Munster v news & star

Manabouttown1

Long time lurker first time poster, gotta start somewhere!

Both papers out on a Tuesday now...which one do you buy? If any..my guess is people don't buy papers anymore.

I'm a Munster man, always have been. Not quite sure why though...just a family thing.

deisemum

I prefer the Munster Express

kaef

News&Star but i've never read Munster Expr tbh

Manabouttown1

I'm gonna start giving the news and star a try now because the level of reporting in the Munster is shocking. Also they cover far too many places that I would consider to be Kilkenny and Tipperary.

Smiley Burnett

news and star is too tabloid....They have dumbed down always try and go for negative stories...The Munster is much more positive in its approach to news...

Manabouttown1

Do people read newspapers to get good news? I think I'm just a bit tired of paying for a rag that isn't much more than a community bulletin board.

Mind you I can't really say much about the news and star cause it's not bought in our house. I think it's a political thing. This week's Munster had a story about cigarettes on the front page. Wtf?

mooseknunkle

They are both crap newspapers..the munster used to be decent years ago..the news and star is as bad as it ever was trying to much to be like the daily mirror..the entertainment section is just basically a copy and paste of boards and twitter.

ROCKMAN

Apart from the court appearances .

or

the annual first day in school photos......

Do people read or look at anything else in these newspapers..

Manabouttown1

I have just picked up a copy of the news and star. I shall investigate and report back. I agree that people only tend to buy these things when they're kids are in it. How are they still afloat?

Manabouttown1

Where's all the boards and twitter stuff? It just takes up half a page as far as I can see?

Can't say I'm too interested in mums the word and well boy but each to their own. And what's with the fashion pages. This is a Waterford magazine not hello.

One of my old school friends is in the court pages. Really good interview with Ciaran o Neill from the forum in news and star.

Odd that the Munster didn't go with the missing man on the front page. Is that what you mean by them boy being negative?

fricatus

I prefer the News & Star. By far the best bit is Phoenix - say what you like, he knows his subject and seems to do his research in detail.

Contrast that with the "editorials" in the Munster... rehashed opinions, badly written - like a typical 14-year-old's essay for English class. In fairness they may have improved; I haven't read one in 2-3 years. But boy, they were bad.

If only more local journalists did in-depth investigation, I would buy the local papers more often. Certainly the "national" media don't seem to have any interest in what goes on beyond the M50. Trouble is, such journalism costs money, which means selling more papers, which is not going to happen if they're crap - vicious circle!

fricatus

Manabouttown1 wrote: »

I have just picked up a copy of the news and star. I shall investigate and report back. I agree that people only tend to buy these things when they're kids are in it. How are they still afloat?

Because the grannies also buy a copy!

And because they print loads of school pictures...

LiamD1977

With all the talk of expenses and the one councillor being investigated by the Gardaí you would think that one of the papers would do a Freedom Of Information request on last years councillors expenses. See who went to what dodgy conference in Donegal and such ,

The reason this doesn't happen is that the council are one of the biggest customers of both papers and they wont bite hand that feeds them.

joni1

Manabouttown1 wrote: »

Where's all the boards and twitter stuff? It just takes up half a page as far as I can see?

Can't say I'm too interested in mums the word and well boy but each to their own. And what's with the fashion pages. This is a Waterford magazine not hello.

One of my old school friends is in the court pages. Really good interview with Ciaran o Neill from the forum in news and star.

Odd that the Munster didn't go with the missing man on the front page. Is that what you mean by them boy being negative?

I much prefer the entertainment section in the Munster, always loads of coverage of local stuff. The News and Star seems like pages from a national paper that are slotted in to fill a gap

Dicky Pride

joni1 wrote: »

I much prefer the entertainment section in the Munster, always loads of coverage of local stuff. The News and Star seems like pages from a national paper that are slotted in to fill a gap

Don't be fooled. Both papers contain entertainment pages that are filled with press releases. In many cases, the exact same press releases. So for you to say that one is better than the other, well that's just a bit absurd. Waterford is a small city and the main papers in Waterford have very small staff numbers - the entertainment pages are not very high priority so whatever the PR people send in, is what makes it into the papers. In my experience, the bigger the entertainment section, the less original content you're going to find in the paper.

As we know, the Waterford Today is about 95% press releases.

The Munster Express is next when it comes to the amount of unoriginal content, but I would put that down to the face that their staff numbers have dwindled significantly in recent years.

It's great that the city has two newspapers that are both equally representing Waterford as best as they can. Whether the news is positive or negative, it's usually a fair reflection of what is happening in the city and county at that given time. The number one criticism that I hear about the Munster Express is that it's too parochial...too old fashioned, but the place is an institution and I hope it's around for a long time to come.

The main criticism of the News & Star is that it tries to be too tabloidy, too shocking...but come on...how shocking can you actually be in Waterford? The very people who complain about it are the very people that are rubbernecking and twitching their curtains every day.

Switching to Tuesday was a brave move for the Munster Express...their tagline is that they are Waterford's leading Newspaper, which I'm not sure they can justify. They used to quote ABC stats or something like that, to show they were number one, but that seems to have disappeared from the front page so my guess is that's no longer the case.

joni1

Dicky Pride wrote: »

Don't be fooled. Both papers contain entertainment pages that are filled with press releases. In many cases, the exact same press releases. So for you to say that one is better than the other, well that's just a bit absurd. Waterford is a small city and the main papers in Waterford have very small staff numbers - the entertainment pages are not very high priority so whatever the PR people send in, is what makes it into the papers. In my experience, the bigger the entertainment section, the less original content you're going to find in the paper.

As we know, the Waterford Today is about 95% press releases.

The Munster Express is next when it comes to the amount of unoriginal content, but I would put that down to the face that their staff numbers have dwindled significantly in recent years.

It's great that the city has two newspapers that are both equally representing Waterford as best as they can. Whether the news is positive or negative, it's usually a fair reflection of what is happening in the city and county at that given time. The number one criticism that I hear about the Munster Express is that it's too parochial...too old fashioned, but the place is an institution and I hope it's around for a long time to come.

The main criticism of the News & Star is that it tries to be too tabloidy, too shocking...but come on...how shocking can you actually be in Waterford? The very people who complain about it are the very people that are rubbernecking and twitching their curtains every day.

Switching to Tuesday was a brave move for the Munster Express...their tagline is that they are Waterford's leading Newspaper, which I'm not sure they can justify. They used to quote ABC stats or something like that, to show they were number one, but that seems to have disappeared from the front page so my guess is that's no longer the case.

I have to disagree there, the Munster always has coverage of local art and photography exhibitions and gigs that you'd never hear about in the News and Star. Not sure if that info would come from PR people or what though

Squirrel McGuffin

Well I don't know about The Munster, but the News & Star is actually produced in Enniscorthy. The local production staff were very quietly let go a few years ago, and the work is now done by The Echo production staff. For that reason alone I wouldn't buy that paper.

mooseknunkle

Squirrel McGuffin wrote: »

Well I don't know about The Munster, but the News & Star is actually produced in Enniscorthy. The local production staff were very quietly let go a few years ago, and the work is now done by The Echo production staff. For that reason alone I wouldn't buy that paper.

I dont think the news and star was ever printed in waterford wasnt it done down cork before im open to correction on this though..

Dicky Pride

Squirrel McGuffin wrote: »

Well I don't know about The Munster, but the News & Star is actually produced in Enniscorthy. The local production staff were very quietly let go a few years ago, and the work is now done by The Echo production staff. For that reason alone I wouldn't buy that paper.

My god. I think this paragraph right here sums up what it wrong with Waterford people. A constant chip on the shoulder. Production has been moved to Wexford not New Dehli. The Munster have also stopped producing in Waterford. It's just a sign of the times...the printed press is a dying form of media.

Squirrel McGuffin

Not the printing production. That was never done in Waterford. The actual layout of the paper and all the ads was moved to The Echo newspaper. The designers here were made redundant.

jayboi

Ive got to go with Munster on this one - they've been there or there abouts the last few years in Europe, winning the Heineken cup in 06 and 08. They really are a top Irish side.
I'm not sure how the N&S would approach a match with a professional rugby team or what rational they would use in justifying such a game. Well worded as some articles may be this could be a prime example of stick and stones my break my bones but words....

Dicky Pride

Perfection jayboi.

KevIRL

ROCKMAN wrote: »

Apart from the court appearances .

or

the annual first day in school photos......

Do people read or look at anything else in these newspapers..

Sport

Dicky Pride

Squirrel McGuffin wrote: »

Not the printing production. That was never done in Waterford. The actual layout of the paper and all the ads was moved to The Echo newspaper. The designers here were made redundant.

If you were to hold that against businesses in this day and age you'd have to have issue with the majority of them. The Munster also had to let their design and production team go in 2011.

hardybuck

I would much rather have 1 quality paper for the county rather than the two mediocre ones in the city and what I expect are two equally mediocre ones in the county.

I won't even class Waterford today as a newspaper.

FestyOSemtex

I buy both and tbh its hard to differentiate between the two. They are both crap.

Waterford Today is used for my cat litter.

Dicky Pride

Cool story bro. Do you eat any food that you hate too?

Max Powers

i would say I buy munster 70%, news& star 30% of time, not really sure why I favour one. I buy one of them every week, I like them as I like to know whats happening, what has happened etc. Only thing that annoys me is the printing of speculation or TD/Councillor speak verbatim without any questions being asked. Speculation I have seen a lot of recently is the announcement of jobs 'soon', newgate centre (it reads like there is some merit in rumours here but nothing concrete), before new years there was the rumour of a major new tourism attraction for the quay in 12-18 months, who of us will remember that headline in 12-18 months. I would love it if half of the speculation actually came true in a reasonable time like 6 months. take this weeks Munster 'H&M possible for where brasserie was', I cant believe any of the speculation any more which is a bit irritating even though I guess that one will come true with planning in etc.

RumMonkey

Dicky Pride wrote: »

If you were to hold that against businesses in this day and age you'd have to have issue with the majority of them. The Munster also had to let their design and production team go in 2011.

The Munster Express closed their Printing, Production/Design and Circulation/Distribution departments in 2011 - making 12 people redundant. They outsourced this work to other parts of the country.

comeraghs

Neither of them are the Irish Times but have ye ever read any local papers from other parts of the country?

Not any better than our two.

hardybuck

comeraghs wrote: »

Neither of them are the Irish Times but have ye ever read any local papers from other parts of the country?

Not any better than our two.

I certainly have. The Evening Echo in Cork, which is daily, and the Kerryman.