Disqus - Latest Comments for Wordsmith_for_Hire

Re: Now it’s Coren’s Nosh: The Movie

Wordsmith_for_Hire — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:18:45 -0000

Shandypockets is journalist Paul Oswell, so well placed to understand the importance of being nice to subs...

Re: Press Gazette hasn’t demised yet Roy

Wordsmith_for_Hire — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:56:22 -0000

Oh, Tom-tom, I'm so disappointed in you. Don't you know a journalist should never assume anything but check all the facts before publishing anything? Just because I said women's magazines offer better value does not necessarily mean I read them. I too would like a decent trade publication (what's with your capital J for journalism, btw? Very odd), but at a decent price. Is that too much to ask for? Apparently so. But I don't think you'll find fashion advice in PG or any other media publication, so you'll have to take pot luck for your outfit tonight.

Re: Press Gazette hasn’t demised yet Roy

Wordsmith_for_Hire — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:34:22 -0000

Endash said: PG is not a journo charity

Neither am I. I don't see why I or other hacks, many of whom earn piss-poor salaries, should fork out such a massive sum per copy. I'm not here to subsidise a publication that is clearly staggering on its knees.

As for the criticism of the editor, while I accept the timing of the news breaking first on Media Guardian was probably unfortunate for PG, there should then have been a faster response from Ponsford once subscribers started asking questions. Especially if you're going to blog and people leave comments that demand answers. And especially when you're an editor who says PG has worked hard to embrace online but leaves it well over 24 hours to face his critics here...

Re: Press Gazette hasn’t demised yet Roy

Wordsmith_for_Hire — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:30:17 -0000

Pool Queen, the mag in question I commission for prints 10,000 copies per issue, of which around 8,000 are sold on subscription, the remainder going into bookshops and niche outlets. About 3/4 of all copies are sold outside the UK. So, no it's not my mum or the publisher's mum buying one sole copy.

I'm not spitting dummies either. I've cancelled my sub, like many others have. When I rang Tower House on Thursday afternoon, the person that answered sounded weary and resigned and it was clear she'd dealt with a lot people asking for refunds. Nor did she sound surprised when she asked why I was cancelling and I told her it was now overpriced.

Don't make assumptions about Oyster cards either - not all hacks live in London.

Re: Press Gazette hasn’t demised yet Roy

Wordsmith_for_Hire — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:15:22 -0000

@Rory Brown - well, whichever way I slice it £115 per 15 issues is £7.66 an issue. That's a lot considering, for example, a woman's monthly glossy costs under £4 and usually has at least 128 pages (often far more), of which around half will be editorial. I commission for a quarterly that costs £10 per issue for 128 pages but is a high-end collectable mag for a niche market (and sells out every issue).

Once the opening offer expires, subscriptions will cost £115 for 12 issues, which works out at £9.58 per issue. Are you seriously suggesting that PG is not massively overpriced? Even at £7.66 a copy? I've been happy to pay my £3 a week to support PG in its previous incarnation because not only has it been essential reading and good value in that format/price but I also was happy to support my industry's paper. Not any more. It's simply not sustainable at that cover price and given the low wages in the industry generally will almost certainly mean a lot of readers simply won't be able to afford it any more. I'm a freelance but in the current economic climate I need to watch my accounts and even though subscriptions are tax-deductible I really cannot justify spending £115 on a thin monthly at the price it works out at.

I've made up my mind - I'll be calling to cancel and get a refund. I hear others are already doing so. If PG wasn't "demised" yet, it surely can't be long now before it is.

RIP PG - you priced yourself out of the market and into the funeral parlour...

I'll be reading it online inly in future, while it's still around.

Re: Press Gazette hasn’t demised yet Roy

Wordsmith_for_Hire — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:25:43 -0000

That still works out £7.66 per issue versus the current cover price of £3, not forgetting that subscribers get a discount on that by paying in advance. Yet the new monthly will have less content as a result of the change in pagination size plus diminished frequency. In short, we are now paying well over double for a quarter of what we previously received. Rip-off? You bet.

Re: Press Gazette hasn’t demised yet Roy

Wordsmith_for_Hire — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:26:11 -0000

Thanks for the fob-off, Dominic. You still haven't answered most of the queries posted here. Who cares if you reported on Media Guardian stories first? It's irrelevant to the position your subscribers are in, many of whom may have known nothing of the changes until today. Likewise, your comment about subscriptions being tax-deductible is true but again irrelevant here.

Can you answer my query please about the digital edition? Can you answer Alistair Dabbs' query on pagination? If the directory fee can be deducted from the cost of future subscriptions why wasn't that in the Loynes letter received today, which only suggested that new subscribers could have a free entry? Why do I feel like I'm pulling teeth to get straight answers?

At £115 a year in advance, I think I'm entitled to some answers...

Re: Press Gazette hasn’t demised yet Roy

Wordsmith_for_Hire — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:41:36 -0000

What I really want to know is when Ponsford is going to return to this blog entry of his and start answering some of the very valid questions being raised here by disgruntled subscribers. Come on, Dominic, you're the editor - you owe it to your readers to enter into a dialogue instead of remaining silent. So do the decent thing and get back on here and start giving us some answers...

Re: Press Gazette hasn’t demised yet Roy

Wordsmith_for_Hire — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:40:49 -0000

Re: Press Gazette hasn’t demised yet Roy

Wordsmith_for_Hire — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:28:26 -0000

My PG arrived this morning, as did a letter from Tony Loynes that I found seriously insulting. The opening line begins: "As you are probably aware, this Friday's issue of Press Gazette will be the last weekly edition..."

Are you having a laugh? Those of who are only "probably aware", are only aware because we heard it elsewhere. I feel really sorry for the poor sods, I mean loyal subscribers, who will be opening this letter today and finding out for the first time that big changes are afoot, because they've been away on holiday or whatever and not been informed by PG.

I'm really disgusted, frankly. PG has treated us in an utterly contemptuous manner as far as letting us know the state of play.

Not even the "added value" you are offering makes up for the overwhelming silence from you to subscribers. Free entry to the freelance database - it was only in May that you were asking us to cough up £62.50 to pay for an entry. I sincerely hope you are going to refund all the subscribers who have taken out a paid entry between June and now. I'm bloody glad I didn't take up the offer at the time otherwise I WOULD be demanding my money back.

Then there's the mysterious reference to "you'll still receive your digital edition free every month". What digital edition? I've never received this or even been told it existed. As far as I'm aware anyone can read anything on the PG website, so where's the added value for subscribers in that?

Not even the offer of an extra three months free issues can take away the pain of all the above. And when your editor can't even be arsed to answer my concerns in my above comment that just underlines my feeling that you think we're all a bunch of mugs.

Re: Press Gazette hasn’t demised yet Roy

Wordsmith_for_Hire — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:41:49 -0000

But why did your readers and subscribers have to hear of all the changes in Media Guardian first? Doesn't Press Gazette feel any duty of care towards them, or indeed any sense of responsibility? Without readers and, especially, subscribers, you wouldn't have a Press Gazette at all. I for one feel short-changed, especially as I renewed my sub only in July and what I have paid and what I will in future be receiving look to be entirely different beasts.

http://diaryofawordsmith.blogspot.com/2008/08/u...

And what, pray, is this strange verb "to demise" of which you speak? Perhaps it's time to call in the undertakers rather than the administrators if you're going to pepper a mag on UK journalism with such nasty Americanisms...