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Tuesday Journal v Inish Times v Inny Inny

Posted Tuesday, February 9, 2010

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Big Battle

Battle has commenced in the fight to the death between the Inish Times and the Inishowen Independent.

Dragged into the war is the Tuesday Derry Journal.

It all started when the Inishowen Independent decided to publish on the day before the Inish Times.

Now the Inish Times had moved to the same day, Tuesday, to take them on.

Monday Evening

In the latest twist the Innny Inny has decided to come out on a Monday evening now giving Inishowen its first 'evening paper' - for one day a week anyway.

The team were seen scurrying through Moville yesterday evening delivering the first 'Monday' edition.

It is not likely that both newsapers will survive if they are out on the same day.

People who bought both on successive days are now likely to choose - especially with the Journal coming out on the Tuesday as well.

The result is that a smaller combined total of the two newspapers will be bought.

Timed

I bought all three newspapers.

I like to time myself reading them.

That's not a perfect view of the quality of the articles but it is one view.

Also, I have to say that I don't read any ads and I don't read any local sport - although I will read something about Celtic or the Premiership.

Moville Perspective

I am also reading it from a Moville perspective with Buncrana or Derry news less likely to be read.

This week I read the Inny Inny first as I got my copy on Monday night. I then read the Inish Times and then the Derry Journal.

Although I try to read articles on subjects that I've already read about I think I skim over them more.

Results

So, here is the amount of time I spent reading them in the order that I read them:-

11 mins - Inny Inny

9 mins - Inish Times

11 mins - Derry Journal

Best Front Page

As they are all fighting for the same market and people are unlikely to buy all three, who do I think had the best front page?

I'm going to give that to the Journal.

I think that the biggest piece of news this week was the unemplyment figures in Inishowen.

The Journal's front page was Inishowen Jobless 'Taking the Boat'.

That affects everybody and everybody will want to know about that.

Inny Inny

The Inny Inny had that story but put it on Page 2.

They had Ulster Says Nil as their top story which is about the 'scandal' of Northern Ireland not paying for buses to take pupils from there to the schools in the Republic of Ireland.

My initial thought on the story was "Well, why would they?" and "Why do they think it such an outrage?" - but perhaps local people will see it as a scandal, I don't know.

Inish Times

The Inish Times had a story about a Facebook campaign to keep Special Needs Assistants in the schools.

That affects less people than the jobless totals and the headline was much smaller than the others.

The Journal had the story that Michal Jackson's guitarist rolled up to Moville Comunity College with her 'gang' on motor bikes and played to the pupils there before going on to Culdaff for the guitar weekend there.

Michael Jackson

The Journal had a picture on the front page with the caption 'Moville students enjoy the show'.

I thought they were correct to go with that but perhaps a more punchy headline like 'Michael Jackson's Guitarist at Moville CC' would have been better.

After all, the pupils had all gone home and told their parents about, it like my daughter did - and so the parents would have probably bought the newspaper on that basis.

Come to think about it, why didn't I put it up on CraicOn?

I could have had it ahead of everybody else?

Winner

So, who was the winner this week (in my view)?

Surprisingly the Journal.

The sales of the Tuesday edition have gone down recently in Moville with the competition and the fact that people are saying that there is less in it about Moville these days.

For a good while, up to about Christmas, most people would have said that the Inish Times was the best newspaper in the area for Moville news.

Upped Its Game

However, the Iny Inny has upped its game recently and people are saying that the Inish Times has gone down since the start of the year.

It's picked up a bit this week but it still needs to do more - especially as regards Moville.

The Journal, aslo, seems to have grasped the gauntlet this week.

The next couple of months should be very interesting.

Friday Journal

Meanwhile, Moville's best selling newspaper, the Friday Journal, watches it all serenely from on high - and with the back end of the week all to itself.

Why doesn't one of the two upstarts just move to a Friday and be done with it - and we can keep all our local newspapers?

After all they have made inroads on the Tuesday Journal and one of them could so the same to the Friday Journal.