Sentinel Port Vale News to be a subscription / Baggers

[Wrex]

On 16/10/2023 at 19:22, Valiant62 said:

Not my area but wouldn’t it really be a case of setting up a small business with seed funding? The audience and goodwill are already there attached to the journalist not the news organisation. 

Sure it's possible, but it's a lot of risk and extra work for Baggers to do all that

[Smallthorne clampet]

On 16/10/2023 at 08:11, Valiant62 said:

I still think there must be a model where Mr B. Got the lot without the sh1tinel getting a massive cut and the reputational boost.

Set him on down the vale !

[Warren]

I'm looking at the Port Vale website. Does anybody know who we've drawn in the FA Cup? (sarcasm)

[Wrex]

1 hour ago, Warren said:

I'm looking at the Port Vale website. Does anybody know who we've drawn in the FA Cup? (sarcasm)

We're number 35, so just have to wait and find out from a non-club website I suppose

[Guitar Ray]

Just revisiting this topic, how is it that I can read several up to date reports from yesterday in Stevenages local rag yet nothing in our own.  No disrespect to Baggers, and I hope his venture pays the bills, but the whole advertising excuse for lack of coverage trotted out by Marc Waddington in the Q&A at the bottom of the article is quite clearly claptrap.  If they can justify printing an article on Leek CC signing the former Moddershall captain there should be no problem knocking out a Vale match report as a bare minimum.

[Hot Rat]

42 minutes ago, Guitar Ray said:

Just revisiting this topic, how is it that I can read several up to date reports from yesterday in Stevenages local rag yet nothing in our own.  No disrespect to Baggers, and I hope his venture pays the bills, but the whole advertising excuse for lack of coverage trotted out by Marc Waddington in the Q&A at the bottom of the article is quite clearly claptrap.  If they can justify printing an article on Leek CC signing the former Moddershall captain there should be no problem knocking out a Vale match report as a bare minimum.

Quite agree Ray. Not sure where local and more importantly, balanced news is going when one of the local football teams doesn't merit even match coverage unless the supporters are prepared to pay per view and nobody else in the City is even aware whether they are successful or not. What's next, pay per view reporting on local elections depending upon your political bias? Its a very slippery slope. 

[Granville]

5 hours ago, Guitar Ray said:

Just revisiting this topic, how is it that I can read several up to date reports from yesterday in Stevenages local rag yet nothing in our own.  No disrespect to Baggers, and I hope his venture pays the bills, but the whole advertising excuse for lack of coverage trotted out by Marc Waddington in the Q&A at the bottom of the article is quite clearly claptrap.  If they can justify printing an article on Leek CC signing the former Moddershall captain there should be no problem knocking out a Vale match report as a bare minimum.

This is my point. I like Baggers and think he is an excellent journalist. I would rather give him the money directly than pay The Sentinel, who took him out of the role in the first place because they'd much rather cover a Premier League club with already saturated coverage, and now when they do reintroduce our coverage, its behind a paywall.

To Marc Waddington and his "quality journalism costs money", as you provide the same service to Stoke City (because what's in Baggers newsletter is replicated for free from Stoke's reporter for them), does that imply that the coverage for free you do offer isn't of sufficient quality? And therefore will you charge Stoke fans for a similar high level of journalism?

Aside from that, I think the whole thing is pointless. Most of the stuff in it you can get for free elsewhere anyway. 

[Valiant62]

Obviously, as an independent journalist, the club can’t help him out but could the supporters’ club or some other organisation help get him up and running then a paywall do the rest?

[valiant_593]

Just get the info elsewhere. Everything is available much quicker online. Makes no sense to me. 

[Fosse69]

Just get the info elsewhere. Everything is available much quicker online. Makes no sense to me. 

Lots of newspapers do it now, a daily news digest to your email or wherever. Quality journalism comes at a price usually behind a paywall or subscription. If people want to pay for it, what is the problem? It is usually far cheaper than buying a physical newspaper. It will either be economic or not.

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[Fosse69]

Obviously, as an independent journalist, the club can’t help him out but could the supporters’ club or some other organisation help get him up and running then a paywall do the rest?

I treat it as testing the market. The Sentinal don't consider the Vale as economic. Ideally something along your lines may be preferable, time will tell.

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[andy jones]

46 minutes ago, valiant_593 said:

Just get the info elsewhere. Everything is available much quicker online. Makes no sense to me. 

That's just the point.  Much of the content of 'Valiant' is either not available elsewhere or it is but Baggers articles are more in depth.

Personally, I think it is incredibly good value for money at £10 for a year. In fact the £40 per year for 2nd year onwards is still great value for money.

Apparently from the subscription numbers a lot of Vale fans think the same.

BTW I only wish the money was going directly to Baggers and not Reach publications who I have no time for at all.

[valiant_593]

Think it’s crazy to pay for news that’s readily available on here or other sites much quicker personally. 

[Fosse69]

Think it’s crazy to pay for news that’s readily available on here or other sites much quicker personally. 

20p per week delivered to my mobile, 4 times a week, fine by me.

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[Tamworth]

2 hours ago, valiant_593 said:

Think it’s crazy to pay for news that’s readily available on here or other sites much quicker personally. 

 

Have a read of it and then you may change your mind. As people are saying here, it's more analysis and in depth information than simply match reporting and you can't find it all here or on other sites. Even if you could, it would take too much of your time to do so. So, it's good value for money even at full price.