Comments, opinions and an occasional ramble
Ramblings
Nothing really important
Would you like a copy of LaVoz?
Apr 11th
I just came back from hearing a proposal to start a campus newspaper, and the name of the newspaper is “LaVoz”.
I did not make the name up. In fact, I don’t think I will ever think of such a name for a newspaper that purports independent news reporting and first class journalism. I don’t know what kind of publication would the name “LaVoz” be suitable for. A Spanish version of FHM?
I was so glad that someone raised a very important question. The person was thoroughly confused as to how can the paper be independent in news coverage and reporting when funding is being sought from NUS. Those guys tried to explain it away saying it’s temporary, and that they will go independent after breaking even.
Yeah, even if it’s temporary, that means that your content will be constrained until you go independent. Period. So much for independent news reporting. It is a fact of life that if I am having you only my payroll, you jolly well do what I say or else you are out. Seems to me that those people don’t even understand this basic point. I don’t know what world they are living in, but I’m quite sure it’s not the Earth.
Looking at their business plan, they aim to break even after 10 issues. Wow. A free newspaper printing bi-weekly with a target circulation of more than 20,000 copies per issue is aiming to break even after ten issues. Let me see, Streats and Today had a few hundred thousand copies circulating daily, and they bled right to the end, until SPH and Mediacorp decided that it’s stupid to bleed red ink and merged the two papers. Looks like they need to read newspapers to get themselves updated with news before they start thinking about publishing an actual newspaper.
Looking at what they called “a close approximation” of their actual product, I wonder who would read it. I’ve never seen a newspaper the size of the New Paper having 5-6 narrow columns of text. Each column is about the width of your index and middle finger put together. Would you read such a paper? Not to mention, pages 1-4 has serif font size 11, pages 5 – 7 has serif font size 10 and then pages 8-10 has sans serif fonts. According to someone from the audience, there were free copies of the Financial Times being circulated and the canteen aunties took some of it to wrap fish. I’m betting to my last dollar that the canteen aunties can have unlimited supply of LaVoz to wrap their fish because no one will bother to read such an appallingly designed newspaper.
Well, I suppose all the grouses that I have up to now would be acceptable if the content is good, but unfortunately, content is the horror of horrors. No news sense, writing like they are writing academic papers or worse, compositions. I have no idea how their professor could say that the content is good. As much as I dislike the New Paper for its contents, I have to say that in comparison, the New Paper is 1000000000000000 times better.
My conclusion? It’s just like how I concluded my previous post. Thrash will always be thrash. Period.
David versus Goliath
Apr 11th
Clement gave me 2 missed calls and an sms asking me to call him back, saying that it’s urgent.
Turned out that another group of students he talked to about starting a campus wide newspaper had secured a huge amount of funding. He was worried that our group would be “squashed like ants”.
Well, he certainly had a point. Money is important, for without it, how are you going to get things done these days? Having said that, money is not everything. I was appalled to hear that group of student asking Clement how much money he wanted if he were to work under them.
It certainly seems to me that those students are primarily thinking of the campuswide newspaper as a business rather than a real newspaper. Sorry to disappoint but journalists don’t write to be paid big bucks. If I don’t believe that your newspaper is in the public interest, even if you pay me ten thousand a month to write, I won’t join you (then again, I might consider joining because if you are stupid enough to let me rip you off, I will not be stupid and WILL rip you off).
The core group of us believe in bringing timely, well-written and independent news and viewpoints for the campus community. The campus publications we have now are lacking in both bite and taste, and it sends shudders down all of our necks to read them. Frankly, to achieve our aim of bringing timely, well-written and independent news, we don’t really care if we get any money out of it or not.
If there is going to be a clash between us and them, I look forward to having a rival. In terms of financial muscle, my group’s David and the other group Goliath. However, we all know how the story ended. My team will deliver quality, quite simply because we have all the best writers there are on campus. Undergraduates are a picky bunch; if you don’t have quality, your paper is going into the thrash can. And, no amount of marketing or window dressing can beautify thrash.
Thrash will always be thrash. Period.
My maiden entry!
Apr 6th
I’ve been fiddling with WordPress for a couple of days and I’m finally ready to write this very first entry! For those of you who have been diligently following my old blog (which has not been updated in a really LONG while), update your bookmarks! I’m sure this blog address is much easier to remember than the last one. And of course, it’s so cool to have a blog on your own domain! :p
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