We ran an article recently asking you to grill EADT editor Liz Nice. Here are the questions you sent her - and her responses.
Dear Readers,
We had a few questions about spelling, grammar and stray capital letters – what I used to call to my journalism students, ‘capitalitis’. These views were summed up by reader Anthony who asked: Don’t you employ sub editors any more?
This is the question that makes me despair the most as it is something readers message me about quite often. Every time they do, I feel ashamed. I wish we could do better at this than we do, but the answer is of course that, no, we don’t have sub editors or proof readers any more and we work at an extremely fast pace. I do spot checks, as does Reece Hanson, my deputy, but unfortunately, we don't catch everything – though we do catch a lot! This does not mean there is any excuse for poor spelling or grammar, however, and we must do better. I always welcome readers letting me know when they have spotted something as their messages are always kind and I can then fix them on the website at least. My favourite reader for this is Arthur who always manages to make me smile while at the same time taking me to task. The most important thing for us is getting the story right first of all but we all know that we need to do better at our spelling and grammar and will give it our best effort. As for capitalitis, I will keep working on a cure.
A number of readers had queries about online subscriptions.
Garrick said: “I took up the £59 offer when it was first introduced. I do not understand why subsequent offers have been made at lower rates. Surely loyal customers should receive the best deal?
This is a very fair question but we have put a lot of effort into rewarding our loyal subscribers. Of course, in order to bring in new customers, we offer special rates, like any business does, but once those offers expire, then the annual price of £59 a year applies so everyone ends up paying the same in the end. This is actually £20 less than our original launch price because we wanted to offer the best value package possible and all those who had subscribed at the £79 price were offered the chance to switch to the new deal. We are continuing to work on rewarding loyalty with ideas for new offers and competitions for our loyal readers. Watch this space.
Why can I not get an answer about my subscription?
I will get one for you. Email me direct at liz.nice@newsquest.co.uk
I have lived near Woodbridge for 35 years, but do not always recognise the names of small villages in West Suffolk. Could your journos make it clearer by saying place names near to e.g Bury, Sudbury etc.
This is an excellent suggestion from reader, Stanley. I will talk to the reporters about this in our next weekly reporters’ meeting. Also, to the Woodbridge subscriber looking to filter Woodbridge-only stories on the app, I have passed your suggestion onto our development team.
I would like to see more non-league football reporting as you put the entire emphasis on ITFC. A lot of the midweek sport is full of Town puff pieces. I enjoyed today's Carl Marston article on Felixstowe. Good to have him back, also writing about athletics.
We would love to do more non-league and other sport reporting but we have a very small team who have to focus on ITFC where our main audience is. That said, anyone who has ever emailed me reports of local sport matches or theatre shows will testify that if you send it to me with a picture, I will put it in the paper.
I don’t like Michael Cole but Paul Geater is great and doesn’t pull his punches.
I try to produce a paper that has a wide variety of opinions. We are not partisan, and anyone with a strong view, readers included, is encouraged to write to us and we will publish your view in the paper either as a letter or reader opinion. Michael and Paul are both Marmite columnists, loved by some, not by others and read by most whether you agree with them or not. For me, that’s a healthy outcome.
I live in Barningham, north of Bury St Edmunds. Your paper is the East Anglian Daily Times which I prefer to read. I am aware of the Bury Free Press of which the format doesn’t seem to flow that well. Your news seems to concentrate on Ipswich and surrounding area more than my area. Is that due to the fact that you think that the BFP covers what it needs to so my area is not as important and you don’t want to duplicate it?
Not at all. We have an excellent west Suffolk reporter in Kaia Nicholl who is very knowledgeable about the area and we are passionate about west Suffolk, where I happen to live. If you have a west Suffolk story, then please get in touch with Kaia on kaia.nicholl@newsquest.co.uk
I have the printed paper every day. Other subscriptions I have give reductions on print copies so why can't EADT? I have been asking this for years.
I spoke to Darron, our head of distribution about this. He said: “We are currently investigating a number of ways in which we can reward our most loyal readers. One of these will be the launch of a voucher subscription scheme giving readers 50% off the cover price for the first 12 weeks and then 20% off thereafter. Once paid we will send vouchers to redeem at a local stockist either through casual purchase or home delivery (a delivery charge will apply). The scheme will also provide free membership to our reader rewards scheme, saving money on food shopping, holidays and much more. Although this isn't yet in-paper yet you can take early advantage of it by calling 0800 953 0227. Our UK based team will guide you through the process so that you can start saving now".
Can you champion to get our NHS and roads back to standards that should be the norm. Waiting lists are too long the roads, well, just not acceptable, they are a disgrace to the country. We don't need tax cuts just to buy votes, we need better NHS and roads. (I accept the poorest off may need help but could use some of the money they find to fight other people’s wars for that!)
Keith, we do. We have done so many stories about potholes I had begun to wonder if readers would get tired of them – I suspect from your email that you will not. We also regularly cover NHS stories, good and bad. If you have specific examples, please let me know and we will follow them up for you. Contact me on liz.nice@newsquest.co.uk
There were quite a lot of questions relating to our sports content so I put these to our sports editor, Mark Heath. Here are his replies:
Q: Could Alex speak up a bit on Kings of Anglia?
A: Yes. Otherwise he’ll be fired.
Q: Why are footy results not in unless Town have played?
A: Our usual print deadlines are, laughably, at 7.30pm, so before any sport even starts that night. We are afforded later deadlines for Town games so we can also have that night’s football results in too.
Q: Why does the EADT focus on Town instead of Norwich?
A: Very simple. Because the vast majority of our readership are Town fans, according to audience analytics. It’s long been the case that if you support Town you buy the EADT, and if you are of a yellow hue, you buy the EDP – unless the doctor can help you.
Q: As a subscriber to the online paper, why should I pay extra for ITFC premium content? A: The printed paper – and the online version of that – is only part of our Town coverage. A lot of our Town content is web only, and across things like podcasts and videos. We put a lot of time and effort into that exclusive content, and we hope that readers/viewers see the value in them and are willing to pay a small amount extra to access all of our Town content.
Finally, there were quite a few questions about technical issues which, I’m afraid, I am not the expert in. However, our digital expert Chris Scarle is. Here are his replies:
My electronic subscription has failed to download the current day’s newspaper on at least 2-3 occasions. I have enquired about the reason for this without any response. The last time this happened was Saturday 17th February. In addition ,I regularly look at Newsnow Ipswich Town to notice the East Anglian has an updated story. However, this cannot be accessed without the subscription and there is no update to refer to in the electronic version. Frustrating and for me something that must be improved upon. One other thing , a response would be appreciated. Thank you.
Chris: I can't see any obvious cause for the failure to download, but do note that editions do not need to be downloaded to be read, either online or within the app. I'll take a look into possible causes for this and see if we can make any improvements to avoid repeat problems. Obviously disappointing to hear that you didn't receive a response. The correct team to contact is at nq-digital.subs@newsquest.co.uk With respect the gated articles on the site, if you have access to the digital editions of the paper, you should also have access to all gated articles on the site (or in the app if they have an in-app subscription), as the Digital pack subscription (required to access the digital editions), grants full access to all our articles. If you don't currently, you should contact nq-digital.subs@newsquest.co.uk with details of you subscription and customer services should be able to resolve.
Is it possible to get classified small advertisements in the digital edition of EADT?
The digital edition of the paper is an exact replica of the printed version, so we only include content published in the print paper. We don't offer any options to add small Ads into the digital paper only I'm afraid.
I very much enjoy receiving my digital copy of the EADT each day; but notwithstanding having paid a subscription, each copy is buried within continuous advertising pop ups which make reading your articles very difficult. Secondly every copy I receive is caught in my SPAM folder - I have done everything possible to avoid this - safe senders list/ not spam etc - but each delivery goes straight to my SPAM everytime. Even my local expert cannot find a way to resolve this.
Sounds like you are referring to our daily e-newsletters. If you have already added the newsletter to the safe senders list, I'm not sure what else to suggest trying to stop it getting filtered as spam I'm afraid.
The ads/pop ups when reading on the site. If you have a subscription, ensuring you’re logged in will give you the ad-light reading experience with minimal ads displaying. If you're not a subscriber, the best way to avoid ads is to take out a subscription. As per the query higher up, if you have a digital subscription allowing you to read the digital editions of the paper, you should also have access to all articles on the EADT website (or in the app if it's an in-app sub). If you don't currently, contact nq-digital.subs@newsquest.co.uk with details of your subscription and customer services should be able to resolve.
Can I filter the app to only get Woodbridge content?
Not at this stage I'm afraid, with the setup we have in place. Personalisation of content is a big area we want to spend time on moving forward though, so we will definitely look at adding location into the mix alongside topics of interest.
I hope this has resolved your queries. As always, I will help if I can so contact me on liz.nice@newquest.co.uk if you are not happy about something. I answer every email I receive - unless it is really unkind. Best wishes, Liz
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