Let's get started with the Daily Mirror, which I really didn't like. It actually felt even more vacuous than The Sun, and it cost more, and it even stooped down to pathetic attempts at imitating The Sun (which was never going to work). I'd have to rate it as the worst newspaper I've read out of everything I've read so far, which covers just about ever major newspaper in Britain today. Also, the horoscope that got that comment out of me? "Such a bother all these decisions, but look at the opportunities passing you by as you deal with details". Maybe it wasn't to do with The Guardian after all, maybe it was just asking why I was reading this dreck in such detail with so much else to be doing...
The Daily Telegraph was boring this time around, it seems there was little for them to harp on about that specific day. Also, did they really give up on global warming? Sadly not. Maybe some liberals had snuck into the office the day I was reading or something. There appears to have been little change since my first reading though, I'll have to take a third look on a good day when I feel I have the energy for it.
The Leek Post & Times vs. Your Leek Paper contest ended in a draw when the presiding judge (i.e. me) couldn't care enough to give a verdict. I still can't really, though I'd personally be more inclined to buy the Leek Post & Times for what it's worth. 5p more seemed good value for the extra content, and I couldn't find any editorial bias.
In contrast to the Daily Mirror, the Daily Express actually gets the thumbs-up from me. Don't get me wrong, I don't like it, but I reviewed it not as a newspaper for me to read regularly, but as a competitor to the Daily Mail (which it is), and it did well in that regard. It was a bit cheaper than the Daily Mail, had less colour pages than the Daily Mail (which didn't seem important to me, but has about the same length and the same journalistic standards as the Daily Mail (acceptable for factual stories, marginal for opinion pieces). So why does the Mail sell better? I still can't work it out myself.
The Sentinel saw me go back to a newspaper that I didn't care much about, with the exception of one letter I latched on to. I didn't find anything wrong with it, but I just don't seem able to get into caring about local issues that much. If you do though, The Sentinel gets a passing grade from me, with remark given to the surprisingly low price.
The last three have the least to go on. The Guardian vs. The Independent ended as expected, with The Guardian continuing to hold the weekend spot (I doubt anything can topple it now), my (abridged) review of The Sunday Times found it to be a lot like The Times but a hell of a lot longer, and I had little to say about the Moorlands Advertiser, though there was little to criticize with a free newspaper (I do have the Moorlands Trader here now, and will probably review it later on).
All in all, I have to admit that this was a pretty unproductive second phase to my experiment. The Daily Express was a surprising highlight, but problems with Freehostia and a sudden lack of enthusiasm brought everything to an unscheduled halt, and it ended up taking me until now (3rd February 2010, as of writing) to finally collect my thoughts for a retrospective.
I've not ruled out a Phase 3 (looking at online news has been suggested to me, there are a few newspapers left to take a look at, and I'm still interested in some of the Sunday papers) but I can't be sure that it will ever see the light of day. If so, it will likely have a different structure and longer timescale. But until such a time, this is the end. I hope it was entertaining and enlightening.
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