The MEN is a great regional newspaper…read more It's not perfect but it's ours and I personally love it. It's hard to see why they give it away for free in the city centre. But it does mean that EVERYONE in the city centre reads it! You can't get away from it, the only way to fend off the enthusiastic street vendors is to walk down the street holding a copy! But when you haven't got a copy, you do miss it. Bus journeys seem twice as long! Plus you'll end up being left out once you actually get to work! There's always at least one article that everyone is either outraged or hugely amused by! I really do generally enjoy reading it, sure there are mistakes but it's a regional newspaper so they have the bare minimum staff! Sure there are a lot of adverts but they give it away for free so they have to raise revenue somehow! The charity campaigns, as Emma-Louise has mentioned, are really well done. The 'Cash Back' campaign for Christies charity to reclaim £6.5 million from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme really captured the heart of Manchester and it was a huge success too! I love to see the paper doing well and I love to see Manchester getting behind it. Long live the MEN!

The Manchester Evening News (MEN) is a tabloid newspaper which is a local newspaper distributed…read morearound Manchester, in addition to local newspapers towns in Greater Manchester might have, for example I'm from Middleton and locally we have The Middleton Guardian, but on a large scale we have The Manchester Evening News. Most people in Manchester will have heard of and probably read the MEN, with a circulation of over 50,000 it is quite respectable for a local paper but only 1/16 of the readers of the London Evening Standard. The Manchester Evening News was always distributed free, up until January 2010, when between Manchester to Friday, it was handed out for free in the city centre in other locations, but now it is only free on Thursday's and Friday's, but still remains paid for outside of the city center, which is also giving those who don't live in the city centre a bad deal. I've always found the newspaper to be a typical tabloid, owned by the Mirror they focus on sport, and apart from that it is quite a poor paper, minus a few local articles which do get covered here, and it certainly isn't worth paying for, and sometimes it isn't even worth picking it up if it is free, the handing out of papers can get repetitive too, if you're going round the city center, you could meet half a dozen sales reps trying to hand you a "free" paper or trying to sell them, which is a waste of money. I'd like to offer MEN some advice to follow the approach of London, in setting up stands at train and tube stops, this means they don't have to pay wages of staff just to hand out papers, and they can be used in other roles, meaning the public don't feel harassed and this would save money too, meaning the newspaper could be free on more days, meaning they can make more money through advertising for example and make it overall a better local paper, this would help it to compete with other regional papers readership totals, such as the Evening Standard. Manchester does have a smaller population than London, but I don't see why the readership can't be doubled or trebled with a few right moves, but for now it is just below average and deserves 2 stars. I do like the feature how on Mothers Day and Fathers Day you can print a message in the paper for free online, but other than this and few good sport and local articles, this paper really isn't good for anything else.

Manchester University Press are a well-known publishing house who focus on academic books. Though…read morethey are on the same premises they are not in fact linked to the University of Manchester. Don't be fooled by the admittedly misleading title 'Manchester University Press' because they're a private company. Having said that, it does have great links to the university and often publishes books written by its finest academics. The head editing publishing chappy is a nice man. It was founded way back in 1904 when it was specifically concerned with publishing texts from Manchester Victoria University but now it has a broader range of publishings, which is not a real word so they wouldn't publish it but I don't care na na na na na.

I totally agree with Emma-Louise that City Life is a really helpful addition to Manchester's social…read morescene. It's free, has some bizarrely high-profile interviews, in fact you can almost bet money on the fact that they'll have an interview with whichever old-time rocker is about to play the MEN that particular week. City Life is a good point of call if you're really lost for something to do at the weekend in Manchester and need some quick ideas.

Student Direct is Manchester's most famous and successful student paper. I've got to say I disagree…read morewith these reviews praising it. For me the paper is an interesting read, but mainly to give the reader an insight into the mind of a typical student. And what you find there, is remarkably depressing. Semi-accurate news, a few mildly amusing stories, pretentious articles about getting drunk and loads of trash about dating and relationships. Oh and reviews of pretentious music, books and film that make out that everyone should know who these obscure bands are if they want to consider themselves cool. If this is what cool is then I am not it, nor do I want to be.

Any University of Manchester student should know that you can pick up a free copy of Student Direct…read moreevery Thursday from the two Union buildings and various other places on campus. I believe that the Salford edition of SD has certain similarities to the Manchester one, but with stories relevant to the uni on the other side of the river. As Emma-Louise points out, it is fantastic how the student paper is allowed to (fairly or unfairly) slate the university accommodation. Recently I found out how much my ex-halls of residence Whitworth Park have deteriorated since my departure by reading an article about leaks and overflowing bins in SD. My favourite parts of Student Direct used to be the blind date and 'I saw you' sections. However, they became less sarcastic and humorous (and consequently more boring) as my student days went on. In fact, the whole paper went downhill, was often full of errors and stories were duplicated from week to week. Obviously this depends on the editor and team, which are elected by students every year. Writing for the paper (or knowing someone who does) can have its perks. Free gig and theatre tickets? Count me in.