Morning Star - The Snow In The Summer or So-So

21September

Comparative Newspaper Review II

At the start of 2005, we took a look at nine week-end editions of newspapers circulating in this area. With all the changes that have taken place in this area, the time has come to repeat the exercise, and to expand it slightly.

One expansion comes in the remit. We will be covering eleven papers - the Times, Telegraph, and Independent in their Saturday and Sunday editions; the Sunday-only Observer; and Saturday editions of the Birmingham Post, Financial Times, Guardian, and Morning Star.

The other expansion comes in the measuring. We have defined a number of categories, and will provisionally award between 0 and 4 stars for the writing and journalism in each section. The ratings are as follows:

No stars - No attempt at coverage.
* - A token attempt, clearly inadequate.
** - A bare pass, covering most of the things we would expect to see, but nothing we would not.
*** - A good section, slightly exceeding our expectations.
**** - An outstanding section, amongst the best in the business.

The sections are as follows:

We will also award two overall marks: one based on the quality of the journalism and writing; and one based on the overall feel of the paper, whether we feel it represents good value for money.

Morning Star

The edition under review is of 8 September, priced 60p. The Star is an oversized tabloid, about 10% larger than the Independent, and is satisfactorily tactile to hold. The design is simple: Times Roman for the body, an uncluttered sans-serif for headlines and sections.

Foreign news covers 3 pages, and contains 9 stories. These are brief but succinct, and a representative choice that left us informed about the world. ***

Home news also covers 3 pages, with 15 stories included. These are perhaps a little too brief. The one extended news article is a tale of woe on London housing estate; this rather dribbles to an end, with no clear call to action. **

Comment, 2 pages. The paper's leader is on p2, the main comment feature is a long and rather self-congratulatory piece from Brendan Barber in the middle, perhaps better targetted at the Mirror. **

Arts is 1 page of music reviews. What is in the paper is very good, clearly beyond the major label treadmill, but there's so little of it that we have to be disappointed. **

Lifestyle is a half-page website column, and a quarter-page on gardening. There's no travel, but there is a crossword. *

Television gets 2 pages, analogue tv and BBC national radio for Saturday and Sunday only. There's next to no detail beyond titles. *

Weather is a 100 word text forecast in the home news section. Hard to find. *

Sport takes the last 3 pages, one is devoted to a racecard, there are international football previews, and some motor racing. No results, not even a mention of Argentina's upset of France. *

Business is not covered. -

Summary: Journalism With the partial exception of the foreign news pages, the writing in the Morning Star is rushed; writers generally do not have the space to give more than the bare facts, and when they do, they waffle on in a most discouraging manner. However, the journalism does cover the basics very well, and the writers clearly know what they're doing. **

Summary: Value for money At 60p, the Morning Star is one of two papers retailing substantially below the others. The gold standard we propose is with Private Eye, which entertains us for roughly one hour per pound of the cover price. It took us slightly less than half an hour to read the Star, and we found it somewhat less stimulating. **

Next, the Saturday and Sunday Times.

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