State of Daily Echo/local press

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/18133958.tottenham-win-puts-icing-southamptons-festive-run/

Real shame to see local papers declining so much. I can remember when the Echo was my "go to" source for Saints news and comment.

It now tells us that Palace scored against us in the first half.

Also praises Ralph for how Saints "set their stool out" against Chelsea. Presumably, he placed a perfectly formed turd in the centre of the pitch?

Think this is a new relatively young guy, who has been promoted after Adam Leitch left the Daily Echo a few months ago.

Will give him a chance

Not really sure what's wrong with this article. Bizarre thing to get a strop on about

Not even the modern sophisticated computerised spell check tool can counteract the tool inputting not having the actual grasp of the metaphor they are attempting to use when they use the wrong word but spell its assumed replacement word correctly.

The Echo have dropped stinkers like that in for years, even when you had to have a degree of education and completed an apprenticeship to work on a Daily Paper. My Granny use to have the Echo delivered every night when that was the norm - once she had cooked the tea and settled down for the evening she would read up on the days news. Whenever we stayed with her as sprouts she would soon have steam coming from her ears, then read out all the grammatical errors. She always admitted that she wasn't the most highly educated individual "but if someone learned their English from the Echo, well this country would be in a right sorry state!". ............Good old Granny and worldly gems!

Not really sure what's wrong with this article. Bizarre thing to get a strop on about

Getting which half a goal is scored in wrong?

Looks like Dan Sheldon has left the Echo which is a shame.

I think 2 guys who cover Bournemouth have been brought in to cover Saints.

5 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

Looks like Dan Sheldon has left the Echo which is a shame.

I think 2 guys who cover Bournemouth have been brought in to cover Saints.

Oh really. I thought he said earlier in the week he was on two weeks holiday when tweeting about PEH but his twitter says "former reporter..." Pity

Laurie Mac's column said it was the "last to be edited" by Sheldon and wished him well.

 Edit: this confirms it.

Anyone remember The Pink?? Was that also produced by the Echo?

2 minutes ago, ozzmeister said:

Anyone remember The Pink?? Was that also produced by the Echo?

Indeed, As I live outside of the area they used to supply newsagents I took out a subscription at the offered reduced rate. Every year I locked horns with their subscription manager, a Mr Bullwinkle, honest, that was his name. They tried to renege on their deal each renewal date and after several years I cancelled. Probably not the sole reason for it's demise but who knows.

9 minutes ago, ozzmeister said:

Anyone remember The Pink?? Was that also produced by the Echo?

Yes.

Remains the "Sports Echo" to many of us from the 60's and 70's. Why they changed the title, ridiculous.

4 minutes ago, Chocolate Box said:

Indeed, As I live outside of the area they used to supply newsagents I took out a subscription at the offered reduced rate. Every year I locked horns with their subscription manager, a Mr Bullwinkle, honest, that was his name. They tried to renege on their deal each renewal date and after several years I cancelled. Probably not the sole reason for it's demise but who knows.

Didn't know it was still going under a different title.

4 minutes ago, Badger said:

Yes.

Remains the "Sports Echo" to many of us from the 60's and 70's. Why they changed the title, ridiculous.

Ditto

When I was a nipper, it was my job very Saturday evening to go off to the newsagents and get the footy Echo. But that was when all games were played on Saturday at 3.00pm.

Now, with games being played virtually every day of the week, a Saturday night football paper isn't really feasible.

The Echo is in slow decline. It seems to be run by one man and a dog and does very little real journalism. Most of it is regurgitated press releases.

Might be wrong, but have heard that Dan Sheldon is off to The Athletic.

4 hours ago, Chocolate Box said:

Didn't know it was still going under a different title.

Its not. It finished in December 2017.

Daily Echo is owned by Newsquest. Most of their local papers are written by low paid, new journalists who rarely visit the area they are published in. 

6 hours ago, SuperSAINT said:

Looks like Dan Sheldon has left the Echo which is a shame.

Suspect he's probably better off out of there these days. Local papers aren't really that local anymore, they're generally all owned by big companies (Newsquest, in the Echo's case) who don't seem to be particularly invested in producing actual quality local news for people. All they want is advertising views and clicks, hence why most of their websites are completely unusable, and they've been shedding staff for years - some of that is natural churn, but a lot of the Echo's operations are now run from the offices of their sister paper in Bournemouth.

I've heard they may even have put the Test Lane site up for sale, which is slightly more understandable since the pandemic has shown that most people are perfectly capable of working efficiently and productively enough from home.

5 hours ago, Badger said:

Yes.

Remains the "Sports Echo" to many of us from the 60's and 70's. Why they changed the title, ridiculous.

We always called it the "Football Echo" although I don't think that was ever its real title.  I always thought it was an impressive feat to have them printed and on sale by about 6pm on a Saturday evening, especially at those pre-internet times when reports would presumably be phoned in and transcribed.   As well as the report on the Saints games they would cover matches involving Saints Reserves, Pompey and Bournemouth and the centre pages would cover a whole bunch of local league games.  You could always tell it was a bit rushed though as the first half's would have quite detailed coverage while the second half's would just be restricted to a short summary of any goals - and sometimes not even that for the more minor games.

5 hours ago, Toadhall Saint said:

Ditto

Football Echo in Shirley, K  😉

34 minutes ago, TheMidfieldGeneral said:

Football Echo in Shirley, K  😉

Bloody heathens 😉

I find a lot of the Daily Echo Saints articles are way behind for news, and nearly all are copy and paste jobbies. Also, no offence to anyone from here that post on the Daily Echo Saints pages but the comment section is by far the worst Saint's football forum(?) I have ever tried to read. Best avoided.      

I used to stick up for the Echo; local paper, local people that work for it, an old institution, used to bring a decent bit of inside information to us all. And, perhaps going back 5-10 years, I used to think there was a place for a print copy local paper, at least for those (mostly of the elderly generation) who hadn’t quite grasped the nettle of online media.

Those days have rapidly passed and, sadly, the local paper has seen a rapid decline.
 

A shame. I remember the old days of, after the game, trying to get a copy of the Pink as soon as you could. Time moves on, I guess.

#wipestearfromeye

My sister used to mail it to me in Sydney every week.