Thumb absentmindedly through last week’s first edition of the Denbighshire Visitor and you get the impression most of the paper’s about Rhyl, a kind of disguised Rhyl & Prestatyn Visitor. But delve a little deeper and you see that Vale of Clwyd editorial news and sports stories cover a surprising proportion of the paper. It’s just you have to dig.
The new Visitor devotes just over a third of its news & sport to Dyffryn Clwyd/Vale of Clwyd and Dee Valley. Dinbych and Rhuthun news appears on 11 and five pages respectively, whereas Rhyl news occupies part of 16 pages. Admittedly, some of the Vale stories are small in nature including a few little more than a photograph. About a further one sixth are of regional significance. But this means there’s little difference in local news content from previous Trinity Mirror offerings.
But the perception remains that the paper’s about Rhyl. Is that inevitable, given its size in Denbighshire? For example, of the 27 display adverts pertaining to the coast from Llandudno to Deeside, 17 are from Rhyl businesses. Inland, there are three for Denbigh and four for Rhuthun—all from Pine Direct. The last edition of the old Your Vale contained two display adverts each for Rhuthun and Dinbych, and three for Rhyl. The penultimate Vale Advertiser held eleven adverts connected with the Vale. The Denbighshire Visitor offers an opportunity for Vale businesses to entice coastal residents south. This can work both ways and is a potential strength and weakness.
Part of the problem is that it’s easy to overlook Vale stories that don’t really stand out. Perhaps the Visitor could flag its items to let readers know the part of Denbighshire to which each refers. Here, the use of colour might play a part. It might also be able to group stories geographically, though this may give the impression that some communities are also-rans.
And I wonder how many times Rhuthun will appear on the Visitor’s front age.
There’s the welcome return of the very local Community News section, invariably a feature of the Vale Advertiser but dropped by Your Vale. As yet, the only community in the Vale to benefit is Llandyrnog, but it’s early days. Oddly, there are 22 community items from areas purportedly now served by the North Wales Weekly News. And where’s the useful planning permission section once always in the Vale Advertiser (and till the early eighties carried in the old Free Press, too)? And the Pocket Sermon, once in the Vale Advertiser but not in Your Vale, is dropped for good.
The Vale Advertiser never featured reader correspondence. The new Visitor has a letters page, a throwback from the old Rhyl & Prestatyn Visitor, featuring 11 letters from or about Rhyl. Might this be another opportunity for the Visitor, to grow it into a truly regional forum?
The old Vale Advertiser used to offer a modest and shrinking houses-for-sale section, something abandoned by Your Vale. The Denbighshire Visitor has a 12-page property section, including display advertising from five coastal estate agents. There’s nothing (yet?) from anyone south of St Asaph. Missing is large regional Beresford Adams. Williams Estates are in, but there’s nothing from its Dinbych branch, aside from a solitary house in Trefnant that’s presumably for sale via its Rhuddlan office.
Finally, it’s worth comparing the Visitor and the Free Press, above.
The new Visitor devotes just over a third of its news & sport to Dyffryn Clwyd/Vale of Clwyd and Dee Valley. Dinbych and Rhuthun news appears on 11 and five pages respectively, whereas Rhyl news occupies part of 16 pages. Admittedly, some of the Vale stories are small in nature including a few little more than a photograph. About a further one sixth are of regional significance. But this means there’s little difference in local news content from previous Trinity Mirror offerings.
But the perception remains that the paper’s about Rhyl. Is that inevitable, given its size in Denbighshire? For example, of the 27 display adverts pertaining to the coast from Llandudno to Deeside, 17 are from Rhyl businesses. Inland, there are three for Denbigh and four for Rhuthun—all from Pine Direct. The last edition of the old Your Vale contained two display adverts each for Rhuthun and Dinbych, and three for Rhyl. The penultimate Vale Advertiser held eleven adverts connected with the Vale. The Denbighshire Visitor offers an opportunity for Vale businesses to entice coastal residents south. This can work both ways and is a potential strength and weakness.Part of the problem is that it’s easy to overlook Vale stories that don’t really stand out. Perhaps the Visitor could flag its items to let readers know the part of Denbighshire to which each refers. Here, the use of colour might play a part. It might also be able to group stories geographically, though this may give the impression that some communities are also-rans.
And I wonder how many times Rhuthun will appear on the Visitor’s front age.
There’s the welcome return of the very local Community News section, invariably a feature of the Vale Advertiser but dropped by Your Vale. As yet, the only community in the Vale to benefit is Llandyrnog, but it’s early days. Oddly, there are 22 community items from areas purportedly now served by the North Wales Weekly News. And where’s the useful planning permission section once always in the Vale Advertiser (and till the early eighties carried in the old Free Press, too)? And the Pocket Sermon, once in the Vale Advertiser but not in Your Vale, is dropped for good.
The Vale Advertiser never featured reader correspondence. The new Visitor has a letters page, a throwback from the old Rhyl & Prestatyn Visitor, featuring 11 letters from or about Rhyl. Might this be another opportunity for the Visitor, to grow it into a truly regional forum?
The old Vale Advertiser used to offer a modest and shrinking houses-for-sale section, something abandoned by Your Vale. The Denbighshire Visitor has a 12-page property section, including display advertising from five coastal estate agents. There’s nothing (yet?) from anyone south of St Asaph. Missing is large regional Beresford Adams. Williams Estates are in, but there’s nothing from its Dinbych branch, aside from a solitary house in Trefnant that’s presumably for sale via its Rhuddlan office.
Finally, it’s worth comparing the Visitor and the Free Press, above.
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Media