Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
Has anyone else read the letters page of the Dover Mercury this week? Of the dozen or more correspondents who have had their missives printed, NOT ONE was from a Dover resident. All (bar the MP and one whose address was withheld) were Deal residents. I checked the front page twice to make sure I hadn't bought the East Kent Mercury by mistake, but no, I had indeed got the Dover Mercury.
Either the good burghers of Dover suddenly have nothing to say for themselves or the Mercury has become excessively Deal-centric. Looking through the rest of the paper, most of it was aimed at Deal - including the adverts - and I have to say that I feel somewhat cheated. The Dover Mercury should represent Dover, not Deal.
True friends stab you in the front.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
every time i look at the letters page it seems full of deal councillors and ex councillors taking pot shots at each other so i have stopped reading it now.
Guest 703- Registered: 30 Jul 2010
- Posts: 2,096
I've stopped buying it!
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
Spotted silly letters like 'why weren't people told about the beach works' when it has been publicised widely and it blatently obvious it is going on
They did publish my photo though so I will let them off !!
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 660- Registered: 14 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,205
At least there is no letter from Sheila Farrell this week,at last!!!!
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!
Guest 660- Registered: 14 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,205
At least there is no letter from Sheila Farrell this week,at last!!!!
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!
Guest 684- Registered: 26 Feb 2009
- Posts: 635
I'd imagine it's because circulation is low, the paper is massively under-resourced and also that there are few (or no) letters from Dover people; it's only really a change-page/slip-page edition of Deal's East Kent Mercury, after all.
Not the Mercury's fault: it's just reflecting the huge apathy and torpor that besets modern day Dover, I'm afraid (present company excepted).
(Deal-dwelling Dovorian places tin hat on head),
Andy
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
andy
our other esteemed local organ is based in folkestone but the letters all emanate from dover.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,894
Part of the problem must surely be that there is no office in Dover so people can pop in with information.
Dover has not had a real local paper for quite a while one of the reasons I no longer buy one.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
never brought the paper.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
do you not get either brian?
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
dover express howard.thats all.
Guest 715- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 2,438
I believe there is only room for one local paper in Dover, unfortunately the natural and historical paper for Dover, the Express, has let it's self down in recent years with it's tabloid style of journalism, ok for the Sun and the Star but not for a local paper. The East Kent Mercury, Deal edition has retained it's local quality and is a must read for a lot of the Deal people, I have never read the Dover Mercury.
Audere est facere.
Guest 720- Registered: 20 Jul 2011
- Posts: 114
As you know from my previous posts, I am always interested in local newspapers and the part they play in the community. I wrote on another thread a little while ago that I wondered what their future was in this digital age. So I was intrigued by some of the posts on this thread and particularly Andy Stevens' comments about the Dover Mercury being a slip/change page edition of the East Kent Mercury, which, of course, it is. But in this week's paper I noticed that there were some 15 news pages which seemed to be specifically devoted to Dover, and that there was some Dover news on 5 of the other pages which also contained Deal or Sandwich stories. So that didn't seem to be a bad Dover showing to me. I agree there were no Dover letters, but as was suggested previously, that's probably because no-one from Dover wrote in. I suspect they still write to the town's traditional paper, the Express - in the same way as they put their birth, marriage and death announcements in there rather than the Mercury. I also agree with Martin P that the Express has a different journalistic style which makes it interesting to compare the two sometimes. Sorry to see he (and others) don't seem to have read the Dover Mercury - always worth giving these things a try, I think, if only to make an informed judgment!
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
I think the local paper should drop the word Dover and in its place put the East, Kent. News .
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
the website kent online lists places in kent to look for very local news, it only shows deal for our area.