Local Irish Sites

How do local Irish Newspapers deal with online journalism and the burgeoning demand for it? This was the question i asked myself as i looked through various sites including www.wicklowtoday.com and anglo-celt.com. I must say that i was immediately surprised at the depth and quality of wicklowtoday as I am more used to my own local papers such as the Cavan Echo and Northern Standard. The layout of WT’s homepage was what impressed me most with ease of access a major positive however once i clicked on the news section i was less than impressed as the last story posted on the site was from Friday December 14th 2007. When you compare this to other site it does not paint a pretty picture, i found the Anglo-Celt site to be better than i had thought with the opinion section reading rather like a weblog that detailed and discussed relevant local issues. Despite all these positives the lack of quality external links throughout the sites was a major weakness.