Sentinel
Schoolboy
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2010
- Messages
- 154
The football magazine When Saturday Comes is in trouble. Falling sales and a refusal to take advertising from betting companies on their website means they are now losing money and they are asking for help. They are asking for people to sign up as a supporter and donate a monthly amount - as little or as much as you like - to keep the magazine going. We need magazines like WSC to stand up fight for football supporters as nobody else did in the dark days of the 1980's and early 90's.
I reproduce the editorial from this months edition below:
https://www.wsc.co.uk/supporters-club
Print media in the UK is having a tough time. Recent closures include several long-established monthly magazines, scores of local newspapers and Kickaround, our own children’s
football magazine. When Saturday Comes has a different business structure to many others but is subject to similar pressures.
When we launched in 1986, we did not expect this magazine to become a full-time business, let alone to be in sight of our 400th issue due in June 2020. That we are still here is down to you, our loyal readers. We’ve had our close scrapes on the way but we like to think we’ve made a mark; from our promotion of the fanzine movement and coverage of the campaign against ID cards in the 1980s to our various trips to international tournaments in Africa and South America in the 1990s and, more recently, the launch of our competition for amateur writers. The many writers whose early work appeared in our pages include journalists and authors such as David Conn, Harry Pearson and Barney Ronay.
In 2019 our newsagent sales continue to be in slight decline, advertising revenue has fallen (we’ve taken a five-figure hit from turning away all gambling-related ads) and production and distribution costs such as print and postage have increased. Our long-established online presence, including website and social media, has never brought in much money and we don’t want to regurgitate press releases from global brands in exchange for “access”.
The simple fact is that WSC as a print magazine is no longer self-sustaining. We have cut costs as much as possible, including closing our permanent office. We’d like to think we’d be missed if we weren’t here. So we need your help to continue.
We’re asking readers who can to contribute a little extra each month. In return we’ll give you access to bonus episodes of the brand new WSC podcast, as well as extra gifts including exclusive merchandise.
Join the WSC Supporters’ Club on Patreon, through which you can help to support us from as little as $2 (around Ł1.55) per month. We appreciate that many of you already subscribe to the magazine. However, in return for a little bit extra through Patreon donations you will have access to some exciting extra rewards, including bonus material from our brand new podcast, launching in November.
Quote
I reproduce the editorial from this months edition below:
https://www.wsc.co.uk/supporters-club
Print media in the UK is having a tough time. Recent closures include several long-established monthly magazines, scores of local newspapers and Kickaround, our own children’s
football magazine. When Saturday Comes has a different business structure to many others but is subject to similar pressures.
When we launched in 1986, we did not expect this magazine to become a full-time business, let alone to be in sight of our 400th issue due in June 2020. That we are still here is down to you, our loyal readers. We’ve had our close scrapes on the way but we like to think we’ve made a mark; from our promotion of the fanzine movement and coverage of the campaign against ID cards in the 1980s to our various trips to international tournaments in Africa and South America in the 1990s and, more recently, the launch of our competition for amateur writers. The many writers whose early work appeared in our pages include journalists and authors such as David Conn, Harry Pearson and Barney Ronay.
In 2019 our newsagent sales continue to be in slight decline, advertising revenue has fallen (we’ve taken a five-figure hit from turning away all gambling-related ads) and production and distribution costs such as print and postage have increased. Our long-established online presence, including website and social media, has never brought in much money and we don’t want to regurgitate press releases from global brands in exchange for “access”.
The simple fact is that WSC as a print magazine is no longer self-sustaining. We have cut costs as much as possible, including closing our permanent office. We’d like to think we’d be missed if we weren’t here. So we need your help to continue.
We’re asking readers who can to contribute a little extra each month. In return we’ll give you access to bonus episodes of the brand new WSC podcast, as well as extra gifts including exclusive merchandise.
Join the WSC Supporters’ Club on Patreon, through which you can help to support us from as little as $2 (around Ł1.55) per month. We appreciate that many of you already subscribe to the magazine. However, in return for a little bit extra through Patreon donations you will have access to some exciting extra rewards, including bonus material from our brand new podcast, launching in November.
Quote
