Redundancies at Munster Express

jmcc

blueboy123 wrote: »

Oh yeah I knew that, but with it losing so many staff is very sad! Wonder will the size, supplements etc be reduced too?

Don't know. Supplements tend to be advertising driven and, I think, if they can't get the advertising then they won't run the particular supplement. Many of the broadsheet newspapers have moved to tabloid size but the biggest problem that I can see is the rise of Waterford Today. It has a greater coverage and it is free.

Regards...jmcc

Psychedelic

mike65 wrote: »

Eh? What reporting? When did the Munster ever do anything other than the most basic "bog-cutting" hackery and PR re-writing? I must have missed the
in depth articles and 'shine a light' stories that win awards.

Remember old Smokey Joes holiday articles? That's just about the level the Munster occupies.

Do you expect cutting edge journalism or something? It's the Munster Express not the New York Times. Let's face it, not much happens in Waterford so I don't know what you expect from a local paper beyond reporting the local news, and I think they do a decent job of that. And it's not like they have loads of money to spend on more/better journalists.

Sully

A lot of people compare it to the News & Star, and feel that the level of news is much higher and indepth than the Munster. People feel that while the munster is around so long, N&S has always given more indepth and bigger coverage. Similarly did the Waterford People, went along the N&S style.

I wouldn't think Waterford Today is much competition, its a advert paper with little news.

mike65

jmcc and Psychedelic seems to have taken my comment up a bit wrong. I was responding to Silverado comment which seemed to suggest The Munster was all that was between hard news and total social media led anarchy.

Of course its not going to produce anything of any note, break a story or hold anyone to account. Its a local rag, not Ben Bradlee Washington Post.

jmcc

Sully wrote: »

A lot of people compare it to the News & Star, and feel that the level of news is much higher and indepth than the Munster. People feel that while the munster is around so long, N&S has always given more indepth and bigger coverage. Similarly did the Waterford People, went along the N&S style.

Well the N&S has the benefit of filler articles from the Examiner. The Waterford People wasn't really a player and was more like a Sindonista/media studies graduates type effort at a local newspaper. Loads of pics and little else.

I wouldn't think Waterford Today is much competition, its a advert paper with little news.

That's why you don't know about publishing Sully. It is very hard to beat FREE. It has coverage of most of the Munster and News & Star's target market and it is free. Readers have to pay for the Munster or N&S. This coverage makes it a serious threat. Every advert in Waterford Today is potentially a lost customer for the Munster Express or N&S. Newspapers, especially at the local level, are advertising driven moreso than journalism driven.

Regards...jmcc

abouttobebanned

They should have a weekly supplement called "up on the roof". A weekly page documenting what head cases have gone mad on a roof this week.

Seriously though...we mustn't be too far away from living in a world with 1 newspaper per country.

jmcc

mike65 wrote: »

Of course its not going to produce anything of any note, break a story or hold anyone to account.

<rant>On a local level, it probably has and probably will. Referring to newspapers as "rags" is all very Front Page [1] but the local newspapers are probably far better at news than the Oirish Times or the Sindo. This is why the local newspapers have always provided a training ground for national journalists to learn their craft. This changed somewhat during the Celtic Tiger when degree mills started churning out PR flacks (journalism graduates) who were too stupid to get into banking or auctioneering. As a result, the Irish media is largely filled with the journalistic equivalent of pondscum recycling press releases as journalism while the broadsheets give space to windbaggers to spew their cluelessness while news reporting withers. This is why some of the Irish national newspapers are in financial trouble and losing readers each day. </rant>

Regards...jmcc
[1] A newspaper movie rather than the Microsoft web design software.

Sully

jmcc wrote: »

Well the N&S has the benefit of filler articles from the Examiner. The Waterford People wasn't really a player and was more like a Sindonista/media studies graduates type effort at a local newspaper. Loads of pics and little else.

I don't read them much but the N&S just seems to have more news and articles compared to the Munster. Iv always thought that you got more news from the N&S. The Waterford People might have survived, didn't their parent company cut down on most of their national papers including Waterford? It wasn't a bad effort but its hard to crack into Waterford I would imagine.

That's why you don't know about publishing Sully. It is very hard to beat FREE. It has coverage of most of the Munster and News & Star's target market and it is free. Readers have to pay for the Munster or N&S. This coverage makes it a serious threat. Every advert in Waterford Today is potentially a lost customer for the Munster Express or N&S. Newspapers, especially at the local level, are advertising driven moreso than journalism driven.

Regards...jmcc

There is very very little news in the Waterford Today compared to the other mainstream papers though, so that's why you would go ahead and buy the others. Its been like that for years.

Silverado

mike65 wrote: »

jmcc and Psychedelic seems to have taken my comment up a bit wrong. I was responding to Silverado comment which seemed to suggest The Munster was all that was between hard news and total social media led anarchy..

"Media led anarchy" is taking my argument a little too far. My point is that we need as much professional journalism in our media to counteract the misinformation common on social networking sites. This thread itself is an example of it how some contributors get it wrong. They were under the impression that the Munster Express is closing down. We now know that this is far from the truth.

We need our local media and its journalists.

jmcc

Sully wrote: »

I don't read them much but the N&S just seems to have more news and articles compared to the Munster. Iv always thought that you got more news from the N&S. The Waterford People might have survived, didn't their parent company cut down on most of their national papers including Waterford? It wasn't a bad effort but its hard to crack into Waterford I would imagine.

Well they had to compete with two existing newspapers and one free one. They hadn't a chance. The Murdoch approach would have been to go in low cost or free and drive others out of the market. The problem was that this doesn't really work in a local market and the parent company didn't have the funds to try it.

There is very very little news in the Waterford Today compared to the other mainstream papers though, so that's why you would go ahead and buy the others. Its been like that for years.

That's the idea. It is an advertising publication and news takes up space unless it is advertorial or ad related. WT is free so people don't have to pay for it and if they are looking for something, it is to hand. It gets to most of the market for free and as such it can hit one of the main revenue streams of the paid newspapers. The key element is that you don't have to pay for Waterford Today.

Regards...jmcc