Dear Sir/Madam

I have today logged on to the Carrick Today website to get my usual catch up on local news and was most disappointed to find that the stories no longer appear.

I now live in Norwich but like to log on every week to catch up on the goings on of back home. I previously lived away in 1999 and my mother bough me a subscription to the Carrick Gazette, which I used to love receiving. I returned to Scotland in 2000 and went back to buying the paper every week. Before I left for England again in 2006 the contents of the paper changed and the focus appeared to be more on the Maybole area rather than Girvan so I took the decision not to buy a subscription and was happy to view the odd story on the website.

I have been somewhat dismayed over the last few months in that the stories part of the website often was out of date. It started to feel like a waste of time logging on to check the stories.

I do not buy a daily newspaper, however, if I did, it is more likely to be a local newspaper than one of the dailies. I tend to view all of my news online and visit news sites every day.

I do not feel that, for the contents of the newspaper itself and its relevance to me, the price of a subscription is too much. I am also loath to pay to view the stories online, as other newspapers provide this for free. I can see the point of paying to view the whole newspaper as an e-newspaper. Other magazines and newspapers do this and I can see the attraction. If the focus on the newspaper was a proper mix of Carrick then I would consider paying to either receive the actual newspaper or viewing the whole newspaper online.

Yours, a dismayed and loyal Carrick Today viewer.

Audrey,

It has obviously been a long time since you saw a paper copy of this publication, and I would suggest that you do indeed subscribe, as the quality of news relating to South Carrick is excellent now.

As with any business it is the paid product which satisfies the buyer. The web site is free, and cannot be expected to supply the same level of product as the paper version, which really does give excellent value for money.

I hope this helps

The Togfather

Being disabled and housebound and I keep myself up-to-date by reading many of Scotland's local newspapers online! What's the point of a website if folks can't read your local news?

Togfather,

I completely understand your views, and I know that businesses must earn money to survive.

One of the things that has dismayed me further is the fact that, since my previous comment of 15 December 2009, the webpage has not changed in any way, so I can't even read the headlines! The only part I can see that has changes is the announcements.

How is that supposed to entice people into paying for subscriptions to newspapers if they can't even get a flavour of the news?