Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Irish Times to go 24 hours…
As Roy Greenslade noted last week, there are big changes at the Irish Times. The online team are (at last) being brought into the main office in an effort to become more of a 24 hour news outlet… Let’ hope it has all manner of good effects on some of it’s staffers... and wider culture…
Mick Fealty @ 12:53 PM
I can access the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the Times, the Daily Mail, and now the Irish News and the Wall Street Journal online for free, in almost every case their daily edition is up and running shortly after 12 midnight therefore being available for me to read out here over my early morning coffee.
Frequently the Irish Times to whom I pay the eye watering sum of 75 Euros pa is not updated until 3 or 4am Irish time (no pun), not good enough Dublin, extract the digit please.
Posted by on Jan 23, 2008 @ 01:29 PMI’m told that the Irish News’ free access is not to be a permanent arrangement.
Posted by on Jan 23, 2008 @ 01:32 PMCorrect Chekov. The Marketing Department are keeping it open for a few weeks to show us what we won’t be able to have soon on the basis that we’ll see enough to pay for it. The truth is: traffic is revenue. Watch it drop when the band of steel goes back on it again.
When they first put on the subscription, the Irish News was ahead of the field. Something it has now lost to the Belfast Telegraph, who are experimenting and evolving, not to mention growing their audience.
You simply can’t experiment in a closed wall. Nor can you grow online market share. It’s similarly holding back the Irish Times.
Posted by on Jan 23, 2008 @ 02:16 PMIncomprehendable that the Irish Stew couldn’t make enough £ off an advertising revenue for the online service. What makes them believe they can swim against the tide?
Far too many bloody public bodies subscribed in the interests of keeping abreast of their own coverage (giving the staff something to do at lunchtime.)
Posted by on Jan 23, 2008 @ 05:05 PMActually I have to ask what is the point of the Irish Times?
There is no news in the sense of nothing that I won’t already be aware of having checked into the internet half a dozen times during the day and kept abreast of the 24 hour news channels on the telly. I’m not really that fascinated by the latest Mayo farmer or retired Christian Brother being tried for thirty year old child abuse allegations, nor does a hundred year tribunal into who bunged Bertie a few bob back in the ‘80s have me on the edge of my seat.
So it must be the editorials then. Nope, “Whither Macedonia?” isn’t about to grab my attention either, and reading John Waters, Fintan O’Toole and Vincent Browne rehashing the same columns they have been doing for the past quarter century fills me with an ennui that defies the description narcolepsy. The Letters page? With serial letter writers from the Ireland Palestine Solidarity campaign and John O’Shea of Goal competing for space with the annual three month long “Was Roger Casement really a Shirtlifter?” discussion or the debate about healthcare spening I could probably give that a miss too.
So I ask again, what is the Irish Times for?
Posted by on Jan 24, 2008 @ 01:00 AMPersonally I love the Irish Times, and reading it is always something I miss when I’m overseas. Its a very high quality newspaper especially given the small population of the island.
For instance in the US, other than perhaps 5 or 6 good papers - the NY Times, Washington Post, WSJ, LA Times - most of the other papers are just carbon copies of each other, even the San Francisco Chronicle is a fairly thin read these days.
In New Zealand - roughly the same population as Ireland - the quality of the dailies is really abysmal - in the case of the NZ Herald consisting largely of hysterical right-wing local coverage and recycled columns from abroad.
When you look at the low readership base for an Irish quality paper of record, the Irish Times isn’t bad at all. Up there with the best of them, imho.
They should definitely make the website free though! It’s daft I can read the New York Times and all the UK papers for free but not the Irish Times!
Posted by on Jan 24, 2008 @ 03:57 AMA previous commentator mentioned that the Easter Proclamation was also displayed in the building.
This Proclamation talked of “cherishing all the children of the nation equally” - but for the Limavady Majority Rule crowd there seems to be an exception for those of Ireland’s children who are fond of Welsh dragons, royal memorabilia and statues of New Zealand prime ministers!
Is there any wonder that unionists don’t believe the Easter Proclamation at its word when these are the actions of modern-day so-called “Irish republicans” ?
Posted by on Jan 24, 2008 @ 04:19 AMWrong thread!! Sorry!
Posted by on Jan 24, 2008 @ 04:20 AMI agree that the IT appeals to a certain sort of middle class Irish wannabe Guardianista, the sort of people who speak knowingly of “taking” the Irish Times and who specifically refer (incorrectly) to the “London” Times in order to differentiate that organ from the real “Times”, but I ask again what’s the appeal?
In the 1980’s Fintan O’Toole droned on about how shite Irish society was, now when the country is rich he drones on about how shite Ireland is compared to what it used to be like when we were poor.
Vincent Browne repeats the same columns on America and Israel that he was producing when Ronald Reagan was president.
John Waters is an enjoyable read certainly but there’s only so many times we need to hear about the imbalance towards men in Irish family courts.
And the letters? Oh lord lift me out of it, cystic fibrosis is a distressing disease but it is not a fascinating topic of debate over two months in the letters page of a national newspaper.
The Irish Times is a dull turgid read, fixed in a self reverential frame of reference, appealing only to people who themselves are dull and turgid and equally self reverential. It’s so pompous that it and its readers are utterly unaware how up their own arses they appear to the rest of normal society.
Posted by on Jan 24, 2008 @ 04:36 AMThe above comments equally apply to the NY Times, LA Times, Boston Globe and the Washington Post.
It is really no surprise that the readership of soi-disant “quality” newspapers are draining away in their millions.
Thank God for the internet! (I will salute the Guardian for its innovative “Comment is Free” blog which allows its readership to tell the editors what they think of the twats they pay to write for them).
Posted by on Jan 24, 2008 @ 04:43 AMHarry
In your first post you said you pay 75 euro for the IT website. Why?
Posted by on Jan 24, 2008 @ 06:37 AM*In your first post you said you pay 75 euro for the IT website. Why?*
They automatically rebill my credit card and only tell me about it later, I must remember coming up to October to cancel it.
Posted by on Jan 24, 2008 @ 09:57 AMOzy,
A previous commentator mentioned that the Easter Proclamation was also displayed in the building..... Wrong thread!! Sorry!Thank God for that. You had me worried for a second. The Easter Proclamation at the Irish Times headquarters would be a step too far. They’ll be calling Kingstown Dún Laoghaire next.
Posted by on Jan 24, 2008 @ 11:10 AM
