I would like to see all opinion, features etc open to comments. I realise that may not be feasible to moderate, but I think that it would make the website a much better medium for engaging with current affairs and, in a way, for making people feel like they know the writers – it creates a kind of ownership, I think, when you feel you can discuss things with the authors.

I’m noticing more slideshows of late, which I really like, I think it adds a lot to the site, it’s great.

Hugh,

Could some really good extracts from the blogs be published in the hard copy edition once a week or so to give a flavour to those not on-line of what is being said there.

Also by making hard copy readers aware of what they are not receiving with the hard copy some may move to electronic Irish times which I think would be a win win for everyone ……..even the much battered Green party! No?.

Patrick

Bangkok

Well, we should be allowed to comment on all articles.

The ‘breadcrumbs’ trail at the top all the Opinion and Analysis article pages has the wrong link for the main section page. I don’t know how often I find myself on http://www.irishtimes.com/opinionandanalysis/ , having clicked without thinking.

That would be nice to fix.

I agree, the voices in the opinion section are simply not different enough. Breda O’Brien gives you a type of conservative catholic angle – not my cup of tea but it is right wing.

I would like to see more libertarian views in the paper – economically reforming but socially liberal. Paul Tansy or someone like him say Cliff Taylor might once have done this to some extent.

I also think that bar Paul Gillespie’s old column the coverage of international affairs is extremely weak. Much of it is syndicated or simply translated from other sources. The Paris Letter of yore was a complete joke – look at the previous day’s Le Monde and there was half the artice regurgitated.

Part of the problem in this recession is group think. We need different voices. I think you Blog section is far more interesting and thought provoking than your opinion columns often are.

Moderate comments in something approximating real time.

Have a clear moderation policy. And make it public, so your readers know the rules. Obviously anything libelous is out, and Madam will probably frown on earthy language, and… well, that’s it really. I’ve seen comments moderated for no other reason but that they criticised the Irish Times itself. Grow up, learn to take it like a mensch.

Don’t have time limits on comments, or at least relax the limits. It’s frustrating to find an interesting discussion arbitrarily shut down because 24 hours have passed since the original article was published.

Allow commenting on all articles, or at least all opinion articles. One of the great annoyances in the Irish Times opinion pages at the moment is the lack of dissenting voices from the mainstream. At least comments allow your readers to tear apart some of the more appalling apologists (*waves to Orna*). Your readers are not afraid of debate, but the restrictions you place both on what you publish in dead tree and what you allow to be commented online give the impression you’re afraid of your readers.

Oh, and make this comment box bigger. It’s a lousy user experience being forced to type these comment in this teeny weeny cramped box.

Enforce registration for comments. I’d have more faith in people’s comments if they had an account (i.e. you could check out their previous comments) and a faithful report of their location…rather than saying they are in mongolia.

Great idea to get readers to give ideas. One thing I don’t understand is why does IT not operate an active twitter account ? I tried to follow IT on twitter for a while but it never got updated at all. The latest entry was sometime last May ! Due to twitter I regularly read London Times, Guardian and Telegraph articles. I think the IT is really missing out on this.

I’m with Ray. Bring back Krauthammer. Keep your friends close and your right-wing loonies even closer.

Hugh: Thanks for engaging with your newspaper’s readers like this, and for offering the opportunity to contribute to its online development.

I’d like to echo Rosemary’s request to allow comments on all content; or, if not all, at least more. There was an op-ed piece here a couple of months ago that cried out for a response, but for want of a comment facility I resorted to sending a letter (by email) and blogging about it. A discussion here might have been more constructive.

It would help if you could somehow inform commenters that their comments have been received and will be moderated in due course. Sometimes I’ve submitted a comment and have no idea whether it is awaiting approval or got lost in the ether (since the latter has also happened, apparently owing to browser gremlins).

And for a quick win: update the page of RSS feeds to reflect the variety of feeds now available (this blog’s, for example).

Have a clear link to the blogs on the front page of the website. The blogs continue to develop and grow impressively; it’s annoying that you have to click through to the Comment page and then on a small link at the top of the page to access them

Regarding the Images of the Day, would it be possible to have the photographs the same size throughout. I have to keep moving my mouse to click on the ‘next’ arrow.

Could we have an ‘Arts’ section that lets us look at reviews/features by subject – Visual Arts, Books, Jazz etc

You guys pop up on the airwaves all over the place. How about some daily audio content/interviews on the site?

I look at the blogs every day. Would it be possible to have a link to them at the top of the homepage? I’m not sure readers will want to see blog comments in print though.

The weather page needs to reflect the whole country – it defaults to Dublin. I think the webcam needs a refresh…starting to show its age perhaps?

Thanks Hugh for letting us post on this subject. There seem to be many of us out there who want to add our constructive criticisms…

Re. Comment 18.

I’d like to back up Comment 18 by LRE. If the amount is given in Sterling, it stays relevant no matter where the exchange rate goes whereas the Euro equivalent changes continuously and the article becomes dated.

Thanks for the opportunity to air this view.

Crowe

Re Comment 18

I disagree.
Give the figures in the currency of this country as it’s more useful.

Also any chance of a tabloid format a la the Independent, would actually make reading the paper a whole lot handier.

I agree with the comments by LRE and Crowe regarding the currency conversion.

Re Comment 18

I agree with Comment 18. The conversion rate for sterling to euro is in a constant state of flux and a year ago it was very different to what it is today. Unless it’s an abscure currency, leave it as it is.

Please resist temptation to adopt a Berliner format for the print edition. We have seen how the Guardian now resembles a lifestyle magazine written by celebrity columnists that amounts to nothing more than a great ball of fluff. I implore not to pander to rubbernecking idiots. I am reminded of a quote from the Wire where the journalist Gus reminisces about how he used to watch his father read the broadsheet and marvel at how he deftly folded the paper while reading. He remarks that this made him look like the smartest man in the world. Don’t lose this.

Online, losts of the images don’t load correctly. Today, clicking on Turner’s cartoon just brought up a black screen. Can’t we have something that just works?

Also, the seems to be problem with certain links. Some Friday’s I click on the Weekly Movie Quiz to get the answers only to find that last week’s quiz is still there, while if I click on it from a different part of the website the correct quiz is there. That is just unprofessional.

Other than that, keep up the excellent quality articles and I will continue to buy and read this fine publication.

I don’t think the Irish Times gives enough coverage to League of Ireland football, or real football as it should be known.

Beware of Comment 18. It’s an on-line pro A(1)dolf H(8)itler consortium based around football.

I agree with comments 18, 25, 31, 32, 33, 34, 67, 132 and 289

I would recommend the Berliner format, it works well for Le Monde and The Guardian (I’d contradict Sean B in respect of the Guardian, it and the OBserver are both excellently presented with brilliant usage of fonts as well as images.)

The reproduction of Guardian G2 articles and interviews in the Weekend section of Saturdays Irish Times (several days after the original was in the Guardian) is a little tiresome especially as these are so readily available on the Guardians website. As are the syndication of UK papers’ sports articles.

The likes of Emmet Malone are superb sports journalists.. work them harder and rely less on imported copy!

With regards to comment 12, tormentor appears to be more preoccupied with his own well-being than that of the planet if he flies as often as he implies.

Well, a number of suggestions:

1) Presentation of web site. It’s a bit of a mess. It doesn’t need to be clever, just easy to use. One of my favourites is http://www.aldaily.com. Classic retro newspaper feel.

2) Use of e-mail updates. I get e-mails from the New York Times each week with links to all their film reviews and book reviews. Not only does this make it easy to access the films or books I want to read about, but it must be an advertisers’ dream in terms of accessing particular readership segments. Couldn’t the IT do the same?

3) Use of archive. Again, for purchasers of books or DVDs, shouldn’t there be a search facility for old reviews? It can’t be that difficult to set up. Again, it should be a good advertising booster.

4) IF (!) you are thinking of charging for content, might I suggest that you charge for current content, but give the archive for free (i.e. content over a month old)? Don’t charge for breaking news etc, but do charge for opinion pieces, letters and features that are unique to the Irish Times.

lijuh

Soggy- Pardon the implication. One IT-clenching jab to the cranium of an unwitting fellow flyer is enough.

I’m with comment #12 on this one. As a frequent flyer, I too would like to see some major shrinkage going on.

And one more small web site complaint, why can’t I click on the last entry in the breadcrumb to go to the main page for that section?

For example in this case:
* Home » * Supplements » * Property »
why can’t I click Property to go the Property section?

less glossies and supplements! And by that I mean the ‘Metro’ too. Positively turns my stomach to contemplate the resources – both intellectual and material – that are ploughed daily, into that free omnipresent advertiser. Worst thing that ever happened to the daily life of Dublin city!

Better,easier and more intuitive navigation would be great,as would be making more use of the interactivity that delivering content via a screen affords you.
By this I mean the kind of visualisations,graphs,apps,for example, that you might find on nytimes.com or some of the bigger European newspaper sites.
Realise that significant investment is needed to add this kind of enhanced experience,but this is what people are more likely to pay for.
As an amusing aside,if you ever wondered who is still buying newspapers,then here’s an explanation http://tinyurl.com/yfcgaa8

Further to previous comments on your sports coverage. Whatever about the currency, and whatever about print logic, it doesn’t make sense for The IT slavishly to republish swathes of English football nonsense from another website, when readers can get that with a mouse click anyway, and it’s not clever to get someone to around around the web for EPL stories either.
Look to your own, forget the complex of anti-native football snobberies and prejudices, and start giving the game in Ireland a decent hearing.

An open policy on moderation of comments would be useful.

Also the time delay in comments appearing seems fairly long. (Or is this my problem)

Please do not open all articles to comment. The white noise would be unbearable. Limit to opinion/comment pieces.

Could you provide a link for each opinion contributor with all previous articles listed (archiving limitations allowed)

Also a short writer profile would be interesting.

Make people register to comment (as someone else recommended) and provide them with a profile. This allows people to recognise trolls and engage properly in debate (based on previous contributions)

I’d like to see more articles challenging the Irish Times orthodoxy. For example, it would be refreshing to see the odd article supporting Bertie Ahern, not supporting gay marriage etc., supporting people going to mass, not supporting the Queen coming to see us etc. Whatever we think about these subjects, if all IT articles are on the same side, it it feels a bit like we are being told what to think.

Can you improve the Saturday magazine? Perhaps some “serious” articles? The fluff is choking at times. It is obviously aimed at a particular target audience, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it should be unreadable. I realise that the Weekend section covers the weightier issues of the day, but it is still irritating to have a magazine, which has the potential to be interesting, thrown straight into the bin every weekend.

It’s bizarrely hard to find the blogs on http://www.irishtimes.com, they don’t show on your front page. I’ve looked but never found anyway so I keep them under seperate bookmarks. Surely they should be central to your online presence?

Your bloggers can be interesting but some of them don’t come across as keen – they don’t post often enough to establish a blogger’s voice and some post mostly to say they’ve been sick/ busy/ away – yawn…They also at times don’t differentiate in style between blogging and reporting work – I want it short, punchy, funny, informative, anecdotal, opinionated – whatever, not just more of the same from print.

I’d be much more interested in the Irish Times giving a platform for blogging to emerging Irish bloggers who have different insights and background and stronger opinions. Oh and female, you don’t have many women writing blogs on your site – some of the most striking voices out there in the blogosphere are female, you’re missing out (I’m missing out).

‘You, the user’ you invite us. Good idea to invite input but blogging is about creating networks of interactivity for commenters and bloggers on an active and equal basis. Not about you the editor and me the user but about sharing views and information as equals and being open to that relationship – something some journalists aren’t that comfortable with.

One more thing: slide shows can look lovely but might be better wtih variation of the pace of sound and pace of image sequencing.

Agreed with Louise about the blogs in all respects. They’re *far* too hard to find on the home page – this was understandable at first, when they were just being tried out, but now that they’re so central to the paper’s online identity, a reader shouldn’t have to root around for them to find them.

Also agreed about the fact that your bloggers don’t come across, always, like they want to be blogging. They post reviews or pieces they’ve already published in the print edition, or they write in half-sentences about how they’re too busy to post properly, or have been travelling, or blah, or they post a one-line blog asking readers what *they* think about a particular issue.

Sometimes, as in the case of this blog entry about the Irish Times, that’s useful, but when a blogger adopts this practice almost all the time, it comes across as lazy and half-hearted; a blog post should be engaging and well-written too. (I suspect your bloggers are not being paid extra to blog, however, so perhaps it’s understandable).

Thanks for asking!

Re: Comment 62

“more Fintan O’Toole”

NOOOOO!!

also, re comment 58. might I suggest that “barstooling” (vb) would be a worthy sucessor to “negatize” in the proposed word of the day feature

@Stiofan
There is a time-trusted art to folding a broadsheet into quarters for commuting.

I wholeheartedly agree with the posters who want the sterling figures, in syndicated football stories, left as they are.

Changing the figures to a Euro equivalent is pointless and unnecessary.

I agree with them 100% (0r 108.83% in Euros).

BK

Direct links from homepage to blogs in particular and to all areas in general.

Include pictures with articles.

link to related articles

a dedicated section for books, in particular book reviews.

Oh, and please retain the practice of converting to sterling etc. to Euro. Not everybody can work it out and it’s useful to know what something was worth at the time -eg. what price houses were selling at in UK in June 2007.

In fairness, Niamh, I believe the currency conversion point was raised strictly as a Sports Section issue, particularly in syndicated content from the UK.

I would like to disagree with post 62 about your tv reviewer – Hilary Fannin is excellent. I find that I have rarely watched the shows she reviews but I never miss her report. Genius.

As to the controversy over currency conversion – who cares?!

Your archive is incredible but, regrettably, I’m not Midas so I can’t afford to use it. It really is a joke – what were you thinking when the price structure changed?

Also, what was the deal the week before the Lisbon Treaty when every single opinion writer, in your Saturday edition, wrote an article promoting a Yes vote? I voted Yes but it was quite off-putting. While I enjoy reading columns from similarly-minded people I also read opinion pieces to be challenged by opposing views – was it simply that everyone turned in a piece on the same subject by some horrible coincidence?

At the risk of being overly dramatic, I must say my opinion of this paper diminished when I saw that day’s publication.

The editor’s picks on the homepage is a good addition – I often find pieces there that I would otherwise have overlooked.

Also, whatever you pay Miriam Lord, double it – immediately. She is consistently excellent and always laugh-out-loud funny. Although, sometimes it’s hard to differentiate between the Dáil sketches from the “serious” reports – but that’s an issue for our politicians.

A final word and something positive: Thank you for carrying Garrison Keilor’s weekly musings. His contribution to the paper is enormous. He has a wonderful writing style and a refreshing, incredibly witty, voice – far better than that crackpot Krauthammer.

Thanks to everyone who’s contributed so far. Lots of really interesting and useful stuff there, including points from several writers grouped around thematic strands which deserve consideration in separate posts, among them:

a) Addressing fundamental problems with navigation, design and intuitive presentation of content on the site.

b) Allowing more opportunities to comment, faster moderation of comments, greater clarity on moderation policy and some routing of user comments back into the dead tree version.

c) Giving greater prominence to blogs, a bit more fizz and frequency from some bloggers and a broadening of the blogger base.

d) Better aggregation and linking of related content, whether it be movies or Nama.

e) Better use of pictures and graphics

f) Links which clearly signal their content (eg telling you what an opinion piece is about and who wrote it.

I know it’ll come as little consolation to know that the above are already big issues for myself and the team in here. (I say this in the hope that you’ll accept we’re not all blithering idiots.) We have major technical shortcomings and legacy stuff we need to get over to deliver the best possible site. We are working on all of the above, with limited resources, and you should see some improvements in some areas very soon. Others, unfortunately, will take a bit longer.

Ray@6 Jennifer@24 and Paddy@48 – thanks for some very helpful points on the digital archive. Will follow them up.

Breadcrumbs1: Simon@7 Not quite sure what’s going wrong there. Can you clarify?

Breadcrumbs2: Eric@55 Silly design flaw we’ll be fixing very soon

Robespierre@9 and Fergal Og (where’s that damn fada?) @65 I agree that we could broaden the range and diversity of views on offer, both to left and right

Louise@69 Sorry if my wording came across as condescending or talking down. As I said at the outset, this is the start of a process for the Irish Times, which I see as being a dialogue of equals. I accept your point that some of my colleagues may find this process… challenging, which is something I look forward to discussing here.

I have no comment to make on 9/11 (being a fully paid-up member of the New World Order)

Nor do I wish to comment on the more Shane Hegarty/less Shane Hegarty debate, apart from saying I also miss his blog

Frank the Hammer@58 My word of the day is scrofulous

Finally (for the moment), I’m taken aback by the strength of feeling on sterling/euro conversions. Does this just apply to soccer coverage? As someone who used to have to go through copy and insert the bloody things, I hate them myself. And they do look pretty ridiculous. But I’m delighted they’ve come up, as it will allow me to write something soon about the Irish Times Style Guide, acronyms and all manner of other nerdy stuff. Brace yourselves….

Oh, and keep ‘em coming….

Agree with comment 68. Make the site more mobile device friendly;
- Detect what browser the request is coming from and display pages apprppriately (e.g. render m.irishtimes.com pages)
- Use the BBC’s excellent convention of a top left of page link “skip to content”

I usually read the paper on my smart phone using 3G networks – a slightly less “graphic-heavy” version of the site would save both download times and help me stay within my data limits. BBC mobile is a good example of a working site for phones.

Otherwise very happy with the paper as it is

Can you kill off the magazine? No really, it is dreadful. Also, an iPhone app is essential, really hard to read the site via mobile

I would like to disagree with the comment made by Frank The Tank disagreeing with Frank The Hammer. I’d like to support comment 85 while bewailing the fact that the word is not “scrofuloid”.

Oh and I think it’s time to pension off Crosaire. His clues don’t read properly and there’s too much repetiton of them.

Umissable in the Irish Times (in no particular order):
1 The letters page
2 David Adams
3 Miriam Lord
4 Fintan O’Toole
5 Quentin Fottrell
6 Newton’s Optic
7 Killian Doyle
8 Maurice Nelligan
9 Kathy Sheridan
10 The Saturday review section

Very missable:
1 the weekend magazine. Low standard of journalism led by the dreadful restaurant reviewer and the cringe-making coverage of weddings.
2 “Gloss” in particular but also other advertising pull-outs and silly “bits”.
3 The TV column.
4 Journalists who think they are part of the story.
5 The over-earnest arts and books pages.
6 Features pages – no-one seem to know what to do with them.

A few posts mention a better service for phones and mobile devices. Watch this space for improvements upcoming very soon.

There’s also some discussion about whether we’re using syndicated material too much, particularly in sport, Weekend arts and foreign coverage. This is definitely something I’ll return to – the reality is that every newspaper uses some syndicated copy, and that The Irish Times uses its own correspondents far more than any other newspaper in this country. But I think there’s a few interesting angles to explore – for example, the different reception that material gets online (where, as was pointed out, the original is just a click away).

Neil@94 Duly noted, and I don’t disagree. The issue of quality and standards in newspapers and online is one I will definitely be returning to.

Less Guardian Services stuff – especially in the Arts section.

Get rid of the Saturday Magazine, bury it in a landfill and replace it with something bright and smart. It needs a whole makeover, from top to bottom. New editor, new writers, new designers, new ideas.

Give Hilary Fannin a pay-rise. Best TV reviewer in any Irish paper. Get rid of the radio reviewer fellow because he’s hopeless and only listens to the same radio shows every week. His radio must be broken. Actually, he probably needs a new radio.

More Mary Hannigan. More Keith Duggan. And not just in Sports

Stick some of your sharper and more consistent bloggers like Bryan Mukandi and Jim Carroll on the Opinion & Analysis pages. Take off Sarah Carey or John Waters or John Gibbons or Orna Mulcahy to make room for them.

Bring Maurice Nelligan out of the Health ghetto and put him in the Big Paper. His column is a must-read.

The blogs are the best part of your online coverage and you need to promote them more. Look at the amount of people here talking about that. Why is there no Sports blog? No need for readers’ blogs but definitely need for a Sports one.

Get Madam Editor to write a fortnightly or monthly column or blog. Even a guest post on your blog. Would be fascinating to get a perspective from her.

1) Employ more copy editors to eliminate increasing numbers of irritating errors.

2) Get rid of Orna Mulcahy and the like, and make way for talented writers.

3) Clone Fintan O’Toole.

4) Dump the Motoring supplement, it’s dreadful.

The main nuisance is the site’s design. It’s not very readable or navigable in it’s current form. For example, the sub-headlines (is that the right word?) are in the exact same font, size etc. as the main body of the text.

Something needs to be seriously done with the Weekend Magazine. It currently isn’t fit to line a bird cage let alone read.

Employ me or at least publish my very witty letters!

1. There are simply too many columnists, who are nothing more than gloified bloggers. They have opinions and political agendas, so why should they be paid for them. Let them write a letter to the Editor instead. And, in particular, I cannot stand the arrognace of some of them, especially the likes of Fintan O’Toole.

2. Why should there be a religious column every Saturday, Thinking Anew? I don’t see why there should be any weekly religious column per se, but if there is to be one, then this should not be solely Christian. Other religions, as well as atheism and agnostocism should be given equal space. Personally I find I am being patronised every Saturday by this column,and would prefer not to have any religion sections. Another section I think should be stopped is that to do with a weekly half page of Church Notes. If I wanted such info I’d buy a religious newspaper. This column is totally outdated, and belongs to a Sunday sermon in Church.

I like the idea of a Readers Blogg – however if such a monster were to arrive it is important that everyone gets a fair crack of the whip – and that the next day they are gone – so for example if I submit a Blogg on say The Rise and Fall of John O Donoghue – on a Monday for posting on a Tuesday – it would be available all day Tuesday but would be gone Wednesday morning – nothing worse than seeing the same thing all the time – I know some people think what the right is of central importance to the development of man kind but its not really – so I like that idea but until then I will continue to enjoy the daily News Poll…………

Allow instant opinion comments on EVERYTHING printed in the newspaper. Scrap the ancient stupid libel and slander money racket, oops, laws.

See this is what happens when idiots are allowed to vote… and Lisbon of course…WHAT sort of country runs a second referendum? What’s needed is a benign Dictator… ME! The IT? Oh OK… Keep Frank McNally and ‘RO’K’ and ONLY pay/publish the others on MERIT, no more sinecures or BAD grammar…!

I agree very much with a previous blog re the rather limited amount of international news coverage. When comapred with UK papers, the IT covers very little World news in depth, or indeed in range. I often buy a UK paper, and read the IT online: everytime I have found other news items that the IT never touched at all, or if it did it was usually only a brief reference.

And note that the cost of the IT is almost double that of its Brit counterparts. The latter also have many more crosswords, suduko, and even a polygons, etc. The Simplex is much much too simple, and thus boring, and is even easier than the Quick (English) Times puzzle, which can be quite challenging, something that Simplex hardly ever is. In sum, everthing that the IT offers (bar Irish news, of course) is doubled in the Brit papers, except the price which is almost halved! Note also that the Irish edition of The Times is about half the length of the edition available in the UK, and if one looks at it online, one can then really appreciate how small and limited the IT is in almost any area, bar irish news of course, and wonder why on earth the IT costs almost double the price. Like most things in this country everthing is overpriced and has been for so many years.

The Irish Times is often dull in a plodding, masculine way so I’d suggest diverting half the combined salaries of Madam editor and your CEO towards nurturing a few talented women writers.

Ideally these would be in the Kathy Sheridan mould, ie not ones that come across as breathless, overgrown schoolgirls suffering from arrested development.

Garrison Keillor is fantastic but his perspective is undeniably Yankee. I’d like to see an Irish writer being given the scope to do a similarly whimsical piece on a weekly basis.

In short you need new talent. Advertise! It won’t cost you a dime.

Have an application (app) for the apple iPhone such as USA today where you can download the most recent newspaper and view the most recent news.Also that you email people news there interested in.For example got people to give their email address and emailed them with the most recent news on current affair for example up to date Lisbon treaty results.

Helga,

“a plodding “masculine” way”.

So, to be plodding is to act in a masculine way?
Hey, let’s not be sexist here, woman. Damn women! You can’t live with them, you can’t live without them, being sexist.

sexism

Oh yeah, why not bring back the head2head piece…it guaranteed an equal platform for opposing views.

First off, I want to say that Irishtimes.com is an excellent website, a great service and far and away the best newspaper website in Ireland.

I would only make a few small changes – reading comments can be a little clunky, it would be handy if you could display all comments on one page as on The Guardian website. I was also going to say that you should stop giving John Waters a platform for his unhinged rants, but I have to admit that sometimes they are unintentionally hilarious.

Get rid of Kate Holmquist.

Get rid of Roisin Ingle.

These writers are degrading what is otherwise a very fine paper.

Helga,

You were indeed being sexist about men. Did you not recognise the sexism displayed by your comment? If someone had attributed a negative attribute to women, I am sure you would have bitched about it in a feminine way!! The point is that you characterised “plodding” as a masculine trait. There is nothing inherently masculine about it all.

I read the (now) free online version downunder and really miss the occasional articles on the history of the different townlands in ireland that i used to read in the printed version in ireland … otherwise great product … funny how you suddenly get a greater yearning/understanding of irish history etc when living abroad …

Completely agree with recommendations to overhaul the magazine – it’s become complete fluff.

Get rid of Fiona McCann – she’s as annoying as Roisin Ingle but not as funny.

Get rid of the cosmetics/makeup section, it’s basically just free advertising for brands.

Keep the weddings section – it’s the best laugh I have all week.

The IT website needs a proper overhaul. It’s almost impossible to tell what the key stories in the print edition are from the website.

Secondly, and more importantly, Never Ever again print a story like the one I saw on page 2 of the paper four or five months ago “Foxrock man to marry MP’s daughter”. This small story was actually in the main news section of Ireland’s national paper of record. It beggars belief – the sub-editor responsible for letting that in the newspaper should be sacked. Are you really a serious newspaper or some parochial newsletter from the 1920s?! I’m still incredulous.

>I’m still incredulous.

You must have missed the Johnny Ronan breakup ’story’ so. My jaw is still on the floor after that!

Don’t agree that people should have to register to comment. The Big Brother aspect of that is a turnoff.

Maybe relax a bit with moderating. I once said that the majority of Irish people are stupid (which is a fair enough comment seeing the government that we have) and it was refused. Also, if the moderator sent you a mail saying it was blocked and why (e.g. unlawful content, incitement, too much realism for readers, etc) it would alow people know it was blocked and also to amend.
Also, sack Sarah Carey or transfer her to the glossy magaznine for the bored housewives/husbands, she’s not worthy of the analysis page

1. Go Tabloid
2. Too much syndication
3. Not enough international news
4. Too conservative opinion wise, Charles Krauthammer and Breda O’Brien in particular are offensive a lot of the time.
5. Letters page anachronistic and parochial, although occasionally outstanding I must admit. Maybe it’s too big also.
6. Reduce and eliminate user’s comment and opinion on website articles as much as possible. There are few things more depressing than coming to the end of an article and being exposed to stupid and inane comments. I’m aware of the irony of making this statement via the current medium but will have to live with it. Seriously bad idea to have comment from readers in real time like this. Please leave it to the paid professionals. Although it would obviously be a popular thing to do given the above comments.
7. Seperate tabloid sports section would be a great idea-too much sports coverage in the paper, ghettoise it I say!!
8. The magazine on Saturday’s is awful, so middle class, Dublin 4, heres that fabulous jam we bought last week for 5 euro a jar. Unreadable.
9. Editorials are stunningly boring but they are in every other paper as well, be more strident and campaigning and progressive. Hector! Lament!
10. Have a sense of humour (apart from Frank McNally), it wouldn’t hurt.
11. Why have business secton bigger on Friday? Makes no sense to me, should it not be the same size every week?
12. The ticket is boring, best example of a Friday music/film supplement is the one in the London Independent. Both movie reviewers are not up to scratch in terms of quality of writing for a quality paper like the IT-their cinema knowledge is obviously good enough.
12. The IT is a little expensive no? much better value buying the guardian/independent for a euro each, I’m sorry to say.
13. Too much court reporting
14. Too much reverential coverage of religion-ALL of them.
15. I have to stop there, Nurse Jackie is on me telebox.

How about stop treating freelancers like pond scum. ‘Twould do the newspaper’s karma no end of good.

No tabloid please!

The tabloid/broadsheet debate clearly elicits strong views on both sides. I’m agnostic, myself.

Declan@146. Looking at today’s hardcopy paper and they’re there.

Stephen@143. As I said earlier, I’ll come back to the syndication/ world news issue.

I am always surprised at how people want a newspaper to reflect their own views uniformly. Fair enough, but it seems petty and narrow-minded to me. as it happens, Krauthammer is gone, but I thought he offered a useful insight into the thinking of supporters of the Bush administration (and by extension, a huge swathe of US opinion which we didn’t hear much of directly in Ireland). As for Breda O’Brien, she articulates beliefs which are held by many people in this country. Why on earth is that a bad thing?

It’s not petty or narrow minded to need an opinion columnist not to believe and promote their own brand of personal, political and spiritual nonsense with no basis in fact or logic. (e.g I’d happily read say, Dominic Lawson in the independent though politically disagree with him 90% of the time) Krauthammer wasn’t even on the opinion page, he was in the news section!!. For the 8 years when Bush was in charge, the media was chock ful of reports about why he was in office and who voted him in there and the thinking of the administration, the religious right, the red states, the poor, the wealthy wanting tax cuts, Wolfowitz, Chaney, Rusmfeld, Rice etc etc. We heard of little else to be honest! So I’m not sure that’s a legitimate defense.

Also, I remember also not too long ago when the Irish Times used to syndicate Mark Steyn who was even worse. As for Breda O’Brien, I’m not sure the fact that she articulates beliefs held by some of the population at large is frankly the number one defense of a columnist. If that’s the best that can be said about her, rather than she is informative, witty, knowledgable, insightful, challenging etc (of which she is sadly not) then I think thats maybe an admission that she’s there primarily because of what she “believes” in (she is a conservative catholic)? What’s so great about believing something with no basis in fact and then arguing about politics and public policy on the basis of said belief? Crazy.

I guess it just comes down to the religion thing, there does seem to be an awful reverential attitude toward all religions in the IT, which is understandable I suppose given it’s history as the paper as record and the age and class of it’s readership.

Stephen,

I agree with much of what you have posted re the IT.

However, i wish to opine that the Saturday Thinking (allegedly) Anew column coupled with the regular Church Notes is somehat more than being reverential to “all” religions.

It is rather the promotion and advertisement of one religion. I find it rather offensive to be fed simply the Catholic/Christian line every Saturday, and what’s even worse, for it to be presented on the Editorial And Letters page. The rationale for this policy – which has been in existence for at least the last two decades I believe – is somewhat incomprehensible. It is yet another instance of how parochial and narrow minded the IT is, and this policy is out of touch with the fact that in this country there are many others who are of another religion or none.

“How about stop treating freelancers like pond scum.”

That goes for would-be contributors as well. When you get a pitch, a response would be appreciated. A simple ‘no thank you’ via email will do.

“How about stop treating freelancers like pond scum.”

I agree with Eureka and the original poster. There’s no excuse for not responding to pitches with a simple “no thank you.” It’s basic manners and any claims about the volume of emails received by editors are laughable. Three words “no thank you”, try typing them.

For starters, being willing to discuss (and reply to ) issues of bias in newspapers such as the Irish Times, which claims to be as objective as is reasonably possible. And discuss the issue in more prominent places than obscure corners of the website. Agenda’s are promoted by constant exposure and endless repetition – including the various IT agendas. Thus one must conclude that the issue of it’s own bias (be it deliberate policy or the unconscious product of our conditioning) isn’t actually on the IT agenda. If it was, we’d be reading regular articles about it in prominent places. But we are not.

Sandy@156. Agree with you about coverage of media issues. As I said in a post about Marian Finucane’s remuneration last week, coverage of media issues in Ireland is patchy, partial and too often restricted to the business pages.

FBC@157. Surely one of the great improvements in public discourse has been the power which new technology gives to citizens and consumers to hold power to account? And I include the media in that. Yes, this may be ‘an obscure corner of the website’, but as I said at the outset (less than a week ago), I hope it can become a forum for frank debate on how The Irish Times can improve and develop. And, yes, also to discuss the often unspoken or concealed or unconscious assumptions and agendas which underpin the activities of any media organisation.
Not sure whether many media organisations are very good at interrogating their own ideological assumptions, though. Strikes me that that’s a job better undertaken by the engaged reader. The challenge for us in turn is to engage with that process in a meaningful way.

Stephen wrote: “Too conservative opinion wise, Charles Krauthammer and Breda O’Brien in particular are offensive a lot of the time.”

Yes, and how about that Sarah Carey, eh? Most of the new columnists are either a) deadly boring or b) well to the right of the typical reader (and the needs of these times).

Stephen is also right about the need to breathe fire into the leaders.

Ireland divided on geographic rather than ideological grounds so we don’t the whole legacy of a London Times vs. Manchester Guardian, Masses vs. the Classes thing going on.

That gives us the opportunity to present a broad range of views in the opinion pages. I always found Krauthammer interesting. He is a serious academic who has written for the completely open minded Foreign Affairs periodical – the most prestigious international journal in the world. The last Irish person to write for FA was Eoin McNeill on the Irish question in the mid 1920’s.

He is a heavyweight and an interesting contributor although I am no-neocon only a complete eejit would want to ignore something they do not like or perhaps not fully understand – no matter how loathsome they may find it.

Much broader contributions including bringing across or inviting back some of your previous independently minded heavyweights that I used to bend over backwards to read like Jim Power would be great.

What about moving a bit more quickly by having a rotating by invitation column where you have a question of the month and invite guests to take a stab at it. Burning questions like innovation, unemployment, emigration where guest writers right from inside the experience rather than from the point of view of a medium.

I notice you have adopted some of Prospect Magazine’s ideas but there is almost no web only content. Prospect have roundtables frequently – the one some time ago with Soros and a number of other financial geniuses remains the best thing I have seen on the origins of the financial crisis.

I actually quite like Sarah Carey and think some of her columns are great – she has relatively moderate views, which are very much like those of many people I know. You have diversified your contributions a lot in the last two years. Elaine Byrne is clearly a rising star and while she largely has prismatic columns centred on low standards in high places, she writes well and clearly.

I do think that writers with political affiliations should have a tagline at the bottom of their columns and I have always felt it slightly unethical that FOT should have no Labour party note at the bottom. Sarah has been pretty public on her family background and I can only assume from some the feature pieces that Elaine Byrne has done that she also has some connection with Fine Gael. Noel Whelan and Garrett Fitzgerald don’t need the riders as much but should still have them.

This is of particular importance when a columnist is attacking ideologies of other parties on a regular basis.

I still think that Paul Gillespie’s column is the best in the paper. I would put it up there with the Lex column, Paul Krugman and Badgehot in the Economist for my required weekly reading.

@hlinehan carey isn’t a a female columnist she’s a regressive one, breda too mostly, hide behind her gender if you wish, i want journalists who have to pitch to get an article in each week not columnists

There are so many commnts and so little reaction. I wish Irish Times to react quicker on readers comments; Here is what else you can do:

1. create comment feature to every article
2. create rating feature for every article
3. create own blog on your websites

How is it like theage.au is it printing the same articles?

how about inline hyperlinks in your articles online, i know so 1990’s !