Review: The Punch comes out swinging

I read @penbo’s Mumbrella post about ThePunch, sounds interesting but i cant see how it can make $ even with free articles written by pollies

As I suggested to one of my friends on Twitter, perhaps the tag line should be:

” #thepunch will celebrate journalism, especially unpaid free articles from politicians, uni students & celebrities” 😉 “

Incredible that they feel the need to have a whole separate tab for “lightweight”. It’s a bit like the Footy Show saying “here’s the bit for morons”, or Philip Adams saying “here’s the earnest bit”.

The backroom people have done their homework and made sure there’s a population of commenters; small but noticeable, and a decent set of contributors-to-come.

Overall it’s more low-rent Huffpo than “good enough to pay for”.

I was actually surprised by how blog-like it feels – there’s even a blogroll. My first impression was of not being able to get an instant sense of the breadth of content. I wanted to see more on a single screen rather than scroll and scroll past giant headlines and pictures. The endless linear scrolling felt very blog-like, too.

Also, its reliance on News Ltd content reminds me of the way that The Vine relied so heavily on Fairfax content when it first launched.

Congratulations to the team @thepunch. Great to see News Ltd trying something new here. Our big media companies taking risks and investing in new ideas should be supported and applauded by all here on Mumbrella. Go for it guys.

Stephen Phillips
htttp://wearehunted.com
htttp://wotnews.com.au

Yep. News Limited: ‘Celebrating journalism’ by not paying writers.

Their stated intention of linking outside their own publications looks like tokenism at first blush.

If Mike Rann’s article on bikers and the slightly fawning, apologist piece on Keelty and his retirement are indicative of the continued content it’ll be a big yawn. I’ll stick with Crikey.

Nothing for Crikey to worry about yet.

Don’t much like the big photo, 3 pars and a fold. Makes it very slow to navigate. Why can’t I have headlines that link off to articles? That way I know how much content there is…

Guess there wasn’t budget for any designers.

What are they thinking. The design isn’t optimised for any purpose let along build an engaged audience.

There’s a reason crikey adopted the huffpo, daily beast et al design model and it’s still not clear whether crikey went far enough and its going to work. BusinessSpectator only gets away with their design because the content is so solid.

This will have to be redesigned in three months if not before. Feels like a big Fail unless they get on the bus and redesign.

At least the Punch won’t be constantly bagging newspapers like Crikey does, so that will be refreshing…

The Punch celebrates journalism by stripping all contributors of their copyright and moral rights (their right to be identified as the author of their contributions).

http://www.thepunch.com.au/community-agreement/

# Copyright rests with us. By posting material on the site, members agree that The Punch and its affiliated companies will hold copyright on the material for all electronic uses or for use in print publications and marketing provided it is used in an appropriate context

http://www.thepunch.com.au/terms-and-conditions/

17. You waive any moral rights in your contribution for the purposes of its submission to and publication on the Site.

To say I’m underwhelmed is an overstatement. It’s pure News Ltd top down central control old media.

The only new idea in there is the waffle about ‘permissive advertising’ (ie we’re desperate and will advertise anything for a $).

having problems signing up – insert email address, hit go, get to terms and conditions, and then what, there’s nowhere to go – is there a fault or is it my end? very frustrating.

My issue with the Punch is this idea of moderating non-“intelligent” comments. While it can be frustrating to scroll through idiotic comments, how do you stop this not leading to a form of censorship? I sent a comment yesterday to the punch which was obviously blocked, and though I am kind of glad it was not published as in hindsight it was a bit harsh and condescending towards the site and writer, I didn’t realise Hugo Chavez would have his finger hovering over the delete button!
Intelligent thought provoking commentary yes, but surely if a writer wants to be a polemicist or writes something generally inciting instead of insightful surely you should be allowed to call them out?

It’s hard to believe that comments are being moderated when you see the Herald-Sun level comments that are getting through. As I was scrolling through the comments on the protest by Indian students in Melbourne, I had to check the URL to make sure I was still on The Punch.