Where have all the newspapers gone?

Walking into a major newsagent-type store in Chester I was amazed to find that the large newspaper stand had disappeared.

In Chester’s WHSmith there used to be a newspaper stand with all the major nationals and regionals, plus a host of specialist and foreign titles, slap-bang in the middle of the store as soon as you walked through the doors.

Now though, it’s been replaced with promotional stands for mobile phones.

You have to walk past these and the aisles of magazines before you get to the papers now.

I don’t know the reason for this change in shop layout, but the front of any store has got to be a very important location for drawing in shoppers and selling products.

Maybe moving a newspaper stand away from this prime location is a sign of the times – people are buying less newspapers.

Perhaps WHSmith's newspaper stand is not working as it once did, an easy money maker encouraging people into the store, so they’ve moved it further back.

And looking at the latest ABC figures, it makes you wonder if newspapers will one day be sold only in specialist shops, like vinyl, VHS videos and the soon to be obsolete-CD.

Articles on writing for the web - a journalist's guide

I was asked to put together a couple of articles on 'writing for the web' by Journalism.co.uk

The emphasis of these was not the very technical SEO (search engine optimisation) side of things, but on the practical skills and techniques the average reporter, or online editor, needs to make sure their stories are found by interested internet surfers- and then actually read.

By interested readers I mean people who are going to be genuinely interested the content of your online article. Not those who have been persuaded into coming to your website because you've managed to cram Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Britney Spears, naked and sex all in the first paragraph.

Or 42DD breasts which seems to be how many people find my blog after an earlier article I wrote. They must be very disappointed.

Here are the articles which appeared on Journalism.co.uk

How to write for the web (part 1)

How to write for the web (part 2)