Three midlands newspapers to close

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Since when is Roscommon in the midlands

Traditionally it isn't but in reality its as much midlands as Westmeath, sure Tipp and Cavan should be considered the Midlands too, but we tend to refer to the Midlands to the Midland counties that are in Leinster.

Well that's what I meant,I always think of the midlands as Laois,Offaly,Westmeath and probably Longford.

Its one of those your both right times, with Athlone being more or less the middle of the country, South Roscommon and East Galway are closer the middle than Laois.

Anything West of the Shannon is the West - you can tell once you cross over that natural boundary that you are in a different place altogether. Sad to see that the Champion is no more but its days looked numbered once many of it's "top" writers moved over to the Roscommon People. Although many never even read it in the old days because it had an unrepentant FF ethos. The Herald was always the leading newspaper in Ros, anyway - although it had its share of interesting editors too.  That said, the strategy of local newspapers is very foolish. Their websites are absolutely cat. These newspapers should be setting up local portals that are updated constantly, with information online that is not available on print, not just a half-arse effort to upload some of the print content (several weeks too late) in the most badly formatted way possible. They should be creating engaging experiences for their web savvy readers so they can start to sell advertising on them. They should be seeking ways to get their content on every new platform, where consumers are looking for news, sports updates, properties, and what have you. You'll see more and more newspapers - both local and national - going out of business in the years to come. But the news lust of readers won't go away.

Was the Champion a North West Roscommon paper Turlough, I was just wondering coz its the Rossie papper that you would see in Mayo border towns like Ballyhaunis.

The Mayo New is the best local paper in my opinion. Here in Mayo you would have 3 main papers, the Connaught Telegraph (Castlebar loyal base), Mayo News (Westport loyal base), The Western People (Ballina loyal base), then theres the Mayo Advertiser. There are a few other smaller adds based ones.

Personally I think the Mayo News weekly could match most National Papers, I remember leaving it down in the house one day when I shared a house in Dublin and the Wexford house mates couldn't believe it had so many pages, was so well layed out and had a good mix of news, sport, reviews and editorials.

http://www.mayonews.ie/

[Lone Shark]

These newspapers should be setting up local portals that are updated constantly, with information online that is not available on print, not just a half-arse effort to upload some of the print content (several weeks too late) in the most badly formatted way possible. They should be creating engaging experiences for their web savvy readers so they can start to sell advertising on them. They should be seeking ways to get their content on every new platform, where consumers are looking for news, sports updates, properties, and what have you. You'll see more and more newspapers - both local and national - going out of business in the years to come. But the news lust of readers won't go away.

How do you make that pay though? An 1/8th page paper ad that reaches 10,000 readers is worth maybe €500 - an online banner ad that reaches the same sized number of eyes is worth a very small fraction of that.

Everybody wants news but the process behind deriving it (as opposed to just rewriting what comes up from google news alerts) is as expensive as it ever was. People have to pay for it if they want it - and do you really think that people would pay for such an online portal? Would you?

[Billys Boots]

Billy, I didn't realise it was the start of a week of hard questions when I went to the Bellewstown school reunion on Saturday and the photographer asked me, without any preamble or provocation "are you the man that rode the ass?". How do you answer a question like that?

Ah, you should have called in for tae to Balbriggan.

1.   If "visit" implies Longford as the actual destination, then sadly no. But I could cite the Cascarino protocol. Was Sheila Devalera ever in Clare?

Stopping for a leak will suffice, we are after all the 'On the way to places' county.

2.   I'd just trail my finger west from Navan and stop when there's no more swamps.

You're going to miss Dromard so!

3.   Not that I know of, unless any stray childer.

No comment.  Send on a DNA sample in an envelope (plastic).

4.   Could I send a representative? If not I could practice "The Cremation Of Sam McGee".

No you'll have to come yerself - recitations are hazardous, you could end up on the Scór team. 

5.   I'll make something up, as long as I get to mention Slashers. Is the Layder a rigorous checker of authenticity?

You could tog out for Meathas Trium who will need a hand against Slashers on Sunday.  You could also try out for Shroid (the other Slashers).  Or you could claim to be in the Midnight in Drumlish picture - who could argue?  Authenticity?  Come on, shake yerself!

SS – I can supply a few teasers to flesh out your story, if it'd help. Greyhound derby winnings available for investment in the dog meat industry in return for naturalisation. That kind of thing.

You can discuss this at halftime if you turn out for the Edgies on Sunday.

[LaurelEye]

Longford News is a paper I hadn't read in nearly 10 years! The Longford Leader was the paper of choice in Shoreland.

It was founded by a character called Vincent Gill who in the early days wrote the whole paper himself! On a slow news week he invented stories! One published a blank black box on page 1!

"midnight in Drumlish" ran the caption

The News had two major things going for it:

a) the court reports,
b) the fact that it came out on a Tuesday ahead of the Leader on Wednesdays.

It was always a smaller paper and probably more town-focussed than the Leader and it had a more unconventional take on things (very unconventional during the Gill era ) whereas the Leader was more "respectable". But it was worth reading during the years when it was owned by Albert Rillins with Derek Cobbe as editor.

It had declined before Lord Fortychins took it over, but it was still just about worth reading. Under the Taylors, however, it went to rack and ruin - the middle half of the paper was taken up with commercial fluff and property porn which was entirely concentrated on Roscommon and which was of no interest to anyone in Longford.

The quality of the journalism was also nothing exceptional - very little breaking news and a lot of stuff done by people with seemingly very little experience - and it was very poorly laid-out. The Leader looks reasonably professional and organised; the News was just through-other and cheap-looking.

Sad to see it go all the same.

[Billys Boots]

a) the court reports

In my day that page was devoted (inevitably) to one family in Granard! 

[brokencrossbar1]

a) the court reports

In my day that page was devoted (inevitably) to one family in Granard! 

Correct me if I'm wrong but is the whole population of Granard not one family anyway

[LaurelEye]

a) the court reports

In my day that page was devoted (inevitably) to one family in Granard! 

Edgytown is the new Granard, dontcha know?