James Shield...

[I should coco]

Local newspapers want to create some debate because they want to sell papers, but the idea there's some deep-seated bias against one of their own clubs is ridiculous. It doesn't make editorial or financial sense.

On the face of it, yes you are correct but we have long memories.

Who was it who launched the 'Save our Owls' campaign in the 70s then did nothing remotely similar when we hit our nadir in the early 80s?

It's not really a local paper any more. It is part of a major national news corporation (Johnston Press) with most of the syndicated articles produced elsewhere. If they can create a mini shit storm out of this, then it could be 'news' in some of their other rags too. Generating your own sensational 'exclusives' is far cheaper than sending real journalists to investigate things.

What makes sense locally will not necessarily be in their best interest nationally.

TWATS the lot of them.

In solidarity with those fine upstanding denizens of Deptford, "No-one likes us, we don't care".

 

[Ldn_Rd_Blades]

the good thing is that when majority get the wish for star to disappear, we have tons of media queuing around the block to do journalism on a established 3rd tier team

Yeah if only there was some way to read a report or hear rumours without the star

 

[sheffielder]

I think you misunderstand the nature of journalism if you think it's the role of a newspaper to be a cheerleader for sports teams.

But that is how they report on Sheffield Wednesday. I fear you're just one of them so your opinion holds no weight. If you think that the Blades should have some cockney hack writing for us then you misunderstand football fans. He's not one of us, unlike the 3 or 4 who report on the pigs.

 

[sheffielder]

I know the Star isn't the best paper by a long shot , but for us exiles living outside of Sheffield it gives us an inside as to what's happening in the old town , this is not an excuse for bad journalism , and I normally take anything written about the Blades in the Star with a huge pinch of salt .
I take most of my info about United from this site , the good the bad and the ugly .
Barney is the font of all knowledge as far as I'm concerned ,
and far a balanced level headed view of all the things Tyler and LYDON are the men to go to .

Unfortunately when you live in Sheffield and the pigs throw whatever is written on that shit paper in your face, then you will know it has no balance. Read Deadbats reports and the Yorkshire Post.

 

[Ldn_Rd_Blades]

Read deadbats report

Rewatch match on blades player

Listen to interviews on RS

Why would I need James shields 1 page review that tells you nothing but reads well?

 

[I should coco]

Yeah if only there was some way to read a report or hear rumours without the star

Trouble is if we found some miraculous way of all being able to all chip in and post that sort of stuff, there would always be some chuff who'd harp on about how much we spent on the Desso pitch

and how 'Done is a runaround'
and the fax machine
and Simmo's penalty still being in orbit
and McNulty's jumper/lollipop
and Collins being shite
and Sammon being even shiter
and Barney......

On second thoughts, let's stick with the Star!

 

[Ldn_Rd_Blades]

Trouble is if we found some miraculous way of all being able to all chip and post that sort of stuff, there would always be some chuff who'd chip in about how much we spent on the Desso pitch

and how 'Done is a runaround'
and the fax machine
and Simmo's penalty still being in orbit
and McNulty's jumper/lollipop
and Collins being shite
and Sammon being even shiter
and Barney......

On second thoughts, let's stick with the Star!

Have you read the comments section on the star site?

 

[CaptainHotdog]

I think a lot of you have lost sight of what The Star now is..

It's a website first, that makes its money through advertisement and a newspaper second.

When was the last time you bought The Star? If like me a long time ago, however I visit the website several times a week. It doesn't matter if the content is groundbreaking journalism or an open letter, from an opposition fan, that has got people talking.. both result in us visiting the site to have a read - more advertisement revenue! That is why the editor included it.

 

[Pierre's PC]

I think a lot of you have lost sight of what The Star now is..

It's a website first, that makes its money through advertisement and a newspaper second.

When was the last time you bought The Star? If like me a long time ago, however I visit the website several times a week. It doesn't matter if the content is groundbreaking journalism or an open letter, from an opposition fan, that has got people talking.. both result in us visiting the site to have a read - more advertisement revenue! That is why the editor included it.

If anyone is accessing the star from a PC and is remotely interwebz savvy then there will be no advertising revenue at all.
Organisations that fill their websites with ads or scripts deserve to die

 

[Ecco1889]

...provides a professional and in depth journalistic response to my request for an explanation of his newspapers decision to print the letter from Coventry.

Cheers James!

Needs to grow a backbone,if he's asked a reasonable question then give an honest reply..no problem if it's nasty or aggressive,but u can't get any respect hiding behind the block button in this instance

 

[Deleted member 1486]

If anyone is accessing the star from a PC and is remotely interwebz savvy then there will be no advertising revenue at all.
Organisations that fill their websites with ads or scripts deserve to die

... and they seem determined to drive people away who access the site on mobile devices. You start reading an article and a full-page fucking advert starts playing over the top (= delete bookmark!).

 

[Pierre's PC]

... and they seem determined to drive people away who access the site on mobile devices. You start reading an article and a full-page fucking advert starts playing over the top (= delete bookmark!).

I mentioned earlier that I got stuck in an application install loop from one of the shitty ads. I fucking hate that about websites on the phone.

 

[ghandi]

As I said in another thread. A decent enough bloke who wants us to do well but as a journalist he is effectively useless.

Just out of interest zablade what exactly did you say to him?

Agree totally with that have chatted to him on the train on away trips, he is very personable but as you say a shit journo.

 

[tyke1889]

Adblock Browser for Android seems to work OK with all this

 

[Deleted member 1486]

Tip: if you want to read today's news on the Star website, read yesterday's posts on Sheffield Forum.

 

[e17blade]

I'll come at this issue from a slightly different angle, as I am a director of a publishing company and have worked in the publishing industry for 20-odd years.

Publishing is a tough industry these days - the digital age and all that (obviously) - and paid for local newspapers are becoming almost untenable.

A few thoughts...

(1) This story is a dream for a local newspaper. How often do they get to write about a genuinely interesting and unique occurrence like this instead of the usual week on week routine? Hardly ever.

(2) The Star will be extremely protective of its readership. Circulation is everything. Never alienate your core readers. Surely this is obvious.

(3) The Star will want James Shield (and all of their reporters) to have as many Twitter followers as possible. More followers equals more click throughs to the website equals more advertising revenue and most likely more interest in the print newspaper.

(4) As a general rule - really good quality writing on an interesting subject will sell. The Coventry issue is clearly interesting and a really good feature/debate could have been done on this. Present both sides fairly and provide some simple editorial opinion.


This leaves The Star with three options...

(1) Do the feature properly: This would make good reading, drive interest in the paper, increase hits on the website, create more twitter followers, etc, etc. All good.

(2) Publish the letter without comment: This does not make good reading, reduces interest in the newspaper, creates a short term spike in hits on the website as people look at the article but then a longer term reduction, reduces twitter followers, etc, etc. All bad.

(3) Do nothing.


If one of my editors (James Shield does not take the blame) took option 2 and published that letter in that way they would get hauled across the coals for commercial suicide.

It really is a ridiculous decision. To do nothing at all would have been better.

 

[dublin 10 blade]

Unfortunately when you live in Sheffield and the pigs throw whatever is written on that shit paper in your face, then you will know it has no balance. Read Deadbats reports and the Yorkshire Post.

I do read Deadbats reports and they are an essential read for this exile .
Read news section and Blades section only in the stir , praise and grumble now thats a different kettle of fish , pitsmoor pig and B the Blade what a pair of fucking tools .
Can only imagine the delusions of grandeur from the swine , they can now cosy up to Coventry now as well .

 

[ashsufc1889]

Local journalists do a great job for very little pay in very difficult circumstances. If they do go under it will be a sad day.

Said no one ever!

 

[Bladesman]

I'll come at this issue from a slightly different angle, as I am a director of a publishing company and have worked in the publishing industry for 20-odd years.

Publishing is a tough industry these days - the digital age and all that (obviously) - and paid for local newspapers are becoming almost untenable.

A few thoughts...

(1) This story is a dream for a local newspaper. How often do they get to write about a genuinely interesting and unique occurrence like this instead of the usual week on week routine? Hardly ever.

(2) The Star will be extremely protective of its readership. Circulation is everything. Never alienate your core readers. Surely this is obvious.

(3) The Star will want James Shield (and all of their reporters) to have as many Twitter followers as possible. More followers equals more click throughs to the website equals more advertising revenue and most likely more interest in the print newspaper.

(4) As a general rule - really good quality writing on an interesting subject will sell. The Coventry issue is clearly interesting and a really good feature/debate could have been done on this. Present both sides fairly and provide some simple editorial opinion.


This leaves The Star with three options...

(1) Do the feature properly: This would make good reading, drive interest in the paper, increase hits on the website, create more twitter followers, etc, etc. All good.

(2) Publish the letter without comment: This does not make good reading, reduces interest in the newspaper, creates a short term spike in hits on the website as people look at the article but then a longer term reduction, reduces twitter followers, etc, etc. All bad.

(3) Do nothing.


If one of my editors (James Shield does not take the blame) took option 2 and published that letter in that way they would get hauled across the coals for commercial suicide.

It really is a ridiculous decision. To do nothing at all would have been better.

Agreed, it is just out right lazy journalism from The Star and not for the first time. It was no different to someone pulling a random post off this forum and publishing it in the paper.

I think James Shield would have done better not to comment on it at all via social media even though he didn't publish it. To he say he was "not aware" of the letter and expecting people to believe that was daft.

 

[Good Pinch Of Snuff]

Shields is on here snooping about wonder what his username is

 

[Bladesman]

Shields is on here snooping about wonder what his username is

Everyone snoops this forum the club, journalists etc.

 

[JohnDenver]

I mentioned earlier that I got stuck in an application install loop from one of the shitty ads. I fucking hate that about websites on the phone.

My ancient Mac often goes into meltdown when I click on the Star's website. Sounds like an A380 preparing for takeoff.

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

We all remember The Green 'Un.
Fast Forward Five Years.
We all remember The Star.

Once the Chinese take over Sheffield, they may find use for the buildings on York Street.

 

[Tyler Durden]

Local journalists do a great job for very little pay in very difficult circumstances. If they do go under it will be a sad day.

If you do go under it'll be progress. Your skewed shite packaged as truth has done enough damage as it is.

 

[Clarkey87]

James Shield and his comrades who, whatever peoples views on their competancy, dont really deserve to be dragged through the mud.

Isn't that what a lot of journalists do to other people on a daily basis on a much worse level?
And generally when they do it to others, it is done with distorted (or in some cases very little) facts.

What goes around comes around - A la News of the World.

In our instance this poor, lazy and clearly biased journalism deserves criticism. This isn't a "one off" from that paper against our club, it has been a constant succession of sly digs that's happened for years.

 

[Hackblade]

Said no one ever!

Oh, I don't know... I think plenty of people who know anything about the subject would agree.

 

[Bladesman]

We all remember The Green 'Un.
Fast Forward Five Years.
We all remember The Star.

Once the Chinese take over Sheffield, they may find use for the buildings on York Street.

There was a good debate on The Sunday Supplement this morning between Gary Neville, Fatty Samuels, Henry Winter and Oliver Holt. They were discussing a comment made about journalists the other week in regards to the story about Liverpools goalkeeper. Gary made a good point there isn't enough good investigative journalism and there are too many reactionary articles because of the demand for an instant response to a story.

Lazy click bait articles is what is what local journalism has become and that is why papers like The Star are on their arse. Give people a reason to buy The Star and people might just still buy it even if it is more condensed than it used to be.

Like Neville said this morning "Quality over quantity."

 

[e17blade]

Oh, I don't know... I think plenty of people who know anything about the subject would agree.

I'm with Hackblade on this.

 

[Hackblade]

If you do go under it'll be progress. Your skewed shite packaged as truth has done enough damage as it is.

Mine? I don't work for the Sheffield Star. Lazy journalism, mate.

 

[Tyler Durden]

Mine? I don't work for the Sheffield Star. Lazy journalism, mate.

And I didn't mention the Star. It's just one example.

Print media is a dying format and rightly so. People no longer need to rely on one outlet for their news or insight. The journalists of the local rag don't even fulfill their own job description anymore. They leech information from the general public then regurgitate it back into their poorly written articles, omitting and adding anything which might serve their biased agendas.

It's a once noble profession which now has neither merit nor credibility.