As you’ve probably guessed, I love the press. I love everything it stands for. I love it so much that I tend to spend every working day in the pursuit of a career in it.
But I hate the Sunday papers. They’re hideous. Pages upon pages of crud that no-one can really be bothered to read.
Quick show of hands: How many of you go and have a good read of the Sunday papers every week?
Yep, I know, quite a lot of you. But then how many of us reading this are journalists, eh? For us reading the Sunday papers is research rather than pleasure.
I know this because two weekends ago I found myself on a rather lenghty car journey. I wanted to read the paper. I didn’t a food magazine. Or a CD. Or a supplement about books. I just wanted a nice, tidy newspaper with some news in. A bit of opinion — perhaps — and a a sprinkle of sport.
Just like I do every other day of the week. Well, apart from Saturdays which are just as bad.
My point is, if newspapers are to survive they need to adapt to the world we’re in. And we all know (or at least should know) that information should be travelling at the speed of light. And it should be cheap. So very cheap.
£1.80 for a newspaper? No thanks.
The Independent is almost there. Its Sunday incarnation comes in one wacking great wodge. You don’t need to go pulling out paper here, there and everywhere. But it’s still massive. And still expensive.
I wish one newspaper publisher would take the bull by the horns and say: “Enough with this nonsense!”
Give me a 40 page Sunday newspaper. Charge me 70p. And see if your sales go through the roof …. I reckon they just might, you know.
Hi Dave,
Thought I’d join the in crowd and have a squizz at your blog. Good stuff.
Re: the Sunday Papers, you are right, except I think those supplement heavy ones are aimed at nice fat, rich, middle class people whose treat of the week is a lazy Sunday morning in bed reading this stuff with the Archers on in the background. If you haven’t got the time or inclination to watch Grand Designs, Location, Location, Location, You Are What You Eat and Heston Blumenthal or River Cottage, maybe this is a handy way to catch up on what’s ‘in’ etc. etc.
Keep up the good work. I wish I’d had your savvy as a yoof.