http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0831/breaking62.html
"Three local newspapers in the midlands are to cease publication with immediate effect, with the loss of up to 40 jobs, staff learned today.
The Roscommon Champion , the Longford News and the Athlone Voice published their last editions today.
They are part of the Alpha Newspaper Group, which is owned by Northern Ireland-based businessman John Taylor, also known as Lord Kilclooney."
Since when is Roscommon in the midlands
Parts of it are RLL. Over the bridge in Athlone, over the bridge in Shannonbridge etc.
South Ros would be almost more midlands than parts of south Laois or north Longford.
Quote from: AZOffaly on August 31, 2010, 09:58:07 PM
Parts of it are RLL. Over the bridge in Athlone, over the bridge in Shannonbridge etc.
South Ros would be almost more midlands than parts of south Laois or north Longford.
Would they have the flat midlands accent though..
South Laois! sounds posh,I must use that sometime
Quote from: The Real Laoislad on August 31, 2010, 09:54:14 PM
Since when is Roscommon in the midlands
Geography not your best subject it seems?
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
It's 15 years since I done subjects ross4life,but you are still into them gallsman tells me
But yes Geography wouldn't have been my strongest,dropped it for the Leaving, I was more into Physics.
Quote from: Shamrock Shore on August 31, 2010, 10:13:36 PM
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
Did you get anyone to do that job for you SS.
Quote from: The Real Laoislad on August 31, 2010, 10:13:57 PM
It's 15 years since I done subjects ross4life,but you are still into them gallsman tells me
But yes Geography wouldn't have been my strongest,dropped it for the Leaving, I was more into Physics.
Don't mind him that lad is high on pot in college :D & seeing that Geography is not your strongest Roscommon is the only county in Connacht that doesn't have a coast line & has many neighbours... Offaly,Westmeath,Longford,Leitrim,Mayo,Sligo & Galway
Quote from: Shamrock Shore on August 31, 2010, 10:13:36 PM
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
This paper sounds excellent!
Quote from: The Real Laoislad on August 31, 2010, 10:13:57 PM
It's 15 years since I done subjects ross4life,but you are still into them gallsman tells me
But yes Geography wouldn't have been my strongest,dropped it for the Leaving, I was more into Physics.
Leaving cert? Come on, you should know your counties by 4th class!
Quote from: The Real Laoislad on August 31, 2010, 09:54:14 PM
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.
I thought these newspapers where to be sold of individualy so some of them may be saved yet.
Quote from: mayogodhelpus@gmail.com on August 31, 2010, 10:33:33 PM
Quote from: The Real Laoislad on August 31, 2010, 09:54:14 PM
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.
Quote from: turk on August 31, 2010, 10:24:37 PM
Quote from: The Real Laoislad on August 31, 2010, 10:13:57 PM
It's 15 years since I done subjects ross4life,but you are still into them gallsman tells me
But yes Geography wouldn't have been my strongest,dropped it for the Leaving, I was more into Physics.
Leaving cert? Come on, you should know your counties by 4th class!
I was sick that day :)
Quote from: The Real Laoislad on August 31, 2010, 10:36:51 PM
Quote from: mayogodhelpus@gmail.com on August 31, 2010, 10:33:33 PM
Quote from: The Real Laoislad on August 31, 2010, 09:54:14 PM
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.
(http://www.gifbin.com/bin/052009/1242749315_bullshit_amplifier-detector.gif)
Quote from: The Real Laoislad on August 31, 2010, 10:36:51 PM
Quote from: mayogodhelpus@gmail.com on August 31, 2010, 10:33:33 PM
Quote from: The Real Laoislad on August 31, 2010, 09:54:14 PM
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.
Midlands too quiet for much news? ???
Not sorted yet LL. Getting there.
I, too, would say the midland counties are Longford, Westmeath, Offaly and Laois.
Hardly a badge of honour though, is it?
Are there any other newspapers in Ros and Larrystan ?
These are very tough times for newspapers in general.
Quote from: Shamrock Shore on August 31, 2010, 11:13:13 PM
Not sorted yet LL. Getting there.
I, too, would say the midland counties are Longford, Westmeath, Offaly and Laois.
Hardly a badge of honour though, is it?
Yes it is :)
'Larrystan' :D Has The Longford Leader (know locally as The Layder). Its sole function is to make Longford people feel good about themselves! Headlines like:
Rose of Tralee judge's wife's grandmother hailed from Ballymahon
New Chief of Police in Arsehole, Kansas has a Longford cousin
etc etc
Also it's a Longford person's right to have their pic in The Layder at least once in their life. I am sure all us Larries here on board have had the pleasure.
QuoteI am sure all us Larries here on board have had the pleasure.
Ho yus, won a muttering competition way back when.
Quote from: Shamrock Shore on September 01, 2010, 10:07:07 AM
'Larrystan' :D Has The Longford Leader (know locally as The Layder). Its sole function is to make Longford people feel good about themselves! Headlines like:
Rose of Tralee judge's wife's grandmother hailed from Ballymahon
New Chief of Police in Arsehole, Kansas has a Longford cousin
etc etc
Also it's a Longford person's right to have their pic in The Layder at least once in their life. I am sure all us Larries here on board have had the pleasure.
Isn't that the raison d'etre of all the provincial newspaper? In Galway the idea is to get your likeness in the Thrybune.
Poor Ros. No newspaper. Everything is contracting. Priests in parishes, newspapers , what next ?
Quote from: Shamrock Shore on September 01, 2010, 10:07:07 AM
Also it's a Longford person's right to have their pic in The Layder at least once in their life. I am sure all us Larries here on board have had the pleasure.
Not me. Not yet, anyhow. What do I have to do? If it involves accordions or silage, count me out.
QuoteNot me. Not yet, anyhow. What do I have to do? If it involves accordions or silage, count me out.
Simple Hardy. Send me your mugshot and I'll get you in somehow with a press release. Headline
Cork based Meath man wants to be honarary Longford man
A Meath native living in Cork, Hardyarse The Fiddler, has declared on a public forum his desire to have dual alliegence to his native Meath and Longford. Mr Fiddler, aged XX, who has lived in Cork since 19xx, writing on the ever popular gaaboard.com etc etc
Quote from: Shamrock Shore on September 01, 2010, 04:08:11 PM
QuoteNot me. Not yet, anyhow. What do I have to do? If it involves accordions or silage, count me out.
Simple Hardy. Send me your mugshot and I'll get you in somehow with a press release. Headline
Cork based Meath man wants to be honarary Longford man
A Meath native living in Cork, Hardyarse The Fiddler, has declared on a public forum his desire to have dual alliegence to his native Meath and Longford. Mr Fiddler, aged XX, who has lived in Cork since 19xx, writing on the ever popular gaaboard.com etc etc
Ah c'mon now.
Jaysus SS, the spelling would only get that into the News, not a chance with the Layder - perhaps in the Bornacoola notes.
Anyhow Hardy, some additional items would be necessary: (1) have you ever visited the county? (chances go up if you haven't), (2) could you pick the county out on a map? (again chances rise with increasing ignorance), (3) any rellies in the county (or the county home)?, (4) could you be called upon to 'appear' on stage with a local luminary at a local 'festival of the arts' (e.g. Declan Nerney, Frankie Kilbride or, heavens above, Larry) or (5) have you ever been directly involved in the conquest of a local sporting team/individual (be aware that this will involve portrayal as a treasonable event for a so-called 'local', or you may be mentioned in relation to Dromard GFC)?
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?
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?
2. I'd just trail my finger west from Navan and stop when there's no more swamps.
3. Not that I know of, unless any stray childer.
4. Could I send a representative? If not I could practice "The Cremation Of Sam McGee".
5. I'll make something up, as long as I get to mention Slashers. Is the Layder a rigorous checker of authenticity?
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.
Quote from: seafoid on September 01, 2010, 10:24:41 AM
Poor Ros. No newspaper.
Ros has the excellent 151 years old Roscommon Herald from Boyle and the excellent free paper Roscommon People . The latter is part of the reason for the downfall of the Champion as some contributors left the Champion and the South Rosfolk got a better paper for free than the one they had to pay €2 for.
Quote from: mayogodhelpus@gmail.com on August 31, 2010, 10:46:32 PM
Quote from: The Real Laoislad on August 31, 2010, 10:36:51 PM
Quote from: mayogodhelpus@gmail.com on August 31, 2010, 10:33:33 PM
Quote from: The Real Laoislad on August 31, 2010, 09:54:14 PM
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.
Quote from: Turlough O Carolan on September 02, 2010, 01:20:14 AM
Quote from: mayogodhelpus@gmail.com on August 31, 2010, 10:46:32 PM
Quote from: The Real Laoislad on August 31, 2010, 10:36:51 PM
Quote from: mayogodhelpus@gmail.com on August 31, 2010, 10:33:33 PM
Quote from: The Real Laoislad on August 31, 2010, 09:54:14 PM
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/ (http://www.mayonews.ie/)
Quote from: Turlough O Carolan on September 02, 2010, 01:20:14 AM
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?
QuoteBilly, 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.
Quote1. 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.
Quote2. I'd just trail my finger west from Navan and stop when there's no more swamps.
You're going to miss Dromard so!
Quote3. Not that I know of, unless any stray childer.
No comment. Send on a DNA sample in an envelope (plastic).
Quote4. 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.
Quote5. 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!
QuoteSS – 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.
Quote from: Shamrock Shore on August 31, 2010, 10:13:36 PM
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 :D ) 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.
Quotea) the court reports
In my day that page was devoted (inevitably) to one family in Granard! ;)
Quote from: Billys Boots on September 03, 2010, 01:37:56 PM
Quotea) 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 :P
Quote from: Billys Boots on September 03, 2010, 01:37:56 PM
Quotea) the court reports
In my day that page was devoted (inevitably) to one family in Granard! ;)
Edgytown is the new Granard, dontcha know? ;)