is the Irish Times viewed as a paper that only "big shots" buy?

sonofenoch · 07-04-2015 03:40PM

Too big for sitting on the bog of a Sunday morning.....and the Indo 80% ads....I'll stick with the newdy women tabloids thankyou very much, I'm not snobbish

chopperbyrne · 07-04-2015 03:51PM

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

To put it in plain english perhaps it implies that if you are in a queue in a newsagent and the guy in front of you has a copy of the Irish Daily Star or the Sun, for example, you are probably gonna think "scum" or at the very least potential Jeremy Kyle Show participant.

The Star has the best League of Ireland coverage of any paper.

Everything else in it is rubbish.

smash · 07-04-2015 03:52PM

chopperbyrne wrote: »

The Star has the best League of Ireland coverage of any paper.

Guess which stereotype you're fitting in to...

andrew · 07-04-2015 04:33PM

myshirt wrote: »

I read the Sunday Business Post and The Financial Times. What does that make me? I'm certainly not a bigshot.

The FT?! Notions.

Lt J.R. Bell · 07-04-2015 04:42PM

Right Turn Clyde wrote: »

I remember being on a building site years ago and one of the guys was laughing at me behind my back because I was reading the Indo. He thought I was a snob. The Indo! I read the Times these days. God know what he'd think of me now. He'd probably stone me to death if he seen me. Social class is a huge factor here. I'm from a working class area and I don't ever remember seeing a broadsheet when I was growing up. It was strictly tabloid readers, save for one or two 'weirdos', i.e. people that read books and thought about stuff bigger than themselves. Generally speaking, I find that people with little or no education will gravitate towards tabloids, some would say for obvious reasons. And I include myself in that. I used to read tabloids on the sites years ago, but I eventually got sick of them and moved onto something that looked more substantial, i.e. the Indo. But it was only after I started studying as a mature student than I wanted a real newspaper, something that could give me a daily update on the the type of issues that I was reading about in college and in my spare time. Of course there's gonna be a crossover. I seen plenty of Page 3's lying around in college, and there's a steady stream of broadsheet readers sitting on their doorsteps in my estate, which is great to see. I honestly feel that tabloids are toxic.

My good man, there is a reason slack jaw yobs like that man is on the building sites. Thick as cement.

Never let peasants like him mock you because of your desire to be more up market

I read the Times, and I am damn well a big shot. I'm pretty big deal were I am .

You should be the one laughing and mocking him. He probably only looks at the paper for the pictures.

Peregrine · 07-04-2015 04:56PM

The Irish Independent is as bad as all the other tabloid rags and the Examiner is too Munster centric for me so I read the Irish Times. And I'm definitely not a 'big shot'.

Mind you, the quality of journalism at the Irish Times has definitely gone downhill.

sozbox · 07-04-2015 05:16PM

I read the Times online until they started charging, now I'll read the 20 free articles and the rest via their Twitter page as they're free there.

I also read the business post every week and have a digital subscription to the Guardian as their app is pretty good.

Not sure why someone who wants to be informed is considered a big shot though? I'm far from one.

dublinman1990 · 07-04-2015 05:31PM

I think this is probably true in saying that members of the political class, members of the catholic clergy and most of it's lay members, people who are connected in big ways to multinational corporations who are deemed big shots in Ireland would probably buy the IT.

I would usually associate the IT with older people with a somewhat conservative mindset as I find the paper too formal for my needs. Although it's articles in broadcasting have a strong but weird affiliation and admiration for TV3 which I do not get at all.

The last recent article I read in full on the IT online was highlighting TV3's Irish coverage of the Rugby World Cup. The end of the article was quoted as saying that the ITV HD channel, in which have the UK rights of the tournament, has not appeared on Satellite since UTV Ireland was launched on New Year Day. Of course that part is inaccurate as ITV HD is available on Freesat and Sky+ HD in Ireland.

My mum would get the SBP for the Computers in Business Magazine and the Irish Daily Mail for the TV guide during the weekends but I generally don't read them that much to be honest. I read the Indo sometimes and that is OK to read at times. I wouldn't say it is a solid source of Irish news but it does an adequate job in passing my day with ease.

osarusan · 07-04-2015 05:43PM

Only newspaper to take seriously about news reporting at a national level, in my opinion. The Indo is a joke in comparison.

Wish they paid more attention to LOI football instead of treating it with disdain though.

suicide_circus · 07-04-2015 05:46PM

Hardly surprising print journalism has gone to shiite in Ireland (which it definitely has), controlled by oreilly and obrien. Look at Gemma ODoherty - it does not pay to push the boundaries here. Majority of people under 40 get their news from copy n paste merchants like The Journal. The papers can't even afford to pay proof readers anymore. The quality of some articles in the indo would make a red top hack blush.

Mardy Bum · 07-04-2015 05:52PM

dublinman1990 wrote: »

I think this is probably true in saying that members of the political class, members of the catholic clergy and most of it's lay members, people who are connected in big ways to multinational corporations who are deemed big shots in Ireland would probably buy the IT.

I would usually associate the IT with older people with a somewhat conservative mindset as I find the paper too formal for my needs. Although it's articles in broadcasting have a strong but weird affiliation and admiration for TV3 which I do not get at all.

The Irish Times would be seen as the socially liberal newspaper with a scattering of conservative natterings from different mouth pieces.

grouchyman · 07-04-2015 05:54PM

The Irish Times - Full of Guardian items

The Indo - full of Daily Telegraph Items.

Both utter rubbish and irrelevant.

r93kaey5p2izun · 07-04-2015 06:20PM

sozbox wrote: »

I read the Times online until they started charging, now I'll read the 20 free articles and the rest via their Twitter page as they're free there.

Incognito mode works too.

I think its the best of a bad lot for factual news reporting.

Where I'm from it is generally considered pretentious. Most people I know read the Herald and the Star for the football.

evolving_doors · 07-04-2015 06:35PM

From what I can see its all just a mouthpiece for their fellow journos working as govt. advisors.

" A leak from the govt revealed today.."... me howel....

Just look at John Walsh back in the indo waxing lyrical about all the fu## ups he created whilst advising Ruairi Quinn, now the current batch of education correspondents in IT and indo are trying to outdo each other brownosing the govt hoping for a nose at the trough .

How can education advisor have zero experience in education be advising someone who was an architect about education.

But hey thats none of my business, now .... must get back to lighting this cuban with some fresh €500 note. Its good to be the king...

Areyouwell · 07-04-2015 07:49PM

Turtwig wrote: »

The Irish times is viewed as the paper best highlighting the decline in reputable fact checking journalism.

Yet is has declined a fair bit itself.

HeidiHeidi · 07-04-2015 08:03PM

Does nobody make the connection between the decline in journalistic standards and the increasing reluctance for anyone to buy or pay for newspapers/content?

I buy three copies of the IT per week (I picked the three days that there are articles/features of particular interest to me, including that all-important weekly column on zorbing

) as I found that browsing on t'internet had reduced my concentration to that of a gnat. I'm lucky if I manage to read the headlines.

I'm ten times more likely to at least scan, if not fully read, articles in a physical newspaper.

Sunnyisland · 07-04-2015 08:12PM

When I do buy a paper in Ireland it's the Irish times that I would buy, it's pages ahead of the nearest competitor , which is not really very hard.

Fudge You · 07-04-2015 08:15PM

grouchyman wrote: »

The Irish Times - Full of Guardian items

The Indo - full of Daily Telegraph Items.

Both utter rubbish and irrelevant.

So what will we read Grouchy???
I have to read something while having a huge dump every day!

lost_boy · 07-04-2015 08:16PM

syklops wrote: »

Whats the opposite of middle of the road, fence sitting? Left wing or right wing. We have plenty of both already. The IT is one of the few which manages to appear somewhat impartial.

the irish times is socially liberal and economically left of centre

broadly speaking , its a paper aimed at middle class liberals , not as left wing as the guardian however

mikom · 07-04-2015 08:16PM

Fudge You wrote: »

So what will we read Grouchy???
I have to read something while having a huge dump every day!

The back of a Wash 'n Go bottle would be more informative.

lost_boy · 07-04-2015 08:18PM

Mardy Bum wrote: »

The Irish Times would be seen as the socially liberal newspaper with a scattering of conservative natterings from different mouth pieces.

most of their conservative collumns are syndicated

charles krauthammer has a syndicated collumn in hundreds of papers , i doubt he is even aware that he ever featured in the IT

ditto mark steyn

Geuze · 07-04-2015 09:45PM

Right Turn Clyde wrote: »

I remember being on a building site years ago and one of the guys was laughing at me behind my back because I was reading the Indo. He thought I was a snob. The Indo! I read the Times these days. God know what he'd think of me now. He'd probably stone me to death if he seen me. Social class is a huge factor here. I'm from a working class area and I don't ever remember seeing a broadsheet when I was growing up. It was strictly tabloid readers, save for one or two 'weirdos', i.e. people that read books and thought about stuff bigger than themselves. Generally speaking, I find that people with little or no education will gravitate towards tabloids, some would say for obvious reasons. And I include myself in that. I used to read tabloids on the sites years ago, but I eventually got sick of them and moved onto something that looked more substantial, i.e. the Indo. But it was only after I started studying as a mature student than I wanted a real newspaper, something that could give me a daily update on the the type of issues that I was reading about in college and in my spare time. Of course there's gonna be a crossover. I seen plenty of Page 3's lying around in college, and there's a steady stream of broadsheet readers sitting on their doorsteps in my estate, which is great to see. I honestly feel that tabloids are toxic.

Very good post.

Instead of thinking that more educated people are "snobs" or "weirdos", I often wondered why these people don't want to try to improve themselves?

Do they suffer from a lack of confidence, and call IT readers snobs and weirdos out of internal shame or fear?

Joe prim · 07-04-2015 10:00PM

Magico Gonzalez wrote: »

I like the feel of it in mt hand, the rustling of it. I like to sit down for a coffee somewhere nice and have the paper at hand. I find the hole experience more relaxing than flicking away at the online papers during the day. I try not to use the internet too much at home in the evening as I've been staring at a screen all day and I really don't need to be staring at one all night either. I'd rather be cooking or pottering about.

Your hole experience is scarcely relevant to the issue of quality journalism (unless you're Barry Egan)

Dangerous Man · 07-04-2015 10:04PM

Irish Times is a crappy newspaper. It's gone to the dogs; there was a time when I would have aspired to write for it but not these days. Irish journalism is in a terrible state generally, unfortunately.

kingtiger · 07-04-2015 10:08PM

Sunday Sport is where it's at

what other newspaper gives a nipple count on the front page?

Huzzah! 101 on this weeks issue

http://www.pressreader.com/uk/sunday-sport/20150405/282892319167359/TextView

r93kaey5p2izun · 07-04-2015 10:20PM

kingtiger wrote: »

Sunday Sport is where it's at

what other newspaper gives a nipple count on the front page?

Huzzah! 101 on this weeks issue

http://www.pressreader.com/uk/sunday-sport/20150405/282892319167359/TextView

What's with the odd number? Are they showing pics from Total Recall or are some sly minxes only getting one out?

At least they know their market though and don't pretend to be something they're not!

Streetwalker · 07-04-2015 10:26PM

No thanks. If I want to get the actual news I have resources I turn to online. Newspapers like the Times and the Indo attempt to create a view and agenda to suit their owners world view or business goals.

suicide_circus · 07-04-2015 10:39PM

Streetwalker wrote: »

No thanks. If I want to get the actual news I have resources I turn to online. Newspapers like the Times and the Indo attempt to create a view and agenda to suit their owners world view or business goals.

Yeah online media sources would never have an agenda.

catallus · 07-04-2015 10:58PM

The Irish Times is the only Irish newspaper that has a private forestry to make the paper it prints on.

Is this a good or a bad thing?

porsche959 · 07-04-2015 11:15PM

Areyouwell wrote: »

Yet is has declined a fair bit itself.

I know it gets delievered to a lot of offices but I can't imagine anyone under the age of 60 or so paying their own money to read the print version each day. Whether that's because it's genuinely declined or because there is much better writing available more or less free of charge on the net (*), or some combination of these factors, I don't know.

(*see here for example,a regularly updated round-up of the best articles published in US magazines, periodicals and newspapers: http://longform.org/ )

Mind you, sales figures for its Murdoch owned UK counterpart, whose politics are to the right of the Irish Times but similarly styles itself as a paper of record, haven't been all too impressive in recent years either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_the_United_Kingdom_by_circulation#Circulations_2010_to_present

http://www.adworld.ie/news/read/?id=7b359036-a1e8-4e85-bafe-c3fa2ab50108

is the Irish Times viewed as a paper that only "big shots" buy?

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