Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

but, yeh, people haven't been willing to pay for news since the advent of the radio -- it's all the other trinkets that papers were bought for, but internet has far better, shinier trinketry

i'm not suggesting pay for News but for other things that papers can act as guides/filters for v well. subscription works for certain kinds of content e.g. music, video plus a few other things you'd otherwise have to pay for in print. i wouldn't expect it to work for something like the FT.

i only buy paper to pass the time when i'm on a train and do crosswords.

The worry is that news is the only thing newspapers do even half-well, so could they ever come up with music/video/etc stuff that would compete with here/you tube/4chan -- and compete well enough that people would stump up?

Going by current stabs at "video" I suspect not.

i never buy papers so probably wouldn't pay for any form of online content either ah well there goes my argument (but people do pay for certain podcasts etc.)

That's exactly the sort of thinking I get at the office. "Well, I never pay for anything online [2s pause] so! We're going to monetise online advances in a flexible cross-title way! People might buy mugs branded with their favourite football team's colours from us"

i do pay for music tho, and would pay for video downloads online depending on what they were (not pr0n) and the versatility of format (can i mess around with it in premiere with no fuss? itunes sez no). as usual tho i fear i am in distinct minority.

I think it's the right lines -- papers will need to take the GMG route and use money-making enterprises (auto trader, the radio stations) to prop up a wheezing news beast. Thing is very few people are making big money from website content anywhere, so it's pretty daunting.

Especially for publishers who still grasp the wrong end of a mouse.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ruth_fowler/2008/04/club_rules.html

^^this broad really is pisspoor.

Haven't we already done this one somewhere else?

I think its a different, althought very similar piece.

I don't think I've seen so many strawmen in one place before. Who on earth are these people?

A month or so ago I phoned up the Guardian and told them that Julie Burchill only had eight weeks to live, and that everyone in the media was frantically trying to find a replacement.

sounds plausible. jules could write, was the thing.

She's not dead yet, don't try and rob her of those precious last four weeks!

I think Ruth Fowler deserves some respect for discovering this exciting new development.

Did you know she went to Cambridge?

I guess what's funnier is the self-flagellation of the Graun for printing her.

Did you know she went to Cambridge.

Cue standard gag re. getting beaten by Kidderminster Harriers 4-1.

Did you know she went to Cambridge.

And yet amazingly she also worked as a stripper!

Gotta top up those grants somehow.

Maybe we should have a few weeks where we pick on a different broadsheet. This shit's embarrasing--like making fun of a retarded kid.

troo.

torygraph?

You've gotta work your way up to that shit, start with the Times.

Damian Thompson's blog looks like a fertile source of OW MY HEAD

Times is even more of a joke than Guardian though?

Interests of balance tho.

That's why The Times is a good starting point. Maybe the Indy as well but yeah political balance and shit. The Torygraph is more solid across the board but when they decide to be ridiculous they top everyone.

I give 'Comment Is Free' about a year, tops. Until the 'ooh blogging, how modern!' thing finally dies down and they realise they're just paying shit journalists for no reason and lacerating their brand in the process.

^^ i really hope so. this will sound ridic and precious, but stuff like the thing i linked to does actively put me off.

i give daily enrique links to the guardian about a year, tops.

I give 'Comment Is Free' about a year, tops. Until the 'ooh blogging, how modern!' thing finally dies down and they realise they're just paying shit journalists for no reason and lacerating their brand in the process.

OTM.

Glad that Times thread has started, let's do that for a few weeks.

it's a game of opinions

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/tv/2008/05/it_was_while_watching_the.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/27/religion

^^ this is guy is a choad.

united states independent music lovers:pitchfork media::british:guardian

i wish there was a last call for internet connections

This picture is eminently punchable
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/site_imagery/george_monbiot_140x140.jpg

What other "militant atheists" support the war in Iraq apart from Christopher Hitchens? That article is strawmannery gone mad.

particularly since iraq was a secular state. the paleo-conservative irony is that the war has created a space for religious nutjobs to win real victories; how anyone could see that as 'progressive' i don't know.

I don't think Milne is terrible, historically - but I think I disagree with him about religion. for those of us who do not believe in god or gods, it would surely seem hypocritical to look to religion for our progressive salvation etc.

I mean, it's a cynical case, in a way? 'I don't agree with these people's most fundamental beliefs but they seem useful right now'?

and that's assuming that they are indeed useful

Today Richard Williams said, of last night's game, "a headed goal for each side" or something to that effect.

Is it really too much to ask for someone to actually have seen the game? Not least when he's their supposed "expert".

^ roffle

Kevin McCarra's an idiot too.

I don't mind McCarra that much, I have to say can't stand Williams tho. Just standard aged meanderings.

Williams gets wheeled out for a whole range of different subjects as well. Manages to be a bore about football, music, art, whatever really.

yeah same views on every single subject

http://timesonline.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/09/guardian.jpg

1
2

ability to operate in a sensitive political environment

Lord Dixon Smith better not apply then.

Those BNP jobs are subject to Equal Opportunities legislation.

Only applicants so far...
http://www.londonclasswar.org/images/scumbag.jpg