I've just seen a trade press release regarding the printing contract for programmes for the next two seasons:
"Each of the 23 matches for the 2009-10 season will require around 4,000 programmes of up to 80 pages to be printed"
That figure will be flexible but 4000...FFS!!!!
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I'd imagine maybe 40%? But that's purely a shot in the dark... I honestly can't see our attendance being sub 10,000 based on that maths
im sure the decline of the football programme has been happening for a few years now across football as a whole.
Same here. Couldn't even tell you how much our programmes are these days. I'd buy the first one that doubles up as the yearbook though if they do that this year.
I've stopped buying them - all the info on the website and cannot see the point of collecting them anymore. I don't think I'll ever want to read the Tuesday night programme of a Charlton v random northern team ever again.
the yearbook will be out at Xmas once they have decided who the Manager is.
At home you can get most of the information (and actually up to date info given the lag in printing of 2-3 days from the internet)
Away you get the same misinformed 2 pages up and down the country. I normally go to 15-20 away games a season. At £3 a throw, not buying a programme at each game saves me £45-60, that's a ticket and travel and a couple of beers for another away game, no brainer really.
Plus there's also the fact that I have about 80 odd years worth of CAFC programmes bursting out of my mum and dad's loft...
And a programme at Old Trafford or Anfield when we got an alright result might have been a good keepsake, not so to recollect a 5 goal drubbing at Blackpool!
p.s. oooah if that's the case then i'll just buy the last home game programme, numbers in the past aren't going to look any different by being repeated over and over again ;-)
Also, why would you specify it now? If we sell 13000 season tickets then I'd guess we'd need more than if we sell 8,000?
As for an on line download, its a good idea but would not work. Most of the info is already available online, and most programme buyers do so either as a memento of their attendance, or because they collect them.
I like the printed programmes and would not be that interested in down loading.
They make great toilet reads.
The "ridiculous" £5 program for the first game is the only one I buy most seasons. My only request is that I would prefer it to be the first game after the transfer window closes so that all the late tranfers (and in the last few years there have been many) are included in the squad.
Just have to point out it's programme NOT program
I thank you
Firstly, figures bandied around for programmes sold do not equal programmes printed and distributed. When I was last involved with it, about 1,500 used to disappear off the top for lounges, directors, press, boxes, guests, staff, players, etc. Some of these are sold as part of packages.
Back in 1997/98, we printed up to 13,000 for 20,000 crowds, but programme sales would vary dramatically depending on the circumstances of the game, the opposition and the weather. This could be as much as 50 per cent different for games against Wimbledon and Manchester United played before the same size crowd (and contrary to popular belief there is not a significant market for programmes away from the stadium, even against Man United).
I believe that Charlton sales have held up better than most other clubs (London clubs traditionally sell a lot more programmes than provincial clubs anyway, which might be related to the weakness of the local media coverage). However, there is no doubt that sales now are a fraction of what they were ten years ago, for all the obvious reasons. I don't think it reflects on the quality of the programme, especially when you look at the awful nonsense published by the club in the 1980s.
A print run of 4,000 may well be realistic for a crowd of 15,000 these days. You certainly cannot read into such a number that the club expects crowds that are much smaller than that.
Every sector whose core business is the printed word has seen similar changes over the last few years and we've seen massive changes in run lengths and gbuying patterns.
Wish I'd known the run was that low, I know a very good printer a stone's throw from the ground with exactly the same setup as the current incumbent, 24/7, for whom a run like that is meat and drink!
Not the one you work for then : - )
Think the Program/me used to be printed locally as some enterprising chap/crook used to bring a box into the lib club to sell at half the cover price.
Monkey Magazine
Not the same as having the mag in your hand but it's pretty impressive and loads of publishers are using the technology
Given one particular local company who did used to print the programme, that wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. Shame if that did contribute to the decision to print it further afield.
I believe an upright and honest member of the fan base may have brought it to the attention of Airman Brown and said criminality then ceased : - )
The cost of production is also the same wether you print 10 copies or 10 million, it is the print costs, the paper, and the distrubtion costs.
A few years ago the programme used to be printed by Morgan print, that became yellow publishing If I am right. I used to use the printers they produced a good quality product.
I have no idea of the run or the cost. But the distribution would have been minimal as they were based in Anchor and Hope Lane. Last time I walked past a couple of months ago there was a for sale sign in the vacinity, and they have probably gone bust. Not sure how the programme is put together but I am sure the communications department I assume helps edit his.
In fact I worked with Peter Cordwell years ago on the football handbook, and he used to edit the Bexley league magazine which I think they dropped a couple of years ago, I assume again cost.
What Charlton could do is give vouchers to all season ticket holders, for a free programme to stimulate sales.It could also try a number of marketing ideas, giving a subscription away as a prize in the draw etc.
The point is do the fans and the club value the programme. Is a programme needed now we have websites! Should it be monthly.......with all the games for that month.
Advertising is the key, probably linked to the website, pop ups etc. As I stated I love print, but as publishers tell me it is a dying industry! look at local papers........