Scottish Daily Newspaper Sales Down (Again)

[TDYER63]

1 hour ago, PapofGlencoe said:

Aye, it's a pity.  I'm the sort of person that actually enjoys reading a paper so I shouldn't be lost to the National but I am.

I enjoy getting the Sunday Times, for example, and there's a lot of good content - reporters can have really good in depth assignments.  Every page could be something different...in the National every single page is given to the cause either directly or indirectly...it's just boring.  I don't read the paper now but from the front page banners, it's exactly the same article that's printed daily rehashed by Lesley Riddoch'/Tasmina Sheick/Michael Gray....  I did try with the National but half the time it's just stuff you already know.  Like the first one I bought, I think there was an "in-depth profile" of a world leader.  It was bereft of any interesting facts or angles.  It was literally a list of facts you can get from Wikipedia...alongside the fact he had an honourary doctorate at Glasgow Caledonian or something (got to get the Scottish angle in at all costs zzzzz)..  just couldn't hack it.  It's not the quality, uncompromising journalism I'd like Scotland to be known for.  It's not intellectual, it's not critcal analysis, it's a joke...what are they actually doing!  No disrespect and do understand where you're coming from (a failure isn't good either) but I don't think papers should be bought simply because they hold an editorial policy.  Surely, there must be pressure from our own side to have this revamped?  

Absolutely, Ian Bell, craftsman of words in an era where few seem to still hold the skill in high regard.  Got me going and ready for the big fight.  We may have lost but we'll be back.

http://wingsoverscotland.com/if-we-had-a-hammer/comment-page-1/

Via another website.

Again, I cannot argue with any of that. And you are right, a paper should not be bought purely for its editorial policy. Unfortunately  I really only have time to read one newspaper each day( plus i dont read any social media apart from this website) so when push comes to shove I would rather give my money to a source that actually supports what i believe in. I realise this is a somewhat naive and simplistic attitude and The National is not exactly the most balanced source of information but i can pick up other things from the 9 hours of repetitive Sky News I need to endure at work each day. More indepth news articles are a bit of a luxury for me, partly down to lack of time but if i am totally honest partly down to my attention span which can be short,  to say the least.  I  like this board for some of the threads  and admire knowlegable and articulate posters who provide me with information I otherwise would not be aware of.

With regards to your comment about the National needing revamped,  again I totally agree. In its current form all it is doing is preaching to the converted. They need to make it more attractive for new readers.  I could not leave it out for my soft 'no' voting friends to read, it is way too critical of the Union. I think it has improved a bit since starting out but they still need to bring more balance. And as you say more interesting features. They dont have all the showbiz stuff so should be targeting the type of folk who read The Herald . And they definetley need to get rid of that cartoon , its truly embarrassing. Infact , why the fook do i read it ? ! I think i can feel an email to the editor coming on ?

[thplinth]

You will never understand the newspaper business looking at the accounts. They make their money for their owners in other ways. They sell influence and they get paid in back handers. It is the most corrupt disgusting industry that hides its criminality laughably behind protecting you. Freedom of the press is only about being free of the laws and norms the rest of us abide by. They are scumbags and I'd happily burry every one of them.

[ErsatzThistle]

Someone at the P&J took their eye off the ball .......

https://twitter.com/callum_mccaig/status/769082444217782272

 

Edited August 26, 2016 by ErsatzThistle

[macy37]

I'd estimate its fully 6 years since I last bought a paper.

[Ormond]

13 hours ago, brant grebner said:

Things you can do with a copy of The Scotsman #3

Roll it up in a tube, wrap it in cellophane and fill it with suet. Hey presto a prison pocket pussy.

[fringo]

On 25/08/2016 at 10:24 PM, Dalgety Bay TA said:

There is a stall/seller at the start of Princes St continually trying to punt The Scotsman. About 6 months ago you were getting a "free" linen bag thing if you bought s copy. Passed last week and you were getting the bag and some Nairns oatcakes and a 3rd freebie which I can't quite remember. Can't remember seeing anyone at the stall, even with all the additional stuff trying to tempt you to buy.

I passed a newsagent yesterday that was offering 2 free rolls with every newspaper you bought.

[TDYER63]

52 minutes ago, fringo said:

I passed a newsagent yesterday that was offering 2 free rolls with every newspaper you bought.

Why give away toilet paper when you can use the newspaper.

Things you can do with The Scotsman # 4. 

[Dillinger]

Who the buys a newspaper nowadays? Yesterday's news in the age of the Internet. 

Any time I've been in the Odeon recently they've been giving away free copies of The Sun. Still wouldn't touch the rag. 

[The Laud]

noticed the dailly record given away at the airport quite often now

[TDYER63]

16 hours ago, Dillinger said:

Who the buys a newspaper nowadays? Yesterday's news in the age of the Internet. 

Any time I've been in the Odeon recently they've been giving away free copies of The Sun. Still wouldn't touch the rag. 

Possibly 18% of the scottish adult population. 

http://wingsoverscotland.com/the-sands-of-the-times/

And those figures dont include The Metro which every second perons on my train seems to read. 

Older folk like myself still like a newspaper (though I realise many older folk also use the internet). I am fed up with technology by the time I finish work each day and prefer a real newspaper. It seems easier to read as I dont have to focus on a tiny wee phone. I also prefer a real book to a kindle . Just personal preference but I imagine I am not alone. 

 

[weekevie04]

I was told twice in the last week by different members of staff "I'll just have to scan this paper so you can get your water cheaper" Not even bothering to try and tempt people in to taking the Telegraph.

[morrie21]

On 25/08/2016 at 4:12 PM, ErsatzThistle said:

Missed it 

Aberdeen – Press & Journal

54,270

-7.2

aye my man The Iraqi reads that paper

[Alan]

Baffled how anyone celebrates the decline of investigative journalism.

There is so much noise on social media and snap shots of info from various sources I found I was getting "facts" but no context. I've went back to papers. I definitely read "better" on paper even in work printing out documents where I can.

We're falling into various echo chambers where people read what they want. Language is aggressive, opinion is strong and incorrect messages are quickly liked and RT'd with no sources or proof.

[Auld_Reekie]

31 minutes ago, Alan said:

Baffled how anyone celebrates the decline of investigative journalism.

There is so much noise on social media and snap shots of info from various sources I found I was getting "facts" but no context. I've went back to papers. I definitely read "better" on paper even in work printing out documents where I can.

We're falling into various echo chambers where people read what they want. Language is aggressive, opinion is strong and incorrect messages are quickly liked and RT'd with no sources or proof.

The majority arent celebrating from what I can see. There's a difference between having little sympathy for many in journalism and celebrating it's demise. Im most definitely one of the former. Nothing better than reading a good paper and used to always buy a daily and then always a Sunday paper. But social media has brought out the worst in some journalists and/or exposed them for the idiots that many of them are.

In no other industry would employees of a company be allowed to go on social media and openly troll, taunt and abuse their potential customer base. I've never ever understood why any journalist would behave like many of them do on Twitter - even in situations where their target probably got what they deserved, it demonstrates a total lack of professionalism. They wouldn't behave the way they do in a public street or in a pub, because they'd look like total morons so why they think it's entirely acceptable on Twitter is beyond me.

The end result is the vast majority of people realise that journalists are total bellends and have distanced themselves from the titles they work for. Journalists revel in their braying pack and "Nobody likes us we dont care" mentality, completely failing to realise that people will opt not to buy their work because of their behaviour. My opinion and respect for almost every paper, including the Herald and Sunday Herald, has been diluted in some way because of the behaviour of their journalists on social media.

IMO, it's perfectly possible for journalists to do their job well without trolling randoms online or making a fool out of useful idiots. Having watched most of them do it is at least partly responsible for me not bothering my a**e to buy their papers. You wouldn't see their behaviour from any other industry in the world and they don't seem to have worked out why.

 

Edited August 30, 2016 by Auld_Reekie

[Rossy]

You have to look hard to find the 'investigative journalism' in daily newspapers these days.

I still enjoy papers such as The Grauniad, The Herald and The Sunday Herald (the only 3 I'd consider buying), but so many of the papers are forcing their own agendas down your throat it becomes insulting to the intelligence.

I'm maybe fairly unique in wanting actual news in a newspaper.....not stories, half-truths or lies driven by a twisted right (or left) wing agenda.

I suppose it's always been that way. It just took me a long time to see it.

[Auld_Reekie]

5 minutes ago, Rossy said:

You have to look hard to find the 'investigative journalism' in daily newspapers these days.

I still enjoy papers such as The Grauniad, The Herald and The Sunday Herald (the only 3 I'd consider buying), but so many of the papers are forcing their own agendas down your throat it becomes insulting to the intelligence.

I'm maybe fairly unique in wanting actual news in a newspaper.....not stories, half-truths or lies driven by a twisted right (or left) wing agenda.

I suppose it's always been that way. It just took me a long time to see it.

Agreed. When I pick up a paper, I tend to read it for the news - just the facts. I'd be happy if papers dropped columnists altogether. Far too often opinion pieces are being passed off as "news". Too easy to pick up the phone to Alex Massie or David Torrance and ask them to write another version of the same articles they've been writing for the last 5 years.

[Rossy]

8 minutes ago, Auld_Reekie said:

Agreed. When I pick up a paper, I tend to read it for the news - just the facts. I'd be happy if papers dropped columnists altogether. Far too often opinion pieces are being passed off as "news". Too easy to pick up the phone to Alex Massie or David Torrance and ask them to write another version of the same articles they've been writing for the last 5 years.

Many of these 'columnists' are doing the same as anyone else on social media, or in blogs, or even on the TA board.

They take their own (mostly political) agenda, then they take a set of circumstances or events, give them a bias which suits their agenda, and pass it all off as 'fact'.

Any of us on here can do that.

[Alan]

You make a very good point about how journalists act on social media.

I'm guessing its partly social media as ordinary people usually look terrible on it to.

I rarely read opinions, columnists, letters and editorials. Stick with the core stuff.

[PapofGlencoe]

I enjoy reading columnists.  Challenges viewpoints and opens the mind. 

A lot of the opinion writers were bestowed a cloud of authority and importance in the making of the national trend in the past.  There is an art in writing and capturing public mood.  Trying to change it can be a noble ambition.

A bit like meeting your idols.  Social media shows them up as folk with an opinion just like everyone else.  Often too opinionated into the banal.  Tweeting their tea and then expecting to be taken seriously on the National Question.  Agreed, lack of professionalism in many quarters.  Just shows them up as all in a wee game.  the blatant brown nosing is stomach churning as well.

One example, I find Kenny Farquarsson genuinely hilarious.  Sense of ego and importance out the stratosphere.  Never even heard of him unit I'd gone onto Twitter.  His controversial founding opinions are stated without question as fact; then he graciously conveys his own take on top. Classic.    

Torrance is entitled to his views.  He'll stumble across something now and again from the few times I've read his pieces.  I just don't think he's a very artful or weighty composer of words.  Able to find an angle but unable to argue it in a convincing manner.  Heavily patronising.

On the other side, find reading most opinion column's on our own side a bit boring.  Usually making the same points.  Seem to have lost their verve.

 

 

[Dillinger]

5 hours ago, Alan said:

Baffled how anyone celebrates the decline of investigative journalism.

There is so much noise on social media and snap shots of info from various sources I found I was getting "facts" but no context. I've went back to papers. I definitely read "better" on paper even in work printing out documents where I can.

We're falling into various echo chambers where people read what they want. Language is aggressive, opinion is strong and incorrect messages are quickly liked and RT'd with no sources or proof.

Agree man. David Simon has written quite a bit on this subject 

[Ormond]

The day that Journos became celebs the papers were done. I remember the days when a simple "Written by Joe Bloggs" did. Now each and every journo(I use that term lightly) has to have their fizzer slapped across twice the size of the bloody text. 

There's a saying 'Has a face for the radio', well in this case journalism. That saying means nothing anymore.

Edited August 30, 2016 by Ormond

[McDange]

Yoons and fasctist types are generally older and are less likely to adopt new methods of their news such as social media or non-mainstream websites. 

[kingjoey]

I usually buy the P&J a couple of times a week, a good overall read, not just the N.E. However, the Evening Express is now total drivel, sketches/drawings of what might get built in Aberdeen, but never does. 

[Fairbairn]

I (still) buy the DR most days mainly because the missus likes to flick through it when she gets home from work (steady).  It's never exactly been a bastion of cutting edge journalism however over the last few weeks/months I've noticed how much it seems to be turning in to Take a Break or Chat or some such.  Last week the full front page was dedicated to a story about a woman dying with cancer who got to see her daughters pregnancy scan.  Yesterday there was a front page story about a dad writing a letter to his dying daughter.  As tragic as those stories are they are really, really not front page news and it seems obvious to me that the DR is trying to target a certain demographic to boost sales.  I'd imagine it might have the opposite effect though as I can see it turning current readers off in their droves.

[stocky]

On 8/30/2016 at 9:51 AM, Alan said:

You make a very good point about how journalists act on social media.

I'm guessing its partly social media as ordinary people usually look terrible on it to.

I rarely read opinions, columnists, letters and editorials. Stick with the core stuff.

,, Hence proving  why you remain so ill informed.

Try read some opinions, letters and Editorials,  you might actually learn something..