OT: It couldnt happen to a nicer newspaper..

[The Natural Philosopher]

And you don't think that politics is, toady, simply another brand promotion exercise?

[tim...]

who are you calling toady? :-)

Anyhow, when you are selling utility products, Nope

Both loony lefties and rampant righties have to wash (themselves and their clothes) (etc, etc)

tim

[The Natural Philosopher]

ecobiobollox wash versus plain soap.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Surely the true right get their man to do it for them?

[tabbypurr]

no-one advertises functional products, they call them basic to put people o ff. They advertise sillybollix superduper products that if lucky does the s ame thing at twice the price. It's all branding. What's odd is that people lap it up & hand over twice the money when the product is the same (it isn' t always).

NT

[The Natural Philosopher]

You may be right. These days why bother to advertise a product that actually works? its so rare it will be viral in a day.

[tabbypurr]

On products that just do the job, everyone competes on price, there's very little profit in it. Sellers only put advertising effort into persuading people to buy one branded differently at much higher price.

What I don't understand is why most people fall for it. I saw food tins put out in a road near here one day, not a single value/basics/ee can in sight.

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Was in a cafe today waiting for an MOT to be done. And glanced through yesterday's Sun which was lying there.

They had an article about May and the EU. In a box they gave their reasons for it being a great idea to leave the EU.

Can't remember them all, but they included being able to buy a powerful vacuum cleaner. Being no longer forced to buy dim light bulbs. Being able to work as much overtime as you wanted. Something to do with fishing - which ignored international agreements. And something about immigration. Seems the Sun readers are easily persuaded they were right. ;-)

[tim...]

our new product "washes whiter"!

You mean the old one was crap?

tim

[whisky-dave]

That's not as good as me seeing into the future I saw Tim cook on stage telling me that the "this is our best iphone ever". I think iot came true although I've yet to watch the keynote. I will predict a simialr if not exactly the same line for teh iphone8. Reminds me of brucie and his catch phrase lines of "so much better than last week"

[bert]

It's very good at stating the problem but not very good at proposing solutions.

[Simon M]

Because no journo is ever going to come up with a solution to an important problem.

[whisky-dave]

I didn't realise that's what newspapers were for, I used my last one for ge tting the paint of a brush.

[Andrew]

Too many words in that last sentence Brian. Delete the words 'about anything local'.

[Andrew]

Free in most if not all libraries, for those who can get to one.

And there is always free browsing in Supermarkets or WHS, not to mention the Metro (as long as you don't mind reading 'news' that is 2 days old).

Plus local news on TV and Radio.

[tim...]

what part of "local papers" implies that readers all live in Metro areas with such an alternative publication?

(and does the Metro have "local" news anyway)

tim

[Martin Brown]

There is the rub though. Most of the demographic that is affected by poor or no internet service is also de facto housebound since rural bus services are now all but none existent and they don't drive any more.

Even the mobile library service itself has been discontinued. Although AFAIK it never had an internet capability when it did exist.

I have established experimentally that by switching from BT to Plusnet at just the right time you can have internet for free for 18 months and save £7 pcm over a basic BT POTS fixed line rental. YMMV

Local news on TV has also become a challenge for the non technically aware since it isn't broadcast on the HD channel. We are talking here of a generation that still haven't got over the loss of Ceefax!

There is no local news on any of the national radio channels.

Regards, Martin Brown

[The Natural Philosopher]

You are talking to a generation that never ever saw the point of ceefax in the first place.

[charles]

that's what "Local" radio is for

[whisky-dave]

Like news from the metro... like what happens on tube trains. I though the Metro was to keep people amused while traveling or just taking their mind off traveling wiuth mostly boring news and things like transport crushes on peole and good deeds done etc...