Macc. Programme
 

It's all very well for people to talk about giving fans financial incentives to come along to matches, but I have to say that if anyone bought a programme last night, they had a genuine grievance. Not only were folks being asked to pay £3 for something which was three months out-of date, but also - and this is the bit that I thought was really sick -= described as "on view" were Macclesfield, together with manager Keith Alexander! Is it too much to expect someone to CHECK things like this, and even if finances dictate that you need to charge full price for a three-months-old read, then at least avoid causing offence in the wake of the difficult period that Macclesfield have just experienced.:(

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im sure the programmes are ordered and printed weeks in advance, which is probably why Keith was still in there which is probably un-avoidable.

To be honest mate, I havent bought a programme in ages they are very poor and overpriced compared to some of the others.

The club need to look at Torquay's and Port Vale's to see what should be achieved.

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Yeah, Smudgie, I take your point to some extent - but the programme was DATED November, and the information in it was from November!

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In that case then its very poor indeed

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Wasn't that the date of the original fixture that got postponed ? Suspect the progs were printed for that date

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Let me try to clear a couple of things up here...
1) The programmes were the ones from the original game as for financial reasons the club couldn't afford to have new ones printed. However, you should have received a sleeve with the programme with the correct and up to the date information which was new. This isn't a situation that I'm happy with, but conversely I can understand why the club would be unprepared to spend thousands on new programmes and chuck old ones away. I did suggest that in this circumstance a new programme should be printed, but it isn't my place to spend Accrington Stanley's money. Oldgobbin, if you didn't get the sleeve with your programme, let me know where you bought it and I'll find out why they weren't being distributed.

2) Smudgie (and I'm almost certainly going to get in trouble for saying this) I agree that the programme is overpriced. However, it's a chicken and egg situation - in order to bring down the cost per unit the club needs to order more units and therefore sell more. So more need to be sold before economically the price can come down. Hope that makes sense.

3) I've been knocking about for too long to be offended by "I havent bought a programme in ages they are very poor and overpriced compared to some of the others.

The club need to look at Torquay's and Port Vale's to see what should be achieved" but I'd like to say that there's been a lot of effort by a lot of people in the last month or so to improve the quality of the content within the programme. Hopefully the improvement will continue and I'd urge you to have a read of the Rochdale programme and compare to one from several months ago. I hope everyone will be able to see that improvement. It may still be "poor" compared to Port Vale's (which is compiled by a large, full-time team) but I hope that it is going in the right direction.

No offence meant by any of this, just hoping to clear up some myths and get some facts out there. Any questions email [email protected]

Ta
Dan

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Dan, as the Bonzos once said " sometimes you just can't win".

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Im only trying to be constructive.

I spend my money on a season ticket every year and have done for a long time but in my opinion our programme is not worth the £3 extra on a match day.

Fair enough if last nights where already ordered/ printed, theres nothing anybody can do about postponements.

Surely Torquay dont "have a large, full-time team" ????

Im just saying if people that produced/ contributed to the programme had a look at Torquay's for example then that is the correct direction to go in. It was £2.50, and superbly put together.

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I wasn't for a second saying that you weren't being constructive. I was trying to address the points that you made. Clearly I've failed.

Accrington Stanley are the ONLY club in League Two not to have an individual responsible for their publications/website etc. That's a fact. Everyone who contributes to the programme (except the designer, who is paid by the printers) is a volunteer. This isn't an excuse. It's just a fact.

I haven't seen the Torquay programme, but I know the club have been consulting dozens of publications from different clubs to try to help improve their offering.

£3 is too much. But at the moment the programme does not make a profit. Most weeks it just about breaks even. So that's the situation. Doubtless there is a solution somewhere, but I'm not the man to make the decision.

If anyone has feedback and criticism about the programme, let me know and I'll pass it on. Even if it's the standard of spelling or punctuation, tell me. What do you want to see, how can the content be improved and have you noticed a difference in the last month? All thoughts are welcome.

Dan

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As is your right, Smudgie.

Seems like the majority would wish the programme to be cheaper (including me), but whether they'd sell sufficiently more is the big unknown.

Personally, I sometimes wonder whether the crowds would increase if it was £10 to stand, and that a bit more would also be made on 'extras' like programmes, raffle, shop sales, etc. This is the Ryan Air approach to marketing; make the product appear cheap but encourage folk to want, and then charge for, extras. If it could be done with a little less cynicism that at Ryan Air, I wonder if it might tempt more marginal fans into the ground.

Don't know if the programme personnel are involved in the "full story" on the Stanley's official web site but that is much improved; despite the result of the game, last night's report was especially good.

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Good point well made there Exile.

I agree the match report's on the website are much better.

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It's not too difficult to bring down the cost of the programme.

!. Why does it need to be printed on such good quality paper? The weight of the paper and cover are far too high.

2. Why do we need more or less the same information from the club's top brass? It does not need the Team Manager, Chief Exec, Club Captain, General Manager etc to say more or less the same things - welcome the visitors, review of ASFC progress, looking ahead. Cutting all that back could save 4 pages.

3. Find a new printer. I can assure you that printers are desperate for work at the moment. Does the club have a contract with the current printer? If so, renegotiate it. If not, get other estimates.

4. This is specific to the Notts County programme. The Club Crest page and feedback form should have been on an insert. Why should we have to mutilate the programme by cutting out the feedback page?

5. Please ... PLEASE ... PLEASE ... find someone who is literate to read a proof of the programme prior to printing. The standard of English has improved - slightly. There is still a long way to go.

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Grimsby have the best programmes in the league apparently! :) About time we had something good

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Can I add my twopenneth. I went to Torquay and bought a programme, the quality of which left a lot to be desired IMHO - not much news and far too many adverts. I do appreciate that adverts bring in revenue towards printing costs, but that particular programme might just as well have been yellow pages.

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Understand about the date of programmes for rearranged games, but I do believe that in this one instance that I would rather have not had a programme, than to have one that talked about a man - who has not even been buried yet - as if he was stilll alive!! Disgrace.

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Joe, fairly sure that it is a requirement of most senior leagues, that a programme has to be available. Will re-read the FL rules and advise.

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It was a one off that the club and the people who do these programmes should learn from and move on from it! I don't buy a programme usually as I never have done except from on certain occasions! However i got a free one after the Notts County game in the clubhouse off a sponsor and after reading it there's not that much content in it, well there is, but not that exciting that someone would want to shed out £3.00 for! Just the same old welcome from the Chairman, Chief Exe, Manager, Captain, Stats and about the opposite team! Alot of it just looks like their trying to make up pages to make it look asif the programmes got alot of content in so not to rip the buying customers off. But the quality of the programme material is very good and the colour and paper is superb! also the grammar I don't see a big problem with and I didn't encounter any of bad grammar on my read yesterday!

It could do with a few more better pages but all in all its not too bad! And its not the worst!!

Progress maybe slow guys but don't forget its PROGRESS!

Onward and upwards! :)

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Haha! Really, im not one for grammar. However i can understand alot of people do actually care! They have the right to complain though as they do buy it for £3.00!!!

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Personally I think the previous programme editor did a very good job and produced a very worthy product. I think that the Macclesfield programme should have been removed from sale, it was a very bad move to keep it on sale mainly as a lack of respect towards Keith Alexander. I think the proofreading was better with the previous editor and was a lot of more value for money.

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Slightly off topic but I liked the 'fan vs player' quiz type thing that I saw for the first time in the Notts Country programme (I think). Good little inclusion, that.
The only gripe I have with the programme is the value for money which is the reason why I only buy a few throughout the season. If there were more interactive things like the fan vs player quiz and if I didn't have to struggle past the grammar to read what's intended then I'd have no problem paying (at most) £2.50 every home game for the programme. £3 is just too much, even for the better programmes.

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Its the 21st century.
do we really need a programme?
Why not a match podcast or email people can subscribe to?

Tradition is great, but paper programmes have had there day IMO.

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bdc I didn't mean that as a negative point against the last editor, I think he did a very good job, especially to say he did it on his own.
Thanks for the feedback on the fan vs player inclusion, we're looking at bringing more things like that into the programme.
I agree that it is overpriced but as Dan said that's over our heads and we can just try our best to make the programme as interesting and readable as possible!

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unfortunately one of the answers in the fan v player quiz was wrong. The St Ledger is run at Doncaster not Derby!!!

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The Programme was very much my baby and something I enjoyed doing greatly and miss doing it in some senses and in others no I don't.

As someone who see's a lot of games and bought a lot of programmes from said other games I took inspiration from them and where I could looked to bring in different things and different angles that did not already exsist.

My big hope when the New Editors took over was that it could continue to grow and expand and I think there was very much more bitten off more than you can chew that went with it. I took no pleasure in seeing it going down the gurgler, as experience has been gained it has got better and will continue to grow I am sure.

Getting Dan on board has been the shot on the arm the Progaramme needed from a journalistic point of view and someone to pull it all together.

I am sure the more people that are involved can only be a good thing to take it forward.

The big miss is Kipax's pictures, sometimes a picture can be as good as a thousand words.

It probaly is a very much work in progress but the basis is there to move it on as has been happening

I would from an ordering point of view look at maybe ordering less and selling out every week.

Taking up Davo's point there must be room at the Club for somebody on that side of things along with the website and normal day to day Google Page Ranking stuff.

That would generate it's own headlines and put out positive spin etc.

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Just on the subject of the Macc Programme why was the original sleeve not just replaced by the new outer jacket, staples out of the old one and staples in the new one or was that tried?