Greenwich Time
I hadn't intended starting the week with a grumble, but the fluffy piece I was working on has proved to be, ahem, A Bit Long, and, given that Real Work awaits, it will have to hang on until tomorrow.
So in the meanwhile, I'd like to ask your thoughts on this.
Lord knows, I didn't vote for Boris Johnson. And yes, I'm scared. Really quite scared. But there's one thing I applaud him for. He's axed that godawful waste of innocent trees, The Londoner.
A grotesque puff-piece that gave virtually no information worth having and acted merely as one big photo-opportunity for Ken to show off, it is, IMHO, a good saving. I just hope he puts the money to good use.
But of course, this brings me to our own local waste of innocent trees. What on earth is Greenwich Time good for? Photos of Chris Roberts posing with a piece of litter over a waste bin. Photos of Chris Roberts with a group of schoolchildren tidying an old person's garden. Photos of Chris Roberts handing over a giant cheque to some charity. Photos of Chris Roberts shaking hands with some obscure 'community leader.' Photos of Chris Roberts on his own.
What does it actually do? What purpose does it serve that taking out a couple of pages in the News Shopper couldn't? There's no actual news. The features smack of 'filler;' the list of available council houses only goes to show how few there are and how needy you have to be to actually qualify to get one.
Even the addition of Tony Lord (I like reading Tony Lord and have missed him since I don't get The Mercury any more) smacks of desperation. Greenwich Council needs to face up to the fact that they don't have enough to say to warrant what I swear is a now-weekly paper (and if it isn't, it feels like it.)
Greenwich Time is an irrelevant waste of money, paper and Tony Lord. I would happily see it go and the money spent on something worthwhile. I don't care what. Something that would actually benefit the community.
What do you think? Do you agree? Is it an easily expendable extravagance?
But maybe you actually like it? Maybe you wait by the door for your regular fix of Chris Roberts piccies, ready to cut out and paste into your fan-album? Tell The Phantom...
BTW, as I was writing this I thought "I bet GreenwichWatch have something to say about this." And they do. Check it out here
So in the meanwhile, I'd like to ask your thoughts on this.
Lord knows, I didn't vote for Boris Johnson. And yes, I'm scared. Really quite scared. But there's one thing I applaud him for. He's axed that godawful waste of innocent trees, The Londoner.
A grotesque puff-piece that gave virtually no information worth having and acted merely as one big photo-opportunity for Ken to show off, it is, IMHO, a good saving. I just hope he puts the money to good use.
But of course, this brings me to our own local waste of innocent trees. What on earth is Greenwich Time good for? Photos of Chris Roberts posing with a piece of litter over a waste bin. Photos of Chris Roberts with a group of schoolchildren tidying an old person's garden. Photos of Chris Roberts handing over a giant cheque to some charity. Photos of Chris Roberts shaking hands with some obscure 'community leader.' Photos of Chris Roberts on his own.
What does it actually do? What purpose does it serve that taking out a couple of pages in the News Shopper couldn't? There's no actual news. The features smack of 'filler;' the list of available council houses only goes to show how few there are and how needy you have to be to actually qualify to get one.
Even the addition of Tony Lord (I like reading Tony Lord and have missed him since I don't get The Mercury any more) smacks of desperation. Greenwich Council needs to face up to the fact that they don't have enough to say to warrant what I swear is a now-weekly paper (and if it isn't, it feels like it.)
Greenwich Time is an irrelevant waste of money, paper and Tony Lord. I would happily see it go and the money spent on something worthwhile. I don't care what. Something that would actually benefit the community.
What do you think? Do you agree? Is it an easily expendable extravagance?
But maybe you actually like it? Maybe you wait by the door for your regular fix of Chris Roberts piccies, ready to cut out and paste into your fan-album? Tell The Phantom...
BTW, as I was writing this I thought "I bet GreenwichWatch have something to say about this." And they do. Check it out here
Labels: Greenwich newspapers, Local papers, reviews
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
10:17
24 Comments:
Agreed - what a strange throwback from the 50s these things are. What I find amazing is that the subjects of the propaganda actually think it works! When I scan them, I find myself instantly transformed into a foaming-at-the-mouth Telegraph reader, motivated to march on Woolwich, guillotine in tow...
I quite liked the Londoner - at least it only came out every two or three months, and I think there's a place for propaganda rags.
But the new, redesigned, weekly (yes, weekly - how the hell can they even begin to justify that?) Greenwich Time is worthless.
I think the place for propaganda rags is in the (blue-top wheelie) bin! Propaganda should be made available for collection to those who want it, but not automatically distributed to every household, it's a waste of paper and money.
Occasionally I flick through the Mercury or News Shopper, but usually only if I've run out of light-relief reading to accompany my afternoon coffee... Generally every single bit of unsolicited newsprint that comes through the front door goes straight into the recycling bin. It's a terrible waste of resources.
Greenwich Time could be useful if it was actually about providing information. However, it's not. It's a pile of self-promoting poo. If it had an objectively-written report of the public consultation into the Heart of East Greenwich project, or a statement on the council's views on closure of post offices in the borough, then I'd find it interesting.
If the council spent less time on posing for photos, and more time on benefiting the community, there might be enough to fill a fortnightly newspaper. I can't see there's ever going to be a need for a weekly one.
I actually think that the council's website is pretty good - clear, easy-to-use and informative. Why don't they just add a 'news' section to that? It would be a lot cheaper.
Well - to be fair, not everyone - especially people who are looking for council accommodation - will have computers. But that still does not absolve Greenwich Time from being rubbish. A leaflet, available in libraries, council offices, etc should suffice.
My beef, btw, is not necessarily with ALL free papers. Whether or not they're rubbish - and what I think of them - is irrelevant. They are commercial operations and, as such, I do not fund them. If they can make money - and they clearly do - then that's their business. But I am paying for Greenwich Time. I am, though my taxes, paying for a pile of toss that adds nothing to my experience of life in Greenwich, and I can't believe it adds much to anyone else's either.
I second your thoughts on Greenwich Council's website, Kirsty. It's clear and concise - and gives you phone numbers to ring that actually work. But their 'news'paper is worse than useless.
To be honest our copy just makes a short journey from the letter box to the recycling. What a waste of time and effort. I think I did read it once but it obviously didn't leave much of an impression!
Seems that Greenwich Time is somewhat selectively distributed since we never get it. Don't know if this is because West Greenwich is practically in the next borough or because whoever delivers it have never found our little street.
Just out of curiosity, Tom, do you get ANY free newspapers/mags? It really does seem to be a bit of a lottery as to who gets what...
As for GT - believe me - you're missing nothing.
I live just on the east edge of the college. I've never had a free newspaper bar two weeks worth of "Mercury" which was a pretty irrelevant publication seeing as "Greenwich" Greenwich evidently doesn't have enough whingeing pensioners and tatooed benefit fraudsters; it encompasses all but the parts we live in. They delivered Greenwich Time once and I'm hoping they don't repeat this trick - it's hard enough working out what to put in the blue top bin and what should have gone in the green one had it not been stolen.
How about somebody publishing a more relevant rag to the Greenwich that lies between the motorway, the Heath and Deptford? Or perhaps residents could create their own stories so that it features more heavily; I'd willingly don a tracksuit and Staffordshire bull terrier and go round shouting at the elderly/ bricking windows etc if it meant the news felt a little closer to home...
I think if I was looking for council accommodation, I'd be going to the council's housing office, rather than waiting at (somebody else's?) home in the hope that it was going to drop into my lap in the shape of Greenwich Time - especially if the distribution is a bit hit-and-miss!
But I do know what you mean - and I agree. However, I think to bury the list of available accommodation amongst pictures of councillors kissing babies and hugging small children (which always strikes me as a bit iffy anyway - if a strange man wanted a photo of himself hugging my kid, I'd be deeply suspicious...) is smug, patronising and unhelpful. And it's a waste of paper. I would guess a comparatively small percentage of the borough's residents are eligible and looking for council accommodation. The council would be better off putting the funds into the housing pot. The housing lists from Greenwich Time should be printed as flyers/separate leaflets and displayed in public buildings such as libraries (or are they all 'music centres' now?), leisure centres, etc. People will take them if they're interested, and will know where to go to find a leaflet.
Btw, as for free papers - I suppose my point is that you should be able to opt out. I feel guilty each week for putting half a tree straight into the bin, but I just don't want it. I'll go to the website if I want info at a particular time. Obviously the local papers do make money, good for them, and financially and politically their content is none of my business. However, environmentally I do consider it my business that they impose themselves on me, and that I then have to dispose of something entirely unused. But that's a completely different topic...
disenchanted - at least they steal your bins. They used to just set fire to ours...
Since 1st May Greenwich Time has been a weekly publication.
It is now used for all Greenwich Council Statutory Notices (planning, highways etc). GT supposedly has a better coverage of the Borough than the Mercury does (although I hardly ever get GT).
The Council has spent a fortune on putting htese statutory adverts in local papers so may be a cost saving???
Dear Chris Roberts
to coin a phrase...
I'm in the smallest room in the house your paper is in front of me, soon it will behind me!
you can put a no junk mail sticker on your letterbox which does actually stop a lot of unwanted mail.
Agreed - Do they really think people read this dross? Whilst they may get a personal kick in seeing their own bloated smug faces in print, it is a joke at our expense.
Once a quarter, maybe at a push, but once a week - a joke. The paper looks like a school effort. Maybe they will soon run out of news and revert to wordsearches, crosswords and spot the difference competitions.
The council should learn that the only way people get to know what is truely happening in the borough is when they see clean streets, no grafitti, more police, etc... We don't need them telling us they have spent 6 months deciding what colour to paint a new recycling bin.
Scrap it and either use the money saved to lower concil tax bills or put it into something more environmental. I'm not an eco warrior but I would much prefer to see a tree planted that all this wasted newsprint.
Grumble over....
GG
I think it was in the News Shopper that I once spied my favourite headline ever:
"Pensioner admits lewd act with pig"
That said, it was the only thing worth reading in 3 years' worth of News Shoppers (which they no longer deliver).
CLW - I hear what you're saying about statutory announcements but are they really THAT urgent that we have to have a weekly update?
But it's a thought. I wonder whether Greenwich Council should go the whole hog and turn Greenwich Time into an actual newspaper and take ads? That wouldn't, of course, guarantee that the quality would be any better, but at least we wouldn't be paying for such amateurish dross.
Imho it's a pity that we don't have a proper local newspaper featuring events, business, trades etc. GT is self congratulatory, propagandist, unreadable drek. If they must keep it going, could they not issue it in a size suitable to line a bin; and/or print photos of their autocratic planning dept so I can put a face to those robotic and wholly unreasonable refuseniks.
GT wasn't too bad for a few years, as info about the council went, but then it just became a propaganda sheet - laughable when there's so much going on that people *need* to know about, but instead it's just full of crap about how good the council is.
The new look is probably aping East End Life, where Tower Hamlets' rag is trying to become a full-on local paper.
Anyway, today's Jimmy Mizen special is pretty gruesome - had my own rant here.
Sorry Inspector - I can't find your rant. you just seem to be clicking back to me.
Bah, Blogger and Typepad never do get on, do they?
Or maybe it's me being rubbish.
Try here, anyway.
Sadly blogger doesn't get on with itself some of the time too.
I've found you now - thanks. Do you know I never knew you were Last Bus Home...Never put the two together. Does that make me VERY obtuse?
It's the whole Blogger comments thing - if you don't have a Blogger blog, your link doesn't show. My old blog (Casino Avenue) was on Blogger, and All Quiet In The East Stand still is. I tried the OpenID thing and all it did was let slip my real name :-(
I love the world people in Blogland clearly make assumptions without basing them upon facts.
How you people all love to whinge...
I actually like GT - it is what it is. Everyone knows its from the council so its hardly pulling the wool over anyone's eyes!
And unlike the other trash out there (Mercury. Kentish Times) its not just negative about everything. And unlike Meridian its not stuffed full of adverts and v little "news"
Anyone who had bothered to read the new Greenwich Time would have seen the changes that have been made -which can only be described as a step in the right direction.
OUT go the pages of councillors pics and quotes
IN come columns written by real people (anyone who read this week's will see Nick Day from PCEG criticising the council yet its still printed)
IN come regular columns people want to read - TONY LORD
IN come honest articles - the council admits waste services were affected by the strikes last week on the front page, having admitted only a few weeks before that they made mistakes with the new service
IN come critical letters by the bucket load
That can only be a good thing.
As for the costs - does anyone actually know how much it costs?NO.
At least one person pointed out the council must be saving tens of thousands of more now the ads are in GT and not the Mercury.
As for the statements they should produce leaflets that sit in libraries instead - get real who would pick them up. GT goes through peoples doors, much better.
So stop whingeing. if you dont like it - tell them that - theres a survey on their website where you can tell them its crap till the cows come home. But for all the people who think they can do better why nottake the chance to make some suggestions...
Is there a 'satellite' delay on your computer STOP MOANING :-) lol
This thread was written in May....
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