Hi again folks.
Bought the Sunday Times today, for the 1st time in months, to find a motoring supplement in it. (bought the paper for the top 1000 schools list, very good to see our eldests school at 107). Having had a good go through it I have to say I feel that its better than the new Saturday motoring bit of the Telegraph apart from HJs not there and the fat bloke from Top Gear is.
Anyone want to comment on this?
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Only to say that I agree. The DT motoring section is a very poor shadow of its former self IMO. Shame they\'ve hired FB for the Times.
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I agree also - seems like the DT have a death wish with the Computer and Property sections also having booted many of their best
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Indeed the Sat. Torygraph motoring section is pretty poor these days. HJ is decent but there is not much else in it. I\'ll have to change papers.
Wonder if the Socialist Workers Party paper has a motoring section?
The Sun. Times motoring supplement is quite good.
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I think the supplement misses Paul Ripley and Mike Rutherford, and also the guest columnist on the back page. I hope they do something about the motorcycle page, it\'s lost any degree of interest.
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Tom
Just to echo your sentiments.
Saves a lot of reading time though!
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Well I buy the DT on one of their pay for 48 weeks at a huge discount and for the first time for 5 years am beginning to regret it. I know advertising revenue is falling but the factual helpful content I used to enjoy and which made it stand out - motoring, computers and gardening especially - is fading badly in both quantity and quality.
Seriously thinking of not renewing it.. which is a shame but frankly it\'s starting to look as mediocre as much of its competition..
The muttering section is pretty abysmal now: I used to read it first on Saturdays before I did anything else. Now I read it in the evening afer everything else - says it all.
madf
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I tend to read the online version. The older one used to take a lot longer to read. I would usually find a couple of features, a few regulars and HJ & Paul Ripley to keep me amused. Often there is only HJ's column that I would miss if I didn't bother with it at all. There is now the odd article or regular other than that per week that I bother to read. Often I just end up skimming through. Some of the design articles I probably would read but the online version doesn't seem to manage to do pictures that accompany the print version well so they don't seem to translate.
The lifestyle angle which now prevails is one I am not really interested in. I want proper motoring not some woman complaining about breaking a nail. Perhaps some articles on good road driving (like Evo magazine had) would go some way to bringing back the serious driving content.
I have also noticed that it seems to be more pro government in it's outlook which feels to be at odds with the previous version.
Fifth Gear/Top Gear/ old style Driven all in print is what I would want from a motoring section. Even our local paper's Sentinel motoring has more informative and useful articles, I know find I spend more time reading that than I do the new style motoring.
teabelly
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Thought it was just me. I only read HJ\'s section now then I throw the rest of it in the bin! I previously used to look forward to Motormouth, Ripley was ok sometimes but got a bit boring at other times.
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I used to read the Electronic Telegraph every day. As an expat. it was the best you could get.
Then when they changed the format it became much less user friendly, especially the front page. And then the dreaded pop-ups !!
They asked for feedback. I spent quite a long time composing a thoughtful and objective piece. The response I got back was essentially \"Tough. Everybody else likes it\".
I changed to the Electronic Times, which was a pity given the effort the Telegraph put into its Expat Noticeboard..
And now I am back in the UK and I currently get the paper delivered 7 days a week. I am not going to cancel it, not yet at least, but its a whole lot less entertaining than it used to be. Especially the Motoring, Property, Computer and Gardening stuff.
Shame really. If it doesn\'t improve I guess I\'ll give the Times a go.
M.
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Actually Mark having thought about the electronic telegraph problems.
Ignoring the pop up issue as the site has to be financed somehow.
I reckon a big improvement would be to provide a single daily index page as on the old ET. All it would have to do is provide a series of links to articles published in that day's edition.
So you could have a quick trawl through the sections you were interested in, skip over the bits of no interest. Might even fire up some articles which would be completely missed in todays set up.
Its a real shame for both e and paper versions to go egg shaped.
What do you think?
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Well goodness me, and I too thought it was just me that considered the Saturday Telegraph going rapidly downhill.
All been said above. Plus its followed the Telegraph website to the point where I hardly visit even when overseas with severe UK news withdrawal symptoms.
And what is the point of a motorcycling section written by a dippy bird who cannot even pass her basic test.
Personally I always reckoned there are quite a few regulars on this site who could have given the road rage regulars a decent run for their money. Might have had a bit of overkill on the fog lights when its not foggy subject but worth a go I would have thought.
What next? We will have the gardening section written by estate agents and the travel section written by whichever unfortunate is transport minister at the time. At least Germaine is still there.
Its got until the end of Jan to sort itself out and then my custom will be going elsewhere.
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Agree with the sentiments expressed here. The articles from the girl writing on motorcycles are dire.
It has become a 'lifestyle'magazine with a motoring flavour more suited to Hello? than the Telegraph.
C
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I used to look forward to the Saturday Telegraph dropping through the door - it used to give me a good evening's entertainment with plenty of quirky articles worth reading.
Then something was done to it that stopped me reading quite so much of it. I find myself skimming through the thing rather than going over it page by page.
The motoring section is a prime example. Where it always used to grip me from the front page to the back, it's now full of dumbed-down articles that insult my (meagre) intelligence. Motorcycling used to be covered in an informative way; the coverage has just evaporated, leaving a whiff of style behind it. Even Paul "Perfect" Ripley used to grip me despite the fact that he annoyed me to death, because there was *substance* to his articles. Now we're left with style alone, which doesn't provide my brain with the nourishment I expect from the Telegraph.
I know it's often easy to criticise and say "I could do better", but to be frank, I genuinely believe that I could do better than much of the current Motoring section. The way I would do that is to have a little more fact and a little less fluff.
I'm still perfectly content with the main body of the newspaper, and the Sunday Telegraph manages to keep me interested all the way through.
V
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Did the DT have a change of motoring editor, HJ? - or do you know of any other reason that they'd want to shoot themselves in the foot for what they've done to the motoring supplement?
Normally, the buying public gets treated with utter contempt - which I think you've already alluded to, but just occasionally they are trying to tell us that we are the wrong sort of readers...but they are too inept to put it into words.
Ian Cook
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C
I agree. I only read the article in last weeks edition to see just how she had fallen off during her CBT. God help us all when she gets out on the road.
This weekends Saturday Telegraph offering ended up on our neighbours floor soaking up the results of a burst pipe. To be honest I haven't missed it other than HJ's column and the fat bloke from Top Gear is no compensation!
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Mark........."Motoring supplements".
How does the retrospective spell checker work, then?
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Does anyone read all these supplements? - some of the others are not so bright either. Most of my lot has ended below Mitten's (silly name, conferred at previous home, now world's oldest kitten!) kittylitter tray. Out of respect HJ's bit is NOT there. :o))
Tomo
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The S.Times supplement has improved dramatically but it decidedly was in dire need of such treatment for many,many,months.
I object to the mammoth collection of spreadsheet Sunday supplements to which we are subjected with many being tossed unread into the recycling bin.however,Driving,now is read with interest & satisfaction.I wonder if it will last?
Simon T.
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I'd noticed that the property, and money section were going down hill. Now the motoring section has gone the same way. With the exception of HJ's column the motoring section is no longer about motoring. I don't know what they are trying to achieve - is it a cost cutting exercise - dumbed down pap cheaper than the focused motoring section it once was? I would get rid of the lifestyle emphasis bring back the road rage feature, hire a new driving tips expert more in tune with modern driving conditions, employ Chris Wiltshire to do a technical tips column and revamp the bike bit back to what bikers want to read, and that's just for starters.
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I usually read the Indy during the week and the Telegraph on saturday just for the motoring and the crosswords. I'm now wondering whether the crosswords are worth it cos the motoring bit isn't (HJ apart, the only feature with any 'meat'). Can't cope with any of the Sundays, too much London-centric rubbish.
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Well the property bit is written by someone who clearly endorses the view that "civilisation stops North of Watford". (Not that I would know where Watford is:-)
madf
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