Inside Sport

Local / Lower League content


https://forum.insidesport.com.au/Topic1082509.aspx

By f1dave - 27 Apr 2011 9:26 PM

NOT an excuse for certain people to start state league v A-League bashing; hopefully the mods try and enforce that intention. This is just some feedback from a fellow Glory fan who recently paid up for a subscription:

Quote:


Have recently subscribed to the Australian edition of 442 and whilst I enjoyed reading it I would have thought being an Australian edition there would be more on local and national football stories other than Man U, Arsenal and the like.

As a contributor F1 can you let me know why there isn't more 'local' content or even some lower leagues in the uk.

After all not everyone follows the Premier League (hard as it is to believe)

Keep up the good work though its worth the subscription fee



Kevin/Trev/Andy - care to provide a response? I told him I'd pass it on over here, and I know we used to have a little state league coverage... is it just a lack of resources? reporters? etc? Or was nobody interested? (though how you measure 'hits' on a print magazine page I'd love to know :D)

EDIT: "Contributor" rofl.

Edited by f1dave: 27/4/2011 09:27:05 PM
By Andy Jackson - 29 Apr 2011 7:50 AM

Hi All

I could write an essay here on this but safe to say we've trialled most things over the 6 years.

We've run a State League section for a season. Made no difference to sales.

Producing a football magazine once a month is about trying to get the right balance of content and content that even if it is not about a reader's own club they will still find it interesting.

Remember we have to sell magazines nationally.

Remember we are not the official A-League magazine. Not our job.

We produce a magazine for football fans who live in Australia...important distinction. Our mission has always been to provide a mix of local and international football content. A mix of player interviews and general interest stories on great derbies around the world, football tourism, historic pieces etc etc

In 6 years we've played around with this balance a lot - running A-League players on covers, Socceroos, world stars and EPL players.

6 years ago we were the only magazine putting Kewell, Cahill, Neill and Schwarzer on the cover...now they're household names and the more informed fan knows pretty much all there is to know about them...where's the next generation of high profile Australian players to take over?

Why does every FFA sponsor almost exclusively use the same four players above as their ambassadors?

Which A-League player do you think would sell magazines in every city in Australia? How many would be recognisable on the cover of a magazine from 20 feet away in a newsagent to all but the most ardent of fans.

Exactly what are we supposed to write about the A-League between March 2011 and October 2011?!

Where's the marquee player of the calibre of Dwight Yorke that will sell mags nationally because every body is interested in what he has to say and his experiences overseas and here. We did Fowler 2 years ago within a week of him landing in Australia.

For the mix of content to sway back more towards local content we need the following.

More A-League team = more supporter bases = wider interest levels = new regions & new people to sell magazines to

High profile marquee players - players who people are interested in from Perth to Potts Point.

Next generation of Aussie players to progress to good teams in the big 4 leagues.

We will always focus on Australian football and its players - look at the current issue - we sent a journo to Utrecht to spend a day with the 3 lads over there. Next month we spend a day with Nikita Rukavytsa in Berlin. Neither of those features would work as a standalone cover feature to sell magazines nationally though.

We have a huge feature and photo shoot with 5 matlidas next month too.

However, until some of the above changes and we actually have some A-League football being played you will see the main focus of our covers be more internationally focussed - we will always put an Aussie spin on things like the current EPL legends where we got an interview with Viduka to supplement the international content.

Coming soon we've got our 20 under 20 cover feature which we will supplement by naming our best 10 Ausssie players under 20.

Hope that helps provide some clarity to the process.

Cheers

Andy







Edited by Andy Jackson: 29/4/2011 07:54:51 AM