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Some sad news for many tonight - the Oldham Evening Chronicle has gone into administration and today's edition is the final one.

This is bad news for local sports clubs like ours as a lot of older fans still rely on the Chronicle for their news of club developments and team news, also look forward to match reports. There will be a need now to ensure that news is communicated to these fans in other ways so perhaps many of us can bear this in mind and pass on information to those who will no longer be getting their rugby 'fix' that way.

I'm not surprised at the news, as circulation has really dwindled, but am certainly saddened by it. Nothing quite like a printed match report after a victory!

 

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Sad day for the town.The chron was synonymous with Oldham. A big loss,local clubs,voluntary groups and other organizations will lose out as the "chron" provided an invaluable outlet.Let's hope something can rise from the ashes.I suppose the internet will have played a part in its demise.Goodbye our "Oldham Evening Chronicle".

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I'm sad for the loss of what the chron was when I was a lad. Sad for the 50 people who have lost their jobs. We all have families, mortgages to pay etc. Awful for them. And... sad that the loss of another institution is a further sign of of the decline of my home town. But unfortunately the chron had become a bad paper. Editorial policy was as a mouthpiece for a dictatorial local leadership... ignoring major issues to artificially talk up the town. The content themes and design style were woefully outdated and they didn't manage their customer service or online presence well. They didn't understand the change in consumer behaviour, who their competitors were or how to engage new customers. Their business model was wrong, their content whitewashed and their product (over recent years) was poor. Resulting in falling customer numbers, financial management and reputation issues. Other local organisations with similar root cause issues should take note.

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5 hours ago, HomeOfTheTubularBandage said:

I'm sad for the loss of what the chron was when I was a lad. Sad for the 50 people who have lost their jobs. We all have families, mortgages to pay etc. Awful for them. And... sad that the loss of another institution is a further sign of of the decline of my home town. But unfortunately the chron had become a bad paper. Editorial policy was as a mouthpiece for a dictatorial local leadership... ignoring major issues to artificially talk up the town. The content themes and design style were woefully outdated and they didn't manage their customer service or online presence well. They didn't understand the change in consumer behaviour, who their competitors were or how to engage new customers. Their business model was wrong, their content whitewashed and their product (over recent years) was poor. Resulting in falling customer numbers, financial management and reputation issues. Other local organisations with similar root cause issues should take note.

This is so true.

The Chronicle in years gone by was superb at getting to the bottom of stories, producing some great investigative stories.  Take Roger's reporting as an example. He wouldn't just take the club's view point on a story, he would dig the dirt, find the truth ad get the story.  We got some really good articles on the club. Wednesday night use to take up two pages with great articles and small print. Articles of interest.

Over the past few years they have just taken the cubs daily press release and used that. Either lazy journalism or lack of staff to cover sport. The coverage of the club has been boring to be honest.

I am sure in his days working for the Chron that CH would not have had such an easy ride with the management of the club. He would have ripped it apart. Take the reporting of the winding up orders and possible administrations - he would have been ruthless.

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Roger has been a great servent to to Rugby in Oldham no doubt about that.

However, since his retirement from the Chron he has been writing the website for the roughyeds I.E. the press release and that is what went in the Chron along with his match reports.

He has basically only put in what CH wants him to. The chronicle themselves basically had no interest in the rugby just left it to Roger.

 

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I was in the army 42 year's ago and my dad would send me the chronicle and green final ,i was committed to a cockney infantry regiment as they was under strength in 77 i was in Belize in central america in the jungle and by the time we had finished our tour all the cockney lads would ask if the chron had come as they all read it,we where quite famous in London as well,2 year's before the army i was in the merchant navy on container ship's for 2 years,my first trip was to Australia and we was invited to a Barbie and the couple was from Oldham and I took them the chronicle to show them,the front page was the market hall on fire,i was 16 so we are famous all over the world,memories  ?

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As a kid , like many I used to eagerly wait for the Chron and Roger's reports  but after he retired it was never the same , then came the internet and the inevitable, hopefully something can rise from the ashes.

Roger's a legend, loads of great reports and transfer rumours, loved it when he suggested Noel Cleal was going to sign for us   :-)

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Used to go up and collect the green final for Anne's paper shop on sat.I'd watch the final pages come down the shoot and get turned into plates.Then a flurry of activity as the vans were loaded.I got my batch and shot off down Woodstock St past the park up to Broadway Street.This on a chopper bike.In the end the younger generation don't go for papers and there is so much news, blogging, social media that the chron could not monetize it's content.Its more important than ever that Oldham continue to grow into the social media world and not underestimate it the way they used to before Dave Naylor started his good work.

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It's a bit like losing a limb or something. In days gone by I used to rush home on Monday after work to read the back page news then the match report inside, then I said hello to the wife. I would then look forward eagerly to the two page spread on Wednesday and finally the match preview on Friday. Rogers reporting was fantastic and before him so was that of, was it, Bill Doran? Now I'll never know who I know who has died etc and all the other local news and sport. I hope it does come back but I fear it will be totally different to what we are used to and quite possibly only two days a week like the Rochdale Observer. I will really miss it and hope the clubs website produces a good match report each week.

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3 hours ago, Ex-scrumhalf said:

It's a bit like losing a limb or something. In days gone by I used to rush home on Monday after work to read the back page news then the match report inside, then I said hello to the wife. I would then look forward eagerly to the two page spread on Wednesday and finally the match preview on Friday. Rogers reporting was fantastic and before him so was that of, was it, Bill Doran? Now I'll never know who I know who has died etc and all the other local news and sport. I hope it does come back but I fear it will be totally different to what we are used to and quite possibly only two days a week like the Rochdale Observer. I will really miss it and hope the clubs website produces a good match report each week.

Rochdale Observer is ######, I read most of the local news online, but like you say, I don't know who has died etc.

QUIS CUSTODIAT IPSOS CUSTODES

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4 hours ago, The Baron Mk11 said:

Rochdale Observer is ######, I read most of the local news online, but like you say, I don't know who has died etc.

Good point,no births,deaths and marriages section. The quality of the chron did deteriorate over time and the price they charged for it there wasn't much reading in it.My thoughts are for the employees who sadly have no job.Sad state of affairs.

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10 hours ago, Ex-scrumhalf said:

It's a bit like losing a limb or something. In days gone by I used to rush home on Monday after work to read the back page news then the match report inside, then I said hello to the wife. I would then look forward eagerly to the two page spread on Wednesday and finally the match preview on Friday. Rogers reporting was fantastic and before him so was that of, was it, Bill Doran? Now I'll never know who I know who has died etc and all the other local news and sport. I hope it does come back but I fear it will be totally different to what we are used to and quite possibly only two days a week like the Rochdale Observer. I will really miss it and hope the clubs website produces a good match report each week.

Yes - the Chronicle reporter on Oldham RLFC before Roger Halstead was Bill Doran.

For years the reports had the by-line " By W.D. " 

I can't remember when, if at all, the reports carried his full name.

Unfortunately the Internet is slowly killing print media and I am as guilty as anyone for contributing to that state of affairs as  I never now buy a newspaper, but get all my news via radio, TV and Internet.

I have fond memories of when reading the Green Final and the Manchester Evening News Saturday Pink would keep me occupied all weekend.

 

 

 

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One of the mistakes the Chron made was giving too much away for free on their non subscription website, I just used this for my fix.

Because they had practically a monopoly  situation on local news they should have forced me and others to use their subscription based offering, I live out of town so I'd probably have paid if I though it was decent value.

Hope someone out there is seeing the opportunity  !

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4 hours ago, tub said:

One of the mistakes the Chron made was giving too much away for free on their non subscription website, I just used this for my fix.

Because they had practically a monopoly  situation on local news they should have forced me and others to use their subscription based offering, I live out of town so I'd probably have paid if I though it was decent value.

Hope someone out there is seeing the opportunity  !

I would guess the subscription model fails at the local paper level, we assume the internet is free.  There are sites on places like Facebook for local news and events.  The only way of making money online is advertising really, and most local news sites have done it in such a bad way that their websites are unreadable.

Should the Chron of gone weekly?  Or tried video news?  No idea.  

With the best, thats a good bit of PR, though I would say the Bedford team, theres, like, you know, 13 blokes who can get together at the weekend to have a game together, which doesnt point to expansion of the game. Point, yeah go on!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 04/09/2017 at 6:11 PM, Bedford Roughyed said:

I would guess the subscription model fails at the local paper level, we assume the internet is free.  There are sites on places like Facebook for local news and events.  The only way of making money online is advertising really, and most local news sites have done it in such a bad way that their websites are unreadable.

Should the Chron of gone weekly?  Or tried video news?  No idea.  

They did have a web site were you could download the paper , if you paid a subscription , but obviously thats gone now

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1 hour ago, roughyedspud said:

Revolution radio are in talks to take over the chronicle apparently..

If it comes back I can't see it being daily..maybe weekly or twice weekly? A Mon-Thurs edition & a weekend edition? Something like that?

I do hope something comes of it.I think a weekly edition should suffice.

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