ECPL Posted October 1, 2019 Report Share Posted October 1, 2019 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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