Post by The Editor on Jul 4, 2023 22:36:21 GMT
I'm looking at next season's offering.
From my point of view, the following is the likely plan.
A few comments from my point of view.
I'm a volunteer like many others, it's not a full-time role like some clubs may have (or even outsourced to a full-time agency). This does limit the time available, so contributions are always appreciated - but bear in mind I don't live locally to the club, so dropping something off at the club for me might not get collected for a week or more.
It is more cost effective to print more programmes - the cost per unit is lower. That means we can keep the selling price comparable, but as Tim mentioned on the fans' forum thread - if we don't cover our costs, each unsold programme is a £3 loss. People have said we can cut pages, but we have to include league adverts, and when you go through 'must-have' content, plus adverts the club have sold to help cover some costs, the programme is up over 40 pages.
Unlike one comment - which was disproven - much of the content isn't available online. It's something we've tried to do for years, avoid repetition.
I'd love to do the bumper edition mentioned in other threads. But it relies on regular and reliable contributions.
A bumper edition could include:
Matt's update
Commercial update/opportunities (from Tatts and Co)
Match/ball sponsors
Mascot page (full info on the packages and the day's mascots)
Ball donors (book your slot with Kiddo)
Chairman/CEO notes (would it be needed to have weekly?)
Opposition information (not always easy to get hold of/time consuming to search their websites).
Opposition head-to-head/previous encounter (often provided by Mark F)
"Played for both" - when applicable
Supporters' notice board - tell us when your birthday is, or if you're completing the "92" etc etc
Supporters' Club update (from John Parsons)
Squad sponsorship and kit sponsorship
A player profile from one of the first team
Paul L's photo of the week
Contirbutions from readers - article covering a page or two on an interesting topic (get in touch!)
Match report complete with Paul's photos and key game stats - could be one or more games
Fixtures, line-ups, etc (usually centre-spread in programme)
Upcoming games - news, ticket info, and travel info (could be more than one page depending on the fixtures)
League table
League round-up (anyone want to compile this? Get in touch!)
Mark F's historical article
Women's team match report (with photos if available) - needs to be provided to me
Women's team interview - anyone want to volunteer to conduct interviews and send them to me?
Women's team squad sponsorship
Mark F's "on this day" article
Academy report and round up
Academy interview
Jimmy Dack update
Backroom staff feature - anyone want to interview them and send it to me?
Chaplain article
Main player interview - something topical and different (eg I want to run a feature with Jon Barden when he's coming back about the journey to fitness)
Paul L's photo from the archives
Jenny the Giraffe page
Junior U's page - anyone want to put this together and send it to me?
Foundation, charity, community - any news we have can go here. But news isn't always weekly so not always worth including if not new?
Player poster (for autographs)
Captain's notes - would Easty or someone else want to discuss the upcoming game?
SLO update (including FAQs)
Matchday squads and officials.
As you can see, that's a lot of stuff. Would it need to be included every week? If yes, we rely on people updating the information - which isn't always possible given they're volunteers too.
And something with double the pages of the current edition would need to go up in price. Would the average punter pay £5 for a programme?
Seriously - if you want to get involved, get in touch. lyall.reynolds@suttonunited.net
Thoughts, comments welcome.
From my point of view, the following is the likely plan.
- Pre-season will be teamsheets - not cost effective to spend money on a full-printed programme (regardless of number of pages).
- We will do a printed programme, no decision yet on pricing.
- When we have a match on a Saturday/Tuesday or Tuesday/Saturday, we will likely print one programme to cover both games as very little information updates between the two matches.
A few comments from my point of view.
I'm a volunteer like many others, it's not a full-time role like some clubs may have (or even outsourced to a full-time agency). This does limit the time available, so contributions are always appreciated - but bear in mind I don't live locally to the club, so dropping something off at the club for me might not get collected for a week or more.
It is more cost effective to print more programmes - the cost per unit is lower. That means we can keep the selling price comparable, but as Tim mentioned on the fans' forum thread - if we don't cover our costs, each unsold programme is a £3 loss. People have said we can cut pages, but we have to include league adverts, and when you go through 'must-have' content, plus adverts the club have sold to help cover some costs, the programme is up over 40 pages.
Unlike one comment - which was disproven - much of the content isn't available online. It's something we've tried to do for years, avoid repetition.
I'd love to do the bumper edition mentioned in other threads. But it relies on regular and reliable contributions.
A bumper edition could include:
Matt's update
Commercial update/opportunities (from Tatts and Co)
Match/ball sponsors
Mascot page (full info on the packages and the day's mascots)
Ball donors (book your slot with Kiddo)
Chairman/CEO notes (would it be needed to have weekly?)
Opposition information (not always easy to get hold of/time consuming to search their websites).
Opposition head-to-head/previous encounter (often provided by Mark F)
"Played for both" - when applicable
Supporters' notice board - tell us when your birthday is, or if you're completing the "92" etc etc
Supporters' Club update (from John Parsons)
Squad sponsorship and kit sponsorship
A player profile from one of the first team
Paul L's photo of the week
Contirbutions from readers - article covering a page or two on an interesting topic (get in touch!)
Match report complete with Paul's photos and key game stats - could be one or more games
Fixtures, line-ups, etc (usually centre-spread in programme)
Upcoming games - news, ticket info, and travel info (could be more than one page depending on the fixtures)
League table
League round-up (anyone want to compile this? Get in touch!)
Mark F's historical article
Women's team match report (with photos if available) - needs to be provided to me
Women's team interview - anyone want to volunteer to conduct interviews and send them to me?
Women's team squad sponsorship
Mark F's "on this day" article
Academy report and round up
Academy interview
Jimmy Dack update
Backroom staff feature - anyone want to interview them and send it to me?
Chaplain article
Main player interview - something topical and different (eg I want to run a feature with Jon Barden when he's coming back about the journey to fitness)
Paul L's photo from the archives
Jenny the Giraffe page
Junior U's page - anyone want to put this together and send it to me?
Foundation, charity, community - any news we have can go here. But news isn't always weekly so not always worth including if not new?
Player poster (for autographs)
Captain's notes - would Easty or someone else want to discuss the upcoming game?
SLO update (including FAQs)
Matchday squads and officials.
As you can see, that's a lot of stuff. Would it need to be included every week? If yes, we rely on people updating the information - which isn't always possible given they're volunteers too.
And something with double the pages of the current edition would need to go up in price. Would the average punter pay £5 for a programme?
Seriously - if you want to get involved, get in touch. lyall.reynolds@suttonunited.net
Thoughts, comments welcome.