The imploding Canberra Times?

apart from the lack of interesting content – the CT is so hard to read, specially on a crapped bus, plane or for the elderly who struggle to turn the huge pages. A complete overhaul is despretly needed

I buy the Times most weekdays for the token local content – I get the rest online anyway.

Up The Duffy said :

I would prefer a good on line news service covering all aspects of news, Local, National, International, Tech, My Lifestyle interests! “Are you listening Google”, I want my Customized online News.

If you sign in to Google, it’ll give you a customised news page that takes your preferences into account – i.e. you can blat Entertainment, and give the space to Australian news. I believe it also takes into account your search history, and will rank stories according to your interests.

Up The Duffy said :

I would prefer a good on line news service covering all aspects of news, Local, National, International, Tech, My Lifestyle interests! “Are you listening Google”, I want my Customized online News.

How about you ask Google to pay for the journalists needed to match your wish list?

I would prefer a good on line news service covering all aspects of news, Local, National, International, Tech, My Lifestyle interests! “Are you listening Google”, I want my Customized online News.

I’m surprised that many ppl still read the Grimes, it’s a very small shadow of its former self (and my memory extends beyond the boundaries of the internet age). The demise of newspapers isn’t really news anymore, they are run by accountants to extract the greatest possible return on investment, everything else is incidental and that includes local content (which is predominantly advertising directed at local consumers).

As for their website! Wow!

The Canberra Times’ fall matches (pretty closely) the other Fairfax publications (Age and SMH), with the exception of the Financial Review.

The sooner all three join the FR is going tabloid, the better.

I really enjoy my morning Canberra Times home delivered. It has a good mix of local and broader news. I’m a big follower of all sorts of internet media, however nothing quite beats a cup of coffee, my brekkie and the morning paper (bought in by the dog!).

There’s not that much going on in Canberra that you could fill the whole Times with local stories, plus it would end up being a little too suburban like the Chronicle.

I’ve been a keen follower of RiotACT for years and there’s certainly a hell of a lot of stories on Riot that have flowed from a CT report.

News papers world wide are suffering a similar fate. The common belief is that the internet is the culprit (which I think is true).

I’m guessing eReaders might be a saving grace for the news papers. Here’s an article that explains why this might be the case: http://www.businessinsider.com/2009/1/printing-the-nyt-costs-twice-as-much-as-sending-every-subscriber-a-free-kindle

Mind you, people are not going to pay for digital news if the quality of the writing and analysis and content are sub-standard

Possibly due to people cutting back on expenses due to the economic climate? While not expensive, CT is a luxury that one can do without. But it does need to solve its identitiy crisis on whther it wants to be a proper broadsheet or simply a larger version of the Chronicle.

Well, to be fair jackal, the segment of readership who don’t contribute more than commentary on articles tend to have a really inflated sense of entitlement for some reason or another.
Heck, to the gentle folk of the RiotCabal, -most, if not all readers- probably have an over inflated sense of entitlement.

As to stories, that whole Marist shebang went from being an idea of a few people in a forum thread to a lobbyist group in their own right, who occasionally put out a media release worth forwarding to AAP journos.
(PS: I am nowhere this grumpy in real life)

The massive turnout for the computer recycling day ;-D

Kramer said :

The proportion of 3rd party news on RiotACT is probably lower than most of the above mentioned news outlets. Take away the aap, bloomberg, reuters, etc – and you are left with not a lot of content, other than the ads and advertorials.

The proportion of content on RA may well be less, but not the proportion of news. RA is not a news site, it doesn’t break stories, and that’s fine – it serves another, arguably equally important purpose (discussion etc). Aside from the shameful will he jump or won’t he apparent suicide attempt about a year ago (which media outlets didn’t touch because the media does not report on “ordinary” suicides), what was the last big story broken on RA?

Yeah it’s far, far less than it once was – for example if you look at the front page now, only 1 story references any of those other news sources (and that article was written by someone involved in the incident, so even it had a unique RiotACT angle).

The proportion of 3rd party news on RiotACT is probably lower than most of the above mentioned news outlets. Take away the aap, bloomberg, reuters, etc – and you are left with not a lot of content, other than the ads and advertorials.

Tempestas said :

So its still bigger than the Mercury, but it is increasing “Readership” whilst the Cbr Times in decreasing. Interesting that Weekend Aust increased but not by as much as the FIn Review on Saturdays.

Dead Tree newspapers – what a quaint 20th century concept.

As many on this site would know, there is more useful news to be found here amongst other online sources.

I wonder how much news this site would have if it didn’t just take ABC, CT, News Ltd etc stories.

Maybe the people think most of the news and stories are mostly lies, therefore can not be bothered reading the crap!

When the Crimes has headline front page op-ed pieces by a loony like Robert Fisk in the guise of news then is it any wonder people don’t shell out for the crap.

A lot of people come and go in the newspaper industry, mainly at a high level, it’s been going on for years

It would be a pity if it goes under. Even though I don’t read it I still think we need some sort of local paper.

If things come to worse though they could always do an online only version like the Brisbane Times – owned by Fairfax as well.

Aaah… something to get me hot under the collar on a Saturday arvo.

Can’t say I’m surprised by this news. The Crimes doesn’t have enough local content and locally relevant analysis in it (much as I like Jack Waterford). There’s too much padding (like Ross Peake’s column in Saturday Forum – to say nothing of the person doing the writing, the content is waste of prime newspaper real estate). … And too much stuff you can find for free elsewhere (like all that copy from the AAP, Reuters, and any MP’s press release).

And the Crimes website is truly atrocious – my vote for the worst daily newspaper website in Australia. Eg, today it took them until after 3pm to upload a selection of their top stories from today’s paper edition. You wonder why they bother sometimes.

As an aside, the Crimes is run by a group of businessmen notorious for being tight-arse. And they are now unleashing the same business model on The Age and SMH (since Rural Press merged with Fairfax, they sit on the Fairfax board now). It is not a surprise that the SMH has lost a lot of readers too (the SMH and The Age are losing local content too, and are merging a number of news bureaux). The SMAge websites are also pretty bad these days.

The rant endeth here… I need a cup of tea.

Is that “readership” as in 4 people read every paper we print including the ones we give away or actual circulation?

So its still bigger than the Mercury, but it is increasing “Readership” whilst the Cbr Times in decreasing. Interesting that Weekend Aust increased but not by as much as the FIn Review on Saturdays.

Dead Tree newspapers – what a quaint 20th century concept.

As many on this site would know, there is more useful news to be found here amongst other online sources.

When I first looked at this, I assumed the newspaper figures would be down across the board. Interesting which ones have grown – AFR, Illawarra Mercury???

And if newspapers die out, what will we wrap fish and chips in?