'Dover Express' redesign: what do you think?

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• Guest 664

  • Registered: 23 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 1,039
  4 June 2009     22:0422744
  #1       report
  Hit or miss?
• Guest 674

  • Registered: 25 Jun 2008
  • Posts: 3,391
  4 June 2009     22:1222750
  #2       report
  Pleased to say the rumours circulating is the express is strugg;ling and will go in with adscene to become a free paper.
• Guest 655

  • Registered: 13 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 10,247
  4 June 2009     22:2522753
  #3       report
  miss
• howard mcsweeney1

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 12 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 62,352
  4 June 2009     22:3422756
  #4       report
  was that barry w or brian that just posted?
  
  i thought that the express was giving up the ghost anyway, relying on a coffee shop to act as an office a couple of hours a week.
• Guest 640

  • Registered: 21 Apr 2007
  • Posts: 7,819
  5 June 2009     08:2722784
  #5       report
  Well they have incorporated adscene into the paper but its not free..not in Dover anyway. Howver there is a note in their editorial that it will be distributed free in some areas as well as being for sale. So some confused marketing there..will confuse the public anyway.
  
  The design of the new one is quite good and although it still carries Dover stories you cant help but get the distinct feeling that this paper is designed and aimed at a wider base. Its a district/regional newspaper now more than just a Dover thing. You can feel it in your bones. You know in your heart that all the guys doing it are elsewhere now, and as Howard says, come now and again to a coffee shop near you for their Dover input. So I was disappointed with the 'feel' of it having been a fan of both newspapers.
  
  To see what Im talking about you need look no further than the Dubris column which has changed recently. It now has a wider more regional remit, it certainly seems that way. It talks about people not particularly local to Dover but generally local to the wider district/region. Take a look..its Dover neutral.
  
  The Mercury has changed too, its shrunk. Now similar in format to a magazine, but still seems to have a Dovorian feel, but again it comes from elsewhere.. Deal based. Saved by the input from oul legend Graham Tutthill. So changing times for our beloved newspapers but not for the better. I dont thinkso anyway, but of course its early days with the new formats.
  email: dover7@msn.com
• Guest 640

  • Registered: 21 Apr 2007
  • Posts: 7,819
  5 June 2009     10:5622792
  #6       report
  The guys from Dover Express wanted to respond and of course we must keep the balance right. Here is that top man 'roving reporter Rhys' with his responder
  
  
  
  "
  Hi Paul
  
  Just wanted to drop you a line about the Express re-design thread on the Forum.
  
  The Express has always been a district paper, covering news from Capel to Sandwich, Dover to Aylesham. At no point in recent years has it been simply a Dover paper. Bringing out a Deal and Sandwich edition allows us to better target our stories at specific readers, so people in Deal get the stories which are important to them and people in Dover get theirs.
  
  You say: "Although it still carries Dover stories you can't help but get the distinct feeling that this paper is designed and aimed at a wider base."
  
  The exact opposite is true. By having two editions we can in fact sharpen the focus of the stories in either paper, rather than aiming at a wider base.
  
  Yes we are now based in Folkestone, but in recent weeks I personally have been in attendance at town council meetings and in the coming weeks I will be at the port consultative committee meeting at the Ark, as well as town and parish council meetings.
  
  This sort of regular attendance is what my colleagues and I have always done and will continue to do, despite our office being in Folkestone. It was interesting to note that at last week's annual town meeting, reported in yesterday's paper, not only were there no members of the public present, but I was the only representative present from the three papers covering this town.
  
  Thankfully Dubris has not changed in any way. As I said about the paper as a whole, it has always been about the district not just the town of Dover. It just depends who's antics have caught our eye that week.
  
  I understand there are people in Dover who feel the Express is 'their' paper, and rightly so. It has been reporting on life in the town for more than 150 years. But we also serve readers in outlying villages and towns within the district, so we have to cater for these people as well.
  
  If our readers want to comment on the re-design, or any aspect of what we do at the Express, they can call 01303 850999 or email newsdesk.doverexpress@krnmedia.co.uk.
  
  Anyway, I hope you are well and I look forward to seeing you out and about in the town during the busy summer season.
  
  All the best, Rhys Griffiths
  
  "
  email: dover7@msn.com
• Guest 653

  • Registered: 13 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 10,540
  5 June 2009     11:3022797
  #7       report
  Thanks Rhys - much appreciated (by me anyway).
  
  
  
  
  
  Roger
• Guest 684

  • Registered: 26 Feb 2009
  • Posts: 635
  5 June 2009     11:3922798
  #8       report
  Have had a look at the Deal & Sandwich edition - haven't seen the Dover edition yet, but I'd imagine it's just a case of a few 'slip pages' (as we call it in the trade) to make it slightly different.
  
  I do, however, think the Deal & Sandwich edition has missed a massive trick in the sports section. Virtually ALL the sports coverage is about Dover-related sports. Mmm, that'll go down well among the sportsmen and women in East Kent Mercury country. Not.
  
  I presume this is an early faux-pas; otherwise I can't see the sales or even frees exactly flying off the shelves in CT14 and beyond.
  
  Cheers,
  
  Andy
• Guest 664

  • Registered: 23 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 1,039
  5 June 2009     12:3222804
  #9       report
  Meanwhile, Andy, as a former local hack like yourself and leaving aside the content for a moment I cannot help but feel the whole design is too bland and "regional" - the colours, fonts and layout are so different from any I have been used to since the 70s as to look like a different paper. It just feels so "un-Dover".
  
  Meanwhile the office is closed, the journalists out of town (unbelievably) - even working off a laptop in a rented bedsit would have been preferable.
  
  I heard a few months ago from a good source that the Express would eventually be merged into a wider regional paper - has this now happened?
  
  It occurs to me that it is quite possible the only two working journalists left in Dover are myself and Express sports writer Mark Winter, working out of our own living rooms.
  
  It is so typical of the way this town is treated. It's only Dover after all; close it down, board it up, base it somewhere else, dump it on us. We just get the worst of everything. Of course we deserve it don't we? Talk about give a dog a bad name.
  
  As a protest I will not be buying the paper any more.
  
  Not good enough, boys.
  
  PS Bet this doesn't make 'Dubris'!
• howard mcsweeney1

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 12 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 62,352
  5 June 2009     19:1022834
  #10       report
  i much preferred to the old layout, much more striking than the new one.
• Guest 674

  • Registered: 25 Jun 2008
  • Posts: 3,391
  5 June 2009     22:2522853
  #11       report
  rather have the mercury any day
• Guest 653

  • Registered: 13 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 10,540
  6 June 2009     07:3922866
  #12       report
  Only because it's more pro-Labour though.
  
  
  
  
  Roger
• DT1

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 15 Apr 2008
  • Posts: 1,116
  6 June 2009     07:5022868
  #13       report
  Pro-Labour?
  
  I think I could without either. As far as I am concerned both (The Dover Express especially) have lost the plot. I just want information at a local level, not sensational stories. These vary from vunerable individuals to running down local schools, all of which they have very little understanding of and create negativity within the locality.
  
  On top of this they miss so many opportunities to inform the local people. It should be treated as a local paper not a poor attempt at a national tabloid.
• Guest 640

  • Registered: 21 Apr 2007
  • Posts: 7,819
  6 June 2009     08:5522874
  #14       report
  Yes I agree that there are probably too many frontpages of the "they wouldnt rehouse me and Im riddled with dry rot and there are syringes in the hall" type of thing. But in all fairness to them, there seems to be an outbreak of that sort of thing as the TV companies bore for England with the same stuff. Both local television channels ie Newsroom Southeast and Meridien do these terrible dreary human interest stories.."they wont give me my cancer drugs".
  
  I rarely watch them now and the result is I miss their occasional gem.
  email: dover7@msn.com
• Guest 653

  • Registered: 13 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 10,540
  6 June 2009     11:5822884
  #15       report
  The local TV news is not local anymore - going up as far as Oxford and West as far as Hasings and beyond.
  
  The Dover papers don't look for or publish local news much, but I must say that Rhys and Yam of the Express often phone me up to ask if I know anything and if I do, I'll tell them.
  
  If they don't ask, or people don't tell, how can they print news ? maybe other Towns, Deal Sandwich, Folkestone etc. contact them with news items and we don't.
  
  
  
  
  
  Roger
• Guest 674

  • Registered: 25 Jun 2008
  • Posts: 3,391
  6 June 2009     19:4122907
  #16       report
  mercury pro labour??
  
  
  I don't buy either paper anymore
  havn't done for 18 months
• Guest 664

  • Registered: 23 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 1,039
  6 June 2009     19:4622909
  #17       report
  Tough on the reporters I agree.
• Guest 653

  • Registered: 13 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 10,540
  7 June 2009     06:5222926
  #18       report
  Keith, you've always said to me that the Mercury is more for the labour Party; even the Editor had to resign from the Labour Party to take up the post - quite a while ago I agree.
  
  I buy both papers every week and read them both too, but wish there were more local (to Dover) news in them.
  
  Like the shops here, it's a case of use them or lose them - buy them or they'll close.
  
  If you have a problem with the content or layout, write to the Editors with your thoughts, they're both good guys.
  
  
  
  
  Roger
• Guest 640

  • Registered: 21 Apr 2007
  • Posts: 7,819
  7 June 2009     08:3222930
  #19       report
  Yes indeed we certainly wouldnt want to be without the papers so yes its worth while buying them. If they were not there the town with be all the poorer. And its true people have noticed a change in the their output which is a great pity, but its the way too of the tv companies as they contract their operations due to costs. The way they contract of course is by spreading their coverage over a wider region. The offices get centralised and the staff levels get reduced. Less costs on offices, less costs on staff, less coverage of the local stories. But despite that, in relation to the local newspapers, worth buying still because if we dont buy them they would be gone forever, and they do provide social cohesion.
  email: dover7@msn.com
• Bern

  • Location: Dover
  7 June 2009     09:2622932
  #20       report
  In what way, PaulB? Poor journalism and lack of local insight do not make for social cohesion. This forum and others do way more for that than a local tabloid.

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