What has happened to The Mercury

[st albans fox]

Sometimes tanner gets to ask the club about a target and receives an reply - he then reports it 

 

at least that’s information from the club 

 

none of us can do that 

 

most of the time he is, however, pi••ing in the wind  ......

[Danny Clender]

I have very few problems with it at all, I check everyday, web and app.

I think they hold their credibility well and try not to be too sensational with their reporting.

They definitely have inside knowledge, I'd just say it's obvious what would happen if they abused that.

Possibly get overlooked for exclusives by the bigger names Telegraph, Guardian etc etc. 

They were spot on throughout the Mahrez story and I'm sure they'll hold it together with Maguire and Tielemans info. 

 

The website and app are free and thats's enough of an explainer for me. 

 

Have to agree with stories/debates/themes appearing on here and then turning up in the Merc. I like that though, shows they are fans and want to remain in touch with the fans. Unlike us on here, they can't say "Gray is Shit" they have the unenviable job of making that statement sound diplomatic. 

Edited 27 May 2019 by Danny Clender

[TheLittleBigMan]

As far as I know they are a bit short for staff too. Not as much resources available so now just following the internet trend. I must say I do get annoyed when trying to read an article on line and all I seem to get is videos of something else constantly loading up and adverts in my face. Can't see it changing anytime soon so I just give mainstream media a miss. Nothing you can't find out elsewhere anyway. 

[Royston.]

11 hours ago, ozleicester said:

Print media is (sadly) dead. The internet and Murdoch ripped the guts from it.

The will be virtually no newspapers by 2030 (possibly excluding small local rags)

ie, the Mercury

[Bluetintedspecs]

15 hours ago, UpTheLeagueFox said:

Some fans demand to know your source(s) or they won't believe you.

  

[ozleicester]

1 hour ago, Royston. said:

ie, the Mercury

No i was thinking smaller than that still, small village/town papers.

[Heathrow fox]

What next for it? Once or twice weekly editions?

[Manini]

17 hours ago, Sly said:

James Sharp has left and is now at the Daily Fail! 

Daily Mail sport is actually quite well respected amongst journos. They do some good articles and have some good writers. I find their stuff a lot easier to read than the sycophantic stuff they put in the Guardian and the times. 

[Livid]

Today's Tielemans shocker is that they have spoken to a Belgian journalist who has told them his agent has contacted other clubs (not like it's in his interest to hawk the player around and generate a bidding war is it). Essentially agent speaks to football clubs!

[when_you're_smiling]

The Mercury was bought out by Reach (formerly Trinity Mirror - the Daily Mirror’s group) about five years ago and there’s huge emphasis on clickbait articles on the journalists from their bosses. Add to that various job losses since have left those remaining with more to do with less.

 

For reporters in the offices there’s screens constantly live showing the top performing web articles and pressure on individuals as well as teams to reach targets on clicks. I’ve heard about league tables for reporters within Reach and if you’re towards the bottom then there can be consequences. I’m not sure how much that carries over from news into the sports department itself, but given how important football is to hits I’m sure there’s pressure from a number of angles from above to get people clicking and please the advertisers, accountants, shareholders etc.

 

The thing is, top exclusives will always get more clicks anyway, so don’t for a second doubt the reporters won’t be trying to get those. 

 

Also, they do speak to the club and get facts. Look at the way Tanner shut down the Robben story only a couple of days ago.

 

I’m sure though they still have to top up their clicks and make sure there’s content on their website, particularly during the quiet off-season. That constant swamp of news articles they have to put up makes the quality hard journalism not stand out as much. The kind of stuff they will be much more proud of and much more determined to get.

 

Thankfully though I think the Mercury are better than some of the other Reach titles like the Liverpool Echo and MEN guys. Some of the clickbait I’ve seen from some of those sites is horrific and also biased to the point of it being tribalism nonsense.

 

It will still be a paper for a while yet. People have been saying it and others will fold and the industry’s dead for getting on for 20 years now.

[HybridFox]

12 hours ago, Monsell1976 said:

They probably can’t afford their own reporters, so probably employ someone to search the internet for rumours.

Kids on work experience more like 

[Voll Blau]

16 hours ago, when_you're_smiling said:

The Mercury was bought out by Reach (formerly Trinity Mirror - the Daily Mirror’s group) about five years ago and there’s huge emphasis on clickbait articles on the journalists from their bosses. Add to that various job losses since have left those remaining with more to do with less.

 

For reporters in the offices there’s screens constantly live showing the top performing web articles and pressure on individuals as well as teams to reach targets on clicks. I’ve heard about league tables for reporters within Reach and if you’re towards the bottom then there can be consequences. I’m not sure how much that carries over from news into the sports department itself, but given how important football is to hits I’m sure there’s pressure from a number of angles from above to get people clicking and please the advertisers, accountants, shareholders etc.

 

The thing is, top exclusives will always get more clicks anyway, so don’t for a second doubt the reporters won’t be trying to get those. 

 

Also, they do speak to the club and get facts. Look at the way Tanner shut down the Robben story only a couple of days ago.

 

I’m sure though they still have to top up their clicks and make sure there’s content on their website, particularly during the quiet off-season. That constant swamp of news articles they have to put up makes the quality hard journalism not stand out as much. The kind of stuff they will be much more proud of and much more determined to get.

 

Thankfully though I think the Mercury are better than some of the other Reach titles like the Liverpool Echo and MEN guys. Some of the clickbait I’ve seen from some of those sites is horrific and also biased to the point of it being tribalism nonsense.

 

It will still be a paper for a while yet. People have been saying it and others will fold and the industry’s dead for getting on for 20 years now.

MEN were covering the death of Daniel James' dad the other day. Unbelievable.

 

Reach are all about digital, with print an afterthought, so if you want good journalism from the Mercury then you should buy the paper every day and send a message that you believe quality journalism is worth paying for! Don't just use the free website, because that's what drives the race for clicks.

[sm1]

16 hours ago, TK95 said:

Kids on work experience more like 

Funnily enough I did work experience there around 30 odd years ago. Even then they had ceefax and teletext on their TVs and were taking stories from there, changing the odd few words, and publishing it as original material. 

[Saxondale]

I literally wrote my dissertation on this issue of audience transition from newspaper to online back in 2004.

 

The short version of the answer to 'what's happened to the Mercury' is that they can't afford to employ any staff.

[boots60]

The only columnist worth reading in the Mercury in the past couple of decades was Fred Leicester (Lee Marlow) & they got rid of him because 1, he entertained the readers & 2, he spoke the truth.

[Babylon]

It's really sad to see Tanner peddling the click bait articles, but it's likely keeping him in a job. Sad to see the decline, I dread to think what the state of news / reporting will be in another 10 / 20 years. 

[Babylon]

On 26/05/2019 at 21:17, UpTheLeagueFox said:

Some fans demand to know your source(s) or they won't believe you.

Geoff, is there much truth to all the rumours about Slimani being a huge disruption and people being unwilling to play with him?

[Saxondale]

3 hours ago, boots60 said:

The only columnist worth reading in the Mercury in the past couple of decades was Fred Leicester (Lee Marlow) & they got rid of him because 1, he entertained the readers & 2, he spoke the truth.

Not true. Lee was made redundant in a cost-saving cull of feature writers throughout the parent organisation. 

Lee was great though.

[Wymsey]

3 hours ago, Babylon said:

Geoff, is there much truth to all the rumours about Slimani being a huge disruption and people being unwilling to play with him?

Had a slight fall-out with Mahrez, didn't he?

[Bayfox]

8 minutes ago, Wymeswold fox said:

Had a slight fall-out with Mahrez, didn't he?

Thought he fell out with everyone and would only speak to mahrez in native tongue, but even then they managed to have a disagreement on something.

 

As for the Mercury the physical paper is a waste of time. It's about a 3rd of the size it used to be at about 3 times the price. It's useful if I want to go on some walking tour or river cruise as they seem to have a nice full page advert every time I pick one up.

 

And the web version is if anything worse. Gave up months ago opening any links that come from them as you can't read them without doing some sodding survey half the time.

 

It's sad really, that and radio leicester both used to be great for info on the city but in the world we live in, $ky etc get in there 1st and repeat it every half hour. It's killed local journalism really.

 

If anything the sport is about the only thing worth reading. The other articles seem to have no really info or research gone into them.

 

But it seems from reading previous posts that's a budget thing.

 

[UpTheLeagueFox]

10 hours ago, Babylon said:

Geoff, is there much truth to all the rumours about Slimani being a huge disruption and people being unwilling to play with him?

He's not been around much in the last 18 months.

Not heard of anything out of the ordinary.

[Guest bss9401]

They won't let the truth get in the way of a good article. 

[mozartfox]

Personally, I am more concerned about the boll*x one sees harvested daily on the Leicester City News Now site.   If you believe this crap you will be on to the Samaritans 30 times a day.

[Mythyaar]

Bring back Bill Anderson

[somebum]

Terrible paper, website. Ran by kids