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<br>The Sportsman announces its closure on Thursday, October 5th. The Administrators have decided not to continue printing as discussions to re-finance the paper continued to be at a stalemate.
The Sportsman’s circulation has enjoyed growth week-on-week for the past five consecutive weeks and Saturday, October 2nd represented their biggest sale for the weekend edition to date. As a result of this, two major new daily advertisers were due to start within the next ten days. Nevertheless, an agreement for the continued financing of the newspaper could not be reached.
Jeremy Deedes, The Sportsman’s Chairman commented: “It is a very sad note on which The Sportsman closes. Since we redesigned the paper six weeks ago, circulation has grown every week. Ironically, our last recorded sale, of 21,000, was not only our best day’s sale since the launch period, but also corresponded to the figure set out as the ‘break even’ under the new business plan.â€ÂÂ
Starting off as a sports and not a racing paper was a major error and not just in hindsight, then stating it was a competitor to the RP, no wonder the Post didn’t reduce it’s price. <br>Should have tried to replicate The Sporting Life.
Such a shame. Perhaps one day something or someone will attempt to fill it’s shoes as an RP competitor.<br>Also means there is now a huge pool of journalists looking for jobs…not good news for anyone, especially the young trying to break into the business (and obviously those now without jobs)!!<br>
Inevitable as I said on other thread’s.<br>There is no market for a second specialist paper in the internet age.<br>If 21000 copies in a day was the best they could muster then it was good money after bad.<br>Made a bad start as an "all sports" paper without the gravitas of the daily’s sports supplements and the form print was unintelligible.<br>Never recovered.
Really a shame – they did seem to have got their act together in recent weeks.
I do feel a second paper is viable, albeit one that has a tight focus on racing. Despite the doomsayers, the market for newspapers is still strong in this country and racing remains a viable niche area.
The reasons for it’s failure were obvious to many forumites – poor initial form & cards, concentrating on sports betting etc – and this was aired a number of times on TRF.
Should have asked us first, I suppose!
Mike
Sad news for those reliant on the paper for a living. Best wishes to them all for the future.
Lingfield is right
with the net, there is simply no room for a second paper. Also they overestimated the desire within the sports betting community for detailed analysis. Maybe im being snobbish but a lot of that market is fairly knee jerk punting and appeals more to those that dont really like loads of detail
The presentation is vital. If you dont hit the ground running you never recover. look at the fortunes of the Independent and Today newspapers, launched at roughly the same time
Once in administration, if buyers do not appear quickly they rarely appear at all…
Quote: from lekha85 on 10:22 pm on Oct. 5, 2006[br]Such a shame. <br>Also means there is now a huge pool of journalists looking for jobs…not good news for anyone, especially the young trying to break into the business (and obviously those now without jobs)!!<br>
Don’t say that!!! My ears are covered!!!
No it is a shame that the Sportsman has gone now – I had actually wondered if it had gone bankrupt last week, as I found availability of it very rare in London on Monday.
The form for both Saturday and Sunday in 1 paper was a very good idea – I wish the RP would do it, but agreed – making it a sports paper was ridiculous.
Also bad news for my good mate Fallon – yet more earnings now being lost for him. Can we bring his court case forward til next week? ;)
Bad news for punters that Fallon no longer has a column – how many winners and decent horses did he give us since March? I know it’s just 1 example, but I wasn’t going to have a bet on the Jean-Luc, but after reading his comments about HRE, I got stuck in.
It’s not really a surprise.
They went in to a market with no real need or desire for an extra paper and they did so with a product most people thought was inferior (at least prior to their re-branding).
So, basically, a marketing ****
-up.As Clive said, it’s important to hit the ground running and that means getting the paper right from day 1 as people are quick to make their minds up about newspapers/magazines.
So, after getting it wrong at the beginning (and losing a lot of money), it was always going to be a struggle.
Steve
Yes they didn’t really have a large enough market to aim for, and it’s no surprise to see the paper finally go under.
With lots of people now on the lookout for new jobs the job market is looking even bleaker for the younger racing journalists! :(
market is looking even bleaker for the younger racing journalists!
Bleak???
Bulls**t<br>!
Ok, there were more opportunities before the Sportsman closed down, but look at the big picture.
There’s more racing than ever. So, journos are required to cover that.
There are 2 dedicated racing channels in the UK.
And the expansion of internet use means any aspiring racing writer can set up a website and be posting articles online within an hour.
You’ve got forums like these that are read by (and contributed to) by people in the racing media. So, that’s another opportunity to get yourself noticed.
Historically, this is a really easy time to be an aspiring racing journo.
Compare it to 5 years ago, and you’ll see what I mean.
Steve ÂÂÂ
(Edited by stevedvg at 1:51 pm on Oct. 6, 2006)
A real shame.
First day in a while that I brought the RP. No poker or price information in the trainer statistics, no Four Horsemen and no interesting articles to read. (I’m not all that interested in the grey-suited panjandrums who organise the whole shebang, so that’s me excluded).
A shame; they only needed another 19,000 a day to break even and the chart was rising. I remember well the initiation of the Racing Post; I’d hoped the Sportsman would become the new usurper; that way everything evolves and grows.
Quote: from stevedvg on 1:51 pm on Oct. 6, 2006[br]market is looking even bleaker for the younger racing journalists!
Bleak???
Bulls**t<br>!
Ok, there were more opportunities before the Sportsman closed down, but look at the big picture.
There’s more racing than ever. So, journos are required to cover that.
There are 2 dedicated racing channels in the UK.
And the expansion of internet use means any aspiring racing writer can set up a website and be posting articles online within an hour.
You’ve got forums like these that are read by (and contributed to) by people in the racing media. So, that’s another opportunity to get yourself noticed.
Historically, this is a really easy time to be an aspiring racing journo.
Compare it to 5 years ago, and you’ll see what I mean.
Steve ÂÂÂ
(Edited by stevedvg at 1:51 pm on Oct. 6, 2006)<br>
Completely right. I’ve spoken to a lot of racing journos and also some who work on TV, and have advised me of several opportunities to get into racing. How many racing websites are there? Look at all the columns in the RP, Daily Telegraph, Mirror, Mail, Express, etc, TV channels, radio.
After reading this, it seems rather strange that they seem to be still accepting four week subscriptions on their website?
Cloer inspection of the website shows that the main copy is the same as it was yesterday, the only updates are the forums and the live results which are presumably from an outside source.
Quote: from stevedvg on 1:51 pm on Oct. 6, 2006[br]market is looking even bleaker for the younger racing journalists!
Bleak???
Bulls**t<br>!
<br>Historically, this is a really easy time to be an aspiring racing journo.
Compare it to 5 years ago, and you’ll see what I mean.
Steve ÂÂÂ
(Edited by stevedvg at 1:51 pm on Oct. 6, 2006)<br>
Hmm…if you say so. The options are still few and far between at the moment. If you know where the jobs are I’d love to hear about them :-)<br>Anywhere will take you on to work for nothing, such as all the websites etc. that you mentioned, but when it comes to a full-time staff job it seems that no-one is willing to take the chance on a young writer.<br>As a recent graduate it is too risky to go straight into freelance work (at least I think so myself, others I’m sure will differ in their opinions) and so I think it is a real shame to see yet another opportunity disappear.
Perhaps I should go into accountancy, make lots of money, and then start my own racing paper? Anyone want to join or invest?!? :-)<br>
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