The club said in advance that the programme would £4 today but I thought that would mean something a bit more substantial in the official programme itself, not just a bit of opportunism on the club's behalf but oh well, it all means more exposure. :-)
Barnie in pub in Greenwich - someone get hold of him!
We have had some survey responses already and all of them have said they have heard of it via Trust News... give peeps a chance to check and we will oil this perfectly engineered machine!
I only found out that the programme was £4 after the game which took me completely by surprise. Before the game I gave away 150 Trust News for free at The Oak. As far as I'm aware the trust thought, or anyway I thought, the Trust News was going to be given away free too by the programme sellers. Maybe there was some crossed lines somewhere. I suppose I should assume the extra quids will be given to the Trust. I am a bit uneasy about this as it looks as if the Trust was forcing people to buy the magazine which wasn't my understanding, especially as I was busy giving copies away free of charge.
I only found out that the programme was £4 after the game which took me completely by surprise. Before the game I gave away 150 Trust News for free at The Oak. As far as I'm aware the trust thought, or anyway I thought, the Trust News was going to be given away free too by the programme sellers. Maybe there was some crossed lines somewhere. I suppose I should assume the extra quids will be given to the Trust. I am a bit uneasy about this as it looks as if the Trust was forcing people to buy the magazine which wasn't my understanding, especially as I was busy giving copies away free of charge.
To be fair Seth, I think the programme was extra because it had a few extra pages and I'm guessing it was probably always going to be extra - but it's easy to see how people might get the wrong end of the stick.
I won't comment at this stage and the Trust will release a statement in due course.
A week ago we were simply grateful that a sponsor enabled us to gear up to 5,000 copies and that the club would help with distribution. Until I saw it today I did not realise that the club would put resource into tucking each and every Trust News inside a programme copy. I tried giving some spare copies away at half time but everyone had one!
We have the summer to appraise direction and campaigns - hopefully ideas will flow and execution will be up to our normal standards! During every phase we have learnt lessons and I am sure there will be a series of meetings to firm up engagement.
At some point we will do a survey to see what the typical fans think of our message, materials and images - as ever many thanks to Stig who I met for the first time today - cheers!
I only found out that the programme was £4 after the game which took me completely by surprise. Before the game I gave away 150 Trust News for free at The Oak. As far as I'm aware the trust thought, or anyway I thought, the Trust News was going to be given away free too by the programme sellers. Maybe there was some crossed lines somewhere. I suppose I should assume the extra quids will be given to the Trust. I am a bit uneasy about this as it looks as if the Trust was forcing people to buy the magazine which wasn't my understanding, especially as I was busy giving copies away free of charge.
To be fair Seth, I think the programme was extra because it had a few extra pages and I'm guessing it was probably always going to be extra - but it's easy to see how people might get the wrong end of the stick.
OK, I have given up buying a programme, but you tell me today was more pages than usual so that is why the programme went up by 33%. I didn't realise the programme was bigger.
Thanks for feedback. Links now work fully. I have also exposed a menu button. Had a funeral Thursday, Friday stepped on a big nail might explain my oversight.
Free tnt and at that distribution level has certainly raised some issues, but hopefully it has overall been a positive thing to raise awareness and promote the survey. I wonder what anyone thought of the articles?
Considering the amount the trust has produced with the very limited resources we have, and in the timeframe we were given I think it was good.
For anyone who didn't get a copy we will publish shortly on the website.
After waking up at 4am still recovering from yesterdays drinking session, this morning I discovered the wife had bought this and put it up as a little surprise
It's quite possible there was a cost to getting the programme sellers to do the extra work. They are not employed by the club, but by the contractor who gets a commission on each sale. I suspect the £4 was a way of the club absorbing that extra cost, as well as increasing its own revenue. There's not much extra cost in the additional pagination, certainly not enough to justify charging another £1.
On another point if the Trust has possibly boosted revenue at no extra cost to itself (we were doing the 5000 free drop via our own people originally) rather than impacted sales as they had feared isn't that a good thing?
Isn't the trust here to help the club?
At the same time this may be a one off in terms of scale, altho i like the idea of it being free and boxes in pubs and clubs, and perhaps more gritty in future and maybe less marketingy (new word)
I would also like the club to produce a high quality programme that fans want for a reasonable price. Many people I speak to don't buy it.
I wonder how we compare to other clubs in price and content, I rather liked Brighton's.
We would also like the club to produce a high quality programme that fans want for a reasonable price. Many people I speak to don't buy it.
Generally I don't buy a programme - with the internet I can get all the information I need/want about the club and/or whoever our opponents are and I found when I did buy a programme I would only ever read a few pages. The screen tells me who is playing for the opposition so if I don't know who their tricky winger is I can soon find out.
AB is right though about the pagination - once the presses are rolling it doesn't really matter what the issue size is (within reason of course), there are no postage costs as distribution is via dedicated sales people, the only thing additional cost wise besides a slightly higher print bill is the extra cost of paper. All in all a good little earner for the club.
On page numbers our costs went up by 25% as we looked to fit in 8 pages of last minute contributions - the printers have a one off cost to set up the plates whereas the increase in volume (from 1,000 to 5,000) was covered with a £500 donation - again thanks!
The free distribution into pre match pubs is a nice idea but we will need more paid up members to sustain this next season... on the other hand free e-distribution makes a lot of sense too - all we need is more and more CAFC email addresses. I expect we will move forwards with a thinner(cheaper) publication with links to our web site? Maybe enough people will help with a stall next season to sign up members and sell t-shirts?
I expect we will survey fans in a few months about material, images and print vs web to see what people want... and it is very clear that there is a wide range of material that we can publish which the club won't touch - for instance analysis and criticism of TV deals
did you need to buy the programme to get the newsletter from the programme seller
They were inserted, and also the spirit of the agreement was not to impact sales, so I guess so but it was not formally determined. We were more concerned that we were not left with stock so if you flip it around them being inserted was good.
We will find out if there are any spares... not only did we up the print run five fold but this was the last game of the season so no real chances to get rid after... normally we have planned activities over two home games and expect we will return to that next time... now when is that fixture list coming out ?!
On the programme. Years ago some clubs gave their programmes away free on admission at the turnstiles (Orient?), and some like West Ham had a rather good non-standard programme to sell. Instead of a programme up grade, would a modest increase on match day tickets and a free, but much more humble programme be worth considering? All programmes seem to be the same everywhere these days, and they are getting overtaken by other media anyway, perhaps a scale back to something more intimate, organic, authentic and immediate would help us to stand out from the crowd. The trick would be to have some kind of unique content/breaking news in a programme printed the day before, to make it a thing that folk would want. This all may be pie in the sky, but we should consider a complete re-think of our programme instead of the rather lacklustre and tired format we have now.
Given I was the person who (re)introduced one-off larger programmes for a higher price precisely to make more more money for the club, I am not criticising the principle. But I think there has to be value too.
Programme sales are in decline everywhere, not just at Charlton, but the cutbacks made at Charlton in 2009 have led to lower production values. Consequently our programme is smaller and cheaper to produce than other clubs in this division, and this shows, despite the best efforts of the staff. It meant that contributors who added variety and knowledge, like the late Colin Cameron, were cut too.
Combined with a wider communication issue within the club that stifles the content, I do not envy Matt the task of producing something that compares with those of other clubs although I don't and won't criticise what they try to do.
Comments
The club said in advance that the programme would £4 today but I thought that would mean something a bit more substantial in the official programme itself, not just a bit of opportunism on the club's behalf but oh well, it all means more exposure. :-)
The survey will be promoted here, through our email bank and by CAFC next week
We have had some survey responses already and all of them have said they have heard of it via Trust News... give peeps a chance to check and we will oil this perfectly engineered machine!
https://surveymonkey.com/s/CASTRUSTsurvey3
As far as I'm aware the trust thought, or anyway I thought, the Trust News was going to be given away free too by the programme sellers. Maybe there was some crossed lines somewhere. I suppose I should assume the extra quids will be given to the Trust. I am a bit uneasy about this as it looks as if the Trust was forcing people to buy the magazine which wasn't my understanding, especially as I was busy giving copies away free of charge.
A week ago we were simply grateful that a sponsor enabled us to gear up to 5,000 copies and that the club would help with distribution. Until I saw it today I did not realise that the club would put resource into tucking each and every Trust News inside a programme copy. I tried giving some spare copies away at half time but everyone had one!
We have the summer to appraise direction and campaigns - hopefully ideas will flow and execution will be up to our normal standards! During every phase we have learnt lessons and I am sure there will be a series of meetings to firm up engagement.
At some point we will do a survey to see what the typical fans think of our message, materials and images - as ever many thanks to Stig who I met for the first time today - cheers!
Free tnt and at that distribution level has certainly raised some issues, but hopefully it has overall been a positive thing to raise awareness and promote the survey. I wonder what anyone thought of the articles?
Considering the amount the trust has produced with the very limited resources we have, and in the timeframe we were given I think it was good.
For anyone who didn't get a copy we will publish shortly on the website.
On another point if the Trust has possibly boosted revenue at no extra cost to itself (we were doing the 5000 free drop via our own people originally) rather than impacted sales as they had feared isn't that a good thing?
Isn't the trust here to help the club?
At the same time this may be a one off in terms of scale, altho i like the idea of it being free and boxes in pubs and clubs, and perhaps more gritty in future and maybe less marketingy (new word)
I would also like the club to produce a high quality programme that fans want for a reasonable price. Many people I speak to don't buy it.
I wonder how we compare to other clubs in price and content, I rather liked Brighton's.
Generally I don't buy a programme - with the internet I can get all the information I need/want about the club and/or whoever our opponents are and I found when I did buy a programme I would only ever read a few pages. The screen tells me who is playing for the opposition so if I don't know who their tricky winger is I can soon find out.
AB is right though about the pagination - once the presses are rolling it doesn't really matter what the issue size is (within reason of course), there are no postage costs as distribution is via dedicated sales people, the only thing additional cost wise besides a slightly higher print bill is the extra cost of paper. All in all a good little earner for the club.
The free distribution into pre match pubs is a nice idea but we will need more paid up members to sustain this next season... on the other hand free e-distribution makes a lot of sense too - all we need is more and more CAFC email addresses. I expect we will move forwards with a thinner(cheaper) publication with links to our web site? Maybe enough people will help with a stall next season to sign up members and sell t-shirts?
I expect we will survey fans in a few months about material, images and print vs web to see what people want... and it is very clear that there is a wide range of material that we can publish which the club won't touch - for instance analysis and criticism of TV deals
Instead of a programme up grade, would a modest increase on match day tickets and a free, but much more humble programme be worth considering?
All programmes seem to be the same everywhere these days, and they are getting overtaken by other media anyway, perhaps a scale back to something more intimate, organic, authentic and immediate would help us to stand out from the crowd.
The trick would be to have some kind of unique content/breaking news in a programme printed the day before, to make it a thing that folk would want. This all may be pie in the sky, but we should consider a complete re-think of our programme instead of the rather lacklustre and tired format we have now.
Programme sales are in decline everywhere, not just at Charlton, but the cutbacks made at Charlton in 2009 have led to lower production values. Consequently our programme is smaller and cheaper to produce than other clubs in this division, and this shows, despite the best efforts of the staff. It meant that contributors who added variety and knowledge, like the late Colin Cameron, were cut too.
Combined with a wider communication issue within the club that stifles the content, I do not envy Matt the task of producing something that compares with those of other clubs although I don't and won't criticise what they try to do.