I own some back issues of Sheffield Star dated year 1999, very good read indeed. Still love opening it even now, from time to time. So you see it is kept as some historical document really. I’m glad to be probably the only reader of this newspaper in Russia!

But what does it look like now after all those years. How much did they change – design, layout, logo, staff, circulation, reader audience, address, or anything?

Did they use the same font for text and headers? Any new features? Or old peculiarities?

Originally posted by Vovakr
I own some back issues of Sheffield Star dated year 1999, very good read indeed. Still love opening it even now, from time to time. So you see it is kept as some historical document really. I’m glad to be probably the only reader of this newspaper in Russia!

But what does it look like now after all those years. How much did they change – design, layout, logo, staff, circulation, reader audience, address, or anything?

Did they use the same font for text and headers? Any new features? Or old peculiarities?

I remeber when the paper was huge!I mean size wise!
Think that was before 1999 though.If you wanted to read it on the bus you needed a WHOLE seat to youself(double one) or you would knock the person out next to you when you tried to turn the page.Much more reader friendly now i think!Think when it was big it was just black and white too!

the star has gone through two re-vamps in recent years.

Firstly, the paper changed from a broadsheet (think Guardian-style size) to tabloid (as it is now)

then a few years later, it altered the typefaces. (it's got a more "Daily Express" feel to the typeface these days.)

it also began to feature a "pull-out" leisure section, with a "what's on" section, a TV/radio section, and within that, a nightly "specail features Section" be it music, women's issues, health, bygone times section, or whatever.

HTH?

PT

Thanks so much indeed. So it comes out that The Star was a broadsheet once also in its style?

I know some people who said it is very hard to get used to colour-printed paper after having reading it in b&w for many years, my mother is one of them. She refused to buy her favourite Russian paper once after they added colours, but soon it was ok. But some newspapers here are still monochrome, especially small local ones.

Well Star seem to went a little bit lighter, but I remember all that “what’s on” – sections. Also classified is marvelous – sometimes much more informative than the ‘major’ sections.

I used to solve some puzzles like nonagrams and word pyramid in the Star, quite successfully, but never could cope with English crossword properly – the way words are decrypted differs badly from ours, or may be this is just me.

Ok The Star is not the only local paper in Sheffield as far as I know plus there’s a lot of national ones. You have a good choice.

Cheers!

Have a look at www.sheffieldtoday.net!!

The Star has been purchased and sold on three times in teh last 7 years, each company attempting to integrate the paper into their group ethos, the paper seems to attempting to re-associate itself with the city, after levelled acusations of too much national coverage, even though I work for another newspaper I do hope they suceed.

Thank you very much.


Originally posted by danielford99
Have a look at www.sheffieldtoday.net!!

Oh a lot of times danielford99
But you see there's a huge difference between printed and electronic versions. The latter could hardly represent the spirit of the former... The smell of the printer's ink at least.



Originally posted by Paul Cocker
The Star has been purchased and sold on three times in teh last 7 years, each company attempting to integrate the paper into their group ethos, the paper seems to attempting to re-associate itself with the city, after levelled acusations of too much national coverage, even though I work for another newspaper I do hope they suceed.

Could I know the name of the newspaper you work for, if you don't mind? Would be great just to know.

Would you like some posting ? I could send you a copy of a few of the local papers if ypu like ?

Dear Lindseyw,

sorry for delay with the reply -- we have holidays in Russia at the time, busy with some other things, so I got not a chance to go online.

It is so kind of you really. I'd appreciate this a lot, but if this wouldn't be of any trouble for you.

And I'll be happy to send you something in return -- Russian newspapers (English-language e.g. for foreign people living here)...well maybe even printed in Russian ;) the one I work for, or any info on my country or Sergiyev Posad in particular.



:wave:

i like the star to catch up on local news. but sometimes it misses out on important national headlines meaning you have to by a national paper too. also, there are sometimes terrible spelling mistakes, misprints and very badly written articles!

I know at least 3 stories which they have had on their front page which are absolute rubbish.

It seems the Star never has to correct its mistakes or investigate properly

I think one of the best ever misprints appeared in the Star. It was in the obituaries and should have read "To a dear dear Dad".

It actually came out as "to a dear dead Dad"!

Originally posted by RoyalRegular
I think one of the best ever misprints appeared in the Star. It was in the obituaries and should have read "To a dear dear Dad".

It actually came out as "to a dear dead Dad"!

oh dear:(



[sniggers quietly]

Do's the Green'un still exist ???..the Saturday sports paper..I can still hear in my head the Saturday night paper seller who used to stand outside the Horshoe pub on Bell house Road..Greeeenuuunnn.

Star is still Our paper but one thing I don't like is all the repeated storys, not only do they have bits covering the same one on more than one page per paper but also the same story pops up later in the week.

I still read The Star fairly regularly [thanks to relatives] despite having left Sheffield for darkest Southport in 1991. What strikes me is the huge increase in seedy adverts for "massage" and "escorts" in the back pages over the years giving the paper a rather downmarket feel. The paper still prints hilariously trite stories on the lines of, Mr Arthur Bickerdyke of Heeley Bottom lost a yellow pencil yesterday etc, and the sports pages still seem biased in favour of the glorified pub team that play at Hillsborough.

I used to work for the Star as a messenger and in telesales for 'summat' which didn't last long, (it was a free ads paper) the missprints and adverts that got unchecked was amazing. I even had some humdinger adverts that shouldn't have gone in ever, like a advert for a short haired english beaver free to good home (which would have appeared better in a porn mag).
The Star shares articles with the Telegraph Journal and Gazette, the latter two get distributed free around sheffield.
In the Stars favour if they found they had such an avid reader like yourslef they might do a piece on you?
They helped me get my point across when my brother was in iraq, and i was getting hassled by protesters!

I gave up on the Star about three years ago, having read it since I was a kid (my dad had it delivered) in the seventies.
Somehow it seemed to become increasingly bland: someone not familiar with Sheffield would imagine nothing ever happened if they relied on the Star.
I felt it made the city seem colourless and dull. Open a page at random "...summer fayre at local school..." "...lollipop lady retires.."
The newsteam seemed so desperate for ANY news that they would herald often mundane stories with huge headlines.
I also felt there was a strong anti-labour party bias throughout. I'm no left-winger by any means but as long as I can remember the Star seemed to have this hand-wringing attitude towards labour councils.
To say they make such a big thing about being a local paper and trying to convey the news of Sheffield they must be horrified to see websites such as this which, I fel gives much more of a truthful and intimate view of the city.
Anyone ever been involved in a story covered by the Star? I've yet to hear of an event that was covered as people experienced it! they always get something wrong!
The one good thing in the Star was Stephen McClarence's column (long since gone). Maybe the internet will, eventually mean the end of all newpapers...any local event I want to know about, I'll come on this site!

My father worked for the Star virtually all his life. He started as a copy boy after leaving school in the 1939/1940 era. He was then called up for war duty on his 18th birthday but returned to the Star upon his demob. Apart from a few short periods working for Reuters and a Manchester paper, he solely worked for the Star. He was chief reporter circa 1970's, feature editor and had his own column..."Ron Roland's second opinion"....anyone remember that? He died 1988 and was editorial manager i think. Mum tells me he would have never retired, he loved the job and was a true 'old school' journalist.

The Star was roughly the same size as it is now in the fifties and the Cinemas nearly filled a full page, look how many we have now.
I enjoy the letters page and on the whole its a good local read.

Originally posted by BILDEBORG
My father worked for the Star virtually all his life. He started as a copy boy after leaving school in the 1939/1940 era. He was then called up for war duty on his 18th birthday but returned to the Star upon his demob. Apart from a few short periods working for Reuters and a Manchester paper, he solely worked for the Star. He was chief reporter circa 1970's, feature editor and had his own column..."Ron Roland's second opinion"....anyone remember that? He died 1988 and was editorial manager i think. Mum tells me he would have never retired, he loved the job and was a true 'old school' journalist.
i cant remember the name but i would remember the face i worked on the delivery vans at that time
thank s for the memories

We had our Star delivered at 12-30pm today,i remember when you had the first 2 or 3 race results and the half time football scores in the stop press ,its more like a morning paper now,you can get more up to date news on the forum

Yes I must admit that the star is not as it used to be, infact its a waste of 32p at times..

I have had the Star delivered for over 50 years but i have been today to cancel delivery.i didnt think it was worth32p, but now they have hiked it up to 35p i think its robbery.I hope that every one else does the same.

Sad to see from comments that The Star has gone downhill. Those who worked there — myself included during the wartime years — always did their best to provide as much local news as possible under very difficult circumstances. We were at war, and naturally readers also wanted to read what was happening as far afield as the Middle East and Burma.

In those days, it was a Kemsley Newspaper owned by Lord Kemsley and it had proof readers — a rare breed that newspaper owners today have done away with. Sad to say, they’ve also done away with reporters who could string more than two words together without making mistakes, and sub-editors who don’t really know what the term means or the responsibilities of their titles.

In my day, mistakes never got past the proof readers. Today, they get past the sub-editors, the production editor (if there is one) and even the editor!

On the plus side, this state of affairs prevails all over Britain, particularly among weekly newspapers, free newspapers and regional evening newspapers.

I note that one poster mentions the same story going into The Star twice, on different pages. This is generally because the so-called sub-editor picks up the original story from a computer database and ‘forgets’ to bin it once he’s/she’s placed it on a page. Another sub-editor picks it up for a second time and, in the belief that it’s still live, uses it on his/her page.

It never happened while I was an editor. In my time I’ve held three positions as editor of weekly newspapers, and never allowed an edition to go for printing until I’d checked every page. Nowadays, journalists who rise to editor seem to believe it’s just a job and a title. It’s more than that. It’s a responsibility.

I knowthey’re not likely to publish Sheffield news, but if you want a decent paper and a good read try either The Independent or The Guardian.

Peterw, I have offered my services as a proofreader to the star on numerous occasions. It's getting as bad as "The Gruaniad" for errors, and mistakes.

I get really irritated when street names, and districts are mangled by people who have absolutely no knowledge and no real interest in the area they are "reporting" on. And when mistakes are pointed out, they don't give a monkeys about rectifying it.

As for the same article appearing on separate pages in an edition:- that happens too frequently, and it's sloppy workmanship.

PT

Altered to correct a spelling error! Oh, the irony! lol

Given the theme of your thread, I'd amend 'seperate' to separate!

thanks, chairboy... rectified

PT

I agree, there are many errors made and space given over to apologies but many provincial papers now exist on shoestrings. I would have to say that the Star does get back to me when I've drawn things to their attention. Not so long back, there was an address in the Court Report I'd never heard of. The editor of the day told me she agreed there wasn't such an address in South Yorkshire! That address was supplied to the Star by the court!

So, nowadays the Star doesn’t even have a court reporter to attend and get things right, or again wrong as the case may be! Like I said, try the better class Dailies. At The Guardian they still work from a Style Book — something all newspapers used to have — and they do tend to get things right. If they don’t, they recify their mistakes in the next edition.

My father worked for the Star virtually all his life. He started as a copy boy after leaving school in the 1939/1940 era. He was then called up for war duty on his 18th birthday but returned to the Star upon his demob. Apart from a few short periods working for Reuters and a Manchester paper, he solely worked for the Star. He was chief reporter circa 1970's, feature editor and had his own column..."Ron Roland's second opinion"....anyone remember that? He died 1988 and was editorial manager i think. Mum tells me he would have never retired, he loved the job and was a true 'old school' journalist.

I remember Ron Roland very well, he was a true gentleman

Bildeburg — which Manchester paper did your father work at? The name seems familiar. I worked for the Manchester Evening Chronicle which was eventually swallowed by the Manchester Evening News, but I could have met him — probably many times — in the Manchester Press Club.

Hi Peter, the Manchester paper's name escapes me, but I do have a recording somewhere where my father was interviewed for Radio Sheffield about his career in journalism, and the Manchester paper is mentioned on it. All I do know is that not long after he started there (he was offered the Rome office for Reuters, but as Mum was pregnant with me she didn't want to go) the paper folded. I was born in Manchester 1961, but we all came back to Sheffield when I would have been about 6 months old, so you should be able to work out which paper it was from that info.

Cheers,
Jay.

I gave up on the Star about three years ago, having read it since I was a kid (my dad had it delivered) in the seventies.
Somehow it seemed to become increasingly bland: someone not familiar with Sheffield would imagine nothing ever happened if they relied on the Star.
I felt it made the city seem colourless and dull. Open a page at random "...summer fayre at local school..." "...lollipop lady retires.."
The newsteam seemed so desperate for ANY news that they would herald often mundane stories with huge headlines.
I also felt there was a strong anti-labour party bias throughout. I'm no left-winger by any means but as long as I can remember the Star seemed to have this hand-wringing attitude towards labour councils.
To say they make such a big thing about being a local paper and trying to convey the news of Sheffield they must be horrified to see websites such as this which, I fel gives much more of a truthful and intimate view of the city.
Anyone ever been involved in a story covered by the Star? I've yet to hear of an event that was covered as people experienced it! they always get something wrong!
The one good thing in the Star was Stephen McClarence's column (long since gone). Maybe the internet will, eventually mean the end of all newpapers...any local event I want to know about, I'll come on this site!
RE Getting it wrong! when a person Iknew died of an overdose of medicenal drugs the STAR reported it as dieing of intoxication[ full stop]. and quite a coverage whilst being technically correct how many people thought it was through alcohol?when a retraction was printed itwas tucked awaywith 2lines

I remember we use to go outside about 6pm and shout Green'Un, then hide and watch every one poking their heads out the door looking for the paper boy:hihi:


oops, thought I was posting on History...sorry !

oops, again..sorry it WAS histrory, I was right first time...sorry again!