EEN and Scotsman - literally unreadable

[Viva_Palmeiras]

Tried to read an article about McKirdy which was clickbait and not Hibs related - got in to an altercation after scoring against Carlisle I briefly made out.

About 10 rapid popups - plus the statics as you try to scroll. Covering the text.

Why don’t they just make their article unavailable to non-subscribers?

Does anyone actually subscribe ? I’ve subscribed to the Hibs Observer so they’ve lost it there’s no way I’d subscribe to either of them - they used to be my go to sites.

As I understand it even if you subscribe there will still be ads anyway.

Looks like Aidan Smiths stuff is premium I did like a we read lf it back in the day but it did get a bit samey with music references in many an article or barking back to the Tornadoes but that will be someone’s premium rated bag.

it is peoples livelihoods afterall but it’s clear that their model is based on the reader as the product.Id be interested to know the split between the ads bombarded non-sub and the (not entirely ad free?) sub. They’ll need both to survive. I don’t envy their task. They’ll need to balance things they’ve got it wrong IMO.

[Bobo]

Gave up reading the EEN years ago.

It's an overindulgent Jambo rag made even more unbearable with all the advertisements and pop ups.

It's a poorly written piece of sh!!te and should have gone out of business years ago. Can't see how it can last much longer in its current state.

[CapitalGreen]

If you open an article within Twitter on iPhone there is a Reader option at the top of the page which converts the article into just text and images (no ads). That’s the only way I’d read any of these publications (+ those from Reach) these days as their websites are unusable and the content is typically not worth the effort.

28665

[He's here!]

I'm surprised these papers still exist in any format.

Back in the day the Evening News was the go-to for Hibs and Hearts stories and sold around 100k copies. Now I doubt the print edition sells more than 5k, if that.

They're no longer relevant or sustainable sources of news and I'd be surprised if even the older generation of newspaper buyers have stuck with them.

[tamig]

The demise started when they moved to printing the day before. So it became just another morning paper with yesterday’s news. The online version is just a mess.

[Pretty Boy]

I'm surprised these papers still exist in any format.

Back in the day the Evening News was the go-to for Hibs and Hearts stories and sold around 100k copies. Now I doubt the print edition sells more than 5k, if that.

They're no longer relevant or sustainable sources of news and I'd be surprised if even the older generation of newspaper buyers have stuck with them.

They are probably just a symptom of the decline in the printed press in general but it's still a shame to see a once decent paper reduced to it's current format.

Back in the day the journos at the News were expected to compete with the nationals for the big stories and god help them if they were beaten to the punch on a local story. Now it's basically adverts, recycled news, nostalgia ****posting and clickbait.

The News was always a big deal in my grandparents house. The city final came home with my grandad from work and it was devoured cover to cover. My parents stopped buying it years ago and I've never bought it. I reckon that is probably reflective of most peoples experience of it.

[O'Rourke3]

According to Private Eye there are under 10 people working in the massive and costly offices next to the Parliament covering Scotsman and EEN. Like most, they'll be replacing people with AI asap because it's all about clicks providing revenue rather than content people want to read.

[easty]

I stopped reading the Evening News site ages ago, it's less readable than even Edinburgh Live nowadays! You cannae read 3-4 lines of text without an advert ****ing up the page.

[Roxyhibee]

The utter schoolboy guff the EN let Anderson write is embarrassing. The equivalent of that tittering clown McLaughlin on the BBC. Not a journalistic bone in their bodies.

[HarpOnHibee]

There's no such thing as news anymore. Just clickbait and propaganda, that they expect you to pay for.

[J-C]

EN on FB is brutal, the grammar and spelling mistakes are shocking for a so called publication.

[overdrive]

I stopped reading the Evening News site ages ago, it's less readable than even Edinburgh Live nowadays! You cannae read 3-4 lines of text without an advert ****ing up the page.

Aye, and you get part way down after negotiating all the ads and the page jumping because of the ads, only for the page to either go completely blank or with an error message, presumably also caused by the ads.

[HarpOnHibee]

EN on FB is brutal, the grammar and spelling mistakes are shocking for a so called publication.

Because it's AI generated content. They don't waste money on real people anymore for this sort of thing.

[Corstorphine Hibby]

Tried to read an article about McKirdy which was clickbait and not Hibs related - got in to an altercation after flavouring against Carllise I briefly made out.

About 10 rapid popups - plus the statics as you try to scroll. Covering the text.

Why don’t they just make their article unavailable to non-subscribers?

Does anyone actually subscribe ? I’ve subscribed to the Hibs Observer so they’ve lost it there’s no way I’d subscribe to either of them - they used to be my go to sites.

As I understand it even if you subscribe there will still be ads anyway.

Looks like Aidan Smiths stuff is premium I did like a we read lf it back in the day but it did get a bit samey with music references in many an article or barking back to the Tornadoes but that will be someone’s premium rated bag.

it is peoples livelihoods afterall but it’s clear that their model is based on the reader as the product.Id be interested to know the split between the ads bombarded non-sub and the (not entirely ad free?) sub. They’ll need both to survive. I don’t envy their task. They’ll need to balance things they’ve got it wrong IMO.

You can read the EEN, The Scotsman and loads of other publications for free and ad free, via the Pressreader app if you have an Edinburgh Libraries card/log in.

[Keith_M]

For the ads...

https://adblockplus.org/

You can get a plugin for various browsers from here. You will stil get the 'subscription' popup but it's fairly good for everything else.

[cabbageandribs1875]

just copy & paste the URL in here https://12ft.io/


that's for most subscription sites, not sure if it blocks pop-ups though

[CapitalGreen]

According to Private Eye there are under 10 people working in the massive and costly offices next to the Parliament covering Scotsman and EEN. Like most, they'll be replacing people with AI asap because it's all about clicks providing revenue rather than content people want to read.

Somebody should inform Private Eye that The Scotsman & EEN have been out of Barclay House next to the Parliament for over a decade. It’s been occupied by Rockstar North since 2014. The Scotsman/EEN are now based on a floor in Orchard Brae House.

[matty_f]

I don't have any issue with adverts on content, it's hard to make any kind of money putting stuff out and unless you're getting really high engagement then the return on the ads is minimal.

We run ads on our free podcast

[HarpOnHibee]

I don't have any issue with adverts on content, it's hard to make any kind of money putting stuff out and unless you're getting really high engagement then the return on the ads is minimal.

We run ads on our free podcast

If by stuff, you mean absolute guff. The content exists purely to generate revenue, not to offer anything remotely informative.

[BILLYHIBS]

Daily Mail online needs confined to the bin as well total rag

[oneone73]

Interesting seeing some of the stuff regarding ads. How many people on here work for free?

[matty_f]

I don't have any issue with adverts on content, it's hard to make any kind of money putting stuff out and unless you're getting really high engagement then the return on the ads is minimal.

We run ads on our free podcast and try to make them as unintrusive as we can, accepting that there's no way to put them in without some negative impact.

These sites though are genuinely at the point where they are unusable without additional software or going through other sites so you have to wonder what the point is? It's not even like you get a flavour of whether the content is actually worth paying for to skip the ads as you can't read it in the first place.

Just seems like a massive waste of everyone's time. I don't even bother following the links these days.

[Radge70]

Interesting seeing some of the stuff regarding ads. How many people on here work for free?

All the posts on here are free and it's where you find the news first 😉

[He's here!]

Somebody should inform Private Eye that The Scotsman & EEN have been out of Barclay House next to the Parliament for over a decade. It’s been occupied by Rockstar North since 2014. The Scotsman/EEN are now based on a floor in Orchard Brae House.

They've downsized even further since Orchard Brae, which they moved out of 3 or 4 years ago. Last I heard they rent a room in an office on George Street.

The Holyrood building was supposed to represent newspaper offices of the future when they moved there from North Bridge but it only lasted them about a decade. As you say Rockstar North have been in there a long time.

[He's here!]

They are probably just a symptom of the decline in the printed press in general but it's still a shame to see a once decent paper reduced to it's current format.

Back in the day the journos at the News were expected to compete with the nationals for the big stories and god help them if they were beaten to the punch on a local story. Now it's basically adverts, recycled news, nostalgia ****posting and clickbait.

The News was always a big deal in my grandparents house. The city final came home with my grandad from work and it was devoured cover to cover. My parents stopped buying it years ago and I've never bought it. I reckon that is probably reflective of most peoples experience of it.

The Evening News was once a cracking paper, no question.

The Scotsman I never warmed to, although there was a former sports editor Ian Wood (Hibs fan) who used to write a weekly column I enjoyed.

[easty]

Interesting seeing some of the stuff regarding ads. How many people on here work for free?

I don't mind ads, as you say they need to have an income. But the people complaining here are mostly annoyed at how the ads interfere with the main purpose of the service.

A newspaper article that you can't read due to ads dropping you down or pulling you up the page so you don't know where you're meant to be reading from is a complete nonsense. I'd probably tolerate a pop up ad video, like the Youtube model, that you have to watch before you can read something.

[Keith_M]

Interesting seeing some of the stuff regarding ads. How many people on here work for free?


For me, it's not the concept of Ads as such, it's the sheer number of them and all the animation/videos that make the pages really hard to read

[Viva_Palmeiras]

According to Private Eye there are under 10 people working in the massive and costly offices next to the Parliament covering Scotsman and EEN. Like most, they'll be replacing people with AI asap because it's all about clicks providing revenue rather than content people want to read.

did they not move from there a few years ago (would be pre-COVID) and it’s now Rockstar North in that space. I seem to recall them moving into where I worked in Orchard Brae and one of those noddy guys that are on On The Terrace was there.

[Viva_Palmeiras]

For me, it's not the concept of Ads as such, it's the sheer number of them and all the animation/videos that make the pages really hard to read

that’s my point we all know why we are the product and it’s free. But when it gets to the point you are force-fed ads and the user experience is impaired to that extent it’s clear the they have not tested this on users. It puts you off the publication and the sponsors. I don’t think I’ve clicked through or bought anything so they must be fudging it to repeatedly hit users with ads - repeats of the same ads. They are conning their sponsors and hacking off potential readers.

[MelbourneHibees]

Not just the EEN literally any newspaper website is the same. 3 sentences followed by 2 huge ads or videos that auto play.
Then ads popping in from the side. They must make a fortune from click bait and not care if anyone actually reads the article or not.

[Viva_Palmeiras]

I don't mind ads, as you say they need to have an income. But the people complaining here are mostly annoyed at how the ads interfere with the main purpose of the service.

A newspaper article that you can't read due to ads dropping you down or pulling you up the page so you don't know where you're meant to be reading from is a complete nonsense. I'd probably tolerate a pop up ad video, like the Youtube model, that you have to watch before you can read something.

I think it’s about setting the expectations - you keep scrolling up and obscuring the article the invisible hand of the market will eventually tell you where to go.

[Pretty Boy]

All the posts on here are free and it's where you find the news first 😉

We need ads to keep the lights on here as well:greengrin

I don't have an issue with adverts in themselves. They are crucial for most sites to survive but when it makes the interface totally unusable it arguably becomes self defeating.

We actually scaled the ads on here back slightly after a few complaints that they were too intrusive when we made some changes a few years back.

[HarpOnHibee]

that’s my point we all know why we are the product and it’s free. But when it gets to the point you are force-fed ads and the user experience is impaired to that extent it’s clear the they have not tested this on users. It puts you off the publication and the sponsors. I don’t think I’ve clicked through or bought anything so they must be fudging it to repeatedly hit users with ads - repeats of the same ads. They are conning their sponsors and hacking off potential readers.

They don't care about losing readers. They'll quite happily lose 95% of their free readers if they can frustrate the remaining 5% into a subscription. The news is no longer about the news, it's about generating revenue by any means possible. They'll use sensationalism to make their articles seem urgent, make the content unreadable with their ads, then hope that at least a small percentage of their readers will just give in and cough up for a subscription.

[hibsbollah]

Does anyone understand how clickbait is supposed to work ? I can’t think of anything less likely to make me click on it than a headline like Take A Look Into Daniella Westbrookes Disgusting Oxgangs Mansion-You Won’t Believe Your Eyes! …which is what you tend to get on the news or scotsman.

(Peek Inside Gary Locke’s Pish-Stained Comely Bank Bungalow, You’ll Be So Sad At What You Find Out…)

[BILLYHIBS]

We need ads to keep the lights on here as well:greengrin

I don't have an issue with adverts in themselves. They are crucial for most sites to survive but when it makes the interface totally unusable it arguably becomes self defeating.

We actually scaled the ads on here back slightly after a few complaints that they were too intrusive when we made some changes a few years back.

:agree:

Well worth every penny of the £10 annual no ads Private Membership :greengrin

[HarpOnHibee]

Does anyone understand how clickbait is supposed to work ? I can’t think of anything less likely to make me click on it than a headline like Take A Look Into Daniella Westbrookes Disgusting Oxgangs Mansion-You Won’t Believe Your Eyes! …which is what you tend to get on the news or scotsman.

(Peek Inside Gary Locke’s Pish-Stained Comely Bank Bungalow, You’ll Be So Sad At What You Find Out…)

Clickbait isn't simply "look here". It's headlines that give a misleading impression of what a story is actually about. It can make a story seem more important and more urgent than what it actually is and you don't realize just how underwhelming the story is until you read the article. But you can't read the article unless you fork out for the content, which is why they sensationalized the headline to begin with. They manipulate people into thinking their news coverage is more important than what it actually is so that they'll pay to be able to read it.

You wouldn't think that people would be daft enough to fall for it. But it must work, because the problem just keeps on getting worse.

[gerry70]

You can read the EEN, The Scotsman and loads of other publications for free and ad free, via the Pressreader app if you have an Edinburgh Libraries card/log in.

Thanks for that. Good shout.

[ancient hibee]

Aidan Smith seems to have disappeared from the Scotsman print edition.

[Dashing Bob S]

Are any journalists still employed here or is it just all work experience kids trawling the internet for stories?

[Joe6-2]

The demise started when they moved to printing the day before. So it became just another morning paper with yesterday’s news. The online version is just a mess.

Also decided to print in Glasgow, no wonder it’s old news

[Viva_Palmeiras]

Are any journalists still employed here or is it just all work experience kids trawling the internet for stories?

on EdinburghLive it is trawl trawl trawl. Met one of the “journos” in the BrassMonkey once with a lap top stead only getting pissed. They weren’t the sharpest tool in the box bless.

[CB Hibs 68]

Does anyone understand how clickbait is supposed to work ? I can’t think of anything less likely to make me click on it than a headline like Take A Look Into Daniella Westbrookes Disgusting Oxgangs Mansion-You Won’t Believe Your Eyes! …which is what you tend to get on the news or scotsman.

(Peek Inside Gary Locke’s Pish-Stained Comely Bank Bungalow, You’ll Be So Sad At What You Find Out…)No bungalows in Comely Bank mate.

[Viva_Palmeiras]

No bungalows in Comely Bank mate.

#TrueStory

[hibsbollah]

No bungalows in Comely Bank mate.

Thanks for the info :aok:

[Viva_Palmeiras]

Thanks for the info :aok:

I did see a boy in The Ballie in Stocky when Riordan scored the pen at Tynie and he was wearing a Hibsbollah T-shirt I often wondered if that was you - didn’t go up to have a chat as I was with my mate at the time….

[beensaidbefore]

No bungalows in Comely Bank mate.

Or mansions in Oxgangs, tbf

[hibsbollah]

Or mansions in Oxgangs, tbf

How dare you :grr:

[hibsbollah]

I did see a boy in The Ballie in Stocky when Riordan scored the pen at Tynie and he was wearing a Hibsbollah T-shirt I often wondered if that was you - didn’t go up to have a chat as I was with my mate at the time….

Those tshirts were class. I have been in the baillie watching hibs so it could have been me i suppose :greengrin

[Viva_Palmeiras]

Those tshirts were class. I have been in the baillie watching hibs so it could have been me i suppose :greengrin


aha! You wouldn’t have been in their with or chance upon a certain Aidan Smith ?
something at the back of my mind rings a bell … I’m not a stalker !

[hibsbollah]

aha! You wouldn’t have been in their with or chance upon a certain Aidan Smith ?
something at the back of my mind rings a bell … I’m not a stalker !

Absolutely not. If i ever met Aidan Smith I would bore him and everyone in my company to death about how much i hated his book Heartfelt. I mean it’s really terrible. Sorry Aidan.

[Viva_Palmeiras]

Absolutely not. If i ever met Aidan Smith I would bore him and everyone in my company to death about how much i hated his book Heartfelt. I mean it’s really terrible. Sorry Aidan.
He he. Beer addled mammories. Apols.

[beensaidbefore]

How dare you :grr:

😁 certainly not in my street, anyway

[nonshinyfinish]

EN on FB is brutal, the grammar and spelling mistakes are shocking for a so called publication.


Because it's AI generated content. They don't waste money on real people anymore for this sort of thing.

Quite the opposite: spelling mistakes are a sign that it is still written by humans.