A regional daily editor has urged local newspapers to combat “skewed” media coverage towards the Premier League’s top football clubs.
Wayne Ankers, left, who edits the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, has urged the regional press to “step up to fill the void” following the start of the new season.
Wayne’s rallying call comes after the Examiner’s local team, Huddersfield Town, played their first match for 45 years in English football’s top division earlier this month.
It is the first time Town have played in the top flight since it was rebranded as the Premier League in 1992.
In an opinion piece, Wayne wrote: “The Premier League has kicked off for its 25th season. It’s never been a more valuable commodity, watched by millions all over the world, but the adoration of the masses is often reserved for the top handful of clubs, and the media’s interest in the teams is often skewed accordingly.
“Our beloved local team Huddersfield Town, a club probably not known to many people outside the UK became the 49th team to play in the Premier League – something they had never achieved before.
“If you pick up a paper today or go to the sport section of a news site you’re more likely to find an article about Neymar or Barcelona than you are about Huddersfield Town. They may not be considered “box office”, but Huddersfield Town were the first team to win the League three times in a row, albeit in the 1920’s. It can leave many football fans feeling frustrated that their club is not getting the coverage they think it deserves.
“Football gives people a sense of community that simply can’t be matched by anything else, and it’s an area that local press can really rise to the occasion and show their worth, with a level of coverage the mainstream media do not provide.”
The Examiner has recently launched a Huddersfield Town podcast and has started hosting live events with former players in a bid to increase engagement with football supporters, while it also recently produced a 12-page season preview with an exclusive message from club chairman Dean Hoyle.
Wayne said that during the week the Examiner’s website gets 14,000 page views on Huddersfield Town stories each day, which increases to 24,000 on match days.
He added: “Trinity Mirror’s ‘Simply The Best’ supplement carried analysis by the local football writers who know their clubs best. Each supplement was unique for the local area and was reproduced in many of our regional sister titles.
“For many fans the best analysis and coverage of their team will be found in their local paper. Burnley beat champions Chelsea last weekend, however all the coverage of the match in the national press focused on how bad Chelsea were and how unprepared they were for the start of the season.
“This won’t be the only time this happens this season. To see a write up and opinion piece on the underdog it will be the local press that steps up to fill the void.”
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Time to brush chips off shoulders and forget their history or their promotion last season and face facts, only locals are really interested in HTFC in terms of top flight football so it’s patently obvious that the job of the local press is to support their team,feature them and feed the interest locally so your rallying call is unnecessary as editors across the country realise this already, they don’t need to be told to do what all are doing week in week out .
The perennial cliche of ‘ my little club isn’t getting its fair share of national press’ is always trotted out by local journos and the clubs fans who find themselves elevated onto a national platform and fooling themselves into believing their club will be of interest to the wider football public, similarly there are the accusations of ‘ same old same old’ when the bigger clubs are shown before the smaller ones on MOTD.
And of course Neymar and Barcelona will achieve more column inches than Huddersfield town, just in case mr Ankers has failed to realise it, big names sell papers and create interest, newly promoted sides less so.
I am sure HTFC will be judged on their merits and achievements this season and will receive the relevant coverage when doing so,until then let their actions on the pitch speak for themselves while local editors continue to wave their flags to the audience of local fans and readers.
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Why does every newly promoted teams fans feel hard done by that the premier league giants overshadow their teams coverage?
I wholly agree with @nelson that local editors (and bloggers ) do a good job day in day out with news views and comment on their local team giving more than enough info for the local fan base so why would it either be of interest to football fans on the whole or bother them that the county’s football loving public aren’t as interested in Herr Wagbers side as other big clubs and star players.
Life is local Mr editor and as long as you’re fully supporting the clubs followers by comprehensive coverage in your paper I’m sure other editors across the county can look after themselves and their local team very well without anyone else’s help
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Talk about statin’ the bleedin’ obvious, Mr Ankers.
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The Examiner have done themselves no favours by getting rid of a popular and respected chief football writer in Doug Thompson.
The coverage of Town has also dropped significantly. Doug was real a pro and proper sports writer of the old school. Very sad that he is no longer there.
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We’re loving being in the Premier league upto press — and it’s great to see us in the national press, regional and our local Examiner, all giving great, pacey coverage. E.g. Another excellent piece in the I – newspaper I read on the way to work Monday morning. Everyone’s interested in Huddersfield Town …and sour grapes if they aren’t. As for commentator Nelson and his chips on shoulders …. it’s a much overused cliché for us northerners ….so yawn to that !
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Big clubs. That is where the big money, the newspaper sales, the website clicks are. Sad but true.
The likes of Brighton and Huddersfield are relative small fry to national media.
But they do get saturation coverage from local media that is seldom very critical of them.
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