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Let’s hope the printed edition doesn’t go the way of the Evening Standard anytime soon as sad to see only a half dozen copies in a local supermarket this morning on Derby day. 30 years ago there would probably have been 25-30 I imagine. I presume it’s only the Irish edition that is recording the 1st of June as a Friday! Perhaps the creative chap was too busy designing that clever mock-up of a wooden horse on the front page – I wonder what that’s about, almost Nathan Hughes standard!
The Evening Standard is only going to be printed once a week from now on. I expect it will go online only not long afterwards.
I often used to buy it on a Friday night for the Saturday racing and greyhound cards. It also was good for its coverage of the arts scene. But time has moved on and fewer people want printed papers now.
I remember the older version when it was just called the ES when you used to have an older guys sitting outside tube stations calling out Evening Standaaaaaaard and it would have the late night prices edition with all the latest news happenings.
It would have been celebrating its 200th year as a publication too in 3 years time – sadly all papers have been made somewhat obsolete by the advance in digital communications (especially the news media) which is now available 24/7 via the internet.
With regards to the RP, paying £5.20 for a weekend printed edition is insane, especially when you consider the it is more expensive than the FT Weekend (£5.10) and the £4 you pay for The Guardian (Saturday Edition), The Daily Telegraph (Saturday Edition), The Observer and The Sunday Times.
To be fair back in the day our local newsagent only ever used to have maybe 6-8 copies of the RP on the weekend (although you would have to get round there early to ensure you got one) and maybe only 2-3 during the week, unless it was during a festival week then you may get 5 or so.
“We should be learning from the Japanese. They’ve been buying our Derby winners for years. And what are they doing now? They’re kicking our arse.” (Willie Carson)
Peter Thomas captures the zany Scot and his Caledonian thrift in todays interview.
Good to see French jockey Coralie Pacaut is recovering from a very nasty fall yesterday. If you want to be reminded of French glamour have a look at her social media! Perhaps Mr Burton might furnish us with a profile of her that might brighten up up a dull Industry News edition like todays.
I hope it disappears.
It’s a ridiculous price which has increased as the standard of contributor has at the same time gone rapidly downhill. It’s more than a glossy magazine. It only gets by on the basis that there are enough buyers with more money than sense.
I would guess it’s mainly those over 50 who find it prohibitively expensive and wouldn’t think it’s price that’s the main issue for young people – a lot more fundamental. Better off spending a fiver as a long term racing knowledge investment daily than throwing €20 away on a casual punt on some maiden or handicap. That said there is much room for improvement. A lot of the content has been there for years and is jaded looking like that Newspaper tipster competition.
I haven’t got any figures, but I strongly suspect it’s the other way around. I very much doubt many younger people would buy it. Average age of purchase I would imagine would be 50-55+. Betting might attract younger people, but racing doesn’t.
People of all ages seem to buy one when they go to the races, primarily for something to read on the journey. I imagine it only survives because every bookmaker in the country buys at least one every day though. I no longer buy it (though I am not too proud that I won’t pick one out of the bin at the end of racing for the journey home). Exception is when they do a “pull out” for an international tournament that interests me (such as the World Cup) as it usually has useful information about more obscure teams and players.
I have to agree with Stilvi Zilzal. I reckon there are many people
in their 60s and 70s who aren’t paying up a prohibative mortgage
and financially are in a better position than their youger counterparts.
The country is shifting all the time to more pensioners, we’re an aging
society. The grey pound is now a growing percentage, hence the politicians
pander more to them now than at any other time.I haven’t bought a newspaper in years, but I do pay £350 for an
annual subscription of the Racing Post online. That works out to
about £1 a day for the RP plus the Weekender and the benefits of
racing replays for all races in the UK and Ireland plus other
benefits. I suspect the RP will, like many papers, eventually
be whittled down to not much other than the one supplied to
the bookies.I suspect it’s worse than that BigG. Aside from the bookmakers and occasional racegoers, it’s just the digitally illiterate who are buying the hard copy paper. I hold back from accusing the older racing enthusiast because I know plenty of “silver surfers” as well as many younger people who are incapable of virtually anything but, in reality, it’s likely to be a declining market.
Even the hoarders have stopped buying them
I’ve got a Ladbrokes less than 5 minutes walk away, often go up there for a free read
Most of the news in there is a day or two old and read on-line anyway
form etc can all be found onlineCharles Darwin to conquer the World
BigG, I’m interested to know what it is that makes you think it’s worth parting with £350?
I use the free site, and save for popping over to Irish Racing for the odd Sales details, it gives me as much information as I need. The only subscription I have is to the Irish Point To Point site. Done that for a few years and think it’s a useful tool. Also buy some trainers brochures at the start of season. It’s debatable how much use those are. That’s it.
And what does all that digital literacy give us – an enormously dumbed-down generation and society
A great many articles you read in the free Racing Post stop after
a few sentences and say if you want to continue you have to sign
in as a member. It’s not just the articles, I find it handy when
looking through a race to be able to watch all runners previous
races. I am aware I could switch over to the Sporting Life web
site and look up a horse and it’s previous races, I just find
it very handy when it’s directly at your fingertips.You have the ability to log in to that days digital newspaper which
has a great deal more information than just the Racing Post online
site. You can go back to all previous digital RP’s, the Weekender,
the Racing and Football Outlook.In every race, you can click on to the Pro Card. which has a different
layout, I think it’s better than the normal card that you will see.
Below the comments you will see, on the Pro card there is additionally
stats, past winners, postdata and other stuff.If it’s not for you Stilvi/Zilzal, that’s fine, but not to point out the obvious,
it’s my money and I think it’s worth it. I’m not really concerned what anybody
else thinks.
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