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Andy Lynes's avatar

I thought Miquita Oliver had been hung out to dry by her editor. She's not a professional writer and she obviously needs guidance and more time than the Observer are apparently willing to give her. It was a hard read.

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Marshall Manson's avatar

I’m not well placed to judge, but my observation is that between the Observer and the writers, all of the content has been weak, and it sadly risks the audience for that sort of content that Rayner built over the years.

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Andy Lynes's avatar

As long as it doesn't go on for too long it will be fine, but I think they need to announce the Rayner replacement soon as I'm sure readers are losing patience with this, I certainly am.

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Liam Collens's avatar

Solid work as always. Just in the Quick Hit capsule, I had something similar on my website for a few years and then I removed it all together. After a few weeks, I found the bounce rates went down significantly and I never re-introduced it. There could be many reasons for that, but it is the reason I never brought it back. Instead I started writing a summary sentence up top to capture the mood. Personally, I like the Quick Hit so I would encourage you to keep it and add it up too vs wrapping up the article at the end. Also, Substack is quite different to websites as I think one’s subscribers are in it for the haul instead of the casual passersby on websites lured in by Google SEO. Sorry for the Tedtalk! Just sharing. Hope it helps.

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Marshall Manson's avatar

This is a great perspective Liam. Massive thanks for sharing it.

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Liam Collens's avatar

Pleasure!

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