For three days running there have been hardly any Daily Telegraphs available in Aberystwyth. On Tuesday and Wednesday Smiths and Spa had none at lunchtime. Today I went in early and Smiths had none and Spa had 5 copies. There were masses of all other papers.
I know that for some reason Telegraphs have always had poor availability, and are always the first to sell out because they don't stock enough. It was the same in London 30 years ago.
Has something happened? Is there a dispute?
Just an observation:
I tried the Guardian as an alternative.
No business section
No stock market prices
Small sports section
Meagre editorials and comments
Small letters page
No cartoons
No GK crossword
No Sudoku or other games.
Tabloid format
All for £1.60 instead of £1.40
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I understand that newspapers with the exception of the Telegraph are sold on a 'sale or return' basis.
The Telegraph is sold on a 'what you order and have delivered, you pay for' basis, so shops would be reluctant to order in more than those that they can guarantee to sell.
This sounds as though the wholesaler has reduced the numbers ordered.
Just a guess.
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>>
>> The Telegraph is sold on a 'what you order and have delivered, you pay for'
>> basis, so shops would be reluctant to order in more than those that they can
>> guarantee to sell.
>>
>> This sounds as though the wholesaler has reduced the numbers ordered.
>>
>> Just a guess.
>>
Thanks - I didn't know that. That would explain it.
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Best to subscribe - saves you money guarantees a copy and you get on line version included for no extra charge.
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>> www.telegraph.co.uk/subscriptions/ppc/?WT.mc_id=602123&gclid=CI67gZfxksACFXDLtAodaH0AUw
>>
If you have bought something from the Telegraph group, (like gentlemens' beige elasticated waist trousers, say) they will often send you an offer to subscribe at a cheaper rate than that advertised. I pay £28.16 per month, which is about £6.50 a week, so quite a good reduction.
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"like gentlemens' beige elasticated waist trousers"
De rigueur for Telegraph readers I would say. ;-0
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I pay about the same, but it's not a postal subscription.
My local COOP took over the local newsagent several years ago, and continued with the delivery service. Two years ago, they were having difficulty in finding paperboys, and stopped deliveries. (my paperlad was about 68 at this time!)
Deliveries were taken over by Billy, who delivered to a large area from a small fourtrack.
He stopped this year, principally because of difficulties with the DT deliveries.
Apparently, all the other dailies come from the wholesalers - WHS I think - and DT was delivered directly. DTs were frequently delayed, which meant Billy had to wait and delay everybody's newspaper, or make two rounds.
He decided that it wasn't worth it, and retired.
So now I have to pick up my paper, in exchange for a coupon, from the COOP again.
Plus ca change
8o(
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As today is A level and AS results day, and the Telegraph has the official clearing lists, that could explain excess demand today.
As the UCAS website frequently crashes, and university hotlines go unanswered, there is something to be said for a paper copy of the information!
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I got the same "no returns" reason from my own newsagent.
There is another problem I have with the DT, more irksome than its promotion of the Windsor and Middleton brands. It is dirty. The ink comes off, leaving me with dirty hands and thence often a dirty Anglepoise or shirt. I only take it as it is the best of a bad bunch.
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I just get all news online, maybe struggling with a fall in demand for dead tree version?
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Printing ink is basically a mixture of carbon black and oil. No heat is applied to dry the ink and it therefore tends to come off on the hands.
Traditionally I believe the remedy is to get one's butler to iron the newspaper before reading.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Thu 14 Aug 14 at 16:54
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>> So now I have to pick up my paper, in exchange for a coupon, from the COOP again.
>>
My DT coupons go straight to my newsagent. A lot less faff.
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I binned the DT last November when the subs went up. When they got the cancellation they offered to reduce the price to £6 a week but I said I had already decided I'd had enough of pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge and 6 pages of 'fashion' and started taking the 'i'.
The CSR then rather patronisingly 'explained' to me that 'i' is not a quality paper like the DT, but only a middle ranking paper like the Daily Mail. That was the point of no return, and I feel better for not helping the Barclay Brothers.
The 'i' has better puzzles. and less carp than the DT and costs 30p (40p on Saturday) and the annual sub is still £45. And it has business news and sport.
I think the DT and ST had a print deal with News Group. Maybe Murdoch has slowed the presses:)
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Good advice there. The problem is I don't have a constant newsagent. Four days a week I'd want to pick it up where I work, 40 miles away, the other days would involve a 4 mile trip to the nearest shop. So we don't bother with the paper unless there is some other reason to go out.
I do like reading real broadsheets. Spreading it out on a table, moving the cup or glass or lunch about to a bit I'm not reading, is one of life's pleasures. Reading it online just isn't the same. Unless there is a Middleton-blocking program of course.
Last edited by: Cliff Pope on Thu 14 Aug 14 at 19:06
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We're in Islington tonight, scratch cards displayed in the jalopy until 2.30 tomorrow, everything hunky-dory. Except the little newsagent just round the corner has builder's plywood all round it and looks as if it won't open tomorrow. So I'll have to go all the way to Pentonville Road to get the Terrorflag, rapidly deteriorating though it is.
It's not that far really. But it's uphill all the way there and one doesn't really relish that before coffee, knowImean?
Mustn't grumble though. It's downhill on the way back. Comfortable borrowed gaff within shouters of Central London, quite an asset really. We are fortunate.
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The Telegraph's glory days - apart from the MP's expenses story - are long gone.
I never buy it these days, but if I had more disposable income I would - just for the crossword, really - all else is easily read on-line.
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I must confess I only read the DT on line these days (with no apparent interference) after trying with no success to get it delivered to my local 'presse' here at regular intervals.
I don't know if the print still comes off on your hands but I do know that the quality of its journalism has absolutely nosedived since the beginning of this year.
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I pop into the DT online now and again. It is becoming more and more another version of the Daily Wail.
I get I daily, sure its got its little slants but is by far the least "preachy" and coloured of news sources available in newsprint.
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I buy the i too. Supplement it with a a free Times from Waitrose once a week. Tend to dip into the Guardian, Times and the local paper the Eastern Daily Press down the cafe I frequent..
Read the Sun once a month when I go to the barbers.
Reckon that covers most political views.
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The D.T is without doubt, the worst paper I have ever handled for inking-up one's hands.
Last edited by: Roger. on Fri 15 Aug 14 at 09:41
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How things change, it used to be The Guardian that needed to be ordered outside big cities. IIRC that was also due to sale/return not being offered. Changed sometime in the nineties I think.
Was at least second generation reader and bought it pretty well daily until I left work last November. Liked the 'Berliner' format as it was easier to handle on train without the 'continued on page 72' layout imposed on long articles by some tabloids. A one off trip to the smoke yesterday (Great British Beer Festival) had me buy a copy - now an eye watering £1.60.
Same format as before with main news section including comment, business etc and G2 with the features. Of no interest to me but sport is now back in seperate section daily - at one time it was reduced to Monday only. The excellent cartoonist Steve Bell must be on his hols, the op/ed cartoon was somebody else and If was missing altogether.
cannot see it being around in present form for many more years though unless they can 'monetise' the web content. Very little in paper that wasn't free on WWW.
Meanwhile the free Standard seems to go from strength to strength.
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>> I must confess I only read the DT on line these days (with no apparent
>> interference) after trying with no success to get it delivered to my local 'presse' here
>> at regular intervals.
>> I don't know if the print still comes off on your hands but I do
>> know that the quality of its journalism has absolutely nosedived since the beginning of this
>> year.
>>
They have had a major change in editorial staff with many sackings.. Aiming to be online mainly..
A lot is written to be controversial to attract online comments in my view- thus increasing viewer numbers and hence advertising revenue online.. Of course, controversial does not mean well thought through...
And if you criticise the Catholic Church or the owners, you get deleted: the owners are devout Catholics.. see their chapel.. blessed by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor.
www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jun/27/brecqhou-barclay-brothers-getaway-island
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If it were down to me I would cancel the telegraph subscription, I think I have had enough photos of Kate and William to see me out, but SWM loves the crossword, so I am over ruled!
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"the owners are devout Catholics."
Strange that. Conrad Black converted to Catholicism when he was in jail.
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It was a better paper when he was owner.
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>> It was a better paper when he was owner.
I agree Rastaman. But his mad harridan of a wife wrote these poisonous weekly columns.
The Barclays haven't improved it.
Personally I relish its bigotries and special pleadings, even the Catholic stuff which I had up to here as a child. I've been reading it and laughing at its idiot attitudes since Bill Deedes's day, when it had a lot of African coverage in a sort of imperial/colonial rearguard action. But it's a sad relic today, a couple of true hacks spread very thin on a good day and a host of illiterate vulgar American or other colonial subs.
I don't think they are to blame for the inordinate amount of space given to coverage of dreary TV series that no adult would watch for three minutes. Or do we owe it to that doughty journalistic warrior Phil Space?
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>> since Bill Deedes's day,
Ah! Bill Deedes, I remember meeting him and his mate, Dennis Thatcher at Twickenham many years ago. They were rolling around, both very pleasantly inebriated.
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>> Ah! Bill Deedes, I remember meeting him and his mate, Dennis Thatcher at Twickenham many years ago. They were rolling around, both very pleasantly inebriated.
One of my hack heroes, very successful and very widely and deeply experienced, but a man who nevertheless seemed a charming, relaxed, clever old duck with proper manners.
'What the Papers Say' was my favourite TV programme, and Bill Deedes was one of its very best presenters.
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>> They have had a major change in editorial staff with many sackings.. Aiming to be
>> online mainly..
>>
>> A lot is written to be controversial to attract online comments in my view- thus
>> increasing viewer numbers and hence advertising revenue online.. Of course, controversial does not mean well
>> thought through...
See coverage of the Cliff Richard case as analysed by Roy Greenslade in The Guardian:
www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/aug/15/dailytelegraph-cliff-richard
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>>
>> See coverage of the Cliff Richard case as analysed by Roy Greenslade in The Guardian:
>>
That's very good, and did I think hit the mark. It is a failing I think in the DT that it's headlines often exaggerate and sensationalise something that is then usually properly played down and given due proportion when you read the text.
They seem to have moved from a kind of headline that was challenging, eyecatching, and slightly tongue in cheek as if parodying the Mail's style, but has now become real and unthinking. Perhaps someone else writes the sensationalised headlines in order to beaf up more balanced reporting?
They seem to be playing the police/BBC/sensationalist game of trying to create a momentum.
That's a shame, because they used that effect to notable good intent when they ran the MPs' expenses story. But jokes about duck houses and moats can stand a bit of exaggeration, whereas an innocent person's rights should be treated more cautiously.
Last edited by: Cliff Pope on Mon 18 Aug 14 at 11:57
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>> See coverage of the Cliff Richard case as analysed by Roy Greenslade in The Guardian:
>>
>> www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/aug/15/dailytelegraph-cliff-richard
>>
I don't think The Telegraph's headline is an unfair shorthand approximation of what Cliff Richard said in his statement.
He can always sue if he thinks it is defamatory.
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>> I don't think The Telegraph's headline is an unfair shorthand approximation of what Cliff Richard
>> said in his statement.
>>
>> He can always sue if he thinks it is defamatory.
The potential accusation involves a young man in his teens but a year or so short of the age of consent. That's not paedophilia which is a sexual interest in pre-pubescent children of either sex.
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>> I don't think The Telegraph's headline is an unfair shorthand approximation of what Cliff Richard
>> said in his statement.
>>
Not ostensibly, but it's got a subtle slant to it. The words it puts in his mouth are those normally used by someone who has been the subject of a prolonged grilling, who is beginning to crack, is becoming weary of the whole thing yet stubbornly persists in his increasingly fruitless denials.
It's in the style of the "When did you stop beating your wife ?" kind of questioning.
A loaded answer in fact.
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>> >> See coverage of the Cliff Richard case as analysed by Roy Greenslade in The
>> Guardian:
>> >>
>> >> www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/aug/15/dailytelegraph-cliff-richard
>> >>
>>
>> I don't think The Telegraph's headline is an unfair shorthand approximation of what Cliff Richard
>> said in his statement.
Yes it is, its presented in a way to intimate its a statement.
As i said earlier up the thread, the DT is now starting to outdo the Daily Mail in the presentation and choice of storyline.
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>> the DT is now starting to outdo the Daily Mail in the presentation and choice of storyline.
Not as disgusting or as hilarious though as the tabloids at their worst, including upmarket ones like the Mail and Express... but hardly any journalism now, mainly agency stories misunderstood and miswritten into childish mush by illiterate mid-Pacific sluts of teenage subs, very likely unpaid. And huge amounts of space in the news pages devoted to coverage of TV drama series as if their next episodes were the same as news and current events. Are Terrorflag readers really avid watchers of ghastly clunking poor man's upstairs downstairs Gosford Park? Surely not.
The editor, although Catholic and a fogey, is a proper journalist and ought to know much better. Several real, good hacks, distinguished even in their manner, write regularly for the paper, which also opens its columns to politicians of every stripe. One can only assume their arms are being twisted by offers they can't refuse and that they are taking the money and running. It's a very depressing spectacle, although one is used to it. Broadsheet press doomed. Yesterday's ST (STimes not Telegraph) was damn thin too.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Mon 18 Aug 14 at 15:11
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Yesterday's ST (STimes not Telegraph) was damn thin too.
Losing money.
The DT at least makes a profit..
Any paper which has Jeremy Clarkson writing for it deserves to lose money..:-)
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It must just have been a local distribution glitch - the shops are full of DTs again now.
And the annoying Spar customer is back again - the one who pulls out all the supplements he doesn't want and leaves them in the rack on top of the complete papers.
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Telegraph - production/distribution problems? - Duncan
