Scottish People Can Write After All!!! (The Herald (Glasgow))

Member Name: ross1979

Product:	The Herald (Glasgow)
Date:	30/08/01 (282 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent articles, Sructure, Features

Disadvantages: None

The Herald (or Glasgow Herald as it used to be known) has been my broadsheet of choice for a good few years now. As suggested by its former name, it is a Glaswegian paper but it is widely distributed across Scotland and even the rest of the UK. It has World and British news stories in conjunction with more specific Scottish and Glasgow news.

The main reason I like this paper, apart from the quality of writing, is the balance it makes between the aforementioned news. It provides me with the latest World and British information in a similar style and manner to most broadsheets in the UK, yet has the advantage of providing me with the service of a more local paper with stories closer to home.

The structure and appearance of the paper is very appealing, with clearly defined articles and an easily navigatable feel. Compared to other Scottish contempories such as the Press and Journal (Aberdeen) and even the Scotsman (Edinburgh), I feel this paper is ahead in this department.

The coverage of events is top class, with excellent judgment on which stories to give priority to and which stories are dispensible or middle page news. The front page tends to have the well chosen main story in detail, with small snippets of information from other important news and where to turn if you want more information. The next 6-8 pages are full of predominantly British and Scottish stories which I have always considered as well-chosen and interesting. It does not dwell on politics like some papers and gives excellent coverage to areas which interest me, for example, science.

Along the borders of these pages there is 'In Brief' news which are predominantly snippets of local information. I think that all British people could enjoy this paper, since the majority of the main stories are national news, with local stories taking a sideline. There then follows a section specifically on international news, which has a similar structure.


The following pages depend on the day of the week but tend to include specific features or sections on arts, theatre, health, cinema, comment, business and farming. The comment is always sensible and unbiased with a typical common sense approach. I would say the paper is reasonably central politically, but leaning slightly towards the right. However, dont quote me on this because politics has never been my strong point.

There are a number of interesting daily features which I enjoy reading. I enjoy the humour of the columists Tom Shields and Ken Smith who tend to find the most ridiculous and odd news and add a typical Scottish humour to it. The letters chosen for publication are generally of good quality irrespective of viewpoint and there can often be some interesting debates between readers. The weather is a reliable and throrough local and world forecast as well as information about the last 24 hours. While the TV section is again well-structured and easily found on the second back page.

The sport section is definately the best in any paper I have read - I am sticking my neck out on this one. Like all papers, the inevitable bias is towards football, but it is only slight and with an objective and factual review of the sport. It also gives other sports a fair bite of the cherry, with two of my favourites athletics and golf being well covered. Doug Gillen writes quality athletics articles which I enjoy reading thoroughly.

I have very little criticism of the paper, otherwise I wouldnt be buying it. It perhaps has a slight Glasgow bias which is inevitable considering it is a Glasgow paper. However, I highly recommend the Herald for a well-balanced, thorough, informative, sometimes humorous review of current affairs. It costs 48p (although I get it for 20p as a student :-)) which is money well worth parting with - you will probably get more for a dooyoo opinion!!!

Summary: