Glasgow Herald Opts For The Daily Mail Model

THE latest heavyweight newspaper to follow Anorak into the wonderful world of the web is the Glasgow Herald when it yesterday launched it’s new look webpages.

This morning’s second edition is still more than a little shaky

It is startlingly like Anorak in it’s layout and format, and Young Mr Anorak has himself had the good grace to say it is extremely nice to look at and even busier than Anorak.

Well so it should be; it is the latest offspring of a truly great national newspaper. OK, it circulates very few copies outside of Scotland but all UK journalists recognise it as one of the greats.

The Glasgow Herald is up there along with the The Guardian (original full title the Manchester Guardian) as fabulously run provincial mornings which have grown in stature and respect to become worthy of the title national.

They have done this not by changes of ownership or injected money but because the series of editors and long-term staffers have stuck to the old adage of telling the story from all sides and presenting all shades of opinion…while making sure the newspaper’s own view is also worthy of the printers’ ink.

Along with many others, I regularly applaud the Herald and its staff and they should be cheered till a hoarse, throat-torn, silence arrives for their long-term commitment to expose the full in and outs of the seamy side of the Lockerbie Pam Am murders.

They have had a web edition for some time but in a panic over things like the McCann case the powers that be cut all comment and outside contributions because the legal pitfalls were spotted. There appears to be an attempt to reinstate comments which must mean word-weary sub-editors are being asked to watch the information flow.

Dangerous times. Journalists aren’t too good in direct confrontation with the educated massed-rank readership.

There is a drawback, the journalists who have been seconded to the web-team must be bright young things.

The lack of maturity or web experience is breaking through.

They’ve fallen into the cyber trap. Because they have a cracking broadsheet design team and a busy International quality broadsheet newspaper they think they can repeat it in tabloid web style.

They drop right into the broadsheet/tabloid change-over dilemma and try to squeeze far too much in.

If you read it, much of this morning’s first effort content is dated and not today’s news at all. Sites such as Anorak can get away with it because what you see here is a daily top up to the news pool below. The Herald is trying to look edgy and with it but fallen into the chip-paper wrapping category without knowing it.

It will recover, and will learn they can not cram an entire broadsheet content into a page one of puffs for inside stories.

- AGW

What is interesting is that what Old Man Anorak and others have long predicted is happening…the traditional newspaper is shagged and managements of the quality’s are desperately trying to get themselves back into the game. The Herald is behind The Guardian and Times on Line but has on average a better writing team for its purpose.

The Sun, Mirror, and Daily Mail stables etc. are all upping their stakes…but that should make Anorak’s original concept of watching them just that little bit easier. Again Comments are a problem for them.

Exciting times…but the killer blow is the aficionados, media whores of which I’m one, get the feeling all are trying to be the Daily Mail.

That will never do…but what it does do - is give the morning newspapers a presence they have never been able to have - the ability to compete with TV news on the breaking story. They have staff, they have the money and they have the writers..why wait for the newsprint machines to roll to get the story out there?

For instance, while I’ve been writing The Herald has broken this yarn about Kenny MacAskills oil dealer brother.

Now that should make every true newsman’s heart jump for joy. The answer to those overpaid TV news presenter tossers, the chance to break the story directly to the readership and in your own style and words.

Well done lads and lassies, Anorak, who has been cloned by several tossers in the recent past, thinks imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Anorak

Posted: 8th, September 2009 | In: Media Comments (6) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink