Horsham Forum - A Community Forum for Horsham and Southwater Residents and Businesses / Horsham Chat / Horsham Chat / West Sussex County Times / Latest Posts

RE: West Sussex County Times

AndyH — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:16:43 GMT

M, I must agree with you on this one. Disappointing for sure. They really need to get some new stock photos, as a piece of police barrier tape, a fire engine and a "Crash contact police" sign do nothing to enhance their reporting.

Also, to get the most out of their ambulance chasing reports you need to understand the following statements.

"Did you know the deceased?" means, we need to get a name because the police won't tell us and will someone kindly put it on our website so we can quote "sources on the internet"

"Add your tributes" means, we need to get some random quotes to pad out our County Times report this week and this is the easy way to get them.

RE: West Sussex County Times

DotNetWebs — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 20:27:00 GMT

Although it is a 'Horsham' website it is a standard Johnson Press template and no doubt the policy is set by Johnson Press.

There does seem to be rather a lot of "ambulance chasing" going on but I had better not critisise them to much as they have been very helpful to to Horsham Forum particularly when there was trouble with their RSS feed. :)

West Sussex County Times

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 10:15:26 GMT

Am I the only one who finds the WSCT site a little dissappointing? Whilst I appreciate they have to keep their 'powder dry' to promote the paper that sells the stories I do feel that the site could be better.

Example appear every week where some unfortunate driver hits a tree and the only picture available is that of a standard police car or police accident sign. At the bottom of the article you are offered the chance to submit a view as to whether you saw the car hit the tree or were you caught up in the traffic.

One of the latest features is the case of a 76 year old driver who has died. Viewers are asked to add their tributes. None so far, how are the family going to feel if no-one has anything to say about their loved one? At least the page is free of adverts!

Opportunities abound to improve the WSCT site. It is crying out for a decent searchable archive. Whilst I appreciate this will cost money there may be lottery funding available and one archivist could serve a large percentage of the newspaper group. The full stories, maybe when they are one to six months old, could be uploaded as PDFs.

That all said, I do appreciate that the web site often gives Hidden Horsham the 'heads-up' on a story that turns into a feature on the Hidden Horsham site

"Did you know the web site You are welcome to add your tributes below."