Local journalist

[Clyde1998]

Noticed a fair chunk of the Reading journalists who left recently, don’t appear to be in the industry anymore. Not sure if it’s common, but would be intrigued to know why.

Get Reading/Evening Post was killed by going online-only: they heavily streamlined their journalists and the quality of reporting suffered hugely as a result.

Get Reading is owned by Trinity Mirror (Reach). All these publisher groups push random stories and policies on local newspapers based on what the parent company wants to see even if the local paper doesn't want to run it (remember the hooligans story from about a decade ago - Newsquest pushed that on the Chronicle). Trinity Mirror decided it would be more cost effective to go online-only, before wondering why no-one viewed the website after culling the local journalists and degrading the quality of reporting.

[Elm Park Kid]

It's fundamentally a different world now though. Back then they were your main source of local news - if you wanted to hear any gossip about the club you had to buy the local rag. There was a time when people bought newspapers to find out what the results were the day before! Obviously it's all changed now - 90% of the demand for local papers has been replaced by social media and the BBC online.

If people paid for decent local content then it would exist. They don't.

[tmesis]

There was a time when people bought newspapers to find out what the results were the day before!

I did that in Spain once, only to realise that the Spanish edition of the Sunday paper was clearly printed much earlier, and didn't contain a single result, let alone reports from games.

People who went to away games back in the day would clearly remember people buying the football paper at a railway station, to get the results, and maybe a hopelessly biased match report of the game they'd just watched if there was a bit of a wait for the train home.


Nobody seems to have worked out how to make these local news sites work. They are driven to putting clickbait articles everywhere, plastered with ads that make using the sites an unpleasant experience, which turns people off those sites even more.

It can maybe work in big cities, where there will be enough eyes on the side to make the ad revenue high enough to actually pay people a salary.

[Sutekh]

There was a time when people bought newspapers to find out what the results were the day before!

I did that in Spain once, only to realise that the Spanish edition of the Sunday paper was clearly printed much earlier, and didn't contain a single result, let alone reports from games.

People who went to away games back in the day would clearly remember people buying the football paper at a railway station, to get the results, and maybe a hopelessly biased match report of the game they'd just watched if there was a bit of a wait for the train home.


Nobody seems to have worked out how to make these local news sites work. They are driven to putting clickbait articles everywhere, plastered with ads that make using the sites an unpleasant experience, which turns people off those sites even more.

It can maybe work in big cities, where there will be enough eyes on the side to make the ad revenue high enough to actually pay people a salary.

They've basically been their own downfall, people want to take articles and information but when it's provided in such a stupid manner with so many ads going off everywhere and by people who don't really give a Yermas then it just drives people away and destroys the integrity of the brand and with the same group owning so many of these local papers people will grow up thinking that's all it takes to be a journalist

Same as with football and countless other professions, the need to grab money destroys everything,

[tmesis]

There was a time when people bought newspapers to find out what the results were the day before!

I did that in Spain once, only to realise that the Spanish edition of the Sunday paper was clearly printed much earlier, and didn't contain a single result, let alone reports from games.

People who went to away games back in the day would clearly remember people buying the football paper at a railway station, to get the results, and maybe a hopelessly biased match report of the game they'd just watched if there was a bit of a wait for the train home.


Nobody seems to have worked out how to make these local news sites work. They are driven to putting clickbait articles everywhere, plastered with ads that make using the sites an unpleasant experience, which turns people off those sites even more.

It can maybe work in big cities, where there will be enough eyes on the side to make the ad revenue high enough to actually pay people a salary.

They've basically been their own downfall, people want to take articles and information but when it's provided in such a stupid manner with so many ads going off everywhere and by people who don't really give a Yermas then it just drives people away and destroys the integrity of the brand and with the same group owning so many of these local papers people will grow up thinking that's all it takes to be a journalist

Same as with football and countless other professions, the need to grab money destroys everything,

The problem is more fundamental in that ad revenue from newspapers was higher, but sales dropped to the point that they couldn't pay staff. Papers also lost revenue when sites like eBay came along, and they couldn't make money from classified ads any more.

The odd part is that the sports pages of news sites quite possibly get the most traffic, but even at a football club, there just isn't that much that happens to report.

I went to Greece once and was amazed that Panathinaikos had multiple daily newspapers devoted to the club. I don't mean they had sports sections about the club. I mean the entire focus of them was Panathinaikos. The journalists there must have earned their money squeezing stories out every day.

[under the tin]

There was a time when people bought newspapers to find out what the results were the day before!

I did that in Spain once, only to realise that the Spanish edition of the Sunday paper was clearly printed much earlier, and didn't contain a single result, let alone reports from games.

People who went to away games back in the day would clearly remember people buying the football paper at a railway station, to get the results, and maybe a hopelessly biased match report of the game they'd just watched if there was a bit of a wait for the train home.


Nobody seems to have worked out how to make these local news sites work. They are driven to putting clickbait articles everywhere, plastered with ads that make using the sites an unpleasant experience, which turns people off those sites even more.

It can maybe work in big cities, where there will be enough eyes on the side to make the ad revenue high enough to actually pay people a salary.

They've basically been their own downfall, people want to take articles and information but when it's provided in such a stupid manner with so many ads going off everywhere and by people who don't really give a Yermas then it just drives people away and destroys the integrity of the brand and with the same group owning so many of these local papers people will grow up thinking that's all it takes to be a journalist

Same as with football and countless other professions, the need to grab money destroys everything,

Fully agree. I don't live in Reading any more, but when I did, I was an avid reader of the Evening Post.
I seldom bought the Chronicle because it was literally "last week's news".
I stopped buying the nationals decades before, because I didn't care "wot the Sun says", or whatever editorial policy any of the other fleet street offerings there were. The Post was Reading's paper.
Ok, there were often "filler" articles bout a cake baking competition for a few bored bakers in Southcote, (we all can understand that Reading is not downtown LA, or *insert soap of choice* where there is a murder/kidnapping/etc/etc), but the paper also had a very lively letters page, and a dedicated journo covering RFC. And because it was daily, it was topical.
The GetReading site is clickbait crap, with only stories about bored bakers.
Now I live in Gosport, and locally "The News" (Pompey's paper) is still in print. As local/regional papers go, this is a good'un.
There is most certainly a market out there.

[AthleticoSpizz]

….and again I agree Under the Tin

‘GetReading’ is an absolute dog-pile…it’s just a back-slapping outlet for the ruses of Reading Borough Council…there are no ‘journalists’ daring to challenge them, and very little actual news.

I do a fair bit of work in HMNB Portsmouth, with the ‘dockers’ there, most are ardent Pompey fans, and can concur that most still buy ‘The News’ their daily paper.

[Snowflake Royal]

Lots of pictures in it presumalbly...

[The Cap]

On the back of that comment, Snowflake, once the Pompey crew were aware that we had a new station, they asked whether we'd finally discovered electricity?

[AthleticoSpizz]

Admittedly, they still stop and point at those flying machine things up in the sky.

[South Coast Royal]

I always marvelled at how quickly the Saturday pink, green or any other colour depending upon the region got to print on a Saturday evening.
Early memories were of waiting outside the Reading greyhound stadium (Scours Lane version) to get one and the same when we lived in Oxford and Southampton-racing results were also fairly up to date.

Incidentally it's not that long ago that horse racing results were given on the radio every hour.

Spizz mentioned The News in Pompey and I have said before that the Bournemouth and Southampton Echo both manage to come up with football stories every night, including local non-league stuff.
Some of it is not that illuminating but I reckon the locals feel a greater attachment to their clubs than we do where mystery often surrounds what is going on.

[From Despair To Where?]

On the back of that comment, Snowflake, once the Pompey crew were aware that we had a new station, they asked whether we'd finally discovered electricity?

Yes, about 100 years before they stopped fcuking their own sisters

[Snowflake Royal]

On the back of that comment, Snowflake, once the Pompey crew were aware that we had a new station, they asked whether we'd finally discovered electricity?

Yes, about 100 years before they stopped fcuking their own sisters

Tbf, that could mean we still haven't discovered it.

[SCIAG]

In hindsight the sheer amount of column inches that Baskerville and Ive and so forth used to fill every week is hard to believe. Suspect most of it was fairly empty but I didn’t find it so at the time!

[Norfolk Royal]

….and again I agree Under the Tin

‘GetReading’ is an absolute dog-pile…it’s just a back-slapping outlet for the ruses of Reading Borough Council…there are no ‘journalists’ daring to challenge them, and very little actual news.

I do a fair bit of work in HMNB Portsmouth, with the ‘dockers’ there, most are ardent Pompey fans, and can concur that most still buy ‘The News’ their daily paper.

The circulation of the PEN is 7,300 a night. That is barely sustainable.

[RoyalBlue]

Any idea when Johnathan low will be replaced been nothing on Get Reading for weeks

There's no replacement, he was made redundant, there was quite a few Sports staff members on Reach plc papers who posted similar messages on the same day. One from the Bristol City reporter as well.

I suspect they’ll use students/graduates keen to get into the profession and make a name for themselves.

[YoungRon]

Noticed a fair chunk of the Reading journalists who left recently, don’t appear to be in the industry anymore. Not sure if it’s common, but would be intrigued to know why.

Get Reading/Evening Post was killed by going online-only: they heavily streamlined their journalists and the quality of reporting suffered hugely as a result.

Get Reading is owned by Trinity Mirror (Reach). All these publisher groups push random stories and policies on local newspapers based on what the parent company wants to see even if the local paper doesn't want to run it (remember the hooligans story from about a decade ago - Newsquest pushed that on the Chronicle). Trinity Mirror decided it would be more cost effective to go online-only, before wondering why no-one viewed the website after culling the local journalists and degrading the quality of reporting.

It's the yellow press. It has reduced quality requirements. They write what the unsophisticated reader will read.
Recently, many media outlets have moved to online sites. But few are discontinuing print publications. Apparently, Get Reading has decided to save a lot of money on print material. But they forgot to promote their online website. They need to work on it to make it popular. And they write something uninteresting. Their problem, isn't it? Readers have the right to choose what they want to read.

[Forbury Lion]

Podcasts are the new interview in a newspaper thing, I'd much rather listen to a manager/player speak from their own voice than read what gets written down out of context, but the written version is important for deaf fans, whether that's subtitles on a youtube podcast or an actual transcription of the interview available online.

Plenty of the older generation now rely on Meridian News for local news, which is great if there's been a stabbing or a murder anywhere between Oxford and Portsmouth but doesn't leave alot of room for stories about the next door neighbour putting a woman off he sausages because he sunbaths naked or news about what's happening in town.

My one gripe with newspapers and the website equivalents is when they run a story about some event that has happened in town with loads of photos and so on - What good is it telling us about an event after it's happened, Why can't they tell us about it before it happens as well?