Caithness Courier & Groat Website

[Rubha_an_Tuir]

Why are the Courier and Groat websites so poor? They seem to take ages to get updated. Why provide the service if you're not going to support it.
Can Caithness.org not take on the job of the weekly newspaper reports?

Tuir

[307]

Not in anyway defending 'e Groat/Courier but it is very difficult providing a website with interesting & relevant content unless your covering a large area, i.e. nationally. Content has to be appealing to a wide spectrum and so has to be diverse. Newspapers don't convert well onto websites.

ALSO - Caithness.org have adopted a different approach to the content on the website, & I think that it would be extremely difficult to better what has been achieved by Bill & Co. . In fact I think that their "model" may well be used by other community-based enterprises as a successful solution.

Take a look at the websites for the near neighbours of Orkney & Shetland - I think it would be fair to say that [ in general ] the traditional press stick to what they know and the "new media providers" do the same......

Now, I like reading a newspaper - you can scan quickly and read what you are interested in. A website requires a different knowledge gathering technique to be applied and isn't neccessary as accessible as a paper.

[DrSzin]

I think Rubha_an_Tuir is simply pointing out that the current Groat and Courier sites are updated very infrequently, and certainly nowhere near the once-a-week that one might expect. There is no problem with interesting & relevant content -- all they have to do is publish a subset of what appears in the two papers each week. Simple really. They just don't do it consistently.

We exiles can't just go out and buy copies of the Groat and Courier in the corner shop.

[307]

all they have to do is publish a subset of what appears in the two papers each week.
Aye but that process requires converting the typeset stuff into HTML/whatever format, which is a time consuming & lengthy (therefore expensive) process.
And perhaps there isnt' enough profit in 'e Groat an' 'e Courier to support an offshoot........ :D


....They just don't do it consistently.....
....ah've heard 'at said aboot their printing too...... :D


We exiles can't just go out and buy copies of the Groat and Courier in the corner shop
.... True, but you could subscribe & hev the raggies sent oot til yer far flung foreign croft........

Anyway - Caithness.org is well ahead of the game & it will take a lot to make a dent in what they do, if that is the intention.

[Rheghead]

Aye but that process requires converting the typeset stuff into HTML/whatever format, which is a time consuming & lengthy (therefore expensive) process.


I disagree, in MSword you can convert any document into HTML format in the file menu, it just takes a few clicks...

The real reason for the lack of updates is probably idleness.

[DrSzin]

all they have to do is publish a subset of what appears in the two papers each week.
Aye but that process requires converting the typeset stuff into HTML/whatever format, which is a time consuming & lengthy (therefore expensive) process.

Nah, I could probably do it by hand in 10 minutes -- certainly in less than half an hour. Cut 'n' paste is a wonderful thing. Besides, they could automate most of it.


.... True, but you could subscribe & hev the raggies sent oot til yer far flung foreign croft........

Indeed. :D I am well aware that I left myself wide open to that one.



Anyway - Caithness.org is well ahead of the game & it will take a lot to make a dent in what they do, if that is the intention.
I think the two sites complement each other quite well. Well, they would if the Groat & Courier sites were kept up-to-date. I don't think we are asking for very much. And it would give them a better window on the world (wide web).

[Rubha_an_Tuir]

I just get frustrated that I can't read the local rags every week. Surely every newspaper article is typed these days? The Herald, The Times, The Daily Rebel all manage to fire up the text of their daily stories. I can't believe it's difficult for the paper to e-mail the text of the articles (to the external company) and then cut and paste these up into a web page. The site is hardly sophisticated. I wasn't suggesting any competition with caithness.org, maybe even caithness.org hosts the paper online?
As us poor ex pats (I'm in England) need to stay abreast of the machinations of our spiritual homeland. Vive la Thurso (Twinned with Brilon)

[EDDIE]

Well if the groat and courier put every thing on there website they probably will be scared of a drop in sales with there papers.
Me personally i think caithness.org is brilliant site especially for people that were brought up in caithness and have moved away there is a lot of allround information on this site that you wouldnt see on a newspaperwebsite.It must take quite a bit of time maintaining and updating information all the time.This site is a definate 10 out 10

[The Pepsi Challenge]

For me, and I'm not blowing the trumpet of Caithness.org here, this website is a far more detailed, up-to-date, and comprehensive news service than any of the local papers. A credit to Bill, Colin and co.. They are worthy of congratualtions. And it wouldn't surprise me if North of Scotland newspapers take a look at Caithness.org to find some stories.

[Margaret M.]

Caithness.Org is a wonderful website. I know more about what is happening in Caithness than some of the "weekers". :D
Can't thank, Bill, Colin and everyone at Caithness.org enough for what they have provided.

[plasticjock]

I just get frustrated that I can't read the local rags every week. Surely every newspaper article is typed these days? The Herald, The Times, The Daily Rebel all manage to fire up the text of their daily stories. I can't believe it's difficult for the paper to e-mail the text of the articles (to the external company) and then cut and paste these up into a web page. The site is hardly sophisticated. I wasn't suggesting any competition with caithness.org, maybe even caithness.org hosts the paper online?
As us poor ex pats (I'm in England) need to stay abreast of the machinations of our spiritual homeland. Vive la Thurso (Twinned with Brilon)


I stopped subscribing a few years back. Both papers, always biased towards the Wick end of the county became more heavily so and I found that unless I read the classifieds, the amount of info on Thurso was about half a page on average.
Tis a pity that Caithness.Org (everything a community based local paper should be) doesn't have a local obituary section...yeah, I'm getting old now....but even an old up-e-tooner needs to know who's no longer wi' us.

[The Pepsi Challenge]

The standard of journalism is good. Ian Grant and Gordon Calder for example. And I must agree - there is a lot of east Caithness bias. After all, Wick is the papers' home. Much in the same way as The Scotsman sticks to Edinburgh affairs and The Herald likewise with Glasgow. Problem being the Caithness Courier - which is/was meant to be the Thurso paper - doesn't.

It's hard to fathom why: Thurso has more going on because the business, events, and people are there. Halkirk and Castletown are practically suburbs of Thurso. This isn't a slight on Wick; I would dearly love to the royal burgh see a change in its fortunes.

So a last word on bias, courteousy of Noam Chomsky. At a lecture of Chomsky's, a student stood up and asked Chomsky what publications did Chomsky consider unbiased and worth reading. Nonchalantly, Chomsky turned round and said: "There's no such thing as unbias. Everyone has their own particular slant. It's the people who try to use balance that worry me."