Kevin Nolan signs for The Charlton Champion

Stig said:

Good article, as we've come to expect, but I wonder what did the Coalville fans do to get KN's ire up to the point where he mentioned them not once, but twice: "unfortunately, a few charmless renegades along for the ride" and "no further exposure to those twerps who had attached themselves to the Town loyalists"?

I can't say I noticed them doing anything wrong, though I'd be the first to admit my ears aren't to sharp so they could have sang something I didn't hear. So, what did they do or say? The other question I have is that, whatever it was, how does KN know that it was people who came along for the ride and not Town loyalists?

InspectorSands said:

"A sentry guarding the post might have cleared the danger comfortably but that's so very yesterday, don't you think?

https://charltonchampion.co.uk/2022/11/27/kevin-nolans-fa-cup-valley-view-charlton-athletic-2-2-stockport-county/


And a little bonus: https://853.london/2022/11/27/mercury-man-meet-the-bard-of-floyd-road-charlton-match-reporter-kevin-nolan/

InspectorSands said:

Billy_Mix said:

Kevin Nolan: premier league writing on 3rd division action.  With no intended disrespect to Darryl, Mr Nolan's output is worthy of a far wider readership.

Ha - none taken, you're right. In fact, I took him on after the play-off final because I thought I could give him a bigger platform than the one he was on (with no disrespect, etc) and broadly speaking, he does home matches for the Champion but still does aways for Greenwich.co.uk, and that arrangement's worked out well. As someone that grew up reading his stuff, it's a pleasure to publish his reports. 

Trouble is, there's really no other platform for traditional match reports any more - there is no local newspaper left in the area any more, although the SLP has moved into this role for football coverage because they're savvy enough to see it's a niche that'll deliver for them (if you look at the page views on the SLP website their football coverage gets 4-5 times the page views the news gets). Louis and Rich Cawley do a brilliant job there and Kev has occasionally filled in on match report duty.

That said - as with local news - you get the coverage you're prepared to pay for. Kev's reports are on the Champion because readers, many of whom aren't there for the football, pay into it (and if you'd like to join them: https://www.presspatron.com/charltonchampion.html). 

And as I've said a few times before, the SLP's position is precarious because the market is broken - it survives on local authority advertising from TfL, Lambeth and Lewisham because it has a monopoly in those areas and can charge huge sums, and gets much of its news from a free wire paid for by the BBC (which then justifies it getting those ads). When the SLP goes pop, fans are going to have to ask themselves whether they are willing to crowdfund a fat five-figure sum each year to cover match reports, press conferences and day to day news about the club. Because nobody else is going to stump up for it.