Express & Star

When I first moved to Shropshire, I subscribed to the Shropshire Star for a shortwhile. Realised they did full coverage of the Dingles, Bagladies, Villa etc but hardly a mention of Walsall. Stopped getting it.

The Walsall edition is the same :laughing:
I made the mistake of buying one in Cannock once
Never again

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He has got some big shoes to fill in replacing Jenko

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Good luck to the lad. Iā€™ve got one tip for him: keep the club close, and keep your sources closer. We need a reporter, not a mate.

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What size was Jenko then? Iā€™m guessing a really good pair were a size 1 and a crap pair a size 10.

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I thought it was because he was suggesting that Jenko was a clown :smiley:

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Jenkoā€™s reporting was one of highlights of a poor season

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This is how it goes:
Something happens in Walsall world and it gets discussed on UTS or on Twitter and is common knowledge.
2 days later It becomes old news.
3 days later, the E&S report it.

Repeat.

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  1. Several days laterā€¦

ICYMI and post the same article again.

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It was a shambles. The reporting was no better than a 12 year oldā€™s ā€œwrite an essay on your summer holidayā€ project.

Twitterā€¦ its a sespit, but to me its a news site where you can go back and forth. But where its too far is tagging him in comments on here and on WFHYS and telling him hes shit.

It was the journalism that this season deserved, but hopefully we can get some better coverage.

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A factor in this is that many people are now accustomed to a barrage of 24-hour news from all angles. Itā€™s on the TV, the radio while youā€™re driving, even on your phone while sat on the toilet. This culture of living, breathing news, instead of just half an hour in the evening, doesnā€™t comfortably correlate with the day-to-day activities of a division 4 football club. Personally Iā€™m not sure any football club could fill that kind of requirement.

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George has spokenā€¦
George Bennett: Meet our new Walsall reporter | Express & Star (expressandstar.com)

Changes afoot at the E&S:

Mmmm more in-depth reporting and better journalism if you subscribe, which currently is free, but you will be charged a monthly fee in a few months time. Personally I havenā€™t purchased the ā€œ Excuse and Starā€ for many years, mainly due to its poor coverage and reporting of local events and more importantly coverage of Walsall FC, where it seemed we were news they reluctantly covered if they had space. Over the years the reporting and general importance as a local information provider has diminished considerably, for me Iā€™m not really bothered if I cannot gain access to a particular news or sport item, therefore I wouldnā€™t subscribe to pay for such a privilege.

Sadly indicative of how newspapers have to operate since the internet decimated print sales. Journos pressured to make six stories out of one interview for 200-word click bait articles because the newspapers are so dependent on PPC revenue.

Then anything long-form or with an ounce of editorial value becomes ā€˜premium contentā€™. Feel sorry for old schoolers like Jenko who have to adapt to this shit, and for new writers who are closer to content cows than journalists.

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According to Wiki the circulation for the E&S in 2022 was 14,000 and for the Shroppie was 10,000.
Sixteen years ago the E&S was 174,000 and in 2012 the Shroppie was 49,000.
Itā€™s little wonder the standards are so low, and of course as standards drop, more people stop purchasing.
Another of those things where I think itā€™s a shame that it is declining and presumably will soon disappear, but Iā€™m not bothered enough to do anything about it.

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And i bet 13000 of those are bought in dingleampton

Hmm letā€™s be fair, he approached covering the club pretty poorly compared to the recent dedicated journalists covering the club under the exact same conditions. Masi, Kean and Edwards all managed to provide insightful, interesting content as well as produce those articles.

The details were sloppy, there were few opinion pieces, the podcasts stopped. At times he outright got players wrong and details of the match completely wrong.

Theyā€™d worked very hard to bring Walsalls coverage into the 21st century over the last few years, and he was noticeably poor at maintaining it.

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Itā€™ll go completely online eventually and miss the boat by about 15 years.

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Hard for Jenko but we went from a premier league quality journalist to Sunday league
The quality difference with the same resources was talk and cheese.
Just a different class and shows the difference what a quality journalist can do