The Local Journo Thread

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by PremAddict » 29 Mar 2019 20:25

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Hound The industry has changed Genome, think that is the problem

Realistically, not sure there is that much left in the old style journo following the team round. I'm guessing it might end up where you have accredited people from blog sites like Tilehurst End ending up doing a little bit of press conferences etc, and basically doing it unpaid bar what they can get through web traffic and clicks. Be more on a voluntary basis


Pretty much this, especially for a team the size of Reading where even world class journalism would only interest 20-40k people at a push. Compare that to the hundreds of thousands, if not millions around the world who'd read every word about what Pogba had for breakfast or what Klopp said to an under 18 midfielder about his future.

As I've said and others have pointed out, with so little money about you just won't get the top quality journalists and big media teams you need to produce genuinely great and consistent content. You're now relying on those starting out, people who are financially comfortable through other means, or perhaps those winding down.

Building contacts is very, very tricky. The club is more open than it was under different regimes but they're still a business and will only allow so much (which all bias aside I'd consider fair). More to the point, the players are so well media trained that they're well aware of what a slip up can do to their careers/image so are that bit more reluctant to open up unless they really know you. This isn't 25 years ago where you could grab Ady or Archie in the Rendezvous for a few words either.

Perhaps this new Apple model of paying monthly for a bulk news subscription, plus EU Article 11 might give a shot in the arm to the media and provide desperately needed revenues, otherwise you will be relying on (the fine work ;) ) of sites like TTE plus whatever meagre resources bigger sites like GR will provide.


Can't disagree with that - when Westie and I first kicked off this podcast malarky it was impossible to get anyone from the club to speak to us even when we were charting pretty well on ITunes - they just didn't trust us, so went down the route of the old pro conversations with the like of Adie, Dylan Kerr, Shaka etc - these are great and have their place but we always wanted to try and get players/staff speaking in a more relaxed way with an "unofficial" fans outlet - wasn't to be.

The work that you and the rest of the guys have done to move this on is fantastic and where the world of football journalism is going - podcasting is only going to grow and the fact that The Tilehurst End can get time with the current manager shows that the club understand what an important outlet podcasts are now.

Following a club via the local paper is gone and I think we will definitely see TTE get a more formalised role with the club at some point and as long as it isn't too close and becomes just another club mouthpiece, that would be great.


I loved listening to Paul and Westie and when Jonny joined it got that much more interesting. I now frankly I go to TTE and listen to the podcast as one of my main sources. Speaking of that, sorry to hear Tom is going but at least it's in a direction of "onward and upward".

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by 3points » 31 Mar 2019 17:13

TTE pods are always better when there’s three rather than 2 hosts imo. Would like Wimb on more regularly as well as Westie and Handbags. Perhaps a few guests / occasional presenters as well.

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by PremAddict » 01 Apr 2019 19:39

3points TTE pods are always better when there’s three rather than 2 hosts imo. Would like Wimb on more regularly as well as Westie and Handbags. Perhaps a few guests / occasional presenters as well.


I agree, 3 adds a better dynamic. Handbags has supernatural talents when it comes to his memory of matches. Westie, to me, adds more of the "fan analysis" that I like - partisan, yes, but nonetheless valid and entertaining.

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by 3points » 01 Apr 2019 19:40

PremAddict
3points TTE pods are always better when there’s three rather than 2 hosts imo. Would like Wimb on more regularly as well as Westie and Handbags. Perhaps a few guests / occasional presenters as well.


I agree, 3 adds a better dynamic. Handbags has supernatural talents when it comes to his memory of matches. Westie, to me, adds more of the "fan analysis" that I like - partisan, yes, but nonetheless valid and entertaining.

Handbags is amazing. I can’t remember our last but one game!

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by Notts Royal » 02 Apr 2019 10:51

3points TTE pods are always better when there’s three rather than 2 hosts imo. Would like Wimb on more regularly as well as Westie and Handbags. Perhaps a few guests / occasional presenters as well.


Those 3 would be the dream team wouldn’t they! Very knowledgeable & lots of personality.

I switch off whenever Ollie Allen is on...poor lad


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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by URZZZZ » 05 Apr 2019 13:39

There’s a good article on getreading of a talk between J Low and Eduardo Santos, J Low is really improving day by day

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by Wimb » 09 Apr 2019 13:58

3points TTE pods are always better when there’s three rather than 2 hosts imo. Would like Wimb on more regularly as well as Westie and Handbags. Perhaps a few guests / occasional presenters as well.


Scheduling is the real problem. Handbags has moved out of the area, while myself and Westie are both dealing with new additions to our families. After giving up more hours than I can remember to TTE for 7 years, I owe Mrs Wimb & Wimb Jr a lot of my time! Plus, I've still not given up hope that The Royal Exchange returns down the road.

I know Marc works really hard to try and get different and varied voices on but it's finding a time that works for everyone. Credit to EPR for churning out those videos but TTE also has the written stuff to deal with whereas Paul has abandoned that side of his content to simply do reactions and bare bones videos with minimal editing. Not that there's anything wrong with going down that path, I'm just saying it's very quick and easy to do and with fewer time constraints.

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by John Smith » 09 Apr 2019 15:11

Wimb Scheduling is the real problem.

I'd say the biggest problem is that neither of you have any idea what you're talking about and have never played the game at any level. Some of the claims you make are purely regurgitation of the mainstream pundits or clichéd drivel

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by Wimb » 16 Jul 2019 12:26

John Smith
Wimb Scheduling is the real problem.

I'd say the biggest problem is that neither of you have any idea what you're talking about and have never played the game at any level. Some of the claims you make are purely regurgitation of the mainstream pundits or clichéd drivel


Not logged in for 3 months...

Yet I take offence at that. I'll have you know my 5-a-side team is on the verge of promotion, and I've got a medal from the 1996 Reading FC Summer Soccer School where our team emerged victorious :cry:

As for the rest... well, each to their own.


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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by genome » 18 Jul 2019 16:23

Anyone else find these J-Low Q&A's a completely pointless exercise?

"Hi Jonathan, are we in for this player?"
"He would be a good signing but I don't know"

"Hi Jonathan, how much money do we have to spend?"
"Probably not that much"

"Hi Jonathan, is this player leaving?"
"He could leave, but if he doesn't, he'll stay"

:|

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by Hendo » 18 Jul 2019 16:27

genome Anyone else find these J-Low Q&A's a completely pointless exercise?

"Hi Jonathan, are we in for this player?"
"He would be a good signing but I don't know"

"Hi Jonathan, how much money do we have to spend?"
"Probably not that much"

"Hi Jonathan, is this player leaving?"
"He could leave, but if he doesn't, he'll stay"

:|


Just imagine him with a cup of coffee, feet up, copy and pasting generic 'don't know' responses after each question. :lol:

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by John Smith » 18 Jul 2019 16:47

Where did that horrendous Al-Habsi rumour come from?! There is no way that butter-fingered clown is ever setting foot in my club again!

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by Hound » 18 Jul 2019 17:31

genome Anyone else find these J-Low Q&A's a completely pointless exercise?

"Hi Jonathan, are we in for this player?"
"He would be a good signing but I don't know"

"Hi Jonathan, how much money do we have to spend?"
"Probably not that much"

"Hi Jonathan, is this player leaving?"
"He could leave, but if he doesn't, he'll stay"

:|


They are a bit, problem is Low is generally actually about right with the answers. Just it’s been the same question on repeat since May

Roll on the season. Absolutely bored stupid with this preseason, and lack of anything interesting happening


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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by One87One » 18 Jul 2019 18:42

genome Anyone else find these J-Low Q&A's a completely pointless exercise?

"Hi Jonathan, are we in for this player?"
"He would be a good signing but I don't know"

"Hi Jonathan, how much money do we have to spend?"
"Probably not that much"

"Hi Jonathan, is this player leaving?"
"He could leave, but if he doesn't, he'll stay"

:|

The role he pretends to play is equally pointless. It's no secret RFC have a distant relationship with the local press since Charles left, indeed the Chronicle had a very public falling out with the club. But Charles for all his good intentions left a bit of a mess behind him as he'd built up a close relationship with the former DOF who's name now escapes me, sorry, working for Rehne now? He was reprimanded for talking too much to Charles and the press has since been kept at arms length. Now they get their email from the club and can build stories around them.

Both Courtney and JLow pretend to know far more than they do, and both take crumbs they can get anywhere online to speculate with. Courtney the guiltiest of the two for this and gets plenty of DM's he quizzes others about before running with them.

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by CountryRoyal » 18 Jul 2019 20:08

genome Anyone else find J-Low completely pointless?


Yes.

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by Hound » 18 Jul 2019 20:29

The club very much do all their own press through their Twitter now. They’ve taken a media chap out with them to Spain and give a couple of interviews a day, which is far more than poor JLow is getting

The problem is, obviously the questions are very anodyne. And therefore the answers are as well

On the other hand they’ve given extended highlights of every pre season game, loads of photos and an interview with just about every player out there

Agree it’s hard to see where the old school press fit into this set up, and I’ve no doubt that suits RFC just fine

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by Notts Royal » 18 Jul 2019 20:37

Yea I just realised there’s tonnes of videos on YouTube from the club which is great.

Isn’t JLow part of the problem though? Seems a genuine chap & he’s definitely got better when presenting the facts. But he just lacks charisma in comparison to Watts. I genuinely feel the average RFC fan understands the game a lot better than JLow does, whereas Watts had a great grasp not only of the physical game but of the individual players themselves. And I really don’t think the pointless Q&A help JLow out there.

It is harsh but he is not the most exciting of journos is he! Having said that, he’s a damn sight more palatable than Kempson

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by genome » 18 Jul 2019 21:48

I do feel that is partly down to the fact he's a big Pompey fan and doesn't really show much passion for Reading. Then again, 'ol Charlie managed that fine and he's an Arsenal fan. I'm not sure where I'm going with this.

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by muirinho » 18 Jul 2019 22:23

genome I do feel that is partly down to the fact he's a big Pompey fan and doesn't really show much passion for Reading. Then again, 'ol Charlie managed that fine and he's an Arsenal fan. I'm not sure where I'm going with this.


Charlie got to know the players, and other people at the club - so he wanted them to do well. JLow doesn't have the same connection - and most of that isn't down to him, it's down to the way things have changed with the media.

Also, I'd imagine it would feel much more like hard work, and difficult to get passionate about, when you are trying to spin numerous stories out of the crumbs of contact that you're given by the club. And, particularly in the early days, he was so busy trying to make stories out of nothing, he misrepresented what players said, or came up with click-baity headlines, which pissed them off, making his own job even harder. (That's even truer for ChronCourtney, I'm pretty sure a number of players actually blocked him)

The in depth interviews JLow's done have been good - he is a journalist after all - but he doesn't have the football knowledge to be able to generate stories purely based on detailed analysis of the football tactics etc.

And in any case, oxf*rd all is happening - no wonder it's all a bit thin.

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Re: The Local Journo Thread

by Zip » 18 Jul 2019 22:41

Low did well in the January transfer window and so far his extremely pessimistic views about signings this summer have looked justified. Next to nothing has happened over the past ten weeks. It’s been the slowest transfer window I can recall. So it’s hard for any journo to make things interesting with next to no material.

He does lack charisma but I couldn’t care less about that. He isn’t close to the players but isn’t that a good thing? At least he can report on player performance without feeling compromised.

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