Latest news when you need it (Liverpool Echo)

Member Name: stemacca

Product:	Liverpool Echo
Date:	08/11/07 (233 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Local news, great sports news on local football teams.

Disadvantages: not enough pages for peoples views

I was quite surprised to find a review of my local paper on dooyoo, just the one mind, so now heres 2.

I buy this paper about 4 or 5 days a week, its printed everyday bar Sunday, and always on a Saturday as it has all the local sports news coverage for the weekend and is also a lot more accurate on its sport then in national papers. There’s a saying in Liverpool that if its not in the Echo then its not true.

The cost of the paper is 45p, on a Saturday it goes up to about 60p or 65p since there’s a lot more to read with extra sport news, daily news and catch up news from the week just gone. Since i was a kid, the Liverpool Echo has always been part of my life, as a kid, all my family would buy it, id see people in the street with it, so it is a very popular paper in the city. Even outside the boundaries of Liverpool in areas like Runcorn and Widnes and ST Helens, you can still buy it.

Being a newspaper, there’s always a main story on the front page, like all papers mostly its always something along the lines of someone being shot, or a fire in factory causes 3 to die, or something not nice in big letters, a big picture, something to make you notice it and pick it up to read. The Liverpool echo doesn't just cover Liverpool, it covers the whole of Merseyside in terms of news, so you always no what’s happening around the region which i find very useful.

So once you've picked it up, read the front page, just a few lines saying all the juicy bits, then its to page 2, with the rest of the main story all in detail. this is what most people will be talking about that day or the next day in work so its always worth reading. What ive noticed over the years reading this, is that they always have the same type of story's going on for weeks on end, which i find annoying, as ive already read about it 10 times, seen it 3 times on the local news, maybe they just don't have enough story's to fill the paper.
The worst example i can think of, is there’s always something about young binge drinkers and what the police are doing about it. Its there about 4 days a week, yet its the same story's about young people drinking, the police are doing something about it, but they never do, its like a never ending cycle, feels like its a lie, as im reading that things are being done when in fact nothing is being done due to the fact im reading the same thing every week.

Then we come to the letters page, its a big shame that th paper only allows one page of letters, as a lot of people read this paper, and having only one page doesn't do it justice, for a big city, with so much going on there should be at least 3 pages for people to air there views and complaints. On the letters page, actually named YouSay, they have a short points column, which is just the same as the letters being printed next to them, hardly ever a point being made.

Also on the same page they have a poem, its different everyday, by someone from the public, who writes a poem about whatever happens in the news big that week. As an example, the last few weeks poems have been about the postal strikes and Rhys Jones who got shot.
Now we get to the middle of the paper, there always seem to be more adverts and business news. All about company’s being sold off or new ones that arrived with so many jobs for the community.

Once past that bit, we get to the classified ads. It starts off with property ads first, and on certain days they have dating ads. As for the classifieds, there’s the normal stuff that you would find in say maybe the loot, things like business for sale, skip hire, painting/decorator's, carpet services, flooring specialist, tv/audio/dvd repairs, plasterwork, brick work the list goes on and on. Also you can sell your car in the classifieds.

After the classifieds, we get to the Family notices part, Births, deaths and marriages. Plus people use this part of the paper to put ads in to say well done for exam results, or well done for passing your driving test.

The next part we come to is the travel part, were local and national travel companies place there big ads tempting you into a week away in Prague or Canada at super low prices (so it says).

The the page after that, we get ads for concerts in the north west of England, maybe to see west life, or someone from the x factor, or some once upon time famous singer or comedian. Normally there’s quite a lot of big names playing, so is always worth checking this part to see if there is some one you like playing local, ive actually booked a few tickets over the years for concerts from the echo, all have been great.

Then we get to the horse racing part, i haven’t got a clue about horses, or betting, so its just a load of numbers and funny names for the horses.

The next part is the sports pages, boxing, tennis, football, cricket, rugby and darts are normally the most popular in the paper. Football is given the most priority, as its a football city with 2 premier league teams, Liverpool football club and Everton football club. also other local teams get a shout in, Tranmere Rover Football club, Marine football club, and also non league teams are mentioned. Also there’s a fans view page, were fans write in about the team and have a little moan about things that happened in a game, which are always funny to read, as they all say one bad thing one week, then when there team wins the next week they all write in very happy.

As a paper on the whole, its a great read, all the big news, all the latest news that goes on in the city and surrounding areas. The only gripe i have about the paper is that the letters page should be a lot more then one page long, there should be four pages for the people to write or email in there views, complaints. The paper itself is available from most newsagents you come across in the city, also in the city center they have men that stand on corners behind a little board selling it. Even in the cold, wind and rain they are there to sell.

Summary: All round great read if ever in Liverpool.