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Football boss admits cutting newspaper’s access ‘for commercial reasons’

Karl OystonA football club chairman has admitted restricting a regional daily’s access to his club for commercial reasons, saying he sees it as a “competitor.”

Karl Oyston, chairman of Blackpool FC, has made the admission about The Gazette, Blackpool, during a meeting with supporters.

The Gazette has experienced a number of problems with the club over the past few months – including one reporter being locked out of a press conference and another being barred from an away friendly match at Blackpool FC’s request.

Minutes of the meeting revealed that Mr Oyston, pictured left,views the Johnston Press-owned title as a competitor with the club’s own website.

One minute read:  “KO said The Gazette are a competitor and that the club would rather focus its efforts on Blackpool FC improving its communication.

“(Mr Oyston) said it would be grossly unfair to allow the newspaper similar levels of access as Football League rights holding media organisations, and those the club holds commercial agreements with.”

The controversial club boss was quizzed about the club’s “breakdown in communication” with The Gazette during a meeting with a supporters’ organisation, the Fans’ Progress Group.

But Mr Oyston denied the newspaper was banned from the club.

According to the minutes of the meeting, Mr Oyston claimed that The Gazette’s circulation statistics indicated that only a small percentage of the area’s population bought or read the paper.

Although the supporters’ group suggested the older generation of supporters relied on newspapers for information, Mr Oyston claimed supporters preferred to receive “accurate information” directly from the club.

Mr Oyston also claimed that The Gazette previously had a commercial arrangement with the club, which they withdrew from.

It is understood the commercial arrangement in question involved an advertising board at the club’s Bloomfield Road stadium and advertising in its matchday programme.

The minutes continue: “The FPG saw this as an opportunity to show more openness, with many supporters using (Gazette football writer) Will Watt for information.

“KO admitted repair work must be done and the ball was very firmly in The Gazette’s court.

In recent years Mr Oyston and the club’s supporters have been at loggerheads over a perceived lack of investment, culminating in a protest pitch invasion during their last game of the 2014/15 season against Huddersfield Town in May, which resulted in the match being abandoned.

The following month Gazette sports reporter Steve Simpson had the door to the Bloomfield Road reception locked in front of him when he tried to access a press conference called to announce the appointment of new manager Neil McDonald.

In July, Will called on the Football Association to step in to stop the practice of clubs banning media outlets.

A fortnight later the paper was barred from reporting on a friendly at Morecambe FC, following a request by Blackpool FC.

Most recently, in August, the club’s official website ran a statement accusing The Gazette of running a negative headline, and urged supporters to “seek accurate information” from other sources.

The move was criticised by another fans’ group, Blackpool Supporters Trust, which accused the club of a “lack of transparency”.

The Gazette has so far not responded to requests for a comment.

9 comments

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  • September 24, 2015 at 8:54 am
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    So the JP paper withdrew its tit-for-tat support for its local club by a penny-pinching decision to end ground and programme advertising. My paper did the same, I think it was JP policy. For 100 years, papers supported their clubs in this way and seeing the local paper’s name at the ground and in the programme, normally on the team page, was part of the fabric of going to the match. People grew up with it. Generations grew up with it. Now most kids have no idea their local paper exists, certainly in printed form. Those who do know think it’s a web-only operation. The JP board members only have themselves to blame for this indifference, it’s a direct result of withdrawing from the communities they claim to serve. They have done the same by centralising services away from local, cutting out the local electrician, plumber and tradesman because they claim they get a cheaper (but worse, I can tell you) service by centralisation. Now this football club is playing them at their own game and they squeal. I don’t blame the paper or its editor, they are powerless in these matters. A small investment in advertising would have created the goodwill,and the connection for this to have never happened, but JP’s greed knows no bounds and we watch with increasing despair as the business flushes itself down the toilet.

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  • September 24, 2015 at 9:36 am
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    Am 100% in accord with the above.
    Given the downward spiral in print sales, JP should be reinforcing its ‘visible’ presence on the Fylde Coast, and giving a few hundred quid to each of the local football clubs for a slot in their matchday programmes, and via perimeter advertising, is cheap and effective.

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  • September 24, 2015 at 9:40 am
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    A battle between a fat cat owner & some distant fat cat newspaper management and who loses? The poor old supporters, of course. Newspapers & modern commercial football clubs are all the same – never mind the product, it all comes down to the bottom line & news management.

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  • September 24, 2015 at 10:35 am
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    So, do more people buy the Gazette than attend matches?

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  • September 24, 2015 at 11:15 am
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    JP are too mean or broke to pay for an advertising board at my local club and don’t bother to send a reporter, ending a tradition of least 60 years. The club gets its result on its own website before JP staff can stir. Great service from a company that once boasted life is local!

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  • September 24, 2015 at 1:11 pm
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    Football and how it reaches its fan base and followers has moved on since the days of wooden pitch side hoardings with local electricians and tyre fitters, newspaper titles painted on tin roofs at grounds and long forgotten brands in match day programmes, like it or not the local paper plays very little part in how clubs communicate with fans so the suits in local media need to accept this and move on too.
    they’re fooling themselves if they think the local league clubs need them, they don’t, fans can get direct access via official sites, fan sites and social media, they really should concentrate on better support and coverage of local league and grass roots football on their own patches where these clubs need a voice and rely on hyper local support a role that RP groups need to adopt more.
    And they are competitors for the clubs business, lower league clubs such as Blackpool need to maximise incomes and the local rag selling advertising on the sports pages etc is a direct competitor,
    So many people living in the past and looking backwards.

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  • September 24, 2015 at 1:38 pm
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    The Gazette may have ended its commercial relationship with the club because of the club’s shocking track record in recent years – including the owner suing fans for alleged defamation.
    Indeed the paper cancelled a column it ran from the club chairman after he text a supporter to call him a “massive retard” and told him to “enjoy his special needs day out”.
    http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/sport/blackpool-fc/pool-latest/gazette-comment-more-shame-on-blackpool-fc-1-7016260

    (In no way is this a defence of JP, it very well could have been a cutting costs decision, but some further context on this specific story)

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  • September 24, 2015 at 1:47 pm
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    When publishing newspapers was a licence to print money, they splashed around sponsorship like confetti – including in the Sunday leagues, darts, bowls etc. The only people not to benefit from this golden age were the journalists.
    The people above seem to think it petty to stop handing out cash that you haven’t got to the likes of Oyston.
    I was more sorry when we had to tell the Sunday League that we could no longer sponsor their awards – and that was a long time ago.
    All this fuss has nothing to do with the football club, it is about the Oyston family and their chequered history with the media in general.
    Owen Oyston, wasn’t he the bloke…? Yep, that’s him and this is his son.
    Commercial rivals my backside!

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