The Racing Paper

[cormack15]

Did anyone try the new racing paper – ‘The Racing Paper’?

I haven’t seen it yet but the team behind it seem to have experience of producing similar titles for cricket, non league football, rugby league, etc, so I would assume the mechanics and financials of it are well understood by them.

[Nathan Hughes]

Is the Racing Post really over a fiver these days?
That’s the price it says on the shop paper but perhaps they have to pay more.
Seems absurd considering it’s a day behind or longer on racing story’s and the cards and especially the form are better accessible on-line.
Best of luck to those doing the Racing Paper, I would say a different approach would need be required but I don’t know much to be fair.

Blackbeard to conquer the World

[stevecaution]

The Racing Paper will need to offer more than just form and cards. They need to offer something that makes it a better buy than The Racing Post.

The Racing Post is something I haven’t bought in more than 20 years. The writing is painting by numbers and predictable. Who would have thought that Tiger Roll would have “Come home to a hero’s welcome” for instance. Just print last year’s story and change the names where necessary.

The other week, The Racing Post had a headline stating that Saxon Warrior might have a race before the Guineas but if you read the article the conclusion was that he probably wouldn’t. Now they are saying he’ll probably go straight to the race. Is this fake news, late news or not any sort of news.

Quality writing will be the key for The Racing Paper and originality wouldn’t go amiss either. The trouble is that the people behind these sort of publications tend to tread the well travelled road and choose the predictable faces to have their tuppence worth.

Maybe I’ll be wrong but I suspect the Racing Paper will rapidly sink due to poor sales. It’s hard to compete against an entrenched opponent and the internet ensuring that the printed word is old news.

If I were on Dragon’s Den I would be giving my Duncan Bannatyne “A’m Oot” I’m afraid.

Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.

[jackh1092]

I think its £2.90 Nathan for a standard copy…Bookies will have to pay more.

Website access is far better option and cheaper.

As for The Racing Paper, i would like it to do well, even though it’s not the sort of business i’d want to be trying to start up in today’s world. Probably better starting a site and an online paper…

Racing Post is full of flaws, probably not helped by their awful editor.

Twitter: Jackh1092
Hindsight is 20/20 so make the most of it!

[Steeplechasing]

To be fair to the Post and its writers, there’s a limit on anyone’s originality when the subject, day after day, is animals running around a big grass field.

[jackh1092]

It’s nothing to do with the subject or the narrow field they’ve to play with. It’s the fact that they leave stories out to suit their agendas and they sensationalize stories such as “owner thinks whip should be banned”…..Having watched RUK’s whip debate on Luck on Sunday it’s not that difficult to give both sides to the debate…..

Twitter: Jackh1092
Hindsight is 20/20 so make the most of it!

[Nathan Hughes]

I think its £2.90 Nathan for a standard copy…Bookies will have to pay more

Thanks Jack, that’s what I thought it would be different to that +£5 bookie price.

Blackbeard to conquer the World

[Meerkat]

The cost of £5.25ish for us bookies (I am a Ladbrokes manager) is the tabloid paper, the RP display paper that goes on the wall and I think the cost of delivery from our couriers Citipost all rolled into one. Good thing is, the shop tabloid edition now has its own banner, so if you see someone with one you know they have pinched it

[stevecaution]

To be fair to the Post and its writers, there’s a limit on anyone’s originality when the subject, day after day, is animals running around a big grass field.

That’s not my issue Joe.

My problem is the hype bollocks that they write.

Two examples from this week were:-

1. They had an article about sprinting flop from last season, Mrs Danvers, that told us she was “Making her eagerly anticipated return”

Really? I never heard a word about her and reading the article further I didn’t find my boxer shorts wet at the thought of her running in a Listed race at Bath. As it turned out she went off 5/1 and finished 11th.

2. The Queen’s horse Humbolt Current was said to be starting on the Classic Trail today. Oh yeah, he was porked at 5/4 Fav in a maiden, finishing 6th behind the 50/1 winner

How about sticking to reality instead of building everything up to be way more than it actually is?

I don’t intend to pay for that old welly. That low quality nonsense seems to be being written solely for the sake of the bookies, a world away from the notion of an elite team working on the punter’s behalf.

Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.

[botchy1]

Someone at the RP must of bought the Ebook the lads over at AOBFS put together this winter. The article was about Galileo’s two year olds for this coming year. Copy and pasted from the ebook with no credit at all to where the information came from.

[dualpurpose]

I bought it last week and this week, it’s fine, hope it sticks around because the Racing Post is a total rip off at £2.90. The standard of that paper and the people writing for it gets worse every year.

Nice to have an option on a saturday that’s a quid cheaper. Especially as for 2.90 you didn’t get a full entries service in the post because of ‘pressures on space’. If you’re charging three quid a day your readers should get the full whack.

If you’re sitting watching the racing on a saturday afternoon and want the cards in front of you, The Racing paper will do the job.

[yeats]

It’s far too expensive dualpurpose, even if it is a quid cheaper and wont last long.
I disagree with Steve that it should be more than just the form and cards, that’s exactly what it should be for a pound. Why do punters want to know and pay for the thoughts of the likes of Robert Cooper, George Baker, Paul Ferguson etc and the others on a busy Saturday?

Agree with Steve though about the Racing Post just being a bookmakers rag now, they’ve put the price up 50p because the papers no longer important to them as far as punters buying it are concerned. They might as well get as much money out of them now while they can. It’s all online now.

[stevecaution]

It’s far too expensive dualpurpose, even if it is a quid cheaper and wont last long.
I disagree with Steve that it should be more than just the form and cards, that’s exactly what it should be for a pound.

Yeats, I would read your post again, and again, and again if need be.

You have contradicted yourself big time there.

The Racing Paper is not a pound and if it is acceptable to be just cards and form, then how in the hell can it be “Too expensive”?

Come on, get it together.

Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.

[yeats]

steve lol

I’ll simplify things, I know it is £1.90, one pound cheaper than the RP. That is still far too expensive in my view for a newcomer although a quid cheaper than the RP. They should have dropped all the columnists etc and just had the form and cards, priced at a pound. How attractive are Robert Coopers thought’s on the days racing to you?

Admittedly I should have put the word “AND” between the words “that’s exactly what it should be, “AND” for a pound” but sorry I’m not perfect and forgot to put “AND” in

At the end of the day we know the chances of this new paper being successful and lasting long are remote.

[nwalton]

it will be tough going, I have bought the first two issues and was surprised how decent it was. I will carry on buying as liked the sport pieces as well, will it survive, I hope so and at the price I know which I prefer on a Saturday( not just because its cheaper)

Fingers crossed it keeps going

[mulls74]

I don’t see how any niche publication could charge £1 these days.
Even local weeklies that are packed with adverts charge that amount and more. Consider that the publisher only gets around half the cover price and has to pay for print and distribution as well as content.
Other than independent newsagents, all other retailers like chain newsagents, supermarkets, garages etc also charge fees just for putting the paper on the shelf.
The columnists etc make up no more than 10% of the overall cost of producing the paper so even having a paper with almost no editorial in it, which would be strange, wouldn’t bring down the price by more than about 10p.
You could knock the pagination back to 48 pages without the columns to knock another 10p off. So even the most stark paper with just cards and form would have to charge £1.70.
The only way it could be cheaper is if the racing/betting industry supported it with advertising spend. And we know how likely that is!

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