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| Today's Methodist Recorder website front page. |
- Wrong cover price on the front page
- Disconnected telephone numbers on every page
- An online bookshop that doesn't exist
- Ghost pages from the main menu
- Ridiculous claims about readership
- Out of date information for readers
- A "links page" where most of the links are not working
- (including one to Action for Children that lands on a commercial dentist's page)
- This is the Methodist Recorder "online" as the print edition celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2011.
Co-incidentally the Methodist Church media team published a podcast interview with John Aldridge, Chair of the Methodist Recorder board, who I know to be a decent bloke with printer's ink where the rest of us have blood. The interview is worth listening to, however when John started talking about websites and twitter he seemed less sure of himself. He described the website as "OK" but admitted that it needed some improvement.
This led one or two readers on here and on the excellent UK Methodist Facebook page to post a few comments. Now I regard the Recorder as a family friend - it even carried a story and picture about my wedding - so I was a bit upset with the comments that were made about the Methodist Recorder website.
These included:
"The WORST web site I have ever seen..... are they on this planet? A high school student could create something better!"
"Gosh, you're right! I would've expected a much more impressive website than that!"
"I gasped, loudly, on opening the recorder's page. I'm so disappointed. I had to google to see if it really was the only Methodist Recorder Website."
Dave Faulkner gave his forthright views last week and they make interesting reading. "It is primitive. It has been the same for years. It might just have been acceptable in the 1990s, but that website is now an embarrassment."
So are these negative comments justified? And is it necessary to make them? The second question first. The Methodist Recorder in both print form and online are often the only connection Methodists have to the wider movement beyond their church. So whatever the Recorder says about being "independent" its an important part of the Methodist family and to a large extent represents us to the world. It is especially important for young people who - as John Aldridge rightly said in his podcast interview - get their news and information in new and changing ways.
So are the comments about the Recorder website justified?
This morning I took a slightly more detailed look by following the front page navigation buttons.
Front page: first impression is that this was put together in the very early days of the web. The design is at least ten years old, certainly I'm aware that it hasn't changed in any way since I started blogging in 2007. Significantly it says the cover price is £1.60 when it went up to £1.95 (I think) in January. Clearly no one is taking responsibility for "weeding" and updating. Navigation to other pages is via stylized radio buttons, again indicating a very early design. Significantly there is no news on the front page. Something that newspaper people should immediately realise is not a good way to sell a newspaper!
This morning I took a slightly more detailed look by following the front page navigation buttons.
Front page: first impression is that this was put together in the very early days of the web. The design is at least ten years old, certainly I'm aware that it hasn't changed in any way since I started blogging in 2007. Significantly it says the cover price is £1.60 when it went up to £1.95 (I think) in January. Clearly no one is taking responsibility for "weeding" and updating. Navigation to other pages is via stylized radio buttons, again indicating a very early design. Significantly there is no news on the front page. Something that newspaper people should immediately realise is not a good way to sell a newspaper!
Prominently displayed on every page is the telephone number 020 7251 8414 and a fax number 020 7608 3490 but more about that later when I actually dial them.
News page latest headlines: four short stories plucked from the current week's edition. Today it is up to date but not always. There are ten links along the bottom of the page: not one works. Navigation has to be through my browser rather than through the site.
News page latest headlines: four short stories plucked from the current week's edition. Today it is up to date but not always. There are ten links along the bottom of the page: not one works. Navigation has to be through my browser rather than through the site.
Page three A look at the life and history of the Methodist Church: This looks promising, listing Methodist heritage sites. First listed, Wesley's Chapel in London. Oh, link broken. Of the remaining nine links a further two are broken. But that's seven out of eleven that work. These are not links to outside sites, they are internal links. So what is the quality of the information? Let's go to the Black Country page, the area of Methodism I know best. The stories are OK, but the information is hopelessly out of date. For example the admission charges quoted for the Black Country Museum and Sandwell Valley Farm are clearly out of date possibly by several years. Why not just put a link through to their sites rather than reproduce information that needs constant updating?
Page four The history of the Recorder: good article, but what other newspaper makes its history a major feature on its website? It also confirms what a lot of us think: in 1998 the Recorder went "live" on the internet and this gives us a clue about how long the website has been around in its present form.
Page five Guidelines for submission: another OK page.
Page six Details of our regular articles and features: Not certain if this page is entirely up to date. We are assured however that "As a totally independent and self-financing paper, we are never compromised in bringing you the real facts”. The page is illustrated by a "rogues gallery" of twelve people who have contributed in recent months. None are named, all are white, ten are men, and (let me put this politely) all except one are obviously middle aged or older.
Page seven Puzzled by Methodist Conference? Here’s how we can help. It doesn’t help at all. It goes to a ghost page.
Page eight How to subscribe and how much it costs: Having been inspired by the rest of the site I decide that the one thing I want to do is to take out a subscription. So I obediently click through to the subscriptions page. But it doesn’t tell me how much it costs.
So I dial 020 7251 8414 the number provided on every page. Now I promise I am not making this up. I get a redirection message telling me to ring another number 020 7793 0033. I get through to someone who can't immediately give me the price of an annual subscription because subscriptions run on a July-July basis and therefore change all the time. Ann isn't in today but he would get her to ring me back. Thoroughly embarrassed for the Recorder staff I offer my apologies and decide to stick with the newspaper boy. I wonder how long the phone number has been changed and why on earth no one bothered to change it on the website?
Page ten Advertising rates and mechanical data: The first thing I notice is that the promised advertising rates are nowhere to be seen. There is a note about collaboration with other religious newspapers but it leaves me none the wiser. As a potential customer I have to email them to get an email back. I note the circulation stands at 22,000 with the ridiculous claim that on average each copy is read by up to five people, giving a readership of 100,000!
At the top of the page is the now redundant telephone number. Perhaps I'll try the fax machine? So I dial 020 7608 3490. That number, also on every page of the website, is "unrecognised, please check and try again". In the past I've managed advertising budgets worth thousands of pounds. Would I really advertise with the Recorder on the basis of this site and this page?
My conclusion is that the Methodist Recorder website is an embarrassment as Dave Faulkner says. Just the fact that they list an out of date telephone number, give the wrong cover price and have broken links from their main menu tells us everything we need to know about the future of the Methodist Recorder. It won’t last another five years, never mind another 150.
How long will it take for the Recorder to correct the cover price and telephone numbers? They have been sent a link to this post.
Page four The history of the Recorder: good article, but what other newspaper makes its history a major feature on its website? It also confirms what a lot of us think: in 1998 the Recorder went "live" on the internet and this gives us a clue about how long the website has been around in its present form.
Page five Guidelines for submission: another OK page.
Page six Details of our regular articles and features: Not certain if this page is entirely up to date. We are assured however that "As a totally independent and self-financing paper, we are never compromised in bringing you the real facts”. The page is illustrated by a "rogues gallery" of twelve people who have contributed in recent months. None are named, all are white, ten are men, and (let me put this politely) all except one are obviously middle aged or older.
Page seven Puzzled by Methodist Conference? Here’s how we can help. It doesn’t help at all. It goes to a ghost page.
Page eight How to subscribe and how much it costs: Having been inspired by the rest of the site I decide that the one thing I want to do is to take out a subscription. So I obediently click through to the subscriptions page. But it doesn’t tell me how much it costs.
So I dial 020 7251 8414 the number provided on every page. Now I promise I am not making this up. I get a redirection message telling me to ring another number 020 7793 0033. I get through to someone who can't immediately give me the price of an annual subscription because subscriptions run on a July-July basis and therefore change all the time. Ann isn't in today but he would get her to ring me back. Thoroughly embarrassed for the Recorder staff I offer my apologies and decide to stick with the newspaper boy. I wonder how long the phone number has been changed and why on earth no one bothered to change it on the website?
Page nine: Books, Music, Videos by Post - a reader service from the Recorder: Another potentially useful page, what have they got in stock? First I'm redirected to a "new page" and then I land on another Page not found message. Another ghost page! Surely they have noticed that no one is buying from their online bookstore? And anyway, who buys videos these days?
At the top of the page is the now redundant telephone number. Perhaps I'll try the fax machine? So I dial 020 7608 3490. That number, also on every page of the website, is "unrecognised, please check and try again". In the past I've managed advertising budgets worth thousands of pounds. Would I really advertise with the Recorder on the basis of this site and this page?
Page eleven Links to other Methodist and Christian sites: Now this surely must be a useful feature and one where an organisation like the Recorder could offer a genuine reader service. The page has four sections including an introduction.
The introduction points out that it doesn't list individual Methodist churches but promises “A list of local churches with sites is available at the Methodist Church site" I click through the offered link and the page is not found.
So I scroll down to the next section. This lists, complete with logos, 17 Methodist organisations. Only two work, 15 don’t. The one for NCH Action for Children sends readers to a commercial dental site!
The third section could be quite important. If a Minister or student googles “University Methodist Societies” this page comes up at number three on the results page. Fifteen societies are listed. Not one of the links work.
The third section, listing other Christian sites fares better with only two broken links out of 13. But the majority of the "links" on the link page don't link.
How long will it take for the Recorder to correct the cover price and telephone numbers? They have been sent a link to this post.
