"Football Clubs Banning Local Papers"

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Auntie Merge
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Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 3:43 pm

From the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-st ... e-24743660

It seems some of the bigger clubs who didn't like the local press writing negative reports, have banned them stating 'fans can get all their news from the club website'.

Seems a very bad precedent and I hope it doesn't spread.
Tranced
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Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 3:56 pm

Seems along the same lines of the music industry's inability to write a negative review. 'Brands' don't like it, so everything has to be positive - and football clubs are brands - not something for the local man, anymore.
rechitski kinzhal
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Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 7:24 pm

Have they never heard the phrase "don't bite the hand that feeds you"?
It is a shame that the local paper in question just didn't then completely ignore writing anything about Port Vale in their paper. Many local fans would soon get upset, and if they asked the paper why, the paper could just refer them to the club.
Football lives or dies by publicity, and the clubs seem to think they can continue taking more and more out of the media, and out of everyone and everything else just because football is popular at the moment. But don't think it couldn't all go wrong..... look at what happened when the ITV deal fell through and so many clubs below the Premiership went bleating on and on because they had already spent the money they were expecting. In my business I never spend any money I am expecting until it is sitting in my bank account.
To quote Richard Littlejohn yet again "I hate everything about football, except the football".
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Auntie Merge
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Agree. The trouble with publicity that spouts from the club, it is very often just reaching people who already know about the club. The local papers have the capacity to reach those who don't know about the club, and maybe, if they did know about the club, they would attend, or buy from the club shop or through another way contribute to the financial stability of the club. It is a very shortsighted and negative step, and if say, Port Vale suffer the same fate as Luton or Stockport, they could be begging the local paper for the right sort of publicity.
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Mikins
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Didnt something similar happen with Bournemouth last season? I'm sure their previous manager had a row about a bad match report and "overly critical reviews" and banned the local rag from interviews or even attending games, unsurprisingly after he got sacked that went out the window when Howe came back. its amazing how quickly these situations turn around.
Sorry about your damn luck!
NickMurphy
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Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 6:37 pm

Had a quick browse of the article, quite a few teams that have done this now! Newcastle are the most recent side to do it after the local paper supported the view of the fans.

Barnet's local paper also faced a ban earlier this season, not sure whether it has been overturned mind.
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