A Kick Up The Rs

[Norths]

Copied from the thread on LFW, but all for a good cause

As with all printed media, sales of our beloved fanzine are falling to around 1/3rd of its peak a few years back. I found myself a lapsed subscriber and only re-discovered my interest on a few occasions last season, mainly through seeing Julie every home game outside the Lower Loft, rain or shine, selling, both before and after the game. Clive and daveb are regular contributors (or they were last season) and there is rarely a dull issue (with our club and it's curse, there is always something to write about). Anyway, Dave Thomas had a choice to make this season and has, thankfully decided to continue, even though it appears that he is running at a loss. AKUTRS is such an institution around our club and has been around for about 30 years now. If you haven't looked at an issue recently, you should do; it is professionally produced and is a damned good read with content around a subject close to all of us. I intend to re-subscribe for this season and I urge you all to think about doing so to get the numbers back up. If interested, details are at http://www.akutrs.com/subscriptions/4593974993

[loftbalcony]

Totally agree, a very good read and I buy it fairly often, I think that part of the problem in addition to national printed media sales being down everywhere due to social media and Internet in general is that the older you are the more you get out of AKUTRS as a lot of the younger generation cannot relate to a lot of the content.
I'm all for it to continue and please if you can buy it please do as every little helps
.

[brightonr]

Would have thought that producing it digitally would not only save on production costs, but give him access to a larger subscription base.

I guess the problem these days though, is that people seem to want online content for free, assuming that a few ads would cover the costs.

[QPRDave]

no wonder its failing if clive's dribbling his boring pc diatribe all over it.

[OldR]

I sympathise with the AKUTRs team because it was an important part of going to Rangers in the late 80s and Early 90s and I never failed to buy a copy.

However, although there is a niche market they are fighting a losing battle because the mouthpiece offered to fans via the fanzines has now been replicated by the online forums.

Why don't they consider an online, digital version to ensure the magazine stays alive - something a number of independent publications have now done such as the wonderful Soccer History Magazine - and will significantly reduce the purchase price for fans?

£5 is too much for a copy of AKUTRS - they must know this - and sales figures must be exceptionally poor. Get an online version similar to these guys and you'll increase sales whilst substantially reducing overheads.

https://www.soccer-history.co.uk/

[lymehoop]

unless it's gone up it was £4 last season. I'd prefer less issues per season and more content and then I wouldn't mind forking out a fiver

[Brian Wilson]

Seriously doubt the download route would work in an era where everyone expects things for free plus I think the average AKUTRs customer is someone who likes the print format. Would be a shame to see it go. Think Lyme's idea of bulkier issues for a fiver might work but would imagine they have already thought of that: I think its very hard to keep on topic when printing and then trying to sell when some articles are well out of date

[Jimmy Floyd Rabbit]

Dave Thomas lovely fella.

Im guilty of buying AKUTRS when I see him although it's not really my cup of tea tbh. Simply just to support the cause.

Some good articles in there but more often than not I find it a bit boring. I'll continue to buy when I see him but agree they should go digital.

[Tarbie]

Sorry to say it chaps, but print media is dead. The only future for publications like AKUTRS is to adopt an online approach and to monetize the site through advertising, and perhaps merchandising.

[SheepRanger]

Must be very hard to write with every subject thrashed from every angle on sites just like this. Same goes for the match day programmes. I used to buy printed media back in the day to look at league tables and the next games. The internet has it all.....

[acricketer]

How insightful is it or full of inside info? Or is it another set of opinions? I'm afraid the internets are making it obsolete.

[CroydonCaptainJack]

It must be hard for Dave to let go of this as this Fanzine has been going so long.
I agree in some ways that the internet has made a lot of printed media obsolete but in my opinion that is at a cost. It has led to a lot of watering down of good writing and the recycling of news as we see all the time on some of the poorer websites. AKUTRs has a lot of good stuff in it and goes into a lot more detail than you see on these websites generally. If that is of interest to you then you should consider it. I don't buy it often enough but the thought of it closing down saddens me and I will make a point of buying it more this season.

[Tarbie]

It must be hard for Dave to let go of this as this Fanzine has been going so long.
I agree in some ways that the internet has made a lot of printed media obsolete but in my opinion that is at a cost. It has led to a lot of watering down of good writing and the recycling of news as we see all the time on some of the poorer websites. AKUTRs has a lot of good stuff in it and goes into a lot more detail than you see on these websites generally. If that is of interest to you then you should consider it. I don't buy it often enough but the thought of it closing down saddens me and I will make a point of buying it more this season.

Don't disagree that it's a shame mate. But to push against the trend of everything going online is totally futile. Even in the Daily Telegraph has gone online these days. The village my mum lives in used to have 4 newsagents that delivered newspapers every day, now it doesn't ave any.

The future when it comes to to media is online. Print is close to obsolete (and not just in media, also in marketing material, books etc.), everything has moved completely digital these days. Whether it be subscription based, or funded by advertising, publications need to find a way of making their money online. Or they need to face facts that their subscription base will continue dwindle every year.

[OldR]

It must be hard for Dave to let go of this as this Fanzine has been going so long.
I agree in some ways that the internet has made a lot of printed media obsolete but in my opinion that is at a cost. It has led to a lot of watering down of good writing and the recycling of news as we see all the time on some of the poorer websites. AKUTRs has a lot of good stuff in it and goes into a lot more detail than you see on these websites generally. If that is of interest to you then you should consider it. I don't buy it often enough but the thought of it closing down saddens me and I will make a point of buying it more this season.

Totally agree with the effect the internet has had on the quality of writing.

One of my main passions is boxing and, in my opinion, the standard of boxing journalism is at a nadir with Matt Christie's reign at the 'trade paper', Boxing News, testament to the poor quality of this era. They are catering to the Twitter generation and their inability to concentrate long enough to read long, in-depth, articles and their reliance of hyperbole to grab their attention.

Football journalism is just as bad now.

However, where there has been progress is in these fields is their acceptance that the future of these publications is digital. I may dislike the current editor of Boxing News and all he stands for, but I can but a monthly digital subscription for £6.99 which works out a£ about 1.65 per issue so although I can't turn a blind eye to the standard, I will still subscribe.

I'm not saying that the standard of AKUTRS has decreased - they have never claimed to be great journalists anyway-but £5 an issue is too expensive for what you are getting. They would only need to sell a few hundred digital copies at, say, £2 - £3 an issue each month to a fanbase of 10,000 'hardcore' fans to meet their overheads and make a profit. That's a far better solution than ending an era because they didn't move with the times...

As I said, they should look at how www.soccer-history.co.uk/ and http://www.ntvcelticfanzine.com/ have changed the way they operate as benchmarks.

There is no reason for AKUTRS to die.

[OldR]

Don't disagree that it's a shame mate. But to push against the trend of everything going online is totally futile. Even in the Daily Telegraph has gone online these days. The village my mum lives in used to have 4 newsagents that delivered newspapers every day, now it doesn't ave any.

The future when it comes to to media is online. Print is close to obsolete (and not just in media, also in marketing material, books etc.), everything has moved completely digital these days. Whether it be subscription based, or funded by advertising, publications need to find a way of making their money online. Or they need to face facts that their subscription base will continue dwindle every year.

Books seem to be bucking the trend. Sales of e-books via platforms such as Kindle decreased by around 10% last year with industry insiders - according to Newsnight - admitting that they don't know if e-books will prove to be as popular as they thought they were going to be.

Other publications, however, will go digital only within a decade.