Hertfordshire Mercury

Clubs and societies, neighbourhood and social issues
commentator
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Hertfordshire Mercury

Post by commentator » Thu 01 Mar, 2018 2:35 pm

According to latest ABC figures sales of the Mercury (all editions) have fallen by 16 per cent to just over 9,000 copies a week. Can't see it lasting till the end of the year.

newcomer
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Joined:Mon 02 Dec, 2013 11:00 am

Re: Hertfordshire Mercury

Post by newcomer » Thu 01 Mar, 2018 4:06 pm

Wonder what the equivalent website figures are and what ad revenue they get from those?

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Steve
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Re: Hertfordshire Mercury

Post by Steve » Thu 01 Mar, 2018 4:57 pm

The sooner it's put out of our misery the better. Poor reporting and an advert laden website.

They're closing their print titles and focusing more on their Live brand.

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/editor-of ... ing-model/

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/burton-ma ... ve-banner/

No surprise that they've registered the domain hertfordshirelive.co.uk.

It would be great if Illife Media brought The Independent to Hertford (Illife re-employed staff sacked from the Herts & Essex Observer and launched the new title operating out of the closed Observer offices in North Street).

http://www.bishopsstortfordindependent.co.uk

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/iliffe-me ... per-title/

jasmine98
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Joined:Sun 01 Dec, 2013 9:56 am

Re: Hertfordshire Mercury

Post by jasmine98 » Sat 03 Mar, 2018 10:11 am

Only about 9000 circulation, amazing, it doesn't seem long ago that the figure was around 30,000. Can it survive?

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Steve
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Re: Hertfordshire Mercury

Post by Steve » Tue 29 May, 2018 12:46 pm

Has anyone noted how many cookies the Mercury website puts in the computer?

Google Chrome tells you if you click on the padlock symbol next to the URL.

According to my browser, whilst Facebook writes 18 cookies to my machine, the Mercury website writes 212 - the vast majority are advertisers cookies.

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leo densian
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Re: Hertfordshire Mercury

Post by leo densian » Tue 29 May, 2018 6:04 pm

Don’t know about the cookie advertising income but not much is being spent on proofreading. From today’s story of the accident on the A10:

“A piece of barrier was left “dangling” over the below A414 after a vehicle careered into it, causing delays in both on the A414 in both directions towards Great Amwell”. :|

TcfL
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Re: Hertfordshire Mercury

Post by TcfL » Thu 31 May, 2018 8:14 am

Regarding cookies I've spent some time un-ticking the 'partners' section of their Privacy code and also written to them to complain that (IMO) they are not complying with GDPR which requires me to Opt In not Opt Out of their data collection. I'll let you know what response I get.

TcfL
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Re: Hertfordshire Mercury

Post by TcfL » Thu 07 Jun, 2018 7:17 am

The main section of the response from the Mercury is:
'When you go to the website, you will see the cookie banner which gives you a choice to accept cookies or to manage them.
If you click on accept then that is your clear agreement to accept all cookies. If you don’t want to accept all cookies you go to the “manage” page and can turn cookies off by unticking some or all of the boxes shown.
This is not the same as us offering you the opportunity to opt-in to receive marketing emails. If that was the case then you would have to tick the box to agree. As you may be aware, the old option of having a ticked box that has to be unticked to opt out of marketing is no longer legal. '

codek2
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Re: Hertfordshire Mercury

Post by codek2 » Thu 07 Jun, 2018 9:49 am

GDPR isnt about cookies. It's about personal data they store. Cookies is NOT personal data. (despite the intrusiveness and the general awfulness on the mercury site). In this case you've not given them personal data and signed up i.e. an email address etc.

whilst some use of cookies can be so extreme such that they could actually identify you, that's generally not the case, and is frowned upon. Anyway you can block them all in your browser if you want to.

TcfL
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Joined:Mon 16 Oct, 2017 7:57 am

Re: Hertfordshire Mercury

Post by TcfL » Fri 08 Jun, 2018 7:15 am

Yea an aware of that - so spent some 10 mins un-ticking every single link and esp their partner links.

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