I was pretty disappointed with last week's edition.. a vast pullout section with a stack of photos on school leavers and their prom season; this is of supreme indifference and is not news.

I also note that last week, there was a mere single page of letters. The letters pages (and there were three pages of such not long ago) are one of the best sections of the newspaper.

I find there is less and less worth reading in this newspaper and yet the price escalates. I find the newspaper is increasingly heavy on photos and much lighter on text. The prom section is a classic example...what a waste of money.

This was a great paper a decade ago and less. Is there a new editor in charge?

The quality of the Newbury Weekly News and its news content seems to go from bad to worse.

I take it you were not at, or had family at a prom.....

Even if I did, I can take my own photos.

The paper never used to run this dross.

I find sport dross, and find pages & pages devoted to local teams a right bore. Week in week out.

But I also understand that many people do find this interesting, and that they like to read about their teams & themselves in the local press.

In the same way that a teenager, or their parents, might find seeing a picture of their prom ( a once in a lifetime thing ) in the local paper interesting. A cut out & keep moment I would have thought.

If you don't, don't buy the NWN.

Yet another import from the USA (sigh) why? something else to drain poor daddy's wallet, yet another 'must have' from the land of the obese burger munchers.

IS there market research to back that assertion?

which one?

You sound like some one who wasn't asked to be Prom Queen.....

We used to have end of term disco (ahh the good old days)

End of term Disco = The wood work teacher brings in his 8-track & your dad comes & collects you at 8:30, after 1 hour of sitting on the gym equipment listening to Slade & Shawaddywaddy.

With girls on one side and lads on the other and the pungent smell of pumps and sweaty gym shirts in lost property frangrancing the air. Orange squash was the drink of the evening as I recall. Oh, happy days.

On the plus side, fewer words= fewer chances of spelling mistakes

Yes, well, now that we have spellchecking, there is no excuse in the first place.

Does anyone know if the newspaper has a new editor? Could that be the reason for the poorer qualiy and content?

I just have to pop in for a second.Folk who knew things clever.
Made LSD in the Chem labs. Was freely available.
They were rusticated but allowed to sit exams.So they ended up at Cambridge
No Names.
There were gigs with Malvern Girls, but I was a wallflower.
ce

What on earth are you talking about?

The clue is Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

And what has that got to do with the Newbury Weekly News??

Seriously, I know I get accused of trolling but you do post some complete dribble.

Do elucidate, sounds like fun.

To be fair it is a lot easier to fill a newspaper with photos than stories/ news.

I doubt the prom section was a waste of money.

I bet almost everyone in it bought at least one copy as a souvenir.

To be fair, some stories are better told pictorially.

I can't imagine the paper covering 'Prom Night 2012' in prose alone......

You are probably right.

Scaling things up a bit, whilst I in no way condone illegal practices such as hacking phones or computers, I just hope, post Leveson, we do not lose the spirit of investigative journalism.

True.

I see nothing wrong with hacking, if it is used to expose serious wrong doing, but it should never hinder police work.

His dribble is by far the most interesting dribble I have ever read.

Penelope, the end of School Discos, you know, I think they had those up until about 2005!

It is rubbish, the prom bit. If you get you picture in the paper fair enough, but if everyone has their picture in the paper, and the pictures are being sold, it's not really exciting is it?

Looking the way some of them did in those pictures I bet some didn't.
At least they are too young to have "tats" yet!
Gave me and Mrs. Biker a good laugh though.

What I found after I had put the prom section and property pages in the recycling bin was a rather thin "newspaper".

When I left school we didn't even have discos.

Do not understand the present for the teacher at end of term. Bottles of £70 perfum and expensive champagne? When did that become the norm, and why?

Probably when Miss changed from a 60 yr. old Witch wielding a cane to a tasty 25 yr. old in a mini skirt.

Suspect these days the former could collect even more in certain parts of London....that's real market forces for you!

Keep it relevant.

Does anyone else know why the newspaper has gone downhill in recent years?

You would be good at designing questions for referendums.

I don't think it has gone down hill, but I am disappointed by the letters page compared to the past. I would imagine newspapers are under great pressure from other media outlets, depressed housing market, and a drop in advertising revue in general, not to mention a loss from people only using the paper's website and not buying a paper.

I must confess I usually read the digital version myself.

Hear Hear !!

To answer an earlier post about what are you on about?
LSD was dead simple.
To the left as I type is an old school board that details scholars, Praeposters.
It was in a skip and a friend of my brother retrieved it along with all the others.
Yes I am there. 7 times over the years. Sports mostly. (CJE)
The guy who cooked up the LSD He ended up at Cambridge.
He was from an old car making family. Frazer-Nash.It wasn't just him.About 5 others were sent home.

I ended up in a travelling show.Well I spent 4 years touring shows with others.
It was quite good times really.(That is enough about that)

Nothing to do with Newbury I accept.
But it was my home town then.As Bruce might have said
ce

But then you miss a whole enthralling page weekly of "Country Matters" or as it should be titled "Farming Propaganda"!

Then you could offer to do one on trains and transport. We have a good few commuters - so quite relevant. The page in 'Metro' which goes on about the Underground has made London appreciate the tube a bit more. And yes, I am being serious!

Nothing Much - just keep posting!

Anyone who disagrees simply ought to wonder why newspapers add odd quirky articles.

Frazer Nash cars - haven't heard of them since Grandad passed on!

That would be putting my head on the chopping block!
We need to either stop complaining about the railways or do something about it which means spending money.
As soon as that is suggested it is usually lambasted.
Look at HS2.
We are paying the price for decades of under investment most of which was diverted to the roads. Things need to change as road transport is not the magical answer to everything as we though back in the 60's with Beeching, Marples and their plans.

Sorry, I digress..............
Just think farmers have their own publications for this type of thing.
And people who enjoy blasting animals for fun have theirs.
If it was really about country matters in general then it would be of interest to many more and worthwhile publishing.

Absolutely.

Perhaps the column should be more about agriculture / food production - which ought to be of interest to our market town. Wholly agree it shouldn't be a platform for what are laughingly called country sports. I know several growers / farmers who are against similarly some townies (nice but dim types albeit) who are for.

Wholly agree about rail investment. Marples - who says corruption is a recent thing!

I'd rather people appealed for a right to reply, rather than wish something was censored. If the Country Matters has something offensive or wrong, then make a statement about it. I doubt Biker1 et al. have read enough of his articles to make a valid comment anyway.

I have read enough of his articles to make a valid comment.

Agree. A right of reply isn't a panecea and certainly not to propaganda well executed.

It is in a democracy, I think, where someone is doing something legal. Censorship because some or many find it offensive is not how we should run things in modern Britain.

Not really relevant i know but where has this new term 'Medical Episode' suddenly sprung from when describing some one who has been in an accident. It used to be simply called a Blackout or Felt ill !! Just wondering !