Hartlepool Life

[Sanddancer]

Maybe that is why the Mail is growing some lately and not toeing the party line over Carpet gate.

[Steely Dan]

Maybe that is why the Mail is growing some lately and not toeing the party line over Carpet gate.

Can't agree. I think the coverage of that has been poor.

[Land Phil]

Maybe that is why the Mail is growing some lately and not toeing the party line over Carpet gate.

Can't agree. I think the coverage of that has been poor.

Bring back Harry. 

[Lord Elpus]

I'll never forget Gillen and Mandleson's faces the night Hangus won the first Mayoral election.  It was like seeing them both get a right solid kick in the bolsheviks

[steveL]

Where will the content come from ? ...

Half of the Mail content comes from Facebook and is often lifted without speaking to those involved.

Good question. We get loads of e-mails off generic news sites mostly celebrity related. The sort of stuff you see all over the papers like 'the world's 10 shortest movie stars'; maybe they'll go down that road but it will probably be re-hashes of stories that are already out there mixed with ads.

[Steely Dan]

Hard to see how there is a business model for this.

If it's a free paper they'll need lots of paid advertising.

If its a paid for paper nobody will buy it unless the content is good

[dowager]

My wife has a business on Queens Meadow. She had a visit from a PR company lady with  some knowledge of Hartlepool who is starting a Hartlepool Business magazine next month and was touting for stories and advertising. The artwork looked good and she said a 'well known' Hartlepool councillor and a businessman involved in engineering were 'onboard' as backers as well as advertisers.

I asked if she had seen the 'Gillen Gazette' or anyone and she hadn't, but a friend of hers on York Road had

[The Great Dictator]

Me neither Dowager, but i'm told former Mail staff are operating it.

Gillen must be after the £3500 a week Council notices budget which will cover the cost of his Photographer/Reporter already onboard and the Printing/Distribution guy.

Looks like it could further damage the failing Mail, i just placed an advert in the Mail and had to ring a company in London to do it, bloody ridiculous !

[Steely Dan]

My mate in the cricket club tells me there is only one ex-Mail man on board. Not a journalist. Some bloke called Deeley or Heeley?

He also tells me Gillen has been in talks with the council chief exec.

[Land Phil]

My mate in the cricket club tells me there is only one ex-Mail man on board. Not a journalist. Some bloke called Deeley or Heeley?

He also tells me Gillen has been in talks with the council chief exec.

No hope then if she is in bed with him too.

[akarjl]

No hope then if she is in bed with him too.

I suspect,  that's one person she would never end up in bed with.....

[the_exile]

healey was an advertising salesman at the mail 15-20 years ago.

I think he was a bit handy with his fists xxxxxxxxxxxxxx when he lived over the road from my mates parents just off Oxford Road !

[steveL]

These rags are always full of adverts and to get people to pick one up and see the adverts you need to introduce the possibility that there might be something worth reading inside. That's why I say 'content is King'.

People read The Post because there's a good chance that they'll read something they won't see in the Mail; probably even less so in a free rag. Personally, I think these things can work in the big cities where you can target the transport system and commuters. It's not so easy in small towns like ours but good luck to them anyway.

[Steely Dan]

SteveL you're dead right that content is king. I don't see where the content is going to come from.

You're right about Hartlepool Post. I stumbled across it by accident when I moved back to Hartlepool from West Yorkshire. I was looking for an alternative source of info as I was appalled at how bad the Mail had become. I'd always remembered it as a good paper.

The post is too 'narrow' in its outlook in my opinion but does a great job and hey it's free.

Anyone know if this new paper will be free or have a price?

[steveL]

It will be free from selected shops. I don't think there are any plans to deliver it.

The Post isn't meant to be a Newspaper. It was set up specifically to be a counter-balance to Hartbeat, a tax-payer funded propaganda sheet and to The Mail's drift to becoming little more than a cut and paste repository for press releases from the council's spin department.

No one should think that if the new freebie newspaper does win public notice advertising from the council that it won't come without a price. (I'm sure there's a double-negative in there somewhere but I'm not yet awake enough to spot it)