Every now and then, we see one of the media companies blowing, and sometimes blasting, its own trumpet about being the best this or best that. Which is all rather silly because we all know that there isn't much, or sometimes any, competition here. Well, today was TODAY's turn to do it in an article 'What keeps this newspaper ticking?' At least they had the 'humility' not to put this on the front page and to give the article a fairly innocuous title.
We are told that according to a Nielson Media Research survey (July 2004-June 2005),
1. TODAY is 'the only English daily to gain readership'.
The stats:
TODAY gained 13,000 'new readers'
TNP lost 59,000 readers
ST lost 26,000 readers
It wasn't written in this article, but somehow, I don't see people 'defecting' in large numbers from ST to TODAY. Well, maybe some people did but some of the 13,000 'new readers' could be people who read BOTH papers, no? Also, TODAY is free; you have to pay for the others. Is it any surprise it would 'gain readership'? And the first line of this article reads, 'Figures never lie as the old saying goes'. Ha ha ha...
2. TODAY has overtaken TNP.
3. TODAY has the 'highest proportion of readers living in condominiums and landed properties' .
Now, what is this supposed to show? That TODAY is high class? Although it was mentioned that TODAY is a 'free' newspaper, it was not mentioned that it is delivered free to certain parts of S'pore, and the company could choose to deliver to condominiums and landed properties.
4. A 'high proportion' of TODAY readers 'have university or higher degrees'.
Ya ya, tell us about it. To reinforce this point, a former NMP and 2 lecturers were interviewed for their praise of TODAY. BUT, this does not mean these 'high class' readers don't read anything else.
Now, a look at some of what was quoted.
1. Former NMP says, 'After reading TODAY, you don't need to read any other paper.'
I don't agree at all. If one really wanted to be in the know, they had better read other sources of news.
2. Ngee Ann Poly mass comm lecturer says, 'If I had to rush to find out what was going on today, this would be the paper I would choose.'
Well, okay, that's his choice but one could also do a cursory flip of ST, catch CNA or radio 'on the hour' reports, etc.
And of course there were no quotes or interviews with anyone who had anything negative to say about TODAY.
At this point, I have to say that I am a TODAY reader, I'm glad to be one of those 'households' that gets the free delivery (though I live neither in a condo nor landed property) and I do like the paper. What I'm irritated about is how one-sided this whole article is. There is no balance whatsoever or acknowledgement of the fact that the 3 papers cannot be 'fairly' compared.
TODAY is the newest of the 3 and, logically, the newest is the most likely to make the most gains in readership. Also, the 3 are rather different in nature and although TODAY seems to be like TNP, if you read them, you will realise that they have very different styles.
Finally, what i like about TODAY:
1. the 'Voices' section - it has very interesting reader letters
2. it highlights interesting news - one example is the report on a local website for older Singaporeans that reportedly experienced a 'web traffic jam which almost crashed the site' after it was featured. (I am not saying that ST and TNP don't feature interesting news)
3. a couple of hilarious writers, namely Neil Humphreys and Mr Brown (TNP has Sylvia Toh Paik Choo; ST -- maybe it's not appropriate to have 'humorous' journalists but I do remember some years back there was a crime reporter whose work was sometimes really funny and my friend used to cut his/her articles to put up on her workstation wall)
But I'm still irritated by this media habit of praising themselves. Maybe TODAY is not so different from its competitors after all...
We are told that according to a Nielson Media Research survey (July 2004-June 2005),
1. TODAY is 'the only English daily to gain readership'.
The stats:
TODAY gained 13,000 'new readers'
TNP lost 59,000 readers
ST lost 26,000 readers
It wasn't written in this article, but somehow, I don't see people 'defecting' in large numbers from ST to TODAY. Well, maybe some people did but some of the 13,000 'new readers' could be people who read BOTH papers, no? Also, TODAY is free; you have to pay for the others. Is it any surprise it would 'gain readership'? And the first line of this article reads, 'Figures never lie as the old saying goes'. Ha ha ha...
2. TODAY has overtaken TNP.
3. TODAY has the 'highest proportion of readers living in condominiums and landed properties' .
Now, what is this supposed to show? That TODAY is high class? Although it was mentioned that TODAY is a 'free' newspaper, it was not mentioned that it is delivered free to certain parts of S'pore, and the company could choose to deliver to condominiums and landed properties.
4. A 'high proportion' of TODAY readers 'have university or higher degrees'.
Ya ya, tell us about it. To reinforce this point, a former NMP and 2 lecturers were interviewed for their praise of TODAY. BUT, this does not mean these 'high class' readers don't read anything else.
Now, a look at some of what was quoted.
1. Former NMP says, 'After reading TODAY, you don't need to read any other paper.'
I don't agree at all. If one really wanted to be in the know, they had better read other sources of news.
2. Ngee Ann Poly mass comm lecturer says, 'If I had to rush to find out what was going on today, this would be the paper I would choose.'
Well, okay, that's his choice but one could also do a cursory flip of ST, catch CNA or radio 'on the hour' reports, etc.
And of course there were no quotes or interviews with anyone who had anything negative to say about TODAY.
At this point, I have to say that I am a TODAY reader, I'm glad to be one of those 'households' that gets the free delivery (though I live neither in a condo nor landed property) and I do like the paper. What I'm irritated about is how one-sided this whole article is. There is no balance whatsoever or acknowledgement of the fact that the 3 papers cannot be 'fairly' compared.
TODAY is the newest of the 3 and, logically, the newest is the most likely to make the most gains in readership. Also, the 3 are rather different in nature and although TODAY seems to be like TNP, if you read them, you will realise that they have very different styles.
Finally, what i like about TODAY:
1. the 'Voices' section - it has very interesting reader letters
2. it highlights interesting news - one example is the report on a local website for older Singaporeans that reportedly experienced a 'web traffic jam which almost crashed the site' after it was featured. (I am not saying that ST and TNP don't feature interesting news)
3. a couple of hilarious writers, namely Neil Humphreys and Mr Brown (TNP has Sylvia Toh Paik Choo; ST -- maybe it's not appropriate to have 'humorous' journalists but I do remember some years back there was a crime reporter whose work was sometimes really funny and my friend used to cut his/her articles to put up on her workstation wall)
But I'm still irritated by this media habit of praising themselves. Maybe TODAY is not so different from its competitors after all...
Comments
Cheers mate.