No more News

shay_562

Hey hey, kids. It's "partially substantiated rumours" time!! (this being the most reliable place I know for rumour confirmation/debunking).

I have it on relatively good authority that our illustrious Trinity News will not be publishing a Trinity Term issue due to financial issues. But there things get confusing - one gossip source informs me that the fault lies with Peter Henry, who is refusing to put another issue together until DU Pubs pays his rent for him, while another places the blame with the college, suggesting they refused to pay Henry his due wages after he failed to collect enough advertising revenue (given that it's late in the year and the usual banks/recruitment companies don't care any more), thus scuppering a new issue.

Anyone know/feel like speculating which is more accurate (I seriously doubt either is true in its entirity), whether TN is definitely finished (I hear from one of the section editors that they've all prepared pages, as there is still some outside shot of another issue being financed) and most of all, whether the Record will step into the breach and actually print something newsworthy?

Note to mods: I'm pretty sure I've stayed on the right side of "libel" here. If not, delete like the wind.

Andrew 83

I don't really want to get involved with this too much as a former editor but just some quick points

- There is not a wage for being TN editor. Usually the editor gets a free room on campus (ie. a room paid for by Publications). I received no monetary payment or contribution whatsoever but did receive a free room for the academic year. This year's editor was not given a room for some reason so my understanding is that they instead are being given what would have been the cost to pay for their rent in Dublin.

- The money used to pay for the editor's acccomodation is not provided by college as such. It is paid for by Publications out of their finances - the college could not stop it being paid and any scenario on the college not paying because of advertising difficulties could not possibly be true. The other Publications room on campus is the Pubs bursary whereby one person each year has a room on campus paid for by an anonymous donor who pays for the room each year. The current bursary holder is Gearoid O'Rourke, there have been 2 previous holders since this was set up (Graham O Maonaigh and Derek Owens). As I say this second room is neither given free by college nor paid for by publications, it is entirely paid for by the donor.

- The usual process is that 2/3 of the funding for the paper comes from advertising and 1/3 from college (through a grant from Publications). The Pubs stable of magazines follow a different forumla whereby fudning is half and half between advertising and the grant. The college part of the money is not paid by the college in they way people might be imagining - it is given by the Publications committe out of the grant Publications receives as a capitated body. The arrangements are therefore subject to change as agreed by the committee.

- Constituionally the editor of TN is only obliged to produce 3 issues (1 in each of Michaelmas and Hillary term and another in any term). So far 6 have been produced including at least one in each of those terms. Last year I had 8 issues, this was not prescribed: I could have had less or more if I wanted. The format is also different. I had a 28 page paper and a 16 page TNT. I had 5 issues with TNT and 3 without. This year they have a 20 page paper and a 20 page TNT in every issue and have had 6 issues with both.

- The paying of the accomodation is in no way linked to the number of issues per term in any constitutional way.

- Any decisions on whether to print an issue with or without advertising and how much is needed can be decided by the committee broadly speaking. All monies paid in relation to accomodation are also paid by the committee.


I don't really want to go into any more detail other than to say that I hope a situation is reached where all involved work together to ensure another financially viable issue is produced. They've had a great year and won plenty of awards and it would be a pity if no more were produced.

In Transit has been scrapped..

I liked that magazine

osd

For the sake of getting what they've already done published they should just put it on the website (which I believe is award winning if memory serves!)...

europerson

original_psycho wrote:

In Transit has been scrapped..

I liked that magazine

Me too. I think it would be a shame not to have another TN, but, seeing as I don't know what the background is, I'd better not say anything else.

AlexD

Nobody wants to see InTransit or TN not published again. Negoiations are currently underway to secure the future of both publications.

Moorsy

Yeh I heard these rumors too yesteday. Fair true from the people I got the info from. Financial difficulties..... not enough advertising to raise money!!!

AlexD

I hear that Trinity News will be out next Tuesday.

Andrew 83

I gather the TN editor is using the outstanding rent money to pay for the remainder of advertising revenue needed.

Black_Couch

If they didn't print double the amount needed each time I'd say they could save some more money...

King.Penguin

Black_Couch wrote:

If they didn't print double the amount needed each time I'd say they could save some more money...

lol.

what are the costs in producing the TN? Paper? Ink? Printing?

Andrew 83

Black_Couch wrote:

If they didn't print double the amount needed each time I'd say they could save some more money...

You'd be surprised. There is very little cost difference between printing 3,000 copies and 5,000 copies. Not enough difference to make printing less worthwhile.

PHB

Yeh, but realistically, the readership is like what, 500?

europerson

PHB wrote:

Yeh, but realistically, the readership is like what, 500?

You think only five hundred people read TN? That's a bit odd, quite frankly.

PHB

Like, I think at most, 1000 people read it, at most, and that includes everybody who briefly scans it.

People who actually read a whole article, I'd say are at the max 500, unless there is something of particular interest, which there really hasn't been this year.

Think about all the people you know in colllege, every single one of them, and think how many of them actually read either newspaper.

Even if all active society people read the newspapers, which they don't, even if all of them did, it's what, 300 people?

How many are even distributed? I'd be interested in knowing how many just end up sitting in the office, and then are eventually dumped. Every time an issue comes out, ****loads are dumped around college, most of which go into the bin.

I'd have to disagree with you there..

I browse the papers a bit, mainly to see the college sports and societies section. I never really bother reading the international bits as I get that from the 'real' papers.

However, most people I know would flick through it, even just to see an article.

europerson

I think those that aren't distributed and end up in bins just look like a lot, but I'm certain most are utilised. Most students and staff read practically some section of the TN regularly or read articles, which interest them. Only the occasional person reads every article in every newspaper: think of reading even a daily paper or a Sunday paper. In short, I dispute your definition of "readership".

xeduCat

Only the occasional person reads every article in every newspaper: think of reading even a daily paper or a Sunday paper

Off-topic, but that's me

John

The readership for the papers are a lot higher than 1000, you only have to look at the Hamilton café during the week that its published to see how many people are reading one or how many pick up a disused copy from the table they're at. Then you go to any of the boring lectures and see how many people are reading it there. I reckon over half the people I knew in college read both papers when they came out and far from all of them would be society or SU hacks.

... plus you'd all be surprised to hear how many lecturers read the college papers

Andrew 83

I have to agree with the view that a massive number of people read the papers (including many lecturers as Myth said).

I can't speak for the Record but no copies of TN are binned (apart from some binned by security etc at times). When I was editor we would have between 5,000 and 7,000 copies of each issue. I would intentionally keep about 300 over for various purposes (ie. reference, archives, libraries, awards, alumni etc) and distribute the rest. We would usually 'sell out' all the other 4,700 to 6,700 copies before the next issue was even out 2/3 weeks later.

I would say at an absolute minimum 4,000 copies of each issue are picked up (that's a very low estimate as there's often mroe than 5,000 copies made). How much of it is read is unmeasurable. I have to say though, I was always amazed walking around and seeing how many people would read it. If an issue has just come out that day and you put 400-500 copies in the Arts Block stands they will all be gone within 20 mins. You then have to keep refilling the stands all afternoon as they keep disappearing so quickly, especially between 12 and 2. If you look at the people at the boxes etc when an issue comes out they're almost all looking at an issue if one just came out that afternoon.

It's not just the Arts Block either, they fly out of loads of locations - Aras an Phiarsaigh, Hamilton, Buttery etc

Black_Couch

Andrew 83 wrote:

You'd be surprised. There is very little cost difference between printing 3,000 copies and 5,000 copies. Not enough difference to make printing less worthwhile.

Ok I didn't realise this. I thought there would have been a good bit of extra costs in printing 2,000 extra copies.

Well whatever they print this year, roughly half of them get thrown out - unread.

PHB

While it's undoubted that TN is defo read more than the Record, where large stacks are just left in House 6, to nobody's expense might I add , getting picked up really means nothing.

First off, if they were sold, even for a nominal fee, I'd be suprised if over 500 bought it.

Secondly, while lots of people pick it up, I would say that very few of these people read it.
I think the people who sit down and read the whole thing wouldn't number more than a 100.
I think the people that might read an article or two wouldn't number above 500.
I think people that just read on article because they either
know the writer
know the society
know the article is coming out before hand
might, might, get up to 1000, but i'd be suprised.

Look at it this way, the SU gets a vote of roughly 3000 each election. This goes up and down.
While I'm not suggesting that this is reflective of how many people are actually interested in college stuff, 3000 in total vote.
Of this, how many of those do you actually think read TN?
50% would be generous.

So then there are people who are interested in college stuff, but aren't interested in the SU whatsoever (as the cost of voting is very minor in SU elections), but how many people really feel like this?

I think if you look carefully, the people you see reading the paper everywhere, are the same people each time, it's just the ones who are interested in it, make a lot of noise about it.
There are some things which I would argue get quite a bit of publicity, things like the Power List generally I'd say would have quite a high readership. But even when I say that, I'd wager that most just have a quick glance at the top 10, and leave it at that.

In short, if you put a message in some random article saying
If you text this number, you will get a cut of 500. The cut is based on how many people text in, so if you want more money, don't tell your friends.

How many people do you think would text in?
I'd say at most, absolute most, 300, but probably only 100

Andrew 83

Well it's very hard to know. I suppose it would depend what article you put it in, I'd say the front page stories get very high readership. Also you'd have the factor of people not believing that it's real. Some of the competitions we had last year got a couple of hundred entries (eg. ****** weekend camping tickets).

As I say it isn't really possible to measure the readership but by your reckoning 90% of the time that a paper is picked up, the person who's gone to the effort of picking it up never even reads an article or two. I think that's a bit of a low estimate.

Tacitha

Well, the TN used to go for a nominal price, and I remember queues to buy it. Don't suppose there are circulation figures for the late nineties?
Would advertisers want you to guarantee a certain print run (and implied circulation) anyway?

PHB

Yeh, but the newspapers actually used to have some level of quality.

Now they are mostly stories written by society people about their own society, random gossip sections, and the odd interesting story and opinion piece.

Andrew 83

PHB wrote:

Yeh, but the newspapers actually used to have some level of quality.

Now they are mostly stories written by society people about their own society, random gossip sections, and the odd interesting story and opinion piece.

Have you read old issues?

Pet

Far be it from me to praise Mr Henry without good reason, but he's done a damn good job this year, and the TN is great.

Tacitha

I haven't seen a decline in quality in the TN, no. My general impression is that there's been a change in emphasis: there used to be an awful lot of Irish politics, which I found a bit superfluous. Covering student societies seems a sensible thing for a campus newspaper to do.
This year's editions (and last year's) seem well up to the standard of anything produced then. I'd agree that the current management is doing a pretty good job.

Moorsy

So apartently TN is coming out next week or going to print anyway...

I picked up a copy of it today. Favourite headline is on the front page, under the section 'News'

USI helps students

PHB

It came out today, funny to read the agent, just making **** up these days really.

I liked how they pretended they got all the predictions for the SU races right, when in reality, they got all of them wrong.

Moorsy

Have to say the above notion that only about 500 people to 1000 'actaully' read TN is wholly wrong. Just looking around in the library, every second perosn has a copy, and when I went to get it in the arts block everybody walking around had a copy in hand.

osd

It's now online! http://www.trinitynews.ie

King.Penguin

I'm very impressed.

I think it was a good issue.. most of them have been this year.

In regards the content; I prefer a college based approach as I get any national / international / financial from the broadsheets and bbc.
I do find the college news interesting.

shay_562

Woohoo! I apparently won Best Poster at the CSC awards. Pity for Sleazus, the actual winner...

PHB wrote:

I liked how they pretended they got all the predictions for the SU races right, when in reality, they got all of them wrong.

In the Agent's defense, I don't think even Bartley expected him to win. And besides, the Agent isn't good with elections, as we saw again earlier this month. Though I don't think the rest of it is any more or less accurate than normal - the usual mixture of half-truths and exaggerations.

Moorsy wrote:

Have to say the above notion that only about 500 people to 1000 'actaully' read TN is wholly wrong. Just looking around in the library, every second perosn has a copy, and when I went to get it in the arts block everybody walking around had a copy in hand.

I think the question is less how many people pick up a copy and more how many of them actually read more than 1-2 articles. But really, that's impossible to judge without actually polling the entire student body, so most of what's here is just mindless conjecture.