Mail Circulation

[dowager]

I worked with Mr Blackwood for two years of his tenure.

He was local, born and bred, he had worked his way up from the shop floor to be Editor, he received stinging criticism from Labour, Conservatives and Lib/Dems locally .. so he was doing something right.

The Mail had regular 4 page pullout supplements of readers letters, it was part of the community and the community was responding.

When the Mail ran stories about the attempt by H'Angus to win the mayorship (as a laugh) Mandelson was furious, when the 'lads of the town' started putting bets on the Monkey to win at 2,000-1 (as a laugh again), it then because a national story, then an international story.

The price quickly went from 1,000-1 to 2-1 . .and the Monkey romped home, making a lot of Hartlepool people a lot of money an directly taking the p**s out of Mandelson and Labour

Mandelson, Leo Gillen and Tony BLiar never forgave Blackwood and it didn't take long for them to twig the ear of the management and board and the pressure was immense.

Trumped up charges meant that he had to leave his dream job, and then, away from the headlines, they settled out of court.

The one thing the internet does badly is local news, the demise of local newspapers has been pre-determined by newspaper managements via political parties across the country so that local democracy disappears.

The police and the council and those in power sleep easy in their beds. Which was the grand plan all along.

[dowager]

LATEST FIGURES ...  10,521 .. down 17% in 6 months.

BUT, as I said before, that's been the national plan for democracy all along.

Thank goodness for HartlepoolPost

http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2013/news/abc-figures-how-the-regional-dailies-performed-6/

[Lord Elpus]

I would like to think Harry looks upon me as a friend and  I support 100% the comments of Dowager, Harry knew Hartlepool and knew the good guys from the chancers most Officers and Councillors disliked him for his honesty, Russell Hart called him 'Black Harry'. 

Harry defended his staff against the likes of Mandy and paid the price.

[The Great Dictator]

He also cost the Mail a lot of money in lawsuits, another reason he was dumped..

[dowager]

I think, with a reply like that, you should outline the lawsuits, those involved and the verdicts.

I'm not saying they didn't happen, but I was not aware of any in the 23 months I was a part of 'the team'

[Inspector Knacker]

He also cost the Mail a lot of money in lawsuits, another reason he was dumped..

I'd rather have the Mail under Harry Blackwood than the bland  purveyor of the irrelevant we now have.... a local paper is important...the present Mail is poor shadow of its former self.
The reference to the letters page is a good example...... one page monopolised by the same  'philosophers'  and Mr Allan lecturing us.....
Not allowing the use of non de plumes stops those  people who because of various reasons such as employment, cannot use their names, left us with what we have now........ nuf said!

[The Great Dictator]

...and its 60p !

[Sanddancer]

Just another brief entry in support of Harry Blackwood and a profound regret at the anodyne status of The Mail at the moment....It used to be a talking point in pub conversations but it is obvious that now no one reads it except to look at announcements at the Asda library.

[tankerville]

This may well be out of context with what has been posted I think those that read letters from other Newspapers can take note of one particular letter that appeared in The Mail yesterday.

Christmas calamity was food for thought.

Back in 1945. I was 16 and one of the crew aboard a ship called the SS Samyale carrying Jeeps and army lorries to France.
It was a week before Christmas and we were taking on the cargo at King George's Docks in London East End.
The Captain said it would take all weekend, so most of us could go home for a couple of days. When I got home, my dad was delighted and said he would do me an early Christmas Dinner.
He used his meat coupons to get a small roast beef joint. He put the joint in a cold oven and switched it on at noon.
He also put the potatoes greens and carrots on at noon. At 1.00pm, he dished it up. The potatoes were just white paste, the greens a green paste, and the carrots were in bits. The roast beef was raw.
'Don't worry,' he said 'I'll slice it and fry it.'
Ten minutes later, you could have mended your shoes with it - if you could have got a nail through it. I was a bit angry and shoved it away. Well at least we've got Christmas pud.' Dad said. 'How do you want it, hot or cold? 'Hot' I said.
He then sliced it up and put it into the frying pan. The taste was vile. He tried to disguise the taste by pouring the thinnest custard I've ever seen over it. 'What milk did you use? I asked him. I didn't 'he replied' I used boiling water.
I was getting rather annoyed when he said; I'm really sorry. Brian.'

I remembered then that this was the man who, in his teens, had gone through the horrors of the trenches in World War 1, who had worked hard all his life and had brought up three sons all on his own.

And at that moment I loved him more than I ever knew.

Brian V Reynolds Herne Bay Kent.

[mk1]

The Mail article on the Housing Hartlepool move had a couple of interesting replies added yesterday about the Mail itself.

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/hartlepool-housing-group-to-move-to-stockton-due-to-not-fit-for-purpose-building-1-6323808


A Mail employee replied and was given a hard time by posters of his refusal to answer straight question.

Well today the whole article stated of with all comments deleted and  now has simply vanished from the front page and all links to it removed.

[steveL]

Worth a try at The Mail too I guess. I've always liked the Echo myself.

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/north-east/chuckle-brothers-to-help-edit-paper-1-6323146

[Mr Mister]

I worked with Mr Blackwood for two years of his tenure.

He was local, born and bred, he had worked his way up from the shop floor to be Editor, he received stinging criticism from Labour, Conservatives and Lib/Dems locally .. so he was doing something right.

The Mail had regular 4 page pullout supplements of readers letters, it was part of the community and the community was responding.

When the Mail ran stories about the attempt by H'Angus to win the mayorship (as a laugh) Mandelson was furious, when the 'lads of the town' started putting bets on the Monkey to win at 2,000-1 (as a laugh again), it then because a national story, then an international story.

The price quickly went from 1,000-1 to 2-1 . .and the Monkey romped home, making a lot of Hartlepool people a lot of money an directly taking the p**s out of Mandelson and Labour

Mandelson, Leo Gillen and Tony BLiar never forgave Blackwood and it didn't take long for them to twig the ear of the management and board and the pressure was immense.

Trumped up charges meant that he had to leave his dream job, and then, away from the headlines, they settled out of court.

The one thing the internet does badly is local news, the demise of local newspapers has been pre-determined by newspaper managements via political parties across the country so that local democracy disappears.

The police and the council and those in power sleep easy in their beds. Which was the grand plan all along.

Odd that you say you worked with him for 2 years..

I thought you were Harry Blackwood 

[Hartlepudlion]

Phew! I thought you meant our very own chuckle brothers!
That would have confirmed that the Mail was a S&CABs mouthpiece.

[Sparky]

How do I go about viewing the readership of the mail and collating how many readers they have lost?

Oh and I do think the mail has went down the drain since it became the peterlee and hartlepool mail together.