Irish Independent website

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Purple

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Has anyone else had issues with the Irish Independent Website?
I subscribed but cannot log on on my work PC (Google Chrome), on the App on my phone or on a Safari browser on my iPhone.
After emailing them and getting no response I am going to cancel my subscription. Has anyone had a problem with that?
 
Must admit, I'm not a fan of paying them for the service either - their pricing is wrong, and content "mixed", at best.
 
I subscribe to a few newspapers and podcasts. The Irish newspapers are the most expensive and by a long distance, the worst value for money. That's the problem with operating in such a small pond, they don't have the level of resources the likes of the NYT or the Guardian have to carry out proper investigative journalism.

But even the Indo was a step too far for me. I couldn't bring myself to paying for that tripe.
 
It was rubbish before and it is still rubbish now!! No way would I pay for it and that is coming from someone who pays for The Irish Times, The Guardian and the New York Times and so is not afraid to pay for news.
 
Yes.. The app notifies you with latest news events but you need to subscribe to view them. Whats the point!
And then oddly enough, some of the articles flagged as "premium" are actually not blocked on the app.
 
Their IT system is a joke, before the paywall i was registered on the site and I'd say 80% of the time when I logged in I still couldn't access the material, gave up on it.
 
I know it's off topic but it's amazing how long it has taken newspapers to monetize their websites. I have no problem paying for content as long as it is good. They should have done it years ago. The Guardian is an interesting approach by putting out free content and you pay for it if you want (they also annoy you by constantly asking for money). I use that site more than any other news site, so I am quite happy to pay.
 
SBarrett said:
I know it's off topic but it's amazing how long it has taken newspapers to monetize their websites. I have no problem paying for content as long as it is good. They should have done it years ago. The Guardian is an interesting approach by putting out free content and you pay for it if you want (they also annoy you by constantly asking for money). I use that site more than any other news site, so I am quite happy to pay.
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Yes but the Guardian has been funded for years by a very lucrative sale of a car website.

In my view only very-high quality content survives in paid-for format, so FT, WSJ, NY Times, etc. I had my doubts about the Irish Times but it seems to be working.

The Indo just doesn't have the content to justify a subscription, and hasn't for years. But I guess they have to try. Ireland is just about big enough to support subscription-only services but far too small to support ones based on web advertising.

They also all have to compete with the best resourced newsroom in the country (RTÉ) putting all content online for free.
 
I've a subscription to the NY Times. It was only €1 a month. It's waaaay to the left of the Guardian on social issues. I can't read the Irish Times, it's just too full of itself. I don't read the weekend papers as they are full of opinion pieces; if I want a smartass giving a condecending opinion on the news I'll read Miriam Lord, if I want the opinions and insights of a sanctimonious know-it-all I'll read Fintan O'Toole but if I want proper analysis I'll look elsewhere.
It is really hard to find good journalism.
On RTE Tommy Gorman is excellent on Northern Ireland, Mark Little was very good, Philip Boucher Hayes is also very good at giving overviews and explaining issues but generally the rest are not great and more interested in being personalities. The Independent is opinion pieces and bits from other paper, the Irish Times full of people giving opinions rather than reporting on and analysing the news though John Fitzgerald, Stephen Collins and Diarmuid Ferriter can be a good read.
The (Cork) Irish Examiner is really hard to read and is the Pepsi of Irish Newspapers; you only read it if they don't have the one you want.
 
Purple said:
I've a subscription to the NY Times. It was only €1 a month. It's waaaay to the left of the Guardian on social issues. I can't read the Irish Times, it's just too full of itself. I don't read the weekend papers as they are full of opinion pieces; if I want a smartass giving a condecending opinion on the news I'll read Miriam Lord, if I want the opinions and insights of a sanctimonious know-it-all I'll read Fintan O'Toole but if I want proper analysis I'll look elsewhere.
It is really hard to find good journalism.
On RTE Tommy Gorman is excellent on Northern Ireland, Mark Little was very good, Philip Boucher Hayes is also very good at giving overviews and explaining issues but generally the rest are not great and more interested in being personalities. The Independent is opinion pieces and bits from other paper, the Irish Times full of people giving opinions rather than reporting on and analysing the news though John Fitzgerald, Stephen Collins and Diarmuid Ferriter can be a good read.
The (Cork) Irish Examiner is really hard to read and is the Pepsi of Irish Newspapers; you only read it if they don't have the one you want.
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Interesting opinion piece. Are you exploring a gap in the market?:p
 
Anecdotally I think they’ve actually driven traffic to the Irish Times website.

I’ve heard quite a few people say “now that this rubbish is no longer free, why would I pay them €10 a month when I can get the Irish Times for €12 a month?!”
 
I never use the independent, i find it unbearable. I pay for Irish Times & Guardian. However I do use my library card to access pressreader(Washington Post, LA Times, Telegraph etc. are all available). Also gives acces to rbdigital which has magazines including Economist, Newsweek, Time and many many more!
 
Most of the time when an article is behind a paywall (on certain sites) you can find it on free news sites. Because they didn't write it.

Also on certain news sites their articles are so bias and deliberately distorted, I wouldn't call it news anymore.
 
I honestly don't know why people pay for access to news online. A day later it's old news anyway.

I read breakingnews.ie and the rte news online (even though I think the RTE News site is awful).

That gives me more information that I need for the day.
 
PaddyBloggit said:
I honestly don't know why people pay for access to news online. A day later it's old news anyway.

I read breakingnews.ie and the rte news online (even though I think the RTE News site is awful).

That gives me more information that I need for the day.
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That's a fair point. But it's opinion and analysis I pay for, we need to support investigative journalism also. RTEs site is fairly sparse sometimes but I recently found Fergal Bowers to be excellent along with Tommie Gorman(as mentioned above)
 
Gordon Gekko said:
Anecdotally I think they’ve actually driven traffic to the Irish Times website.

I’ve heard quite a few people say “now that this rubbish is no longer free, why would I pay them €10 a month when I can get the Irish Times for €12 a month?!”
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Do you really think the Irish Times is better?
 
Purple said:
I've a subscription to the NY Times. It was only €1 a month. It's waaaay to the left of the Guardian on social issues. I can't read the Irish Times, it's just too full of itself. I don't read the weekend papers as they are full of opinion pieces; if I want a smartass giving a condecending opinion on the news I'll read Miriam Lord, if I want the opinions and insights of a sanctimonious know-it-all I'll read Fintan O'Toole but if I want proper analysis I'll look elsewhere.
It is really hard to find good journalism.
On RTE Tommy Gorman is excellent on Northern Ireland, Mark Little was very good, Philip Boucher Hayes is also very good at giving overviews and explaining issues but generally the rest are not great and more interested in being personalities. The Independent is opinion pieces and bits from other paper, the Irish Times full of people giving opinions rather than reporting on and analysing the news though John Fitzgerald, Stephen Collins and Diarmuid Ferriter can be a good read.
The (Cork) Irish Examiner is really hard to read and is the Pepsi of Irish Newspapers; you only read it if they don't have the one you want.
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Opinion pieces is the reason I pay for online newspapers. The NYT doesn't stay at €1 a month for long. Full price is €14 a month. A great feature in that paper is the breakdown of what actually happened when there's a major event. They piece together all the available footage and communications. Irishman Malachy Browne recently won a Pulitzer for the work his did on piecing together details on Russian attacks in Syria. He had previously won an Emmy on work done on detailing the Las Vegas shooting. This is the kind of resources the Irish papers just can't afford to give their journalists.
 
SBarrett said:
Opinion pieces is the reason I pay for online newspapers. The NYT doesn't stay at €1 a month for long. Full price is €14 a month. A great feature in that paper is the breakdown of what actually happened when there's a major event. They piece together all the available footage and communications. Irishman Malachy Browne recently won a Pulitzer for the work his did on piecing together details on Russian attacks in Syria. He had previously won an Emmy on work done on detailing the Las Vegas shooting. This is the kind of resources the Irish papers just can't afford to give their journalists.
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I agree that the NYT has excellent investigative journalists. The standard of the writing, as in the quality of the prose, is also excellent.
Their breaking news and political reporting is very liberal/left though. I base that on the fact that I'm very liberal on social issues and I agree with nearly everything they say. They are like the Irish Times only with quality investigative journalism, good copy editors, a high standard of overall editorial integrity and they don't try to use opinion writers who offer very little insight as a substitute for actually reporting the news behind the news.
I have a €1 a month subscription for a year.
 
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