Well Done Buzzzz! I have to agree with you.
Despite being a Norwich City Season Ticket Holder - There is too much dialogue on NCFC! Most of the features are to be found in the EDP/EEN during the week.
There should be more grass roots coverage from Leagues such as Business Houses/Central & South Norfolk/NEN/NW Norfolk & Yarmouth etc. Is it that the scribes from those league's just don't send info in?
Why are there so many pictures in the Pink 'Un? Who wants the middle pages to keep?
More Anglian Combination Clubs should send their notes in each week - there are a few 'sing when you're winning clubs'
The Pink 'Un in the 1970's was predominantly a local football paper but over the years with the change of Type, Size and Format, the content quaility has greatly suffered. For example both the front and back pages are lost for print purposes. There have only been a few improvements over the years such as a Norfolk County Page (after many years of pressure). If Don Hudson can send in two pages of youth football notes for 35 consecutive years then some other league secretaries can take a leaf out of his book!
Do we really need a What's on Guide/Four Pages of Neil Adams incl National Issues/A big colour poster of Simon Lappin/The NCFC Fixture List & Football from around the World each week?
I used to queue up and wait for the Pink 'Un to arrive years ago now I have to be reminded by my daughters that it was delivered on Sunday mornings. Come on Archant lets get in back to Local issues.
Thanks for your opinion Thommo, if feel the same!
I used to wait at the newsagent when returning from a game to get my copy and read about my teams exploits the previous sunday! I only buy it now to read up on local football as I like to see what is happening, I can find out about City from the other papers as you said. Unfortunately I feel that the amount of content is governed like everything else by cost and income. Archant could easily put in another 4 sides for local issues, but that costs money and unless they can get the advertisements to fill at least one of those sides they wont. Maybe one less page about Norwich would help!!
I dont think it is a case of clubs sending in their notes at all though. My club sends in its notes every week, and after doing this every week for 5 years, I thought that I had got it down to a fine art of how many words to use so as not to take up much space, however last weeks were edited down to the basics of 'yes there was a game and so and so scored'!
That isnt really my issue though. I feel that as a local sports 'news' paper, there is a certain responsibility to cover in some respect all local football whether it be Business house, Crusader, Youth or Ridgeons. Of course a team from junior football would never expect to get the same coverage as Wroxham, Lynn or the senior Anglian com teams, but at the same time the lower leagues are so important to football as a whole as it is generally there, that people learn their craft and then move on. Grassroots football is important, but so is the advertisement of it. Smaller teams need to get a say every now and then even if it is to just plug their sponsor, but more importantly to show off their achievements! They want to stress that they are not just a pub team, they want to promote junior football (well I do) and they want to see their reports in print for scrapbooks and stuff.
I agree with the views above but maybe Archant publishers of the Pink'Un, are only printing material they know a wide swathe of Norfolk community will be knowledgable about, as opposed to a minority. I do feel that the various local leagues as mentioned above deserve a voice in the media, but in todays world local amatuer leagues & Sunday football leagues just do not sell papers. Perhaps these leagues could have a dedicated section devoted to all things local on this website. Expanding the Pink'Un's website to cater for these "local smaller" league's, now that would make good business sense!
I've been critisised on another post which I started for not respecting these lesser league formats. Ofcourse I recognise there importance to grass-roots football & the F.A at County Level as well as nationally. If it wasn't for these local league's youngsters would not get the opportunities that all players need & therefore football acadamies all over the land, like the one at Colney would suffer.
No Noise from the Archant Boys????.......................................................................................
Come on let's have a response Archant!
We did pass the message on to Richard Willner, sports editor, and I'll remind him.
Celia
What exactly would you like to see in terms of coverage? Obviously, we already print results, league tables, match reports and league round-ups and endeavour to get team photos in as and when so if you give us some details then maybe we could help.
Obviously, any requests need to be realistic as we solely rely on team secretaries, chairmen, captains etc for local football coverage. Unfortunately, we haven't got an army of sports reporters to provide us with coverage (oh, how I wish we had though). But if you know of anyone who would like to cover a 'match of the week' type of feature for the local leagues then please let us know.
The Pink 'Un is dedicated to local football - last Saturday 15 pages were devoted to it - and the vast majority of our Norwich City coverage in the print product is fresh so I am not quite sure about the 'you've read it all in the week' argument.
Richard
Thank you for your comments. Firstly, an apology, we should obviously have replied when you wrote to us previously, somehow we've let it slip through the net. I'm sorry.
The Pink 'Un (both the newspaper and website) aim to provide the best possible coverage of local non-league and Norwich City coverage. But we do need your help.
Unfortunately, we simply don't have enough staff to cover all matches. Clearly it would take dozens of reporters to do the Norfolk sports scene full justice and we simply don't have those kind of resources.
However, you can help us. We are always keen to carry contributions and reports from matches. Anyone interested in providing reports can contact Pink 'Un editor Richard Willner (richard.willner@archant.co.uk) and have a chat about how this might work.
We know the Pink 'Un is a vital part of sporting life in the county and, trust me, we want to do all we can to make it as good as possible.
Tim Williams, acting editor, Evening News
Thanks for the reply Richard, good to get feedback from the editor.
I think things are moving in the right direction, the Norfolk FA page is always worth a read and keeps coaches etc informed.
But local club secretaries or just normal supporters need to sumit more reports, club news etc. I think the continuous NCFC player posters could do with a break though.
Personally I don't see the point of Neil Adams section and would be happier seeing these pages devoted to the local leagues and less column inches given to his pointless rambling and often badly researched inane views. His opinion on NCFC is the same tired old cliche's every week, and given that he's employed by the club it's no surprise he gets splinters. Other than that it's stories about his mates - who cares?
Nothing against the fella but it's two pages wasted as far as I'm concerned, and losing this would mean less 'editing' required on the local reports that it seems people, including me, would like to see more of.
Just my opinion
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