"Hertford & Ware" Mercury

[Steve]

It just gets worse and worse. They are currently reporting that police have shut off a section of the A10 between Welwyn Garden City and Stevenage.

The Mercury has become an embarrassment. Their writers (they are not journalists) appear to know little about the area they cover. They are simply not qualified to write for an alleged local newspaper. Trinity Mirror is run by accountants and managers who know nothing about running a successful newspaper.

[JohnSmith]

I reckon they are just trolling us now.

http://m.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/enf ... story.html

Man shot dead in....Edmonton!

[Golden]

I think many of the 'stories' that appear on line are click-bait designed to generate traffic to the website to earn money from the advertising so a murder is bound to get plenty of people to the site even if it is out of Herts area - maybe someone with better knowledge of these things could confirm?

[leo densian]

Their writers (they are not journalists) appear to know little about the area they cover. They are simply not qualified to write for an alleged local newspaper.

On the Facebook page 'pictures of Hertford and Ware' there's a Mercury lad called Martin Ford who puts up a preview of that weeks historical photo so people can comment/identify faces etc. (i.e. Doing the legwork for him before it goes to press). Not saying he's young or anything but he looks like he would have been opening his GCSE results this morning.

[Steve]

Hertford gets better coverage in the Welwyn and Hatfield Times

http://www.whtimes.co.uk/what-s-on/musi ... -1-5138432

No mention of the Musical Mystery Tour in The Murky.

[Marilyn]

Leo Dennison
"On the Facebook page 'pictures of Hertford and Ware' there's a Mercury lad called Martin Ford who puts up a preview of that weeks historical photo so people can comment/identify faces etc. (i.e. Doing the legwork for him before it goes to press). Not saying he's young or anything but he looks like he would have been opening his GCSE results this morning."

They stopped that section of photos out a while ago when the changed format and took all the "news" out as well! People used to love it so course it had to go!

[Smudger]

The musical Tour thing is probably one of the most newsworthy events of the year for Hertford, surely the sort of thing that local papers should be all over ?

Nothing

[Smudger]

Whoops - just said the same thing as Steve

[commentator]

Trinity Mirror is no longer interested in sales of the Mercury as they are dead in the water and as soon as printing costs outweigh revenue from sales the title will close. It is all about clicks on the website and Facebook likes and they dont care how they get them

[Steve]

There was a time when The Hertfordshire Mercury saw itself as a part of the community and reported good news and bad. It engaged with and supported the community (remember the Mercury Bus?). Those days have long gone.

They now see the residents as nothing more than clickbait. A community to exploit rather than serve.

Witness this contemptible report following the hugely successful Musical Mystery Tour on Sunday:

http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/h ... story.html

Thankfully Facebook allows the community to challenge such negative reporting.

https://www.facebook.com/hertfordshiren ... 6838205205

The Welwyn & Hatfield Times were happy to trail the event but there was nothing in The Mercury.

http://www.whtimes.co.uk/what-s-on/musi ... -1-5138432

All of this has not gone unnoticed by local councillors either. It's ironic that the Welwyn & Hatfield Times gives more support to the town (and not just on this occasion) than the alleged local newspaper.