blues six glens nil
24-07-08, 10:29 PM
DISCLAIMER : This was written prior to DJ's rant on UTV today (Thursday)
This Saturday, 26th July, sees the last ever edition of 'Ireland's Saturday Night' go into publication, as publication ceases due to poor circulation figures.
Not surprising really, it had been digging it's own grave for years through becoming mainland centric, offering nothing new to the market and lacking a local identity.
The only time I purchased it regularly was when I was working in a bar over 3 years, and could read it during my break. When Linfield won a trophy, I would buy it so I could have a souvenir.
Otherwise, it simply wasn't essential reading for me. I wasn't the only one to take this attitude.
As with any newspaper or magazine which has folded in the last 10 years, 'The I word' is usually mentioned in the first paragraph of the press release announcing it's demise.
In my opinion there was, and still is, a market for Ireland's Saturday Night. The internet did not kill Ireland's Saturday Night, it provided it with a challenge. In order to compete, Ireland's Saturday Night, had to up their game and offer something different to readers, which would make it a high quality product and essential reading for local sports fans.
They were unable to meet that challenge.
They chose to cut and paste Press Association feeds and changed their editorial policy to be more England and Glasgow centric, causing them to continually lose readers.
A perfect example of this culture of laziness is the fact that Ireland's Saturday Night usually contained a column by Alan Green, which has already been available in that day's edition of the Belfast Telegraph.
There was a lesson from history they chose to ignore. In 2005, a new Belfast based paper, 'Daily View' folded after just over a month.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/apr/10/pressandpublishing.business1
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/5323782.stm
They cut and pasted stories from Reuters and the PA, mostly not relevant to a Northern Ireland audience, and paid the price.
Northern Ireland's footballing preferences are Northern Ireland, England, Glasgow (Let's face it, Scottish teams not called Rangers or Celtic don't really get a look-in here), which gave the ISN a wider news scope than the 1 or 2 club focus that recently folded newspapers in Liverpool and Newcastle had. The problem was, they just couldn't get the balance right.
The most obvious fault with the Ireland's Saturday Night is it's price and size. Why pay 55p for a newspaper, which has less pages than free supplements given away in most other newspapers?
Not only that, if I want to get in-depth analysis of the big games in England, i'll just sit in front of the telly and watch Sky Sports News, or I could just wait for a few hours for Match of the Day.
Despite having a USP, and the whole market to themselves, Ireland's Saturday Night set themselves up for closure by ignoring their customers and telling them what they want to read about.
Basic market research tells you, that customers tell the producer what they want, not the other way around.
The South Belfast Community Telegraph isn't much better, regularly using it's one page of sports coverage to write about Fulham (I forgot, everybody in Northern Ireland supports Fulham now. Hopefully, Roy Hodgson's clear-out will happen and this stupid idea will be knocked on the head) which isn't really of relevance, bearing in mind the publications name.
Their news coverage is generally cut and paste jobs from Belfast City Council press releases, generic stories that can be passed off as of interest to North, East, South and West Belfast, producing four identikit publications which have little relevance to their target audience. The masthead says '20p where sold', but the lazy nature of the journalism means that not only are people reluctant to pay 20p, but lifting a free copy from their local library is too much effort.
It is not just the Ireland's Saturday Night whose football coverage is England centric. Radio Ulster's flagship sports show has an interview on English football with a Radio 5 journalist as soon as it goes on air. I know that if I want to listen to English football coverage, i'll listen to 5 Live or Talkshite. I wouldn't be going anywhere near Radio Ulster. I'm sure i'm not the only one.
Likewise UTV Live and BBC Newsline will report on English football with even the most clutching at straws links. A few years back, Season Ticket did a special on Chelsea's youth team manager, who came from Larne. The problem was, they spent more time interviewing Mourinho, Lampard and Drogba, than they did interviewing they guy they were making the documentary on.
Granted, UTV have commercial pressures to plug their Champions League coverage, but any football fan knows that during a Champions League week, ITV have a live match on a Tuesday, there is no need to plug it as they are preaching to the converted.
I know that if i'm wanting to watch the latest news on English football, BBC Northern Ireland and UTV would be the last places I go to.
It's not just sports coverage that neglect local issues, it's general news as well.
We get bombarded with idle showbiz chatter, photo's of Amy's latest falling out of nightclub, Mylene's latest M and S advert or Big Brother's latest happenings, without the editors realising that people wishing to read about these subjects will read the national tabloids, or the glossy magazines, and don't give local papers a look-in.
Forget 'We're not Brazil, we're Northern Ireland', perhaps if our local media adopted an attitude of 'We're not England, we're Northern Ireland', they wouldn't be faced with low circulation figures and having to close down publications.
Otherwise, Daily View and Ireland's Saturday Night may be the first of a long list.
This Saturday, 26th July, sees the last ever edition of 'Ireland's Saturday Night' go into publication, as publication ceases due to poor circulation figures.
Not surprising really, it had been digging it's own grave for years through becoming mainland centric, offering nothing new to the market and lacking a local identity.
The only time I purchased it regularly was when I was working in a bar over 3 years, and could read it during my break. When Linfield won a trophy, I would buy it so I could have a souvenir.
Otherwise, it simply wasn't essential reading for me. I wasn't the only one to take this attitude.
As with any newspaper or magazine which has folded in the last 10 years, 'The I word' is usually mentioned in the first paragraph of the press release announcing it's demise.
In my opinion there was, and still is, a market for Ireland's Saturday Night. The internet did not kill Ireland's Saturday Night, it provided it with a challenge. In order to compete, Ireland's Saturday Night, had to up their game and offer something different to readers, which would make it a high quality product and essential reading for local sports fans.
They were unable to meet that challenge.
They chose to cut and paste Press Association feeds and changed their editorial policy to be more England and Glasgow centric, causing them to continually lose readers.
A perfect example of this culture of laziness is the fact that Ireland's Saturday Night usually contained a column by Alan Green, which has already been available in that day's edition of the Belfast Telegraph.
There was a lesson from history they chose to ignore. In 2005, a new Belfast based paper, 'Daily View' folded after just over a month.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/apr/10/pressandpublishing.business1
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/5323782.stm
They cut and pasted stories from Reuters and the PA, mostly not relevant to a Northern Ireland audience, and paid the price.
Northern Ireland's footballing preferences are Northern Ireland, England, Glasgow (Let's face it, Scottish teams not called Rangers or Celtic don't really get a look-in here), which gave the ISN a wider news scope than the 1 or 2 club focus that recently folded newspapers in Liverpool and Newcastle had. The problem was, they just couldn't get the balance right.
The most obvious fault with the Ireland's Saturday Night is it's price and size. Why pay 55p for a newspaper, which has less pages than free supplements given away in most other newspapers?
Not only that, if I want to get in-depth analysis of the big games in England, i'll just sit in front of the telly and watch Sky Sports News, or I could just wait for a few hours for Match of the Day.
Despite having a USP, and the whole market to themselves, Ireland's Saturday Night set themselves up for closure by ignoring their customers and telling them what they want to read about.
Basic market research tells you, that customers tell the producer what they want, not the other way around.
The South Belfast Community Telegraph isn't much better, regularly using it's one page of sports coverage to write about Fulham (I forgot, everybody in Northern Ireland supports Fulham now. Hopefully, Roy Hodgson's clear-out will happen and this stupid idea will be knocked on the head) which isn't really of relevance, bearing in mind the publications name.
Their news coverage is generally cut and paste jobs from Belfast City Council press releases, generic stories that can be passed off as of interest to North, East, South and West Belfast, producing four identikit publications which have little relevance to their target audience. The masthead says '20p where sold', but the lazy nature of the journalism means that not only are people reluctant to pay 20p, but lifting a free copy from their local library is too much effort.
It is not just the Ireland's Saturday Night whose football coverage is England centric. Radio Ulster's flagship sports show has an interview on English football with a Radio 5 journalist as soon as it goes on air. I know that if I want to listen to English football coverage, i'll listen to 5 Live or Talkshite. I wouldn't be going anywhere near Radio Ulster. I'm sure i'm not the only one.
Likewise UTV Live and BBC Newsline will report on English football with even the most clutching at straws links. A few years back, Season Ticket did a special on Chelsea's youth team manager, who came from Larne. The problem was, they spent more time interviewing Mourinho, Lampard and Drogba, than they did interviewing they guy they were making the documentary on.
Granted, UTV have commercial pressures to plug their Champions League coverage, but any football fan knows that during a Champions League week, ITV have a live match on a Tuesday, there is no need to plug it as they are preaching to the converted.
I know that if i'm wanting to watch the latest news on English football, BBC Northern Ireland and UTV would be the last places I go to.
It's not just sports coverage that neglect local issues, it's general news as well.
We get bombarded with idle showbiz chatter, photo's of Amy's latest falling out of nightclub, Mylene's latest M and S advert or Big Brother's latest happenings, without the editors realising that people wishing to read about these subjects will read the national tabloids, or the glossy magazines, and don't give local papers a look-in.
Forget 'We're not Brazil, we're Northern Ireland', perhaps if our local media adopted an attitude of 'We're not England, we're Northern Ireland', they wouldn't be faced with low circulation figures and having to close down publications.
Otherwise, Daily View and Ireland's Saturday Night may be the first of a long list.