The Telegram,
Reviewed by a Newfoundlander Abroad
As a Newfoundlander abroad, I crave news from home. My bookmarks include VOCM, The Independent, other provincial blogs, CBC St. John’s, The Current and of course the obligatory Telegram.
I realize that the population of Newfoundland and Labrador only equals that of a medium-sized city. I fully appreciate that our advertising and subscriber market is smaller.
But for the love of God, I am begging The Telegram to revisit their web site strategy.
Before I continue, I have to admit that I feel some guilt and trepidation for writing this. The Fair Deal campaign owes a huge debt of gratitude to The Telegram. This campaign was featured on the front page back in the last week of December, and that feature no doubt helped catapult this effort into the national media. I have a completely irrational fear that by offering some criticism of their web site that any possible future Fair Deal efforts might suffer. If Telegram staffers are reading, please take my comments as constructive and sincere.
I get a daily newsletter from The Telegram. Like many newspapers, simply subscribe and every day you’ll get an email of story snippets. After the first three lines, which talk about the weather, this is what I found in my Telegram newsletter today:
I’ve been subscribing to The Telegram and receiving this newsletter for at least one year, and I can tell you that every second newsletter I receive has a joke featuring the hapless Uncle Jarge.
Great. That’s exactly what I was looking for when I signed on to get news from the island. The official newsletter of the biggest newspaper in Newfoundland and Labrador is, first and foremost, a daily joke.
The newsletter does go on to list two news headlines and a mention of Wangersky’s column. Then, surprisingly, there’s another “Joke of the Day". To really bring me up to speed on what’s happening at home, the newsletter finishes with a “Thought of the Day", which takes the form of a quotation from a famous dead person.
Three simple suggestions from a daily Telegram reader:
- Link back to the stories you are featuring in the newsletter so I don’t have to hunt for them. Your web site doesn’t support individual links? Fix it – don’t use frames.
- Divide your newsletter audience; ask people if they want to join a “joke club” and send them jokes. Give others the opportunity to receive news-only. You don’t have to end the joke-telling (and I am not saying that joke telling is bad — just give people an option).
- Sell more advertisements in your newsletter to pay for the tiny cost of offering something better.
If just those three changes are made, I bet more people would subscribe and stay tuned. Another, more technical suggestion, is that you offer a HTML version of your newsletter. Sure, this would allow an easier to read document, but more importantly, it would allow you to track if people are opening your newsletter, and track which ads (if you sell them) are clicked on (an offering which will definitely spur ad sales). This is not rocket science, nor are these suggestions terribly sophisticated or expensive. For the record, I sent a letter to several Telegram staffers about two months ago with similar suggestions; no response.
Of course, I can simply choose not to receive the Telegram newsletter. They have a link in every piece they send out that I can use to unsubscribe at any time. I am also pretty sure that the owners of The Telegram control the web output, and that the poor online experience for Telegram readers likely has nothing to do with Telegram staff. Folks in charge may be labouring under the impression that improving their online offering is a massive expense — not so, by a long shot.
I’m venting about this, after years of living away, because if I don’t get my news from The Telegram, I get it from the CBC. Online news reporting in Newfoundland and Labrador has little competition (the NTV web site hasn’t been changed since 1996 and falls below The Telegram standard).
I don’t want the CBC giving me every bit of news from the province.
Telegram readers deserve better.
The capable news professionals on the Telegram staff deserve better.
Revisit The Telegram web site, and revisit the daily newsletter. Do other Newfoundlanders and Labradorians living abroad feel the same?
14 Comments
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I have been away from NL half the year studying at University for a few years now, and I must admit I was sorry to see the letters, polls, and other sections of the website stripped away. The website and other features were better.
On the whole, the Telegram is an OK paper. But many have also commented that it’s not what it once was. And It probably could stand to include more from the rural parts of the province.
CBC, on the other hand, is suffering from some severe problems. Besides alternating between a disgruntled govt dept angry at funding cuts and a happy mouthpiece for governments of the day, it’s also not very responsive.
Why shorten supper hour TV programs in one of the few eastern markets where people actually watch? Why not keep what is watched, and cut out completely that which isn’t watched in other regions? I’ll tell you why – because the Toronto/central-Canadacentric Adrienne-Clarkson types will always make sure that their own hives remain untouched.
I laugh my A$$ off every time somebody tells me about CRTC delaying FOX or some other broadcaster or not approving some project because of fears concerning “Canadian Content” or culture.
I feel no more affinity with this Top-down BS definition of Canada as some sort of unitary woodchuck artsy fartsy Canada council nation than I have with penguins on Queen Maude Land..
I’m just as if not more concerned with the Canadian state’s attempts at cultural assimilation as I am concerned that by simply having some extra channels on the TV I’m somehow going to sprout an Uncle sam hat.
Welcome to the nanny state.
Comment by Liam O’Brien — 2/16/2005 @ 1:49 pmVery interesting comment Liam; totally cast a different eye on the reason for my post, which was to ask for a real “newsletter” and world-class web effort from The Telegram.
FOX in Canada; I think the loss of Canadian content should be the least of our worries. It’s inevitable though.
Comment by Kevin McCann — 2/16/2005 @ 1:56 pmLiam, I too really enjoyed The Telegram when they posted letters and polls. I once had a letter published in The Telegram re the appalling Air Canada service so it was fun to read it on the Internet. But, The Telegram, like all newspapers does not want you to read it for free, and so they only offer a portion of the paper so that you will subscribe.
Kevin, I have never seen the Newsletter so cannot comment on it except to say that those jokes sound less than appealing.
On another subject, I was really disappointed in the Downhomer’s recent monthly issue because they republished that horrible Wente column. I don’t think that was a very good idea. It is bad enough that the people in central Canada read it, but with their worldwide subscription, more people will get to read that garbage. I don’t know why the Downhomer did that. Better for NL that they would have republished some of John Crosbie’s words for example and else had a nice article on Kevin McCann, a true NL hero.
That’s my rant and my bouquet for today.
Comment by Anne Marie — 2/16/2005 @ 6:01 pmAww shucks, Anne Marie. Sincere thanks for your kind words.
Comment by Kevin McCann — 2/16/2005 @ 6:07 pmFor my birthday I asked my mom to get me an online subsciption to The Telegram in my desperate desire for more Newfoundland news.
So anyway, they send me a password and tell me to chill for a couple of days until the account is activated or whatever. But then my mom calls me up and tells me they said she couldn’t get the online subscription unless she changed her regular home devlivery to visa. She wasn’t down with cutting the paperboy out of the equation so I ended up with no online Telegram. The fee for it was still like $16/month and they passed because of that.
Conclusion: They are obviously out to lunch on this whole internets thing. So, like you said Kevin, they’ve got some serious embracing/learning to do.
NTV does post news - albeit in a very ugly manner - at http://www.ntv.ca/news/viewEntries.php
Comment by amy — 2/16/2005 @ 10:35 pmI sent to NTV the following:
Dear NTV,
Please tell me that this is the ideas that your sons and daughters put together in their Grade 8 Tech Ed classes and that you are just waiting for the final bids to come in and modernize your website!
I read online at www.fairdealfornewfoundland.com that your news was posted in an ugly manner and the link brought me to this.
The only cool thing about this whole web site is that you managed to get the planet to spin. I know of at least 6 freshly trained Web designers trying to get work. Give up a contract position for 3 months with a monthly retainer to maintain a better site than this for 2-yrs and then if it looks like crap in 2-yrs, DO IT AGAIN.
If this is the face that NTV wants to portray to the world then it’s no wonder that even Canada thinks we are backwards. You’d be better off not embarassing NL with this lame and unprofessional looking website.
Fred from CBS
Comment by Fred Harris — 2/16/2005 @ 11:23 pmVOCM has a recent redesign, by the way, that is a huge improvement, and is second only to the CBC (which completely makes sense given their marketshare). Well done VOCM.
And while design is very important, is doesn’t outweigh the technical infrastructure investment that would give NLers abroad better and easier access to news from the province.
Indeed, I could probably scare up half a dozen tech guys who would leap at the chance to work on The Telegram or NTV site.
Comment by Kevin McCann — 2/17/2005 @ 9:17 amThere are many news web sites out that publish teasers and require subscriptions to read the entire story. I’m not sure if any traditional publication would want to give away the shop in exchange for banner clicks. I’m sure the objective is to sell a paper or a magazine. Maybe that business model will change in the future.
Hopefully, The Telegram will see your post and change the format of the newsletter, but there’s nothing wrong with a good laugh now and then. Hopefully this Atlantic Accord campaign hasn’t killed our sense of humour and the ability to laugh at ourselves.
Comment by Gary — 2/17/2005 @ 11:13 amI don’t think it has, Gary. But I do think that our provincial paper could at least give the option of being part of the joke club. Literally, our biggest paper sends out an email a day to subscribers that is 75% joke and 25% news. As a consumer, I’d like them to improve their product. As someone from the province, I’d like them to show off their excellent reporters and coverage a little more.
Interesting that I didn’t get a Newsletter today. I didn’t unsubscribe myself.
Comment by Kevin McCann — 2/17/2005 @ 11:37 amAh-ha!
Comment by jeremiah — 2/17/2005 @ 3:32 pmAs a user experience professional who has worked for Fortune 100 companies, I offer my services to Newfoundland and Labrador companies wanting to improve their web site. This service would be free of charge and be in a report form (not an actual website).
This is not a business proposal. I just want to try to help out anyway possible.
Feel free to contact me to discuss improving your website.
Regards,
John
John Kent
Comment by John Kent — 2/17/2005 @ 7:46 pmIs this the same John Kent from Margaret Wente’s favourite scenic ghetto of Carbonear? If so, call your cousin. Love to talk shop with ya.
Do you offer technical or marketing services?
Comment by Larry — 2/17/2005 @ 10:35 pmHi Kevin,
Thank you very much for doing what you did with the Fair Deal campaign. I participated and was active in sending your stuff around to others. We have an active Newfoundland Club here in Southern California, by the by. Members of this group got involved in the campaign. It was almost startling to see the way your campaign just spread and grew! Wow!
I go to the Telegram website as well as the CBC website. There is no cost involved. On the CBC website, I can forward articles to other Newfoundlanders and non-Newfoundlanders, both abroad and in Canada. However, I am not able to forward articles from the Telegram. This is too bad because I’d like to be able to forward some of the Telegram’s articles to others. I generally find the Telegram’s writing style to evoke an emotional response and thus give me a closer connection to what’s happening at home because it IS local ie: I find I enjoy the syntax, etc. The Telegram would surely benefit by being more widely read if readers could forward articles. I’m no techie so what gives?
Anne Lahey
Comment by Anne Lahey — 2/23/2005 @ 1:03 am(Living away in) California
Anne,
It’s difficult to forward articles on The Telegram web site because they use “frames", which on the web means that whatever article you look at on their web site, the URL, or web address, is always http://www.TheTelegram.com. So if you like a story you see, it does not have a unique identifier that you can find and send to people. I hope that makes sense. Remedying this would be easy, either by removing the “frame", or by setting up a “Forward to Friend” form.
Important to note that The Telegram is part of Transcontinental Newsnet–the creators of The Telegram’s web site. They would have to do the improvements (I think), or The Telegram would have to get web services elsewhere. That may be impossible for them.
Good point!
Comment by Kevin — 2/23/2005 @ 7:39 am