Letter: I Shall Not Be Buying Any More Surrey Advertisers

Published on: 8 Dec, 2019
Updated on: 8 Dec, 2019

From Graham Richings

In response to: Hold The Front Page, We’ve Scooped A Political Advert

I have bought the Surrey Advertiser since about 1960. I picked up a copy of this newspaper on Friday [December 6], saw the front page and promptly put it back on the pile. In spite of the fact that I did not intend voting for such an undemocratic party, I shall not be buying any more copies of the Advertiser.

My first impression was that this newspaper was politically biased. I have written to the editor and told him of my decision.

This was a very short-sighted thing for the Advertiser to do and they may come to regret it if their sales suffer.

Responses to Letter: I Shall Not Be Buying Any More Surrey Advertisers

Julian Lyon Reply

December 8, 2019 at 6:42 pm

I gave up buying it several weeks ago having read It every week for 50 years.

Together we have probably halved its current readership.
Angela Gunning Reply

December 10, 2019 at 8:20 am

At £1.70 a copy it is simply not worth it any more; and for me, the final straw was that fatuous wrap-around cover with the “Surrey Advertiser” masthead so closely associated with paid-for advertising/propaganda/election material from the Liberal Democrats.

Angela Gunning is a Labour borough councillor for Stoke.
Lisa Wright Reply

December 10, 2019 at 10:59 am

The critics should get over themselves. It was an advert!

I just ripped the cover off and read the paper as normal.
Bill Smith Reply

December 10, 2019 at 9:29 pm

Bit much having it on the front page, but the main stream media is owned and funded by billionaires who use their news outlets to specifically influence political opinion and twist public opinion.

The wrap around on the Surrey Advertiser is not really any different and is at least an explicit advert. The billionaire media hide their motives in copy and opinion pieces to maintain the status quo that keeps the cash rolling in whilst our schools, hospitals, and social support networks crumble around us.
Brian Holt Reply

December 10, 2019 at 10:26 pm

My Surrey Advertiser has on the cover “Guildford edition”, but has hardly any Guildford news in it, I would expert a Guildford edition to be about the local area, and not about the whole of Surrey.

I am not interested on what is going on in Sunbury, Staines, Esher, Leatherhead, or Woking. The sports pages are all about teams playing around that area while Guildford, Godalming, Ash, Cranleigh get no match reports or results.

It should not be called a Guildford edition, but instead just the Surrey Advertiser. Every area gets pretty much the same newspaper.
D Fassom Reply

December 12, 2019 at 10:40 am

And the Lib Dems complain about the Conservatives rebranding their web site as a fact-checker for one hour. They even urged the Electoral Commission to intervene. Double standards.