New Reading Fanzine?

[St Pauli]

According to a post on AE, there was a Reading fanzine on sale outside the ground last home game.

Can any bobbers confirm this? Has anyone bought a copy?

I’m interested in this as an erstwhile contributor to the Reading fanzine ‘The Whiff’.

[Hendo]

According to a post on AE, there was a Reading fanzine on sale outside the ground last home game.

Can any bobbers confirm this? Has anyone bought a copy?

I’m interested in this as an erstwhile contributor to the Reading fanzine ‘The Whiff’.

https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news/20618066.reading-fc-fan-creates-fanzine-demise-club-programme/

Might be worth following this guy on twitter https://twitter.com/Photomattic

Looks like the final issue was on Saturday, but it seems you can buy previous editions from here https://toff.sumupstore.com

[tmesis]

I bought a copy, but genuinely can't remember a single thing from it. I'm going to have to find it to see if I just forgot to read it, or it was just incredibly bland.


(goes to check)


It appears to be the latter. Oh well. At least they tried.

[Sutekh]

I bought a copy, but genuinely can't remember a single thing from it. I'm going to have to find it to see if I just forgot to read it, or it was just incredibly bland.


(goes to check)


It appears to be the latter. Oh well. At least they tried.

In these days of social media where every fan of every club could post any set of inane ramblings about a football club in the desperate hope for a like it’s incredible that people still go to the effort and expense of producing a fanzine. Absolutely hats off to whoever that is and I hope that it continues into next season as fanzines were mostly brilliant fun in their day. Reading had quite a few over the years, apart from the aforementioned Whiff remember the Elm Park Disease (which I thought was the best and most consistent) and TANRIROT(?) (There Ain’t No Reading in the something or other, can’t remember)! Think there were a few others appearing randomly in the 1990s but by the turn of the century the internet was sadly killing most club’s fanzines off.

[From Despair To Where?]

The whole fanzine scene got killed off by the immediacy of social media. They were an invaluable platform for fans to voice their opinion back in the day but why wait a month for an article when you can have a live discussion as it happens?

Hats off to anyone trying to revive one but I cant help but feel they're on a hiding to nothing.

[Clyde1998]

I bought a copy, but genuinely can't remember a single thing from it. I'm going to have to find it to see if I just forgot to read it, or it was just incredibly bland.


(goes to check)


It appears to be the latter. Oh well. At least they tried.

I bought one of each of the five issues they had online today, so I'll have a look at the quality when they arrive. Depending on how it falls short, it may be worth giving the guy writing it some pointers as to how it could be improved as I feel a fanzine has potential to be a bit of fun (even if it's just something to flick through prior to the game or at half-time) - especially now the club aren't bothering with a programme.

I have to say though I wasn't aware it existed until now, although did see someone before the Burnley game reading what looked like a programme - so that must've been this.

I bought a copy, but genuinely can't remember a single thing from it. I'm going to have to find it to see if I just forgot to read it, or it was just incredibly bland.


(goes to check)


It appears to be the latter. Oh well. At least they tried.

In these days of social media where every fan of every club could post any set of inane ramblings about a football club in the desperate hope for a like it’s incredible that people still go to the effort and expense of producing a fanzine. Absolutely hats off to whoever that is and I hope that it continues into next season as fanzines were mostly brilliant fun in their day. Reading had quite a few over the years, apart from the aforementioned Whiff remember the Elm Park Disease (which I thought was the best and most consistent) and TANRIROT(?) (There Ain’t No Reading in the something or other, can’t remember)! Think there were a few others appearing randomly in the 1990s but by the turn of the century the internet was sadly killing most club’s fanzines off.

The Whiff went on hiatius for a while and came back for a couple of seasons in the late-2000s(?) did it not? I imagine there's a fairly high cost to produce a fanzine (particularly as most printing companies would require a bulk purchase), which may not pay off if not many people are interested. I guess most people who want to write longer pieces would just create a website/blog these days, as you say.

Doing a quick Google for The Whiff lead to me a few articles which were posted on here back in the day for anyone who's interested: link. (miss linked pages: 97-98 season; 99-00 season).

[From Despair To Where?]

Vaguely remember Elm Park Disease but Taking The Biscuit was always my favourite.

[tmesis]

I bought one of each of the five issues they had online today, so I'll have a look at the quality when they arrive. Depending on how it falls short, it may be worth giving the guy writing it some pointers as to how it could be improved as I feel a fanzine has potential to be a bit of fun (even if it's just something to flick through prior to the game or at half-time) - especially now the club aren't bothering with a programme.

Maybe I was harsh. but I think fanzines are very much at the mercy of their contributors, and there's also the problem that the old fanzines offered a perspective never seen in the regular media, and certainly not in the programme, and that's just no longer the case.

I think for a fanzine to exist in this day and age it probably needs to be funny (but not in a forced way) or come across as an almost professional production.