Sindo - Local Rag for SoCoDu?

thewing

Been buying the Sunday Indo for years(mainly cos it's what we bought at home) but have noticed in the past couple of years how it leans towards the brash extravagant lifestyle of the rich and famous(well according to the indo anyway), mainly concentrating on residents of South County Dublin.It always leaned towards this demographic slightly (the Keane Edge) but now it's unashamedly pimping itself to this scene.Reading last week's Life magazine, in which the cover story was about Rosanna Davison, her buddies and their bebo sites, I just thought - 'How the f*ck is this news?' or who in the rest of the country could relate to a bunch of rich kids largin' it up in Dublin?I think it's time to strike it off as a national newspaper, and just circulate itself in Dublin - anyone else think this?

FlutterinBantam

I agree with you 100%.

Every time I buy the Sindo,I say never again.

Got last Sunday's.. what a load of codswallop


never again:D

DMC

The Life magazine is rubbish, but its a glossy mag in a Sunday, it not hardcore news you'll find there.

The Sindo itself... I really, really dislike. I cannot quantify into words how sh1t I think it is. Too much opinion aimed for, and at, the Dalkey set.

I would like Mike65 to step upto the mark and do what he did for the Tribune there a few weeks ago. That is, find news.

santosubito

DMC wrote:

I would like Mike65 to step upto the mark and do what he did for the Tribune there a few weeks ago. That is, find news.

Not possible, shurely.

I too buy it regularly and then say never again.

mike65

Some challanges are not worth taking up!

I don't buy the Sindo - have'nt done for many years, but my sister does (ahem). I was round her place last Sunday so flicked though it in about 5 mins. The SoCoDu thing was more worthy of NUTS than a Sunday paper.

Mike.

thewing

I think I shall have to follow your example and vow never to buy it again - it's a tabloid in a broadsheet's body.

Tom Dunne

thewing wrote:

it's a tabloid in a broadsheet's body.

That's exactly it.

I must admit, since Christmas I have been buying the Sunday Times along with the Business Post. I find the lack of trashy, tabloid reporting a breath of fresh air.

mike65

I looked at the SBP (are its politics still the Sunday "Provisional" Post?) last Sunday in the shop but could'nt see any good reason to go for it over the Turbine.

Mike.

nlgbbbblth

Sunday Independent is a disgrace, almost as bad as The Sunday World.

Sunday Tribune is the best of a bad lot, Business Post is ok.

Of the English papers, I think The Observer and The Independent On Sunday are far better than The Sunday Times

K-9

Tribune the best alright though disappointed no result for the Rugby yesterday. Was this the same for the other Sun papers. Sindo seem to have lost there best writers from the 90's. Thought there treatment of John Hume in the early 90's over his talks with Gerry Adams was disgraceful. Seemed to be very personal to me.

J.S. Pill

thewing wrote:

Been buying the Sunday Indo for years(mainly cos it's what we bought at home) but have noticed in the past couple of years how it leans towards the brash extravagant lifestyle of the rich and famous(well according to the indo anyway), mainly concentrating on residents of South County Dublin.It always leaned towards this demographic slightly (the Keane Edge) but now it's unashamedly pimping itself to this scene.Reading last week's Life magazine, in which the cover story was about Rosanna Davison, her buddies and their bebo sites, I just thought - 'How the f*ck is this news?' or who in the rest of the country could relate to a bunch of rich kids largin' it up in Dublin?I think it's time to strike it off as a national newspaper, and just circulate itself in Dublin - anyone else think this?

While the paper may be 'concentrating' on or 'leaning towards' the SoCoDu lifestyle in its coverage I don't think that this is the class that its aiming to sell to exclusively. I reckon you average buyer is going to be living in a semi in Lucan or Limerick and aspiring towards the SoCoDu lifestyle. Do you think real VIPs buy VIP magazine? Do you think the rich and famous watch 'lifestyles of the rich and famous'? Its all about selling aspirations and fantasy.

And I don't think the 'lifestyle' supplements, for whatever newspaper, have any pretence about the newsworthyness of their content - they're just somethink to keep the wife amused while the husband reads the real news.

thewing

J.S. Pill wrote:

While the paper may be 'concentrating' on or 'leaning towards' the SoCoDu lifestyle in its coverage I don't think that this is the class that its aiming to sell to exclusively. I reckon you average buyer is going to be living in a semi in Lucan or Limerick and aspiring towards the SoCoDu lifestyle. Do you think real VIPs buy VIP magazine? Do you think the rich and famous watch 'lifestyles of the rich and famous'? Its all about selling aspirations and fantasy.

If the SoCuDu lifestyle (and I live there, it's nothing special) is what the paper is selling, or trying to sell - then maybe it should turn itself into an irish version of Heat magazine - having grown up in a semi in Limerick, it wasn't something I ever thought of as special or to aspire to.I fail to see the newsworthiness in say, Katy French's break-up - they aren't famous and it isn't worthy of a national broadsheet's coverage, maybe only in the magazine.

J.S. Pill

I'm getting a little bit worried about the Bindo's front page coverage - Yesterday their front page was dominated by a picture of Samantha Mumble. This increase in celebrity coverage has been happening for quite a while now. So while Iraq burns and our hospitals fall apart, the Bindo keeps us up to date with the latest chapter in the Britney saga - marvelous.

My theory is that the indo is trying to scew its marketing more towards women. The Daly Mail markets itself (not exclusively) at women, what with its daily 'lifestyle' supplements and 'won't somebody please think of the children' populism. I think the indo might be targeting the more 'intellectual' woman though, you know, the type that reads Maeve Binchy instead of Celia Ahern.

mike65

Ouch! Maeve damned there!

The wimmins market is not to be underestimated, and they love tittle-tattle. Bless.


Mike.

kmick

Yeah the sindo is rubbish. Every hack writing in it seems to think their life is the most fascinating thing since the hitler diaries. One of columns seems to be solely about one slack jawed haridans experiences of getting a boob job. How she said never again and then changed her mind, then never again etc. Brainless paper, brainless hacks writing in it. Shame on the people who produce it.

slickmcvic

got so pissed off with the SI's degrading into a piss poor red-top I actually went lookin for a topic like this one....Yesterdays Life magzine cover was a joke...2 weeks ago it had rosanna Davidison and her cling-ons flaunting themselves in some club or sumthin (questionable coverage warrenty!) but then yesterdays took the biscuit....some nobodys who must know the journo's being plastered onto the front page of life was a joke. I'm all for celeb supplements with the papers but elevating a dublins lawyers split from his wife to the front page (which they done 2 years ago) is stupid...
I remember when i was at school reading the indos coverage of Veronica Guerins death and thinking it was an intellegent serious newspaper that grown ups read...dont think so anymore.
The editors would wanna cop onto themselves and realise the world doesnt revolve around them,their mates,and where they live. As a national newspaper they have a responsibility to cover the whole country and not just focus on whatever issues they like to gossip about on their doorsteps....RANT OVER!!

J.S. Pill

kmick wrote:

Yeah the sindo is rubbish. Every hack writing in it seems to think their life is the most fascinating thing since the hitler diaries. One of columns seems to be solely about one slack jawed haridans experiences of getting a boob job. How she said never again and then changed her mind, then never again etc. Brainless paper, brainless hacks writing in it. Shame on the people who produce it.

Its not that hard to see why this type of 'journalism' is on the rise. Its much much easier for women to write about themselves, the subtle diffrerences between the liffey valley shopping centre and Dundrum Shopping centre and how the tiling of their bathroom is going than to actually sit and do some real research and analysis and then present one's findings i.e. real journalism.

eefs

J.S. Pill wrote:

Its not that hard to see why this type of 'journalism' is on the rise. Its much much easier for women to write about themselves, the subtle diffrerences between the liffey valley shopping centre and Dundrum Shopping centre and how the tiling of their bathroom is going than to actually sit and do some real research and analysis and then present one's findings i.e. real journalism.

Oh, that's an intelligant response. Bring out the women-bashing!

Don't tar every other female journalist out there with the same brush. The hacks in the Sindo are idiots - men and women alike. :rolleyes:

J.S. Pill

eefs wrote:

The hacks in the Sindo are idiots - men and women alike. :rolleyes:

I apologise for my unbalanced remark. You're right, they're both equally idiotic at that paper.

Still, that doens't invalidate my implication that those women are idiots.

Look, I didn't mean any offence. I didn't think any women would be in a serious forum like news and media, I just assumed you'd all be uploading photos of you and your friends drinking sex on the beaches onto Bebo so once again I apologise.

syberspud

Absolute rag of a paper that I will never buy but it's always lying around on a sunday. Not only do most of the columnists prattle on about their boring, pathetic lives as has already been mentioned but a larger problem is the serious lack of any journalistic integrity or balance in the paper on many issues but especially when it comes to Northern Irish poitics - week in, week out you get Eilis O'Hanlon, Ruth Dudley Edwards & Eoin Harris all foaming at the mouth about commie sinn fein bastards and their plots to destroy the ruling anglo irish in their ivory towers in south dublin. Bizarre, paranoid agendas at work. It's got more angles than a midnight stroll around the red light district in Moscow.

Also: Brendan O' Connor. What a prick.

jrey1981

I'd agree that it definitely seems to be more skewed towards women and that many columnists are writing about themselves.

It's the market and it's read by over a million people.

Two further points:

The Irish Mail on Sunday tends to have pieces with a more investigative slant these days.

Also, who gets paid more? A certain column writer in the Life mag can get the same fee for something that requires no research whatsoever...OR

The writer of a lead story on another section that would have to be exclusive and requires considerable time, effort, actual knowledge, research and checking for libel etc.

Answer: the Life mag column writer.

In this way the showbizzy, entertainment etc. actually has more monetary value than news of a serious nature.

K-9

Wasn't it the Sindo that did the piece on the Guard and Abbeylara on the day he was burying his wife and child.

Bloody worse than the gutter press :mad: . I don't think the Mail, Star or even Sun would have stooped that low.

J.S. Pill

jrey1981 wrote:

Also, who gets paid more? A certain column writer in the Life mag can get the same fee for something that requires no research whatsoever...

God, Imagine being married to one of those creatures, the pillow talk would probably make you want to strangle them

Nightwish

My father brought last weeks Sindo into the house (I have given up on it) and I was glancing through it, and came across almost a full page story devoted to how Victoria Mary Clarke will marry Shane McGowan. This is news? Wtf? How do they justify paying this woman every week to tell the nation about how much she loves this guy, week in week out?

jrey1981

J.S. Pill wrote:

God, Imagine being married to one of those creatures, the pillow talk would probably make you want to strangle them

lol...or quite possibly your pillow talk would end up in next week's column

J.S. Pill

Nightwish wrote:

My father brought last weeks Sindo into the house (I have given up on it) and I was glancing through it, and came across almost a full page story devoted to how Victoria Mary Clarke will marry Shane McGowan. This is news? Wtf? How do they justify paying this woman every week to tell the nation about how much she loves this guy, week in week out?

Was this in the actual body of the paper or in one of those 'lifestyle' supplements? As I've said before, those lifestyle supplements are just something that a man can give his wife to keep her quiet while he reads the serious news so it really doesn't matter much what they put in them.

Though I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about some of the content: In the Tribune magazine on sunday the feature was '50 hot irish men' or something to that effect & the front cover had a big picture of Mr. Handsome McSexy from the Blizards.

Editors of the tribune: Please stop raising women's standards, we ordinary Joe's just can't compete with such paragons of handsomeness.

Nightwish

It was on page 3 of the Newspaper itself, not the glossy mag that comes with it. Thats why it annoyed me so much. News should be in the newspaper, all other irrelevant crap relating to nobodies like Ms Clarke should be in the "lifestyle" magazine.

Dudess

The Sindo has been a tabloid masquerading as a broadsheet for years and years. Nothing new about its current approach - apart from the fact that it's probably worse than ever.

Radio Mad.

Dudess wrote:

The Sindo has been a tabloid masquerading as a broadsheet for years and years. Nothing new about its current approach - apart from the fact that it's probably worse than ever.

Hear! Hear!

luckat

Most newspapers today are trying to reach a particular demographic - women under 35 - because advertisers love this group, so if you get young women buying the paper you'll get lots of lovely profitable ads.

Unfortunately, most newspapers are edited by men foaming and seething with testosterone, so their idea of what young women are interested in is a little... odd.

J.S. Pill

luckat wrote:

Unfortunately, most newspapers are edited by men foaming and seething with testosterone, so their idea of what young women are interested in is a little... odd.

Hmmm, interesting theory. I very much doubt these men have any input into the content of the more girly articles. I reckon they just hire a bunch of vacous female hacks and let the sh1tefest produce itself.

As for the 'won't someone please think of the children' vaginal populism (e.g. sensationalist crime coverage), I think these eidtors are working on the scientificly proven fact that women like their emotions to be stimulated. It doesn't matter if its joy, fear or revulsion - they just want to feel something.
Have a look at those magazines you can pick up for a euro like 'chat' 'real life' and 'really horrible stories' - they carry articles like: 'my husband is a necrophile', 'moisturiser melted my face' and 'My pet goat ate my son'. Not what I'd call light entertainment. I think housewives need these emotions to take them out of their prozac induced stupour. The newspaper editors know exactly what they're doing with their fearmoungering so yes, their "idea of what young women are interested in is a little... odd" but with their twin pronged approach of fear and Roisin Ingle they sell newspapers.

Nightwish

J.S. Pill's post has just summed up as to why I am so ashamed to be female

J.S. Pill

Nightwish wrote:

J.S. Pill's post has just summed up as to why I am so ashamed to be female

Don't feel so bad - do you think 'Nuts' and 'Zoo' reflect what all men are like? Do you think we all have our brains located in our trousers? Nah, thats only the case up until we're about 25/26 then our brains begin to slowly migrate upwards towards our heads. Its kind of analogous to the mystical journey of the female mammary glands except its in the opposite direction.

luckat

Men may hire women, but they tell them what to write, and say 'no' to any idea that isn't what they want. And the women they hire to write girly articles are the women who will write what the men think is right for the market.

Dudess

Nightwish wrote:

J.S. Pill's post has just summed up as to why I am so ashamed to be female

I'm totally hearin' ya, sister.

Country-Bumpkin

I normally buy the Sindo & the tribune every week. The tribune for the news (Ok, Ok & for Ross O Carroll Kelly to make me laugh) & the Sindo because its cheaper than OK magazine & is the same trashy crap.

For the last few weeks, LIFE mag has had a column written by Katy (im famous for being ditched by my boyfriend) French which drones on about how its hard being perfect & That sometimes she has to starve herself to look well for a modelling shoot. This makes me get horribly annoyed at the way she goes on, with the size 0 debate going on what kind of an example is that for anyone? Also, I get annoyed just because I think shes full of crap & shouldn't be allowed near a newspaper. But the Sindo has definitely become full of all sorts of pointless useless information that is really only relevant to SoCoDu.

jrey1981

I agree it's pretty dreadful and she gets €500 a week for it. I read a figure the other day that people spend an average of 14 mins reading the Sunday Times. I imagine it's about 7 - 10 mins for the SIndo...

J.S. Pill

jrey1981 wrote:

I read a figure the other day that people spend an average of 14 mins reading the Sunday Times. I imagine it's about 7 - 10 mins for the SIndo...

I spend about 14 seconds reading. 7 seconds to see what tripe they have on their front page and 7 seconds to see what free DVD they have. If the DVD is any good I just buy it and throw the paper in the bin (the recycling bin if I'm feeling environmentally conscious).

csk

I used to get it but I gave up a short while ago, it's the worst paper out there imo. I agree about the model writing every week, her colunms are atrociously inane and pointless, full of "oh look at poor me, its hard being beautiful" crap:rolleyes:

Then in the paper itself there are too many anecdote pieces geared around some non story of a survey that came out during the week or something. the type ofthing that goes "oh I was on the bus the other day when I saw someone being Racist" oh by the way a new poll was released this week stating 90% of Irish people are racist" and you know the person just made up the story to fill some column inches. Pointless.

The reason I decided not to buy it anymore was because of the "shocking" (at least in the sense that a supposedly serious newspaper would deem it news worthy) story of a username on some politics website being the same as some wanted person. I couldn't believe they carried such a non story.

LostinBlanch

The only writer of any worth that they still have is Gene Kerrigan, but God knows he's wasted there.

Edit, do they still have him? I haven't bought it in ages, and don't intend to either