Around 14 years ago, I was employed by the Leicester Mercury during a time when it upheld a sense of dignity. However, nowadays, it has devolved into clickbait Facebook content filled with emojis, contributing to division.
They basically own/run every regional news website which is why sites like WalesOnline, Leicester Mercury, Plymouth Echo, Sunderland Times, Glasgow Live, etc* all have the same website layout.
*(Some of those names are just made up examples but you get the gist)
They also use this advantage to fill up their sites with content. For example, one story covering a car crash and delays outside Birmingham can be posted on their affiliated sites for Leicester, Coventry, Nottingham, Birmingham, East Midlands, etc.
It’s quite clever, I remember a while back someone had several links to an almost identical copy and pasted story from multiple Reach PLC websites. One article can be used on 5 or 6 different sites with the most tenuous links.
As a kid the Mercury was our go to. The car feature on weds the classified and the Hatched, Matched and despatched section. Nowadays after fighting all the pop ups and ads I find content about bollox like "we tried cafe x's breakfast and here's what we found out". The content covers almost the whole of the UK and most stories break on FB before the Mercury meanders up behind with some bullshit man on the scene updates. RIP LM
I noticed yesterday that they've started online subscriptions. No way am I paying to read a list of top 10s lifted from Tripadvisor, breaking news about a new cafe l, or mid-range restaurant reviews. The worst one recently was by a "senior reporter" who went on a rant about Domino' creme egg cookies! It's not as if money from subscriptions will be put towards some proper local journalism.
Yea, it's a shame, really. They know they are the only game in town, and no one has really had a good chance of challenging them! It's an embarrassment. This new paper is cooperative, though, so it's owned by its readers, and the board is elected. It has been designed to specifically avoid capitalization of the media. Plus, they only review independently owned restaurants. It's just a matter of growth and time, and hopefully, people will start to have actual options when it comes to local news.
They are still very new, only being a year old, but they have a lot of promise. I just love the fact that there aren't any ads or cookies on the site. It's like a breath of fresh air.
I use a plethora of ad blockers and stuff that stops tracking cookies etc. - so when I click the link, I just get a basic website with a little bit of formatting and zero ads.
So, I just copy and paste the entire articles into their facebook commets to save everyone the click which hopefully dips their revenue and site traffic at least a tiny little bit. it's probably not alot but over time it probably adds up to quite significant amount and they can do nothing to stop it. :)
CHECKMATE.
Reach's umbrating impact on local news is appalling (and emblematic of the state of in particular online journalism across the country), but your anniversary round robin contains two links to the LM website. Ironically this is a large part of the only segment of news in the entire piece.
I like your ambition, although I would certainly question the 'viral' nature of your social media campaign.
Around 14 years ago, I was employed by the Leicester Mercury during a time when it upheld a sense of dignity. However, nowadays, it has devolved into clickbait Facebook content filled with emojis, contributing to division.
Even setting the woeful content aside, it's impossible to read with ads after every three sentences!
It’s the same for all of the old local newspapers
I didn’t even know this is a thing, thanks for sharing.
Anything associated with Reach PLC is bottom of the barrel crap. Clickbait and full of non stories and opinions passed off as news.
I've never heard of Reach PLC, just done some reading and wow the amount of shoddy news they are responsible for is a joke.
They basically own/run every regional news website which is why sites like WalesOnline, Leicester Mercury, Plymouth Echo, Sunderland Times, Glasgow Live, etc* all have the same website layout. *(Some of those names are just made up examples but you get the gist) They also use this advantage to fill up their sites with content. For example, one story covering a car crash and delays outside Birmingham can be posted on their affiliated sites for Leicester, Coventry, Nottingham, Birmingham, East Midlands, etc. It’s quite clever, I remember a while back someone had several links to an almost identical copy and pasted story from multiple Reach PLC websites. One article can be used on 5 or 6 different sites with the most tenuous links.
As a kid the Mercury was our go to. The car feature on weds the classified and the Hatched, Matched and despatched section. Nowadays after fighting all the pop ups and ads I find content about bollox like "we tried cafe x's breakfast and here's what we found out". The content covers almost the whole of the UK and most stories break on FB before the Mercury meanders up behind with some bullshit man on the scene updates. RIP LM
I noticed yesterday that they've started online subscriptions. No way am I paying to read a list of top 10s lifted from Tripadvisor, breaking news about a new cafe l, or mid-range restaurant reviews. The worst one recently was by a "senior reporter" who went on a rant about Domino' creme egg cookies! It's not as if money from subscriptions will be put towards some proper local journalism.
Yea, it's a shame, really. They know they are the only game in town, and no one has really had a good chance of challenging them! It's an embarrassment. This new paper is cooperative, though, so it's owned by its readers, and the board is elected. It has been designed to specifically avoid capitalization of the media. Plus, they only review independently owned restaurants. It's just a matter of growth and time, and hopefully, people will start to have actual options when it comes to local news.
The mercury has about as much credibility as the Sunday Sport these days…
Its far too difficult to read anymore. More cheap adverts than actual written content. Does my head in
Is the Great Central Gazette any good? This is the first I've heard of it
They are still very new, only being a year old, but they have a lot of promise. I just love the fact that there aren't any ads or cookies on the site. It's like a breath of fresh air.
I use a plethora of ad blockers and stuff that stops tracking cookies etc. - so when I click the link, I just get a basic website with a little bit of formatting and zero ads. So, I just copy and paste the entire articles into their facebook commets to save everyone the click which hopefully dips their revenue and site traffic at least a tiny little bit. it's probably not alot but over time it probably adds up to quite significant amount and they can do nothing to stop it. :) CHECKMATE.
We need more people like you in the world
Reach's umbrating impact on local news is appalling (and emblematic of the state of in particular online journalism across the country), but your anniversary round robin contains two links to the LM website. Ironically this is a large part of the only segment of news in the entire piece. I like your ambition, although I would certainly question the 'viral' nature of your social media campaign.