The Demise of The Brighton Argus

[BN9 BHA]

The comments from readers after the news stories on the Argus website are funny, some complete cranks on there.
I'm sure the good people of NSC don't post on there.

@Guinness Boy
I think the first part of this post from 2015 is still true

 

[Lenny Rider]

Cant be long until they go out of business? Naylor certainly timed his departure timing well.

When they stupidly gave me a weekly column in 1999 , the sports desk contained Chris Giles, the Sports Editor, 6 reporters including Messrs Naylor, Talbot, Griggs, and Owen, and three sub editors.

24 years on Brian Owen is a lone wolf...........

 

[phoenix]

R.I.P Argus my final season with since 1970's Brian Owen i'm sure is a decent person but he's living on tit bits iv'e been paying over the top on a subscription to support our local news paper but all the drama is too much for me. All this woman lost both he leg's in a Horrific accident she cut he finger when you read on.

 

[London Irish]

When they stupidly gave me a weekly column in 1999 , the sports desk contained Chris Giles, the Sports Editor, 6 reporters including Messrs Naylor, Talbot, Griggs, and Owen, and three sub editors.

24 years on Brian Owen is a lone wolf...........

American owners Gannett - like the Glazers, buy it up and run it into the ground. But the Gannett/Newsquest shareholders get their profits so who cares if the product is terrible

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

R.I.P Argus my final season with since 1970's Brian Owen i'm sure is a decent person but he's living on tit bits iv'e been paying over the top on a subscription to support our local news paper but all the drama is too much for me. All this woman lost both he leg's in a Horrific accident she cut he finger when you read on.

Are you an Argus reporter by any chance?

 

[phoenix]

Are you an Argus reporter by any chance?

Ha ha, no sorry couldn't reply straight away i was typing then the door bell rang i fell over impaled myself on the door handle as i fell i broke 3 ribs and died 3 times no i'm not a frigging Argus reporter.

 

[Official Old Man]

Shame about this is that Brighton is a big city and deserves a local paper.
But in the same way we should back that paper.
I use the web site a lot but with ad-blocker on I'm as bad as everyone else. It's just a circle of no income, no reporters, no stories and so no income.

 

[nicko31]

We'd all do well to pay it a visit and keep the traffic up.

The demise of local papers worldwide is tragic, they're on important link in the community

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Must be a wide open market for a local Metro-equivalent business model shirley? Big box of free Metros on every local morning bus. Ditto at Brighton station. Metro website has no paywall. Business model clearly works for that newspaper, at least for now

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

When they stupidly gave me a weekly column in 1999 , the sports desk contained Chris Giles, the Sports Editor, 6 reporters including Messrs Naylor, Talbot, Griggs, and Owen, and three sub editors.

24 years on Brian Owen is a lone wolf...........

Back in the day, a long time ago, it was decent paper. I remember there was a decent music page of album and gig reviews and a restaurant review each weekend plus the sport was good....this was the 80s though.

 

[ozzygull]

My mum would send me copies of the Argus after a match or when there was an important story. The days before the internet.

 

[POSKETT AT THE VALLEY]

It was never the same without John Vinicombe.

 

[Weststander]

Over 40 years it's hard copy circulation has fallen from 100,000 to 5,200. Looking online, big city papers such as the M.E.N. and Liverpool Echo have suffered the same fate.

But unlike others, for the some reason the Argus online is so heavily laden with pop-ups, ads and ad videos, making it a tiresome view. Plus you can get blocked after a few clicks without signing in, others don't do that.

Just to get to a race war or argument about cars in the comments.

 

[StonehamPark]

I stopped reading when Naylor left to be honest.
He’s always gotten plenty of carp on NSC, but I enjoyed his reporting and articles.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

It's a vicious circle which the Argus won't win. Many articles are not local or even news. For example last year they had a lead article about a woman who had renovated a table to save money .... in Bolton. Then you have the so called news stories that are really just a cut and paste from Rightmove, MSE, the council Food Hygiene page etc etc - all free to access but The Argus seem to think people will pay to see them on the Argus website. Even on the odd occasion there really is a local news story they often get local details wrong because the article is written by someone that isn't local.

 

[Vatican Citys No.2 Keeper]

Must be a wide open market for a local Metro-equivalent business model shirley? Big box of free Metros on every local morning bus. Ditto at Brighton station. Metro website has no paywall. Business model clearly works for that newspaper, at least for now

There was the Brighton & Hove Independent that filled that that void for a while Printed once a week and used to be able to pick up the free paper edition at the station and at other outlets across the city (new edition went out every Thursday or Friday IIRC).

Was run by JPI Media (formerly Johnston Press) who also own the Worthing Herald and a number of other media outlets across Sussex. Can't say for the rest of the content, but the sports content was put together by the Herald's sports desk. I wrote some sports content for them on a freelance basis up until early 2019, but I couldn't tell you when the print edition went out of circulation.

 

[Eeyore]

I rarely read it now. I don't think it is good journalism and it all seemed a little 'tabloid' for a while.

The comments column is full of very sad and angry people. I did used to comment about a decade or so ago but realised as pathetic as I am, I'm not that sad.

It makes NSC look like an ancient Athenian market place with a few hundred Socrates wannabees holding court.

 

[Eeyore]

There was the Brighton & Hove Independent that filled that that void for a while Printed once a week and used to be able to pick up the free paper edition at the station and at other outlets across the city (new edition went out every Thursday or Friday IIRC).

Was run by JPI Media (formerly Johnston Press) who also own the Worthing Herald and a number of other media outlets across Sussex. Can't say for the rest of the content, but the sports content was put together by the Herald's sports desk. I wrote some sports content for them on a freelance basis up until early 2019, but I couldn't tell you when the print edition went out of circulation.

I'm guessing you couldn't compete with 'Half Time with Hodges'

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

My mum would send me copies of the Argus after a match or when there was an important story. The days before the internet.

Same with my father. He used to buy two copies and send the match report to my brother and myself. There was also an itv program called Endsleigh League Extra which would show all the Football League goals which I would video tape in the mid to late 90s. This was pretty much it in those days.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The letters page has some gems in it. There was the letters addressing cycling issues in Brighton which were sent from names of dead cyclists. There was a pervert who spoke about Churchill Square and young girls and how their feet must sweat in those Ugg boots and a mate of mine used to challenge anti-Falmer letters and signing off using names which were anagrams of pro-Falmer phrases. He also used to add a totally unrelated rant at the end.

Whilst amusing it clearly demonstrates they did no checking of the validity of reader’s letters.