarter of the year, revealed that the Nationwide got favourable coverage for its products and competitive position.

Joining the Nationwide in the top five of the PressWatch table were Standard Life, Tesco, Scottish Widows and Pearson.

Food retailing was the most highly praised sector.

PressWatch logs news stories and rate articles about companies on a positive or negative basis.