[ntnm] Re: newspapers by email if it wasn't broke why fix it
- From: "Huw Evans" <huw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ntnm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 28 May 2014 20:26:12 +0100
Hi Derek,
If only we had been told two months ago that we were being taken off a
sinking ship, a p r disaster and some little unpleasantness could have been
avoided. On the credit side we may end up with a slightly more suitable and
user friendly service and being better understood than might otherwise have
been the case.
I hope you get a discounted subscription for circulating the transcript.
Huw.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Derek Hornby" <derek.hornby_uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ntnm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2014 9:40 PM
Subject: [ntnm] Re: newspapers by email if it wasn't broke why fix it
This is part of an In Touch Transcript few weeks ago.
Peter White and Neil Heslop.
White
You see what people won't understand is that you did know about this,
came on the programme and you told us that this was going to happen
there would be changes - so why were these changes, when they did come
made so quickly and with so little specific notice to subscribers
what was going to happen?
Heslop
We've actually made three different changes all at the same time and one
of those changes was to change where CDs were distributed from and we
had some customers who should have had a seamless experience by
the change.
White
This is the audio, yes, that people who have their talking newspapers read
to them on CDs because we too have heard from people who've not had
they normally get and are getting - they're waiting for newspapers
are arriving a week late.
Heslop
Just to give you a sense of the scale of this. We have about 4,000
customers,
of those 4,000 customers the vast majority receive their material on
via CD. Secondly, of those 4,000 customers 285 actually subscribe to
eText service and they receive distribution through e-mail.
White
To go back to the point, you knew this was going to happen, why did it
happen
so suddenly and with so - forget the individual formats - why
people told what was happening and given long enough to act on it?
Heslop
We brought forward the implementation of changes to eText in a
hurried fashion, we had planned to make changes by the end of June
we then received a request from certain members of our Heathfield
to be released early by the end of March. In the circumstances where
we're making changes I wanted to comply with that, I believed that we
be in a position for people to have uninterrupted service, that was
clearly not the case and what has happened is that the vast majority
the service for people receiving eText has been fully in place for
1st April.
The one exception to that has been e-mail delivery. For some
we received positive feedback that that has not been a problem but
for many customers it has absolutely been a problem. So we've taken
to ensure that they receive e-mail distribution of their material by the
middle of May.
White
So they'll be without that for about six weeks?
Heslop
That's right and I'm very mindful that this is a paid for
service. So we took the decision to actually extend the offer of an
additional three month of subscription to all of our subscribers.
White
What about the audio?
Heslop
The first issue was the transfer of information from Heathfield to
Peterborough. The vast majority of materials happen appropriately, however,
a small number of publications took longer than they should have done.
So we've opened up a high speed broadband connection between the two sites
and we've now got to a point where everything has been uploaded on time.
We had a second problem, what happened was that while the vast
of publications were turned around and distributed out of Peterborough
within the 24 hours that we had planned for, a significant minority were
not. We have looked at our problems there, we've made changes to our
production systems and we're now at the point where the vast majority, as
of today, 96% of everything has been turned around and distributed
24 hours.
White
So when do you think the service will be running smoothly again with all
the subscribers, as you've pointed out, who've paid for this year's service,
getting what they've paid for?
Heslop
We have a small number of continuing problems but I anticipate that we
will be through all of those problems by the end of this month. And I want
to come back to your point about communications because there's no
question that mid-change we have not done as smooth a job as we could or
should have done with regard to communications. So what we have done
we've set up a temporary special team to handle some of these
issues, so anybody with continuing issues should e-mail to
rnibsolutions@xxxxxxxxxxx and we've set up an alternative phone line of
01733 375285, so that anybody who has problems can get direct to someone
who's in a position to resolve the situation for them on a personal basis.
White
Right. As far as most consumers I've talked to are concerned this wasn't
broke this system, so why have you felt it necessary to fix it?
Heslop
When I sat here five or six months ago it was against the context of
being told that Heathfield was closing in its entirety and the service would
be lost within three months. Over the last 10 or 12 years NTN subscribers
have declined from 13,000 to 4,000 and that places a huge challenge on
of us to find a way to make that critical service sustainable for the
long term. Now over the last four years RNIB has worked incredibly hard
in order to maintain the service, quite rightly and properly, but
after investment of between £2 and £3 million we have to find a way to
protect the service, to deliver a fantastic customer experience, put it
on a sustainable basis but do so in a fashion that we can afford.
White
-----Original Message-----
From: ntnm-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ntnm-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Isaac Porat
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2014 8:37 PM
To: ntnm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ntnm] Re: newspapers by email if it wasn't broke why fix it
Hi
As usual numbers are useful...
As I said before, I was involved with TNAUK since 2001 with my interest
mainly in the technical side.
The retail price of newspapers does not come into it as the publishers
kindly donate their publications for the blind free of charge; I know
for a fact that this does not happen in every country!
It is important to note that the eText side was the smaller part of the
charity activity the audio side was at least ten times bigger in terms
of expense and subscriber numbers.
It is not easy to pinpoint how many people were involved on the eText
side but perhaps an estimate of six people would be fair.
The number of about 400 eText subscribers has been pretty steady no
matter how much marketing was done by TNAUK.
With £40 you get total income of about £16000
If you take the salaries of six people even considering the low salaries
paid by TNAUK and allow for a reasonable overhead you can see that
subscription covered only a small fraction of the costs.
Three of this people did manual extraction of magazines which could not
be done automatically you could of course reduce the number of magazines
and thus the number of people employed in manual extraction, subscribers
would not be happy.
You can see from the above figures that even doubling the subscription
fees would not make much difference, of course without donations the
charity could not exist. Blind people can not afford or do not want to
spend more money on newspapers and each time subscription fees were
raised the number of subscribers dropped.
Luckily with eText magazines especially if they are supplied
electronically the costs are mostly fixed that is for the same number of
people 400 or 4000 subscribers can be served with virtually the same
costs. So the challenge for RNIB is to raise subscriber numbers.
The first prerequisite for this is good quality service and I am sure
they know this.
As for myself, although I am very sad about what happened the reality is
that it is water under the bridge and one needs to move on, if I can
help in any way I would, I talk to RNIB on technical matters and there
seems to be positive signs, lets hope that these would be translated
into action to improve the service.
Regards
Isaac
On 27/05/2014 17:13, Rod wrote:
Yes, I guess that's the problem! We didn't realise that we were getting
something for nothing. If we had to pay the retail price for each magazine
then we would start screaming! Rod
Sent from my iPad
On 27 May 2014, at 14:53, "Derek Hornby"
<derek.hornby_uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
But just maybe, if we want a good service we need to pay for it.
Funding the service is the crux of problem.
Derek
-----Original Message-----
From: ntnm-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ntnm-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf
Of goshawk on horseback
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2014 1:05 PM
To: ntnm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ntnm] Re: newspapers by email if it wasn't broke why fix it
at the time, especially given that everyone is trying to put extra
demands
on the amount we get, probably not many, and I have to say that I would
have
been one of those raising a stink about yet another increasing expense.
but if I had had any idea of the diabolical system we would get lumbered
with at the time, then whilst I wouldn't have exactly been happy about
it,
it would definitely have been worth it, to keep a good system that
actually
worked properly.
Simon
----- Original Message -----
From: "Derek Hornby" <derek.hornby_uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ntnm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2014 9:57 AM
Subject: [ntnm] Re: newspapers by email if it wasn't broke why fix it
Good points Kevin,
I wonder how many people would have been willing to pay a higher
Subscription, if that was the only way to keep what we had.
Derek
-----Original Message-----
From: ntnm-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ntnm-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf
Of Kevin Greenan
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2014 8:38 AM
To: ntnm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ntnm] Re: newspapers by email if it wasn't broke why fix it
Hello Folks,
I have been a long time subscriber to the TNAUK Service, and have enjoyed
reading both the e text and download service. As a recent subscriber to
this
list, I have been reading all the posts with interest, and as a result,
have
a suggestion which I feel would have solved the whole issue.
If it is the case that RNIB took over TNAUK because of funding issues,
would
it not have been more propitious to subsidise the service, thus allowing
us
to keep what worked very well, and also have avoided the unnecessary and
enforced redundancies from Heathfield?
Kevin Greenan.
-----Original Message-----
From: Derek Hornby
Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2014 11:19 PM
To: ntnm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ntnm] Re: newspapers by email if it wasnt broke why fix it
And why do they say:
"Our tests to date have been successful"
This is not really true.
-----Original Message-----
From: ntnm-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ntnm-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf
Of Badger
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2014 10:50 PM
To: ntnm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ntnm] Re: newspapers by email if it wasnt broke why fix it
I only joined in January, and I found the service to be fantastic. Now
it's
convoluted, slow and annoying. A lot of the titles have 3 or 4 links when
you go in to them, pick the one you actually want, then you have to pick
format and the way they are now layed out is terrible.
Also a lot of the magazines I was so excited to find I could read, such
as
top gear, have vanished.
-----Original Message-----
From: ntnm-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ntnm-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf
Of goshawk on horseback
Sent: 24 May 2014 21:14
To: ntnm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ntnm] Re: newspapers by email if it wasnt broke why fix it
exactly! it seems like RNIB thought they could do better, so tried to do
things there own way, rather than sticking with a perfectly good system,
and
made a total hash of it!
Simon
----- Original Message -----
From: "stephen evans from lineone.net via dolphin guide 8"
<stephenevans4@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ntnm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2014 4:59 PM
Subject: [ntnm] newspapers by email if it wasnt broke why fix it
hi all
newspapers by email full text if it wasnt broke why fix it
chris edwards at heathfield done a fantastic and wonderful job with the
full
text of newspaper and magazines
steve
member of the best blind and partially sighted club on the net
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