The Courier's coverage

[Guest Sandy Cromarty]

of Ross County's Cup win this week is deplorable, the reportage is relegated to the top third of the inside back page when it really should have been given the full back page in all fairness, Ok they were rivals in the past but as neighbours they surely deserve more credit by a local paper and certainly when they are going through a difficult period.

Given that newspapers throughout the land are facing falling circulation and advertising revenues it surely doesn't do to fail Ross County supporters with this type of reporting when you consider that many of them live in Inverness.

[Kingsmills]

Poor show.

[mainstander]

Bit if a struggle finding something to complain about today Sandy? Get a grip! The Courier is the Inverness paper just the same as it's fellow brodsheet the Ross shire Journal and the North Star as well are the Ross shire papers. As such the Courier already does more Ross County reporting than either of the Ross shire papers do of ICT, which is quite fairly none at all.

Im sure you would be among the first to complain if any Inverness paper was faling to report ICT news because of the space it was giving up to Ross County news. In fact it doesnt seem all that long since ICT fans were complaning about just that on this site.

I think the Courier got it right. Big story from the areas next door to your own. Give it limited coverage.

[Guest Sandy Cromarty]

I don't give a monkeys about Ross Shire Journals et al, what I do care about is Football here in the north doing well and being given the credit they are due, as I said there are many RC supporters and ex players living in Inverness hence the Couriers coverage of RC that you mentioned, so I would have thought that given that they brought a trophy North they would have given them the back page.

The BBC aka Charlie Bannerman, North Sound and MFR gave them fair coverage and they don't just transmit in Dingwall do they??

So lets have some sense here, I wasn't complaining as you say but merely just highlighting a snub, and you know what, the SPL would be a better place for us if Ross County were in it, but unfortunately that might not suit the narrow minded among us.

[Harry Chibber]

Bit if a struggle finding something to complain about today Sandy? Get a grip! The Courier is the Inverness paper just the same as it's fellow brodsheet the Ross shire Journal and the North Star as well are the Ross shire papers. As such the Courier already does more Ross County reporting than either of the Ross shire papers do of ICT, which is quite fairly none at all.

Im sure you would be among the first to complain if any Inverness paper was faling to report ICT news because of the space it was giving up to Ross County news. In fact it doesnt seem all that long since ICT fans were complaning about just that on this site.

I think the Courier got it right. Big story from the areas next door to your own. Give it limited coverage.

:allhail:

[Alex MacLeod]

Have to agree with mainstander here Sandy. The Courier is an Inverness local paper. The Rosshire Journal is the Dingwall equivalent. the Courier is not being disrespectful or snubbing Ross County. It is just not taking the big story away from it's sister paper.

The courier did report RC's success but its editor, had he made a big spread of it would probably have been slated in the journalist world for stealing the thunder from his counterpart at the Journal.

The Northern Scot (Elgin), Forres Gazzette, Lochaber news, Caithness Courier etc, probably had the same level of reporting of this story as the courier had. They are all local papers providing local stories about local topics and local people. If all of those papers were going to make big stories about the same subjects then there wouldn't be any need for them all. Scottish Provincial Press Ltd could just produce the one paper covering everywhere.

Yes there are RC fans in Inverness. The Ross-shire Journal is also available at quite a few Inverness outlets.

[Scotty]

Have to agree, its the INVERNESS Courier not the Dingwall Courier.

notice that both the Courier and HN websites now give you the option to read 'regional' news and sport that covers other papers that might have a bigger spread ..... http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/ca...rypool.php/id/2

[Kingsmills]

Parochial in the extreme.

[Harry Chibber]

Parochial in the extreme.

Not at all, it's just being pernickety to expect them to receive a back page headline, the story was reported... end of!! As already mentioned we would have expected to have the same treatment from the Ross-Shire Journal, bit of a non-issue really IMO

[tm4tj]

I agree with Sandy.  The Invernes Courier is the name of the paper, but the coverage of the paper is much further reaching and County should have been given columns on the prime sports page, as we would expect if we were to knock Celtic out of the cup at Parkhead. :010:

Any publicity for North football is good and it should be shouted from the rooftops.

[Guest Sandy Cromarty]

Thanks Mannie, thats my point that it's all about football, a see a lot of moans and groans on here about how we in the North don't get any publicity and that it all goes to the central belt and nobody wants to know 30 miles ootside Glesca, so if my memory serves right the tv and radio media did broadcast the RC win nationally and yet here in the north it gets virtually a paragraph, and btw I do note that a few posters agreeing with the lack of coverage don't actually live up here, now no way am I suggesting that they are any less of a supporter than any of the rest of us because I know they are ICT through and through but maybe charity begins at home, well done Ross County.

Now then, it has been pointed out that it was The INVERNESS Courier, fair enough, so lets have a wee look at todays issue of the HIGHLAND News, generated from the same building as the Courier and printed three days after RC's win, lets turn the pages, hmmm, hmmm, oh dearie me not even one word never mind a sentence of RC's win, I wonder which Highland they are referring to in their title ? surely it must be the Inverness Highlands and thats why they don't carry the story? Ah c'mon Sandy! stop right there, there's no need for sarcasm!!

Truth be told the HN do carry a lot of press on ICT today, nearly 4 pages worth, I hope thats not down to me castigating them a few weeks ago for the Rangers coverage?  Sandy !don't be getting ideas above yer station!

Damned if I do and Damned if I don't, eh Paul?

[L_G]

Same agrument applies.  North Star (sister paper of the HN) will most probably have dedicated that same space to Ross County's win If the tables were turned we would expect the HN coverage, but it's very unlikely we would feature much in the North Star.

[Guest Sandy Cromarty]

It's not an agrument, but I have been a wee bit silly now haven't I as the newspaper is called the Highland News but it really is the Inverness News and that why it doesn't carry any highland news because the North Star does that, confused? you should be.

RC win the first football trophy to come north in 4-5 years and The Highland/Inverness news cannot report on it because Dingwall is twelve miles from Inverness.

ENOUGH!!!

[Scotty]

Sandy - I still maintain my stance but I can see your point. However, let me play Devil's advocate here for a moment .... do you know how much coverage the North Star / Ross Shire Journal gave to ICT after any big victories ? They actually gave ICTChris's "County Air" spoof more space - and on the front page - than they did for ICTs victories.

I agree that this doesnt make it right, but I guess that the management of the newsgroup think that the main prominence should be given in the most relevant paper and smaller articles appear in the regional 'sister' papers.

If you feel so strongly about this, perhaps you should be dropping a line to David Beck or Paul Chalk ???

[Guest Suspicious Mind]

Sandy, you have a very valid point and my support.

The problem we have is when you by the Ross-shire, as most do on this side of the bridge, you don't ever see a mention of ICT or SPL. It's like it doesn't exist.

So whilst we share the same desire for a bit of credit where credit's due, the media moguls keep everything in appropriate boxes to suit their circulation.

Obviously not as fair minded as you and I... 

[CaleyD]

If the Courier/HN had printed a full back page on it we would be on here arguing things from the opposite angle...would be a boring world if we all thought the same wouldn't it!!!

[Guest Suspicious Mind]

Saw you behind the wheel recently D.

Look the part my friend!

[Scotty]

I can exclusively reveal that there was also no mention of County's fine victory in the Globe and Mail or Toronto Star  :023: .... mind you, with scarcely 3 lines of text a week dedicated to Scottish Football in either paper, they struggle to get more than the words Celtic and Rangers into the coverage. Hopefully Sunday's edition will say "Celtic well beaten by Inverness".

[Guest Sandy Cromarty]

Scotty, the voice of reason as usual, lets be realistic here though, the Courier and HN serve a community of 70,000 to say 100,000, the other papers mentioned can only realistically have a circ of a few thousand given that they are serving hamlets not a city so it would be right for them to stay local, no?? So it SHOULD be expected that the two HNG flagship blatts in the HIGHLANDS would carry reportage on all footballing successes here in the North,.

Todays HN carries stories on Clach, Nairn and half a page on Beauly's second division shinty hopes, (BTW The North Star will be going ballistic on the HN stealing that scoop from under their noses!!), and much the same goes for the Couriers North sports coverage where they cover sport from all corners of the region, so it is wrong to say that sport should be boxed according to their area when that it is clearly not the case.

I suspect old HL rivalries afoot really, we all think that furore over our merger was silly ( and it still goes on), so isn't it time we got over it and move on, as I said earlier ICT would be all the better with RC in the SPL.

Caley D, the national tv and radio media carried the story and nobody complained on here.

BTW I've seen you oot an aboot in the toon in yer bus, was that a beard you had the other day or were you chewin a cat

God I love an agrument, bring on the onanist!! lets spill some seeds.

[Heilandee]

If the Courier is covering 70-100 thousand would a daily highland paper not be justifiable,i know the P and J kids on it's local but i mean a REAL local daily.Dont know the feasibility ,just askin.

[The Mantis]

I just love being pedantic. The last trophy to come north was on May 15 2004 Sandy, not 4-5 years  ago but 2 1/2 :001:

[Guest Sandy Cromarty]

Brilliant feckin brilliant, we're having a serious discussion on the impact of local news coverage in more remote corners of Scotland and you come on showin me up in front o ma pals cos I canna coont, another feckin onanist!

[Charles Bannerman]

Perhaps I can clarify the matter here. All of the newspapers you are talking about are owned by the same company, Scottish Provincial Press, to serve their local areas on a broadsheet/ tabloid basis.

Within SPP there is the Highland News Group which are all tabloids and all edited in the same room - the HN which serves INVERNESS, the North Star which serves Ross shire and the Lochaber News whose catchment area is obvious. They all have the same editor and sports editor (Paul Chalk) and a few common pages but the football in particular is directed towards the local readership.

The arrangements for broadsheets are a little different. The Courier and the Ross shire Journal are based in Inverness and Dingwall and are completely independent of each other. They are quite rigidly directed towards their local areas and indeed just about the only anomaly is that the Courier carries a limited amount of Ross County coverage. But they are completely separate papers covering their own areas.

I therefore don't understand why an exception should be expected to be made in the case of this cup victory (about which I am very pleased for Ross County btw). People in Inverness, wanting to read about truly local football and indeed other sports as well would be rightly annoyed that their opportunities were being reduced by a large football report about a nearby team.

I don't imagine the North Star or the Ross shire Journal would have carried much when ICT won the Challenge Cup in 2003 and quite rightly so.

There was reference above to the fact that I covered the final extensively on the BBC. Of course I did. Ross and Cromarty is a significant part of our transmission area which covers all of the Highlands and Islands as well as Moray. On the other hand I would imagine I would get quite a few complaints if I started giving large chunks of air time to Aberdeen FC, the team next door.

The local media is just that - local - and there are designated catchment areas.

[Harry Chibber]

It's a local Newspaper for local people

[Alex MacLeod]

Just what I was trying to say Charles, though perhaps not in such eloquent words.

And for those interested folks who think all the papers bar the Inverness ones serve little hamlets. Please note, the little hamlet served by the Northern Scot (Morayshire) has the biggest circulation. Must admit though that I'm not quite sure what the two columns tell us. Is one the circulation and the other the potential readership. Perhaps Charles could provide the answer.

Jan - Jun 2006                                                      ABC                    JICREG

                                                                        Circulation          Readership

John O'Groat Journal                                          9,156                22,093

Caithness Courier                                              6,929                16,995

Northern Times                                                  5,206                11,126

Ross-shire Journal                                            11,120              27,945

Highland News                                                  9,006 

North Star                                                        5,904                } 46,477

Lochaber News                                                3,527 

Inverness Courier (Tuesday)                            13,107                33,468

Inverness Courier (Friday)                                18,011                44,903

Northern Scot                                                  18,980                48,836

Forres Gazette                                                3,829                  10,024

Banffshire Journal                                            5,058                  11,967

Strathspey & Badenoch Herald                        5,126                10,765