Australian 442 needs to be more Australian-centric,by this I mean it needs to have a lot more Australian football content rather than just copying and pasting from the UK edition.Au 442 needs to spread its wings throughout the whole of the Australian footballing sphere,it should have comprehensive coverage of domestic football at both the A League and the leagues below it.There are hundreds of clubs playing in the state league systems including mine the mighty Brisbane Strikers yet when I have a quick flick through at the newsagents I never see any wrting on this level of the game!!

Football in Australia isnt just about the Socceroo's and the HAL and the grassroots of the game should be represented in what is the self titled #1 football mag in Australia!!

They also need to be sent information by the federations so they can publish it. FFSA sends them nothing so we get no representation in their content. What can you do other than complain to your federation?

442 put in the mag what sells.

Would you buy 442 if it had Messi/Ronaldo/Rooney on the front, or someone like Archie Thompson/Matt McKay or Marco Flores?

The truth is, not many people would.

Of course even I would love more content on Australian Football, especially the state leagues (NSWPL, VPL etc) but unfortunately not many people care about it....

Which is sad, because the same recycled stories that I read over here a month or two before you guys take precedence over the good work of guys who work on this site and local content.

But it keeps them employed, so catch-22 I suppose.

I've cut and pasted this from another thread on similar lines....here it is

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

Andy you are scaring the children with all this sense talk!

Would save you money sending someone already based in Europe to one of these places rather than an Aussie... just sayin'...

We did... :)

Good to know... Just, you know, making sure you're running things as efficiently as possible... :-"