Perthshire Advertiser


THE LARK SAINT
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i used to get the Friday edition sent down to me every week, but general news wise it carried nothing really, ok if you are in the WI or some such organisation you can catch up with forthcoming jumble sales and the like, and the Saints news is excellent, but i dont bother with it any more purely and simply because i can get Saints news from here or the official site.

i agree with the previous poster who said we will lament it when its gone, i was brought up with it as well, but it really holds no interest for me at all any more.

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To bump this back up, today's PA has really pissed me off. Ridiculous.

Yesterday a Coupar Angus man was convicted of murdering another local teenager by stabbing him 11 times and dumping his body in a burn on the outskirts of the town.

You may think a major national news story like this would be all over the front of the PA, with a court report, a series of pictures, perhaps some interviews with family/friends, reaction from police and prosecutors and some background on it.

What do we have instead? 10 paragraphs on an inside page with no pictures or anything, which were lifted from STV's website then butchered and rewritten in a god-awful manner. They didn't even bother to send a reporter the 20 miles down to the court in Dundee for the verdict.

And what's on the front page? Something featurey and fluffy about two boys who have joined the army and who "recently" (note - that could have been any time in the last three months I reckon) had a passing out party and donated the money to Help for Heroes. Admirable indeed, but not a strong hard news story by any means.

Really poor stuff, and indicative of the state of the paper these days. Saints coverage is still top-notch, but as a journalist this kind of thing really irritates me!

Aye right - but as a 'Journalist' surely you must have noticed this sort of story is adequately covered by the National media nowadays from SKY, and any other 24 hrs non-stop news to bleedin' teletext it's full of reports of murders from up and down the country. It's the same everywhere, local newspapers don't have to deal with the sensationalist stuff anymore Sky have got an operative in every town and village in the world. Surely you are not really, really bothered that the PA's missed a chance to report on it?

Me I like the 'fluffy' stories. And as long as Saints coverage is top notch. :)

Edited by Indicator
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Tuesday addition up 5p to 90p:Personally i only buy it for Saints stuff and the occasional photo!:wink: Dont know what the friday addition will be up yet but i assume it will go up too! Does any one else think its poor value now a-days? does any one still buy it?

Never missed an issue years ago, however only read it now in the Chinese when awaiting my kerryoot, or in my local boozer who have newspapers on the bar.

Afraid not value for money. even as a freebie.

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Aye right - but as a 'Journalist' surely you must have noticed this sort of story is adequately covered by the National media nowadays from SKY, and any other 24 hrs non-stop news to bleedin' teletext it's full of reports of murders from up and down the country. It's the same everywhere, local newspapers don't have to deal with the sensationalist stuff anymore Sky have got an operative in every town and village in the world. Surely you are not really, really bothered that the PA's missed a chance to report on it?

Me I like the 'fluffy' stories. And as long as Saints coverage is top notch. :)

This is a story that was barely touched by any of the national media throughout the trial (because of a lack of freelance court cover in Dundee) and was one of the biggest cases in the area in the last year. Its lack of coverage is symptomatic of the paper's attitude to local news. Fluffy feature stuff is fine - but it shouldn't be on the front page unless it is something massively out of the ordinary.

You should pick up a copy of the Falkirk Herald or even the Dunfermline Press - they know what they're doing!

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When does Tuesday's PA go to press? Maybe they are going to cover the story fully on Friday?

I don't think the PA has been the same since it moved production to Blantyre, not that that should matter to editiorial standards. Bunch of wankers at the top of the organisation, but that's another story.

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I think it goes off on Monday evening - but they should also have the facility for holding pages late if need be for a big story. They will probably cover it a week on Tuesday or something. It certainly hasn't been the same since all the subbing and production went to Stirling...

And also, taking another local paper as an example, the Wee County News in Alloa (great local paper btw) goes off at about midday on Tuesdays - and is in the shops by 4pm the same day.

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This is a story that was barely touched by any of the national media throughout the trial (because of a lack of freelance court cover in Dundee) and was one of the biggest cases in the area in the last year. Its lack of coverage is symptomatic of the paper's attitude to local news. Fluffy feature stuff is fine - but it shouldn't be on the front page unless it is something massively out of the ordinary.

You should pick up a copy of the Falkirk Herald or even the Dunfermline Press - they know what they're doing!

No newspapers available in my location unless they are about 5 days out of date. So don't need to bother. That is the beauty of this place. Pity about the PA though.

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To bump this back up, today's PA has really pissed me off. Ridiculous.

Yesterday a Coupar Angus man was convicted of murdering another local teenager by stabbing him 11 times and dumping his body in a burn on the outskirts of the town.

You may think a major national news story like this would be all over the front of the PA, with a court report, a series of pictures, perhaps some interviews with family/friends, reaction from police and prosecutors and some background on it.

What do we have instead? 10 paragraphs on an inside page with no pictures or anything, which were lifted from STV's website then butchered and rewritten in a god-awful manner. They didn't even bother to send a reporter the 20 miles down to the court in Dundee for the verdict.

And what's on the front page? Something featurey and fluffy about two boys who have joined the army and who "recently" (note - that could have been any time in the last three months I reckon) had a passing out party and donated the money to Help for Heroes. Admirable indeed, but not a strong hard news story by any means.

Really poor stuff, and indicative of the state of the paper these days. Saints coverage is still top-notch, but as a journalist this kind of thing really irritates me!

But Jamie, it is not really a Perth story, yes it is a story in it's own right and, as you say, was not picked up by the nationals apart from a few column inches in the Herald and Hootie. This would have been front page in Dundee and Angus because it is their area, the PA gets enough people shouting about stories that are not local so why this one?

Agree that for the price it is not a good value paper any more but it is really no different from many other 'locals' by giving out local news or interest stories.

Different for you as you have to cover a much wider area for STV but cut them some slack, please :)

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But Jamie, it is not really a Perth story, yes it is a story in it's own right and, as you say, was not picked up by the nationals apart from a few column inches in the Herald and Hootie. This would have been front page in Dundee and Angus because it is their area, the PA gets enough people shouting about stories that are not local so why this one?

Agree that for the price it is not a good value paper any more but it is really no different from many other 'locals' by giving out local news or interest stories.

Different for you as you have to cover a much wider area for STV but cut them some slack, please :)

Sorry Kevin, I grew up in Perth and I'm pretty certain Coupar Angus is in Perthshire. The Perthshire Advertiser dosen't just cover Perth, it covers Perthshire, hence the name.

If I lived in Perth or Scone, I would definitely be interested in this story.

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Apart from the newsworthiness of this particular story, I think the other point being made was the lazy cut and paste journalism used to report it.

This isn't unique to cash strapped local rags. Have a read of the Sky News website. A lot of it is regurgitated from the Facebook and Twitter accounts of those involved in the story.

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Kevin - Coupar Angus is in Perthshire. People in Coupar Angus buy the PA. The PA cover Coupar Angus stories all the time. They gave the murder itself big coverage when it happened. No excuses here.

myDarlingBeefeater is right - its more to do with the fact they couldn't be arsed sending a reporter down so lifted copy from STV and rewrote it in such a brutal way that it missed the point entirely (to be fair, I'm most annoyed about that because the story was pretty good on the STV website, if i say so myself ;) )

They actually called us and asked us to file stuff to them because they wouldn't send someone down!

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But Jamie, it is not really a Perth story, yes it is a story in it's own right and, as you say, was not picked up by the nationals apart from a few column inches in the Herald and Hootie. This would have been front page in Dundee and Angus because it is their area, the PA gets enough people shouting about stories that are not local so why this one?

Agree that for the price it is not a good value paper any more but it is really no different from many other 'locals' by giving out local news or interest stories.

Different for you as you have to cover a much wider area for STV but cut them some slack, please :)

Kevin, I'm sorry mate, but that's a load of nonsense. Jamie's already explained why.

The last thing the PA needs is to be cut any more slack.

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Obviously making a mistake while young and foolish should be punishable by being forced to live in a squalid hovel. Maybe sew a big red A into all her clothes, too.

Well said, that man.

Back on topic, the young lady's predicament is exactly the type of local interest story the PA should be covering. Certainly not front page news and of little interest to me but we're not talking about the New York Times here.

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Obviously making a mistake while young and foolish should be punishable by being forced to live in a squalid hovel. Maybe sew a big red A into all her clothes, too.

Obviously because I work hard and pay my taxes I should be happy some daft little slapper gets to waste tax-money that can be spent on services that help those that deserve it and work hard!?

We have a generation of stupid wee lassies that think having a child is a career option.

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