Times of Malta really needs to get a grip

Published: November 4, 2014 at 10:13pm

Its journalists don’t seem to understand that these are ITS READERS ripping it to shreds on Twitter because they’re highly dissatisfied customers.

Exactly what does Times of Malta believe its typical reader profile to be? Your archetypal semi-literate with an IQ of 80 and an index finger glued to the exclamation/interrogation keys on the comments board of the internet edition?

Times of Malta is p*ssing off, en masse, those very readers blue-chip advertisers are most interested in reaching, so as to reach those who think The Bargain is a magazine full of fascinating information.

ariadne massa




38 Comments Comment

  1. P Shaw says:

    Ariadne is socializing way too much with Luciano Busuttil and his ilk. It is the new normal for her.

    I do not think they care about the market at all. Most people buy the newspaper out of habit.

  2. Eye on Malta says:

    And I have been eliminated from the Twitter account with this name, as of this morning.

  3. Freedom5 says:

    Yes, Ariadne Massa is as useless as they come.

    She once mentioned my company in an article about a serious incident with which we had no connection. She did not even bother to check up her sensationalist story with our company.

    To add insult to injury Times of Malta makes its corrections in some small box hidden somewhere.

    If Times of Malta is seriously recruiting, hopefully they will replace her with a journalist of a certain calibre.

  4. ciccio says:

    It is Times of Malta’s turn to be under siege, and they are not liking it.

    I haven’t bought a copy of their newspapers at least since 2012 and I do not pay for their online services.

    But that newspaper will prevail online as long as The Malta Independent does not catch up with a portal that is constantly updated with new items.

    As a reader, I automatically press on a news website for something new. So in my opinion, The Malta Independent cannot compete until it has a short list of main news at the top of the screen, and this is updated very regularly. Times of Malta is much more effective in this respect.

  5. kev says:

    Baxxter is at war. The anthill is under siege.

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      Are you joining up or shall I present you with the white feather?

      • kev says:

        I let soldier-ants defend anthills, Baxxter. There are far more serious matters than your provincial crusade against the other side of the hill.

      • tinnat says:

        Anthills, and far more serious matters, is it, Kev?

        I suppose now that you no longer live in Malta and your wife has a cushy job she did not want because she does not believe in Malta’s membership to the EU, you no longer wish to hear about what’s going on in Malta. As arrogant as the rest of them.

      • La Redoute says:

        Wrong, Tinnat. He’s glued to this site.

      • kev says:

        Ms La Redoute is right; and I’ve tried pitlor, kerosene, ethanol, methyl alcohol, nail polisher remover, even an incantation to Baxxter the Ultimate Fool, but nothing seems to works. Pettiness can be hugely entertaining.

    • Neil says:

      kev, where’s kapxinn? Doing the dishes at home like a good boy?

      • kev says:

        Hello there, Neil, my humble friend. I was missing your hilarious jokes. Have you mastered your Maltesian yet?

  6. David says:

    The Times of Malta and all other press outlets are far from perfect. However in my view its standards and balance are still better than those of the rest of the press. Therefore I question why there is a sustained attack on the Malta Times.

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      Iehor bis-sustained attack.

      • Lizz says:

        It’s a ‘sustained attack’ ghax huwa attakk sostanzjali kontra nies bla sustanza. Baxxter, I think that’s what he means.

      • Madoff says:

        Attakk sostnut bil-Bovril.

      • Manuel says:

        “However in my view its standards and balance are still better than those of the rest of the press.” Oh really, David?

        If Times of Malta has standards and balance then why did it not report the Leisure Clothing Ltd. slave-factory with the same prominence it gave to an octogenarian who hit-and-run a couple of parked cars in Attard?

        Times of Malta’s journalists went to this poor man’s home, shoved cameras and microphones in his face demanding and explanation.

        Have you seen any Times of Malta journalists lately near the Leisure Clothing Ltd factory, waiting with cameras and microphones to demand an explanation from anyone in management there? Or are these journalists too busy trying to hide Muscat’s blunders and coming down soft on him?

        If Times of Malta is after standards and balance, it should be demanding explanation from the PM on his 2010 PL-China agreement, on Air Malta, on the power station, on Sai Mizzi and so on

        Remember the well-balanced story a 500 euro Arlogg tal-Lira before the election in 2013?

        Standards and balance indeed.

    • Tabatha White says:

      David, I think you need a vision check.

      I did read the comment where Daphne says you are like this naturally.

      BUT.

      Times of Malta, does not, today, adhere to normal reporting standards globally.

      Nor does it “ask the right questions.”

      If in doubt and after a second, or third, opinion, ask Baxxter.

    • Neil says:

      David, you are really something else. Such ‘unique’ opinions.

    • Bumblebee says:

      Bid “delayed action” dan, stenbah fl-ahhar.

    • Jozef says:

      David, a sustained attack on Times of Malta is setting it alight.

    • chico says:

      It’s being attacked from within, it’s going to rot, like good old furniture that is riddled with wood-worm.

    • nistaqsi says:

      David, you describe Times of Malta as balanced.

      Yet that newspaper was an accomplice in the vicious campaign against Arriva before and after the general 2013 elections.

      The result was that when the PL government took the very wrong and misguided decision of banning bendy buses from our roads, nobody said anything because Times of Malta (and others) had conditioned people to think that bendy buses were a bad thing.

      The truth is that on the more popular routes, there is more crowding and waiting time are longer. Why? Because there are no bendy buses.

      The same happened when Arriva was forced out. Nobody protested.

      We are now suffering the result of that bad decision including higher subsidies (23 million euros instead of 10 million), higher fares and exceptionally bad traffic congestion.

      Poorer quality in public transport induces more traffic. The deterioration of traffic congestion AFTER the departure of Arriva has been extraordinary.

      David, forgive me therefore if I am angry at Times of Malta and at the PL government for creating such a mess.

  7. ken il malti says:

    The Times of Malta online newspaper should get rid of its comment section.

    If it is going to censor most of the decent comments then it might as well go whole hog and do away with it completely.

    There is no use in pretending it supports unbiased free speech because it certainly does not.

    It is a newspaper in the pocket of special interest.

    That fact is clear as day and apparent to more people week by week.

  8. muddy waters says:

    There are people that the Times does not wish or is afraid of treading on their toes.

    • Veritas says:

      Yes, like Silvio Scerri. By the way what happened to him, seems like he has disappeared from front page photos and news after the latest expose here.

  9. gn says:

    It-Times mimlija bil-Laburisti li daru fl-ahhar sentejn, u mimlija grieden bhalma ried il-prim ministru; li tidhol tispjuna hemm gew l-eks gurnalista tal-RTK.

  10. Jozef says:

    Times of Malta moved out to Mriehel so that garbage be produced on an industrial scale

    I see Massa can’t stand the quintessential Joe Public. As for Grech, he’s more concerned with keeping airtime on PBS than serving us any truth.

    Not that he can, one conversation and it was clear he can’t distinguish between cubic meters and litres. Not kidding.

    So do Konrad’s lies, innuendoes and no answers rely.

  11. Daphne, lanqas huma mohhom fik tat-Times. Qrajt l-intervista ma’ Simon Busuttil. Herman Grech baqa jinsisti miehgu dwar l-istil tal-kitba tieghek, pero Busuttil kien ragel fi twegibijiet tieghu. It-Times saret ghar mis-Super One. Inheggeg in-nies biex wara li jaqraw il-blog tieghek jaqraw il-gazzetti tal-Malta right now ghax ghamlu progress kbir fil-kitba u l-istharrig taghhom.

  12. anonimis foreva says:

    The taghna llkoll brigade’s calls for people to reveal their identities has a definite element of persecution attached to it. They dare people to reveal their identities hinting that they should be afraid.

    People in Malta know the consequences of speaking out. It is the same when people in small country towns anywhere in the world calling in to their local radio station demand anonymity before speaking. It is a request DJ’s are very used to and grant without question. This applies whether they are discussing how they made their most recent apple pie or whether it is a complaint or opinion about/on something more serious.

    Why are The Economist’s writers anonymous?

    I quote:

    ‘The main reason for anonymity…is a belief that what is written is more important than who writes it. In the words of Geoffrey Crowther, our editor from 1938 to 1956, anonymity keeps the editor “not the master but the servant of something far greater than himself…it gives to the paper an astonishing momentum of thought and principle”.’

    http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/09/economist-explains-itself-1

  13. Jozef says:

    ‘…so as to reach those who think The Bargain is a magazine full of fascinating information…’

    And does it show, the Wednesday centrefold; betting on absolutely everything.

    Do they even realise what they’re doing, and where they’ve aligned themselves?

  14. giljaniz says:

    All The Times of Malta journalists need to be shown historic footage of Black Monday in 1979 at least once a year, maybe before their Christmas Party.

    They might then understand how they need to tread very carefully around people like Karmenu Vella, Leo Brincat and Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.

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