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SUNDAY INDEPENDENT TO COST £2 FROM NEXT WEEK


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It seems the Sunday Independent is increasing its cost from £1.50 to £2 next week. A whopping 33% increase. The price rise was hidden away on page 28. It says it is going to have a 144 page edition starting this week – an unbeatable package of information and entertainment. Really. Yes they have increased coverage of other sports and are to be applauded for it.

I bought it this week to see if they had changed their reporting of local football. Sadly not. An example:

 

HELLENIC League 8 Divisions - ONE match report – nothing from Premier Division

WESSEX League 2 Divisions - 3 small reports

GLOUCESTER COUNTY League - Full review

WILTSHIRE Senior League - Full review

SOMERSET County League - 4 Divisions Plenty of scores NO scorers

BATH & DISTRICT League - Plenty of reports NO scorers

BRISTOL SUBURBAN League - plenty of matches few reports and even less scorers

DORSET League - plenty of matches few scorers

DEVON League - need I say more

DEVON & EXETER League - Same as above

NORTH DEVON League - not a single goal scorer

St PIRAN League - Incomplete in fact embarrassing

CORNWALL COMBINATION League - Best not to comment

EAST CORNWALL League – need I say more

DUCHY League – tried their best but very incomplete

TRELAWNY League – more incomplete rubbish

 

This papers lifeblood was built on local sport especially football. Offering someone a tenner to do a complete review is insulting. So what do we get. A saving of about £500 or in sales soon to be £2 of 250 papers. So how do they recoup that as well as paying out for HUGE great stories that readers lose track of after a few paragraphs. You got it, put the price up. Could this be the end of the paper that we all grew up with and loved under John Collins and Kevin Marriott. It was great when the paper was saved but unfortunately papers have to be sold to survive. Gone are the days when we regularly bought the paper just to read about our local club or see our names in print. Nope it is the delusional reasoning that seems to think that people will read ream upon ream of absolute tosh. Do people not realise that in today's world our attention span is much lower, we have the internet, twitter and facebook to deal with as well. But no, these people know best.

 

Look at the mess they have made of women's football. Could they not use bullet marks to separate different stories. It was the same when I wrote it, but no a simple bullet mark would have sufficed. It is the same in the men's game. Does anyone want to read through line after line to get to what they want to read about, their club, their name. It seems that County football in the women's game doesn't count any more because it is not being reported on. So nothing to read about in the Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire leagues. I asked the paper to have a separate page for Bristol City as they are the regions sole professional female club. Nah, seems like lack of interest. How on earth do you attract readers.

 

It is a shame but to increase the cost of the paper to people who don't see their club or names mentioned is nonsensical. They have a full set of results in the result section so why repeat the scores in a nonsensical round up. I used to put the scorers in for virtually every women's game. But no, they can't even be bothered to do that.

 

Any newspaper boss will tell you that sales are down and people have to work harder to attract new readers. The Indy is the only regional paper that reports on matches the day after. It isn't rocket science to try and attract readers. But no we have to plough through page after page of absolute drivel. Wake up Indy or it will all be gone.

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14 hours ago, Sticker Forever said:

Must admit, I bought an Indy last week.....it was a heap of shit. An insult to football in Cornwall. They should put it down 50p not up!! If that paper is still here this time next year I’ll be amazed! Will stick to my non league paper for £1.50 in future thank you. 

The West  Briton is going exactly the same way and I can see it ceasing production in the not too distant future.

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On the flipside Matt Friday does some great work in the Falmouth Packet and online Instagram and Twitter for local football and the Cornish Times up East way is a decent read on a Friday and Monday, they still seem to care about local football. Deacs Cornish Soccer magazine is a great read as well once every 6 weeks or so. Keep the faith gents 👍

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17 hours ago, RAPPO said:

On the flipside Matt Friday does some great work in the Falmouth Packet and online Instagram and Twitter for local football and the Cornish Times up East way is a decent read on a Friday and Monday, they still seem to care about local football. Deacs Cornish Soccer magazine is a great read as well once every 6 weeks or so. Keep the faith gents 👍

Long gone are the days when we would rush out to get the Indy on a Sunday. Reading the Falmouth Town report before we even got out the shop ,to find the star man at the end of the report was once again Mark Rapsey ! 😁😂🤣

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Have to agree with everything ECLP has written. Anyone who follows football, has played it, run a team, made the teas, run a line, MARKED a line - etc. - wants to find THEIR club's match report quickly and easily. No longer possible in the Indy. As ECLP writes, loads of tosh to wade through, not even BOLD TYPE is used to help you find your club. And there might not even be a report of the game you watched! Even their fixtures are difficult to go through to find the leagues you want details of: the old way of using county outlines to guide you worked so well, so in the modern management way it was bound to be done away with! Having to fall back on social media is no good for he likes of me (i.e.old fart!).

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9 hours ago, mattelot said:

Long gone are the days when we would rush out to get the Indy on a Sunday. Reading the Falmouth Town report before we even got out the shop ,to find the star man at the end of the report was once again Mark Rapsey ! 😁😂🤣

And don't forget the Sunday Independent Team of the Week Nige, winners certificates displayed on many a Jewson South Western League club house wall. :thumbsup:

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