griff1998 wrote:
We dug our way up to Barrow yesterday. They did a nice 32 page programme for a crowd of just below 1000. We do a 40 page programme for our recovering crowd of 850. Ours makes a modest profit of around £150 a match on average.
Aren't you and Featherstone - with the 2000+ crowds you're always on about - ashamed of selling a newspaper advert and piece of paper folded so many times it'll barely crease properly ?
What are you doing so wrong ?
Whilst any level of profit is not to be sniffed at from experience I know that a matchday programme is a massive bind and the time put in probably doesnt reflect the profit. It is difficult to judge the actual profit a programme makes when taking everything into consideration - advertising income, sales, print costs, time, etc.
When I was Commercial Manager at Halifax Town it would take hours to put together the programme and it was nothing but hassle. Chasing the manager for his notes (more often than not having to write them myself but making sure nothing controversial was said), chasing the chairman for his notes, chasing the opposition for their information (squad, pen pics, etc), chasing various other contributors, writing a number of articles myself, writing other articles should contributors be unable to provide a piece, getting everything spell checked and off to the printers, responding to any printer queries, finding other things to fill blank spaces, picking up the programme from the printers, ensure the programme sellers received them on matchday.......
All this would detract from my other responsibilities which is then when you have to consider if it provides a worthwhile profit. If a volunteer is doing the above tasks then is certainly makes it more worth while but I couldnt criticise any club for its programme content unless it was ridiculously overpriced.