Elliott Jackson (Grimsby Live)

Speaking as someone with a background in the sports media, it really is (depressingly) all about income – especially so at the local media level. Local newspapers just haven’t managed to make digital transition work yet. Even national titles have only recently got to grips with living mostly online. The nationals have managed to nurture international audiences and build business models on either memberships/contributions (i.e. the Guardian) or standard paywalls (The Times/Telegraph, etc.). Even then, the big-name papers have spent the first two decades of this century generally bricking it and cutting costs where they can. It is less common for journalists to be sent abroad to cover sports events, for instance. Like instead of full press tours following the England cricket team, a handful of journalists will now make the trip, but a large chunk of content creation is farmed out to the local media people of whichever country they’re going to, because it’s cheaper.

At the local level different things have been tried. The Huddersfield Examiner ran an experiment a couple of years ago where readers had a digital “wallet” and were charged 25p per article up to £1 (with the whole site unlocking at that point). So, assuming you read more than four articles, it’d cost you £1 per week to read the local paper. They didn’t think it worked, though, so went back to the template which we’re familiar with.

The biggest issue for the local press in the digital age is that advertising revenue is apparently the best/only option for income, yet that revenue represents a fraction of what you got for selling physical newspapers in the pre-internet era. So, Reach and others are stuck in a cycle of trying to maximise income through ads, which means generating clicks, which means producing rubbish clickbaity articles. The journalists themselves are stretched across multiple clubs/areas and so cut corners where possible (milking solitary interviews for a ridiculous number of articles) and have no chance to build an affinity with the place they are supposed to be covering. Elliott Jackson – a very junior reporter and all Reach can afford – is “Grimsby Town reporter” in name only, and with Town only being a fraction of his interests his work has come across somewhat tone deaf at times.

I would happily pay £1 per week for quality local journalism. The problem is, nobody is going to look at what’s out there currently and think “I’ll pay for that”. Sites like The Athletic are the way forward but Reach has already shot itself in the foot.

Quoted from RichMariner

Clickbait headlines have made clever headlines a thing of the past.

I remember when Michael Appleton scored an equaliser for us against Man City in a 1-1 draw (96/97 season). He'd played well on loan for us, then got dropped for a game (I think) before returning to the side.

The Sports Telegraph headline was 'Appy Mariner Makes A Point'

Today the headline would be 'One thing Michael Appleton did that will make him undroppable for next game'.

I’m just waiting for the article entitled “How Tony Gallimore looks today will break your heart”, which proceeds to force you to click, one page at a time, through before and after photos of 20 Town players before getting to a photo of Gally showing him to be absolutely fine.

Quoted from Poojah

I’m just waiting for the article entitled “How Tony Gallimore looks today will break your heart”, which proceeds to force you to click, one page at a time, through before and after photos of 20 Town players before getting to a photo of Gally showing him to be absolutely fine.

It's when you click on the 7th page and it brings up an advert for some sort of sexual supplement, which really fillets my flounder.

I never even make it to Gally's bit so I have to imagine how he looks now.

While we're being nostalgic about the headlines on the back page of the telegraph, do any of you have a particular favourite? The one I remember most is when Malcolm Partridge (remember him?) scored two goals in a town win just before Christmas (can't remember the year), and the headline read:

"Partridge in a Pair Spree"

At the time, I thought that was great - must have taken some creative thought.

Quoted from Saudimariner

While we're being nostalgic about the headlines on the back page of the telegraph, do any of you have a particular favourite? The one I remember most is when Malcolm Partridge (remember him?) scored two goals in a town win just before Christmas (can't remember the year), and the headline read:

"Partridge in a Pair Spree"

At the time, I thought that was great - must have taken some creative thought.

KOP THAT

Quoted from Saudimariner

While we're being nostalgic about the headlines on the back page of the telegraph, do any of you have a particular favourite? The one I remember most is when Malcolm Partridge (remember him?) scored two goals in a town win just before Christmas (can't remember the year), and the headline read:

"Partridge in a Pair Spree"

At the time, I thought that was great - must have taken some creative thought.

My favourite, from the early 70s was ‘Queen in brawl at Palace’

Quoted from Saudimariner

While we're being nostalgic about the headlines on the back page of the telegraph, do any of you have a particular favourite? The one I remember most is when Malcolm Partridge (remember him?) scored two goals in a town win just before Christmas (can't remember the year), and the headline read:

"Partridge in a Pair Spree"

At the time, I thought that was great - must have taken some creative thought.

There's the famous one from the Scottish Sun in 2000 when Inverness Caledonian Thistle won at Celtic in the Scottish Cup:

"Super Caley go ballistic, Celtic are atrocious"

My favourite of all time was after Inverness Caledonian Thistle turned over Celtic in a shock 3-1 win;

SUPER CALEY GO BALLISTIC, CELTIC ARE ATROCIOUS

Ace!

Quoted from Saudimariner

While we're being nostalgic about the headlines on the back page of the telegraph, do any of you have a particular favourite? The one I remember most is when Malcolm Partridge (remember him?) scored two goals in a town win just before Christmas (can't remember the year), and the headline read:

"Partridge in a Pair Spree"

At the time, I thought that was great - must have taken some creative thought.

Brolly reigns.  (One for the oldies 😉 )

Quoted from Knut Anders Fosters Voles

It's when you click on the 7th page and it brings up an advert for some sort of sexual supplement, which really fillets my flounder.

I never even make it to Gally's bit so I have to imagine how he looks now.

When I get to page 7 it has an advert telling me how to marry a ladyboy can anyone explain why?