NORTHERN PLANNER

And so to the Times. This was the last planned paper in this experiment, but I may as well push on and do the Star, Independent and Guardian in the next week or so.

First of all, it’s a lot to get through – 32 pages on pure news, with opinion sandwiched in the middle. By the time I got to the world section, I was worn out.

While not as straight as The Telegraph, the stories are delivered in a serious manner and seem pretty objective. It’s interesting to see that, similar to The Guardian, they include ‘briefings’ from experts next to the big stories and issues. Very useful, adding more context, but there’s a danger that these can slip into opinion rather than analysis.

I never watch ITN News for this reason. reporters on site never seem to deliver the facts, instead they tell is what they think the facts mean.

My own personal view is that I like reading stuff with a bit of meat, some argument – but that’s only because I listen to a lot of straight news on the radio. It comes down to whether you want more depth and discussion to add to what you know, or you just want to know what’s going on I suppose.

I found the comment section a good read. Dense with strong arguements, well backed up, I espescially liked Mary Ann Sieghart’s analysis of David Miliband. Incidentally, I find it sad that our country seems to pick looks and likeability over experience and talent, but there you go.

The world section was meaty, and I have to admit that I prefer it to The Guardian. While the Guardian’s international coverage is equally robust, on reflection, the delivery is quite biased, sometimes with more ‘background’ and briefing than actual fact.

The sport was packed with a fair cross section of stuff that wasn’t football, although I found the writing more ‘tabloid’ than I expected.

But after all that, I simply couldn’t be bothered with Times2, which may have been a shame, but it wasn’t helped by a layout that suggested everything was going to take ages to read. I just don’t have the time.

So I’ll be coming back to The Times for international news, but overall, I got a little bored. On the other hand, if I’ve missed the news, this may be the place I go.