Courier

[jaffacat]

I see that the Campbeltown Courier has sneaked in another price increase. It`s now 75p.
Anybody else think that they`re having a laugh?

[Bonnie Lass]

[Bitter End]

Not a laugh --- if bought a "gloat " !!!!!

[bill]

75P

I wonder if they have thought of printing a Polish edition ??

[Ileach B]

Bit of a joke, when they can't spell right or have correct grammar!

But if you don't buy it you feel you miss out on that 2 minute silence on your teabreak or has it shortened to maybe 1 minute by the time you bypass house sale adverts that has packed it out?

[oorly gourlay]

Ileach B wrote

Bit of a joke, when they can't spell right or have correct grammar!

Is that 'can't spell correctly or properly' Many of the submissions are from outwith the journos and are cut and pasted in their original form as submitted. Ignoring some of the spelling and grammar on here, have you read your own local rag recently, i.e. the Ileach?

Checked twenty times, just in case

[Swanseajock]

As an ex-pat, I agree that the rise is a joke. I was up last week for the 10k, and to be honest diodn't even realise that it was that expensive. For all the guff that is in it they must be having a larf to try and charge 75p. \it is all about cash. I used to read the reports on the website, but now to read any report you have to "buy" it for 75p. I wrote to them expressing my disgust and disappointment of not being able to read the reports and didn't even get the decency of any reply or acknowledgement. It now seems that maybe the end is in sight for the Courier. There is nothing in it to consider paying that price. You can get a national daily for less, I think that all that keeps it going is the fact that people buy it purely out if habit because they always have and their parents did before them. Not good for the future

[maxmix]

Never bought a copy for years... Total liberty for all thats in it...

You will get all the info for free on here for free.... lol

Not just a Courier thing either, lucky if I buy any newspapers at all...

Get all the newspapers I want on my phone or PC every minute of the day.... FOR FREE

75p !!!! They are definately having a

maxmix

PS You may still catch me having a glance through one in Tesco though

[Ileach B]

Ileach B wrote

Bit of a joke, when they can't spell right or have correct grammar!

Is that 'can't spell correctly or properly' Many of the submissions are from outwith the journos and are cut and pasted in their original form as submitted. Ignoring some of the spelling and grammar on here, have you read your own local rag recently, i.e. the Ileach?

Checked twenty times, just in case

The Ileach isn't my "local" rag which is a bit of a presumption and I don't work for the courier so I'm not really worried about my grammar or spelling, that is what spell check is for.

Surely if they are cutting and pasting it should still be checked? I'm not going to get into the works of how it is made, it was an observation and how they can justify charging 75p!

Spellchecked - 20 times!

[Bitter End]

Noo Noo ! lads an lassies ther should be nae battlin ower this ' rag ' -- "observations " ; only PLEASE ! !

[Hels]

The price of the Courier is indeed a joke!

The editor needs to realise that this paper represents the town and this is a town which relies massively on tourism. Imagine coming to the Wee Toon for a weekend and buying the local paper to see whats going on, where to go, what to see etc. This week you'd be hit with a front page headline of "Dirty Wee Toon", by page 3 you're fully up to speed with the number of arrests and fixed penalities issued at the weekend! And this is actually a good week for the Courier - often you can reach page 5 and all that has been covered is court reports, arrests and drug problems.

Whilst it is important that these things are reported and we can't pretend that they are not local issues - why are they (court reports etc) always in the first few pages? Why are the likes of the leisure pages etc not brought further forward?

[jamiemcivor]

A few observations... Obviously I might be seen as biased when I used to work for the Courier but I hope they might stimulate debate. People have moaned about the price, pagination and quality of the Courier for as long as I remember - I used to get it in the neck from certain people when I worked there.

Whatever people may think of the Courier in practice (and how many critics ever go in to the office with ideas, suggestions or constructive criticism?) Campbeltown and Kintyre is lucky to still have a commercially viable local paper. A lot of places with a population of 10,000 cannot support a weekly paper. Large towns and cities often have free papers - but is it in the public interest to have local newspapers where the advertisers are in sole command?

75p for 24 or 28 pages (more than there were in my day... many in colour) may seem a lot compared to the price of most of the UK and Scottish national papers. But a newspaper is a business. It has to be economically viable. It has to generate enough from sales and advertising to cover its costs (two reporters, advertising staff, transport, equipment, electricity, premises and, of course, paper and printing) and make a profit.

As consumers, we all have to decide if 75p is a price worth paying or not. Clearly many people do or sales would nosedive. Nothing worthwhile ever comes for free except as a promotion. If you don't think a product is value for money then don't moan - don't buy it.

If you think the cover price should be lower then think of the ways this could be achieved. None of them sound desirable.

*Less content and fewer pages.

*Some form of direct public subsidy for the local press - rather a repugnant notion in principle as, even with benign intent, it could lead to a postion where councils, MPs or MSPs could start to call the shots. Any reputable journalist owes their loyalty to the wider public.

On the point about leisure pages, well it isn't fair for me to comment on a paper I left 14 years ago. But in general terms what matters is whether something is printed - not where it is within a paper as long as it can be found. And the key word is NEWS. Local papers print things like court reports because people want to read them. It's all a matter of balance.

There may well come a point in the future where the web takes over from print. But we're nowhere near the point where the loss of a paid for local paper would be anything other than a serious economic, social and cultural blow.

And don't assume the web will always be free. Many big publishers are starting to realise there's a value to their content which is why the News International titles (Times, Sunday Times) are putting up paywalls.

[WTC]

I think this weeks front page headline is ………………………………………


I’m trying to think of a word or phrase.

In best ‘Have I Got News for You’ style, why don’t you help me fill in the blank

[Ship called Dignity]

[jaffacat]

What have I started?!!

Anyway, what got me annoyed was the fact that they didn`t give advance notice that the price was going to increase(unless I missed it). Most national papers let you know they`re going to do it and why.
Also this is their second increase in less than 12 months. I`m sure it was 64p (correct me if I`m wrong, it may have been 68p),then 70p and now 75p. This is an increase of 17% in less than a year. There`s no way that costs have risen this quickly in such a short space of time.