The nearest I have to a New Year’s resolution is that I will be reading the West Sussex County Times (Horsham edition) more often this year.  Yesterday I went out and bought a copy, and by coincidence the Crawley edition (called the Crawley Times) got delivered to my house as well.  I had never read the Crawley one before so it was an opportunity to compare the two alongside their sister publication, the Crawley Observer.

The Crawley Times was delivered along with some glossy brochures trying to pursuade me to subscribe to it, although I still suspect it arrived because they wanted to prove that they *can* give it away after all, contrary to popular opinion.  Included were vouchers to get the paper half-price for the next four weeks, and an offer to get M&S shopping vouchers if you ‘enjoy’ the Crawley Times for ten weeks.  I can see how you can prove that you bought it for ten weeks, but how do you prove that you enjoyed it?

If all that sounds a bit negative, then there is a good reason: there really is no point in this paper’s existence.  There is very little in it that does not appear in either the Horsham eiditon of the County Times or the Crawley Observer, hardly surprising given that it is produced by the same people – not just the same company, but the same staff.  I would not be surprised to learn that the small reporting staff who were already stretched producing the existing papers have not been given pay rises to contribute to a third, so a lot of recycling goes on.  I suspect that many individuals have to have more jobs than Francis Maude in order to get the papers out, although unlike him they will only have one salary.

Given the common ownership, management, and staffing, what strikes me is the inconsistancy between the papers.  Why is the Horsham edition called West Sussex County Times in big letters with ‘Horsham’ tagged onto it, but the Crawley edition is called the Crawley Times in big letters with “an edition of the West Sussex County Times in small print underneath?   Why not call the Horsham one the Horsham Times?

Other differences are that the Crawley paper has columns by the County council leader, the Borough council leader, the constituency MP and the Horsham MP.  The Horsham edition carries the identical columns by the Horsham MP and the County council leader but no column by the District council leader – and no column by the Crawley MP.  Why do they think that readers in Crawley are interested in the neighbouring MP but readers in Horsham are not?

Another difference is that the Horsham edition carries a lot more letters from readers – 13 across two pages, compared to 8 letters on one page in Crawley.

The similarities are more striking than the differences though.  Entire sections of both County Times are duplicated, sometimes with a tiny change but often completely unchanged.  Given that I have a commitment to read the Horsham paper I would be very unlikely to want to buy the Crawley one, half-price offers notwithstanding, because at least 50% is the same as in the Horsham edition, while a lot of the rest is recycled from the (cheaper) Crawley Observer.  If they merged the three papers into one paper covering Horsham and Crawley, keeping the same staff so they are not over-stretched, there could be a good paper in there somewhere.

Actually, there has been some speculation about that. With the Crawley market now flooded with three local papers, and local newspaper publishers having a hard time generally there is an expectation of some sort of re-organisation, and why shouldn’t that encompass Horsham too?

Probably my biggest objection to the County Times is its format, and no apologies if that sounds superficial because, as Apple would be only too ready to point out, design does matter.  Both editions boast of being a broadsheet, but its nothing to boast about – its so 20th Century!  Smaller formats must be easier to distribute, display in shops, and deliver through letterboxes. They are certainly easier to read.  I would like to read the paper at my desk, but it is not big enough for a broadsheet.  When I spread it out on the dinner table or coffee table the articles at the top of the page are too far away to read properly – though I admit it might be easier if I remembered to wear my glasses.

Back when I commuted and the Guardian and Times were full broadsheets there were techniques for holding and folding the paper to read it on the train, but I have forgotten them now and in any case they would not work too well when there are single pages slipped in the middle and the paper breaks into another section for no good reason at page 18/19.

Basically it is not reader-friendly.  My resolution may well result in some sort of industrial injury as I try to crane my neck to read articles towards the top of the page and try to turn pages without the odd singletons dropping out.   Who, given the choice, would actually prefer to have a broadsheet, and why?   Is there some strange notion that form affects content?