Winnipeg - Of Interest - Page 125

biguc · #**2481** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 3:17 PM**

And with the Freep thinking they can charge for their marginal content online, looks like Metro is the paper of the future.

Simplicity · #**2482** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 3:50 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by biguc

And with the Freep thinking they can charge for their marginal content online, looks like Metro is the paper of the future.

My favorite part was when Paul Samyn tried to convince everybody that - just like iTunes - people will make micro-payments for content. And that might be true, but who in the hell does Paul Samyn think he's kidding?

I don't even know what the Free Press is anymore. Is it a newspaper? Is it a political science journal quietly published by the University of Winnipeg? I subscribed up until I realized that every morning I woke up to some haughty and self-righteous little columnist telling me what an awful person I am. Between Jen Zoratti and Shannon Sampert letting me know that I'm the enemy because I'm male and Mary Agnes Welch and Dan Lett hammering home that I'm a racist bigot who's bringing down the city from the inside because I'm white, I'd had enough.

Cap it all off with the whole True North fiasco that had an entire 'editorial' board openly doing the bidding of ownership and that was enough for me to realize I didn't care what happened with the Free Press anymore. If the Free Press wants to charge me, I think it's cute, but I'm not surprised at just how tone deaf those involved in that decision making are. Nobody will miss them.

biguc · #**2483** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 4:25 PM**

Yeah, I heard him on the radio trying to defend the decision. He actually doesn't seem to see the enormous downside to it. They've been a paper in decline for a while now, and shed their last bit of credibility when they turned into the TN boosters club. And they think people are going to pay money for that shit? I'll still check out their site if it's free because, let's be honest, what other local news source is worth a damn? But they can have fun going out of business when nobody reads their site and they start shedding advertisers. They'll never get their tremendous market-share back once it's gone.

esquire · #**2484** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 4:32 PM**

Even a few years ago I worried about what would happen if the Free Press disappeared... this doesn't bother me any more. My daily sub became Saturday only... maybe with this change it will be zero, and I'll just get a digital Globe or NYT sub instead.

The quality of the paper has certainly declined over the years... in some respects, that has made it easier to let go of the Free Press habit. It's like it has been gradually dying off more and more with each passing year. Less and less news, but of course they will give me detailed and extensive information from multiple reporters and columnists about what Jim Slater did at Jets practice yesterday, as if I cared. I wish the Free Press was part of the Postmedia group, their dailies are much better.

Simplicity · #**2485** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 4:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

Even a few years ago I worried about what would happen if the Free Press disappeared... this doesn't bother me any more. My daily sub became Saturday only... maybe with this change it will be zero, and I'll just get a digital Globe or NYT sub instead.

The quality of the paper has certainly declined over the years... in some respects, that has made it easier to let go of the Free Press habit. It's like it has been gradually dying off more and more with each passing year. Less and less news, but of course they will give me detailed and extensive information from multiple reporters and columnists about what Jim Slater did at Jets practice yesterday, as if I cared. I wish the Free Press was part of the Postmedia group, their dailies are much better.

The only thing we'll be worse off for is the information Kives is able to uncover. But then I think about what has actually changed since all that information has been uncovered and the answer is very little.

The rest of the paper is just one large opinion piece. It's like meta-commentary on top of meta-commentary. There's next to no actual news uncovered that isn't the result of a press release or other publication's work and there's nothing of any value that comes from a sports section given that agents or the team will find some avenue to leak something if they really want to anyway. So the Free Press is betting that somebody is willing to pay for their stable of writers which is mostly bad. That's probably a bad bet. The Metro can just as easily cover council and committee meetings as anybody and there's no shortage of heavily indebted cre-comm grads willing to work for the right to say they're working.

I don't see a rosy future for the Free Press and that's just fine with me.

Cyro · #**2486** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 6:56 PM**

Well it's not the NYT but what's wrong with Miss Lonely Hearts?

Diversions
Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Constant binging has wife cringing
Miss LonelyheartsBy: Miss Lonelyhearts

Quote:

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My husband gulps his food and eats like there's no tomorrow. He was often left hungry as a child, and I understand that, but things have changed. How do I help him turn that problem in his head around when I'm not a shrink?............Con't

Dear Concerned: Don't try to restrict his food as that's the trigger that sets him off. Do say to him often, "Honey, there's lots of food in this house and there will always be." ........Con't

Hmmm..reasonable advice...

esquire · #**2487** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 7:01 PM**

^ The best Miss Lonelyhearts ever was when someone wrote in as though her husband was the protagonist of Breaking Bad, and she responded to it in complete sincerity.

I'm convinced she makes most of those letters up.

bomberjet · #**2488** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 7:02 PM**

Every time that paywall came up (and it was sporadic at best) I sent a news tip in. Get rid of your paywall and put advertising you friggin morons. Mobile they have adds that pop up all the time. Which I don't mind. It's usually for some suburban housing.

drew · #**2489** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 7:03 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

^ The best Miss Lonelyhearts ever was when someone wrote in as though her husband was the protagonist of Breaking Bad, and she responded to it in complete sincerity.

I'm convinced she makes most of those letters up.

That one was great!

Cyro · #**2490** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 7:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

^ The best Miss Lonelyhearts ever was when someone wrote in as though her husband was the protagonist of Breaking Bad, and she responded to it in complete sincerity.

I'm convinced she makes most of those letters up.

I missed that one but I can see we have some regular readers of the column...hmmm..lol

Quite likely, but similar to any anonymous forum where people can voice thier opinions or ask questions without revealing thier identity..It's just advice on everday topics..

In otherwords, I may work for TNSE, but I may not? You can create any persona here you like..

CoryB · #**2491** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 7:36 PM**

The FreePress has had paper subscriptions declining for years as few people want to sit down and read news from 24+ hours ago when you can access it far quicker on the Internet. Add it their dated billing department that thinks 7:30 am to 5:00 pm is customer friendly hours and you start to sense the issue.

With declining paper subscriptions, their paper based ad revenue started to also decline. This lead them to start cutting staff which further declined the quality of their paper, causing more subs to drop, etc.

Now the revenue is so low they are looking for monetize other sources. The sad part is this will cause them to have fewer eyeballs across all platforms which will in turn push revenue down further. I can already picture the $0.25/article or $17/month costs being increased to $0.30/article and $20/month within the year.

esquire · #**2492** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 7:43 PM**

^ They don't seem to be faring that poorly in the ad department... the number of ads in the print version is unbelievable. Page after page of ads with very little news content relative to what you would have seen even 20 years ago. They seem to dedicate less and less space to non-revenue generating materials (i.e., actual news articles) with each passing year.

Riverman · #**2493** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 7:50 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

I wish the Free Press was part of the Postmedia group, their dailies are much better.

Postmedia is buying Sun newspapers, so there you go.

Cyro · #**2494** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 7:51 PM**

Maybe we can bring back the Winnipeg Tribune..
Journalistic Integrity at it's finest...

David Suzuki at the U of M in 1972. // Photo by Jeff Debooy, Winnipeg Tribune Archives
http://news.umanitoba.ca/a-conversat...h-a-visionary/

http://westenddumplings.blogspot.ca/...g-tribune.html

esquire · #**2495** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 8:08 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riverman

Postmedia is buying Sun newspapers, so there you go.

I doubt they'll do much to change the Sun chain. What those papers are doing seems to be working from a business standpoint.

The broadsheet Postmedia dailies are what I'm talking about... even though they've been subject to the same problems that all newspapers have been, I'd say they are operated at a higher standard than the Free Press.

CoryB · #**2496** Posted **Mar 25, 2015, 9:55 PM**

One of the big challenges I have with the Free Press is the number of wire stories and press releases they use as "news" instead of actual original content they create. Outside of op-ed pieces there is very little original content, especially stuff not covered but at least three other local news outlets publishing for free on the Internet.

esquire · #**2497** Posted **Mar 31, 2015, 8:20 PM**

Oh boy!

Architecture & Design Film Festival runs April 15-19. If you've never been before, I'd recommend it... the films are very interesting. They'll be like crack to anyone who enjoys frequenting the photo and design threads in other parts of SSP.

http://adff.ca/

Cyro · #**2498** Posted **Mar 31, 2015, 8:38 PM**

TC always gets such a bad rap...Well I guess It's a scientific evaluation

Transcona rated worst in city's litter index
Clean it up, Transcona. The Winnipeg neighbourhood was identified as the city’s most littered neighbourhood, according to the results from the Take Pride Winnipeg! Litter Index.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loc...urce=d-tiles-1

Still love you TC..

optimusREIM · #**2499** Posted **Mar 31, 2015, 10:00 PM**

Looks like the old moniker "trash"cona may be well deserved.

Cyro · #**2500** Posted **Apr 1, 2015, 6:16 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by optimusREIM

Looks like the old moniker "trash"cona may be well deserved.

I was always curious where this label came from, not the obvious "reference to actual trash" in the article but the jokes about Transcona? I've heard dozens about the neighborhood as everyone probably has. Does it come from residents who use to live thier or go to school? It's almost reached an urban legend kind of level. Who knows right?