Comments on: Where are all the columns?

By: SPC

SPC — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:46:29 +0000

I was on the Herald site looking for something sensible (T.M. columns) and I found some blog links.

Surprisingly it is about what the owners of the Herald are doing to their newspaper’s editorial independence at the behest of the National Party.

http://www.thestandard.org.nz/?p=1317.

By: illuminatedtiger

illuminatedtiger — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:33:42 +0000

Get on the blower to National then and I’m sure they’ll get the Herald to change it back for you.

By: RRM

RRM — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:17:43 +0000

Or maybe they’ve decided to distribute their opinion pieces throughout the paper in order to increase the chances of readers mistaking them for NEWS?

By: hamo

hamo — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:52:21 +0000

Don’t you hate it when sites don’t do their user research?

By: Fletch

Fletch — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:50:30 +0000

Hmm, they all seem to be under other headings – eg, all the political commentary is under News -> Politics.

By: toms

toms — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:30:09 +0000

Perhaps they are all waiting approval from Martin Simons? It seems that he is driving the op-ed for all APN these days. No wonder they can keep sacking journalists over at the Herald, the stories are all generated between the Mr. Simons and Mr. Key’s offices…

By: Rex Widerstrom

Rex Widerstrom — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:08:12 +0000

Yes it could be part of a GWRC plot or (if we take our tinfoil hats off for a moment…) it could be that they’re messing round trying to find a model whereby they can leverage revenue from the web. Remember how they tried charging for access to opinion pieces – a move that was decried by Russell Brown, DPF and others at the time?

Eventually it failed – as all pay-for-content models not offering some sort of sexual content seem doomed to do. I do hope they’re not having second thoughts about somehow limiting access to the site. Publishers are constantly looking at ways to turn a dollar fromtheir sites (other than online advertising) and of course they have every right to do so. But the market has fairly clearly indicated – to everyone from the Herald to MSN (Slate) that pay-for-content isn’t the way to go.

By: stazi

stazi — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:52:15 +0000

I don’t think any newspaper focuses on ‘news’ and ‘facts’ these days. Papers should be looked at just like any another form of entertainment in my view.

By: RRM

RRM — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:56:06 +0000

Perhaps Auckland’s daily newspaper has decided to focus more on reporting NEWS and FACTS, instead of OPINIONS?

(No, that would be a cold day in hell wouldn’t it…)

By: roger nome

roger nome — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:31:11 +0000

Really Tamaki? Who are these lazy bloggers that apparently can’t think for themselves? Boy how i’d like to give them a good mocking

By: Tamaki Resident

Tamaki Resident — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:45:23 +0000

I’d heard that they were tired of bloggers doing selective cut and pastes on their opinion pieces, so they decided to make it harder to find them.

By: Redbaiter

Redbaiter — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:22:06 +0000

Talk about the Herald changing. There’s IMHO too many topics posted too frequently on Kiwiblog these days also. One just gets into a good exchange and its gone. No chance for in depth discussion or reading. Surely three or four issues a day is enough?

[DPF: It's a fair point. To some degree it depends on how many things happen that day of interest. Ideally I'd like to have 3 - 4 serious issues a day only and maybe 3 - 4 lighter posts also. ]

By: Nigel

Nigel — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:03:28 +0000

“Please change it back”, mmmm perhaps there should be a renaming of the NZ Herald to the DPF Herald ( NZ Edition ).

It’s a fair request, but came out sounding awefully like an instruction.

[DPF: Heh more like a plaintive cry from the wild]

By: ele

ele — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:10:01 +0000

I got to other Opinion headlines by clicking on a teaser for Garth George under featured stories on the right of the page and other op pieces were listed to the right of his. But yes, I second your motion to change it back or set up another section called Columns.