Let me ask you this: What do you, the regulars, read when you arrive at this blog? I could ask why, but let’s start with the easy one.
The answer is the latest post(s) and comments. That would make sense - you want to read the latest. Let’s call it the news.
There is a bunch of other junk accessible by the menu at the top of the page: About, FAQ, Mo Rogha etc. Do you / have you read these? The answer is you may have flicked through one or two at some point but seldom, if ever, opened them again. You may check Mo Rogha once a week for an update - for the news. But you don’t want the same stuff rehashed over and over again.
Now what about those of you who come upon this blog for the first time - what do you read? Well, you read the first page of posts, maybe the second. You click randomly on the other junk. Some of you click on a subject of interest in Sneeze Types. Based on this, you decide whether to return or not. Fair enough. You can’t be expected to read every damn thing. It’s not as if you are a judge for some awards thing and have to read everything in case you’d be accused of judging a book by its cover.
How can I say all this? From my stats of course. The trends are clearly visible. Regulars read the news while newcomers read a small sample. Actually, now that I notice it, almost all judges for awards things read exactly the same way as newcomers. But that’s okay, because judges have certain powers that allow them see content through a book’s covers.
My point is this: If you read a blog or newspaper regularly then all that interests you is what’s new - the news. The Irish Independent was slipping for a long time and finally lost my readership when it ran front page stories about the death of someone unknown outside the dinner party circle. To me, this simply was not news.
Following a brief and passionate affair with the Irish Examiner, I decided to settle down and spend the rest of my life with the Irish Times. No, I didn’t love her, but she was the best I could get. I would grow to love her.
Sadly, this relationship is failing too. On Saturday, Madam (as we must address her) announced “major developments”. I won’t bother inserting a link as you need pay an expensive subscription to view the article. Yes, even this article, an advertisement, intended to tell us how great her paper will be, is pay-per-view.
So what are these major development? Basically, magazines and supplements (which are magazines on poor quality paper). Maga-fukin-zines. Every fukin day. As if my recycle bin isn’t already under enough pressure, now Madam wants to burden it with more. Madam, I DO NOT WANT a health magazine. I DO NOT WANT a property magazine. I DO NOT WANT a motors magazine.
I WANT NEWS. I want news from a newspaper. Just like I want news from the blogs I read.
If Madam wants to dish out more fodder for my recycle bin, fine - I’ll work something out. But here’s the insult to the injury: It will cost 10¢ extra Monday through Friday and 30¢ extra on Saturday for all the extra junk I just don’t want. Why can’t I just have a newspaper? If I feel the urge to read a Guide to the 100 Best Wines why I can’t go buy it separately? Once I’ve read it I won’t have to read it again for a year - the interim issues will just be rehashing the same stories.
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I read your site looking for the bit where you’re going to give us readers a free DVD.
Yes, and what’s really annoying is all the magazines are ‘FREE’
Yeah where’s the free stuff? I’m going to stop reading if we don’t get free magazines, or DVDs, or at least the chance to win a weekend for two to Kilkenny.
what Caro says. Red gives out free CDs on hers! (i was supposed to, but i’m full of empty promises, me)
I was looking for the ‘Toyboy’ section!
Hey - did someone mention ‘free’ stuff - I’m in.
Here in Nairobi, things work slightly differently. Each little section costs you a little more - unless of course you go to the posh news agents, pay a small fortune and get a ‘take it or leave it’ bundle of newspapers entitled “The Sunday Times” (or something equally large and riveting!)- that you need a pick up truck to take away with you, and take a month off work to read through it all!
Only thing is, if you buy off the street vendors (like the majority of people in this country do), you can’t go looking at the front cover of the newspaper getting all excited because it includes a ‘Free DVD’ on Ice or Earth Or Wind or something else extremely bloody interesting, because you’ll find some bastard’s ripped it off and you have to pay extra to get it back off the paper guy!
PS. Primal - By the way, are you spying on us all and our clicking habits …… ? - and do you know that now you’ve given me 10 minutes to write my comment I edit it at least 3 times ?!?
Eolaí - How about Gregory’s Girl? It came with the Times on Sunday. It’s rated 12, so Dog-dog could watch it too.
Mary - Free, as in free lunch.
Caro & Rosie - You guys were only blogs in arms the last time I gave out free stuff. Sweary won a leather bound set of Terry Pratchett books. Better than any DVD, huh?
Grannymar - It’s toward the back. Near the milk and bread. Next to the deli.
White girl - I like that system better. Even the part where the vendor skives off the DVD - I’d rather he gets lumped with disposing of it than me.
ps. No, I don’t spy as such. I watch trends e.g. what’s popular. And I take a look at any weird or interesting visitors e.g. readers from newspaper offices or far flung corners of the world. (Weird and interesting respectively).
I’m only here for the sex and violence.
Hey! Where are the freakin’ coupons on this site? Crap! I can’t buy dish soap without my $.50 off coupon. They’ll double it if I go to Price Cutter. (But only on Tuesdays)
(If you don’t have grocery coupons in the Sunday paper in Ireland, this silly little comment will make even less sense.)
Sam - Sorry, but all I can offer is sax and violins.
Sugar - There was a coupon for a free €5 bet in the local paper last week. Any good to you?
I stopped checking out Mo Rogha when I realised I’d never make the grade. I still love ya for the news bits though
Ah Conorín! There, there. Tiocfaidh do lá. What are ya worried about anyway? I never made the list meself and I own the bloody thing.
If they did away with all the magazines and the extra c.r.a.p I would not miss any of it. If they did away with all the stupidy stuff that they find “newsworthy” in the paper, I would not miss any of that either. Would it then make the newspaper a “newspage” though? What I “hate” the most - and I am using the word hate loosely here - is all the pizza brochures and leaflets and things that fall out when you pick up the paper. Also, does anyone just pick and buy a house by seeing it in the extra huge Property section? Do away with all I say!
In St Petersburg (Russia), I loved seeing Newspaper boards where they have stuck a newspaper on a board for all to read. I also loved the fact that the books were much cheaper than food. (In Dublin both very expensive, ugh)…
Gayé - Maybe we could start a campaign - Everyone buying a paper who doesn’t want the extra bumph takes it out and leaves it on the retailer’s counter. If enough people do it, the retailers will get pissed off and put pressure on the newspaper distributors to stop delivering the junk.
Primal,
Do you think anyone would join?
OK I am in! How do we do it? Start putting it on blogs and hope it spreads?
I would love to start a Better (or Fair) Health Care for All Campaign (world-wide), or better yet Speak Up About The Things You Want to See Change in Your Country campaign.
Gayé - Join? I think all bloggers already have. It’s just a pity so few non-bloggers read blogs.
How do we do it? Nike! Just do it. I’m starting tomorrow with the Saturday newspaper - all magazines and flyers will be handed back over the counter.
I read you cos yer dead sexy.
Ok, I am in. The only problem I realized and foresee in regards to me actively doing this is that I have not bought a newspaper for the last 3 years. I still get annoyed because people around me buy them and I just complain about all the inserts and leaflets…
Peh, it means now I have to go and buy one, so I can drop the crap on the counter with a pointed but polite ‘thanks but no thanks’ and leave the shop.
Young Knudsen - Amazing! That’s why I read you too.
Gayé - Maybe I could loan you one.