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Amnesia in the Sunday Times


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Eventhough I am not totally suprised, but I was disappointed not read any mention of the 2021 Rugby Leage World Cup in their preview of the '2021 Sporting Bonanza' either in the article or the accompanying chronological table of 2021 events.

The article was actually penned by David Walsh who has a good reputation for investigative sports journalism. In my opinion his lofty reputation took a dent yesterday with this omission.

There will be a pent up demand to view regular events such as Wimbledon, but to omit the RL World Cup to be played on home soil, is lazy jounalism at best.

This is a global tournament that will draw upto 3/4m spectators and will be covered on terrestrial television

Some initial Twitter reaction suggested that 'its the sports fault' for not pusuing a more aggressive PR campaign so Walsh et al could not ignore the sport.

This is probably true, but my view is that it is incumbent on everyone involved in the spot ( fans, administartors, journalists etc) to publically and consistently call out such poor quality media reporting

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41 minutes ago, Wirral Warrior said:

Some initial Twitter reaction suggested that 'its the sports fault' for not pusuing a more aggressive PR campaign so Walsh et al could not ignore the sport.

This is probably true, but my view is that it is incumbent on everyone involved in the spot ( fans, administartors, journalists etc) to publically and consistently call out such poor quality media reporting

You know what, I am not sure the sport could do much more than what it has done so far on the World Cup.

The draw was made at Buckingham Palace by the Duke of Sussex among others and the venues announced live on BBC media.  Since then there has been lots of social media work done for the whole event.

For it to be just ignored as a sporting event by the likes of Sunday Times is a fault of the paper, not the World Cup organization.

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

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55 minutes ago, Wirral Warrior said:

Some initial Twitter reaction suggested that 'its the sports fault' for not pusuing a more aggressive PR campaign so Walsh et al could not ignore the sport.

This is probably true, but my view is that it is incumbent on everyone involved in the spot ( fans, administartors, journalists etc) to publically and consistently call out such poor quality media reporting

Both can be true. 

The reality is that there aren't many RL journalists out there these days, particuarly at the nationals. 

The journalists that are out there are pressured to deliver more - to produce more content, to get more clicks, to reduce bounce rates, to drive more digital subscriptions. They aren't, with very few exceptions, afforded a lot of time to do a lot of "journalism" into sporting events that may not be on their radar and unfortunately, RL will be one of those sports. 

So yes, the game does have to do a little bit of their job for them. I don't know how The Sunday Times researched it's calendar, who it called / emailed and the sources it used, but let's assume two different scenarios. 

Scenario A: They didn't reach out to the RFL / RLWC for their "key dates". In this case, that is a failure on the part of the RFL / RLWC's media relations department and of the game's wider relevance. Anyone working in sports PR knows that these calendars get put together around this time of year - it's a prime opportunity to feed the media with a narrative that reminds them "we're happening and we're worth talking about". 

Scenario B: They did reach out to the RFL / RLWC or they did notice that the RLWC was happening, but didn't think it was relevant to their audience. Again, ask why the RLWC isn't relevant to the Sunday Times audience - that's a failure on the sport's part. 

I suspect that this issue arose from a bit of both column A and column B, but complaining about some sort of slight from The Sunday Times editorial team is attacking the symptom and not the problem. If we're genuinely going to argue that the ST knew about the RLWC, that they felt it might be relevant to their audience but decided to omit it anyway, then call out poor media coverage - but I really don't think that is what happened. 

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2 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

You know what, I am not sure the sport could do much more than what it has done so far on the World Cup.

The draw was made at Buckingham Palace by the Duke of Sussex among others and the venues announced live on BBC media.  Since then there has been lots of social media work done for the whole event.

For it to be just ignored as a sporting event by the likes of Sunday Times is a fault of the paper, not the World Cup organization.

I agree with this. The event's been promoted with decent promotion in a number of places and a good use of patrons, launch events, visible ticket deals etc - it was even a government manifesto commitment. 

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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3 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

You know what, I am not sure the sport could do much more than what it has done so far on the World Cup.

The draw was made at Buckingham Palace by the Duke of Sussex among others and the venues announced live on BBC media.  Since then there has been lots of social media work done for the whole event.

For it to be just ignored as a sporting event by the likes of Sunday Times is a fault of the paper, not the World Cup organization.

I'd agree that there has been a lot of good stuff around the RLWC, but I do wonder how much of it has been recognised and engaged with beyond the bubble of existing rugby league supporters. 

I do also think that whilst there have been good pieces of work with 'key events' (such as the draw / venue launch), there has been relatively little noise in between those events. I'd expect that to ramp up in the new year and as we head to the WC, but it may well explain why the tournament does get lost in the noise.  

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2 hours ago, Dunbar said:

For it to be just ignored as a sporting event by the likes of Sunday Times is a fault of the paper, not the World Cup organization.

Any time the sport is ignored it is the fault of those doing the ignoring, it's not a question of the size, the geography, the footprint or the location of clubs or any excuse used by the media or the appologists for their actions. It is deliberate and shouldn't be put aside as the way the world works or some other pathetic reasoning for it is simply bias against our sport. But as an excercise try finding condemnation, criticism or contrary arguments about this kind of thing in any of our sports own journals. They need yo be called out on stuff like this everytime it happens.

2 warning points:kolobok_dirol:  Non-Political

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Wirral Warrior said:

Eventhough I am not totally suprised, but I was disappointed not read any mention of the 2021 Rugby Leage World Cup in their preview of the '2021 Sporting Bonanza' either in the article or the accompanying chronological table of 2021 events.

The article was actually penned by David Walsh who has a good reputation for investigative sports journalism. In my opinion his lofty reputation took a dent yesterday with this omission.

There will be a pent up demand to view regular events such as Wimbledon, but to omit the RL World Cup to be played on home soil, is lazy jounalism at best.

This is a global tournament that will draw upto 3/4m spectators and will be covered on terrestrial television

Some initial Twitter reaction suggested that 'its the sports fault' for not pusuing a more aggressive PR campaign so Walsh et al could not ignore the sport.

This is probably true, but my view is that it is incumbent on everyone involved in the spot ( fans, administartors, journalists etc) to publically and consistently call out such poor quality media reporting

Don't bother buying The Times in future

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4 hours ago, lucky 7 said:

Don't bother buying The Times in future

That won't effect the lack of mention though. And the effect on our sport of these attacks, which is what they are, is seismic whereas the general reaction from our pundits is less effective than a small ripple in a cup and quieter than those church mice people like to quote.

2 warning points:kolobok_dirol:  Non-Political

 

 

 

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I think things have just changed from a few years ago and the relationship between the RFL and London (Media) needs to be re-set.

In the old days an annual dinner for journalists was held by the RFL at the Ivy which was well attended and created many good contacts.

 

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2 hours ago, Wirral Warrior said:

 Some initial Twitter reaction suggested that 'its the sports fault' for not pusuing a more aggressive PR campaign so Walsh et al could not ignore the sport.

No-one can accuse the World Cup organisers of not having a great PR campaign, so find that excuse a weak one, probably from those who bash the RFL for everything,  regardless of if they're involved or not.

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1 minute ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

I think things have just changed from a few years ago and the relationship between the RFL and London (Media) needs to be re-set.

In the old days an annual dinner for journalists was held by the RFL at the Ivy which was well attended and create many good contacts.

 

A lot of good that seems to have done then as The Times insufferable arrogance illustrates.

2 minutes ago, Oxford said:

That won't effect the lack of mention though. And the effect on our sport of these attacks, which is what they are, is seismic whereas the general reaction from our pundits is less effective than a small ripple in a cup and quieter than those church mice people like to quote.

paul.kenny@parliament.uk

Contact for the APRLG in Parliament

2 warning points:kolobok_dirol:  Non-Political

 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, RigbyLuger said:

No-one can accuse the World Cup organisers of not having a great PR campaign, so find that excuse a weak one, probably from those who bash the RFL for everything,  regardless of if they're involved or not.

I don't think it's "RFL bashing" to suggest that, if your event is omitted from a list of "the major events of 2021" in a national newspaper, you at least question the media relations approach and whether it contributed to that happening. As I said above, the nature of the media landscape today means that PR people have to do a lot of a journalist's work for them - you can moan about that and blame lazy journalism all you like, but it won't get you coverage.

It doesn't help anyone to think "we Prince Harry did the draw at Buckingham Palace, so pats on the back all round", if what happens after that misses some marks. 

Having a sulk that, despite the sport doing everything right, it is simply the victim of a media bias doesn't realy do a lot of good either. 

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23 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

I think things have just changed from a few years ago and the relationship between the RFL and London (Media) needs to be re-set.

In the old days an annual dinner for journalists was held by the RFL at the Ivy which was well attended and create many good contacts.

 

The past 12 months aside, this is the sort of thing that you'd hope the RFL and individual clubs were doing fairly regularly.

In fact I think Toulouse have a business community group thing that works in an even more integrated way.

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7 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

The past 12 months aside, this is the sort of thing that you'd hope the RFL and individual clubs were doing fairly regularly.

In fact I think Toulouse have a business community group thing that works in an even more integrated way.

I think I've said on a previous discussion, but when you consider how we now have all but one of our SL clubs (and therefore, all but one of the game's PR and media managers) within a two hour drive (and all but three within an hour) of the BBC Sport Headquarters, I wonder how many of them have been over to Media City to schmooze / wine and dine some of the key editorial staff there? 

You can bet your bottom dollar that the RFU are buying a decent number of "working lunches" for the London sports hacks. 

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17 minutes ago, whatmichaelsays said:

I think I've said on a previous discussion, but when you consider how we now have all but one of our SL clubs (and therefore, all but one of the game's PR and media managers) within a two hour drive (and all but three within an hour) of the BBC Sport Headquarters, I wonder how many of them have been over to Media City to schmooze / wine and dine some of the key editorial staff there? 

You can bet your bottom dollar that the RFU are buying a decent number of "working lunches" for the London sports hacks. 

Its a lot of soft power/influence stuff that RL hasn't adapted to in many cases, which is in lart understandable as it would seem to be a realm where a lot of RL types aren't exactly comfortable. Equally when you can't address the precise returns of such luncheons on a balance sheets the "sustainability" mentality that has taken over parts of our game will surely sneer and shut it down.

It still feels like some see the suitcases of cash waving to lure players from Wales in the 60s as the extent of their schmoozing skills.

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6 hours ago, Wirral Warrior said:

Eventhough I am not totally suprised, but I was disappointed not read any mention of the 2021 Rugby Leage World Cup in their preview of the '2021 Sporting Bonanza' either in the article or the accompanying chronological table of 2021 events.

The article was actually penned by David Walsh who has a good reputation for investigative sports journalism. In my opinion his lofty reputation took a dent yesterday with this omission.

There will be a pent up demand to view regular events such as Wimbledon, but to omit the RL World Cup to be played on home soil, is lazy jounalism at best.

This is a global tournament that will draw upto 3/4m spectators and will be covered on terrestrial television

Some initial Twitter reaction suggested that 'its the sports fault' for not pusuing a more aggressive PR campaign so Walsh et al could not ignore the sport.

This is probably true, but my view is that it is incumbent on everyone involved in the spot ( fans, administartors, journalists etc) to publically and consistently call out such poor quality media reporting

I agree - however have you written to the ST to complain?

We ALL need to this this. I’ve written numerous letter over the years complaining about the Luddite idiot Stephen Jones - with a couple of apologies along the way.

If we don’t complain we won’t get anywhere. Everyone who reads this thread must do so. It takes seconds to dig out the email address

sportletter@sunday-times.co.uk

 

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21 minutes ago, Pie tries said:

I agree - however have you written to the ST to complain?

We ALL need to this this. I’ve written numerous letter over the years complaining about the Luddite idiot Stephen Jones - with a couple of apologies along the way.

If we don’t complain we won’t get anywhere. Everyone who reads this thread must do so. It takes seconds to dig out the email address

sportletter@sunday-times.co.uk

 

That address is incorrect. It is sportletters@sunday-times.co.uk

 

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4 hours ago, Oxford said:

That won't effect the lack of mention though. And the effect on our sport of these attacks, which is what they are, is seismic whereas the general reaction from our pundits is less effective than a small ripple in a cup and quieter than those church mice people like to quote.

I'll take this back to some extent LoveRL covered this but fell straight into the reasons being firmly in the hands of people in the game. I really hate this kind of patent nonsense because it has no logical basis. When the Times doesn't cover our sport it has nothing to do with divisions and arguments inside the sport. They don't cover it enough to know about those in the first place and have barely shown any interest in what goes on on the pitch never mind the soap opera antics off it. The only time newspapers like this are interested in our problems is to illustrate what a poor sport we are.

2 warning points:kolobok_dirol:  Non-Political

 

 

 

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To be perfectly honest, I don't expect the Sunday Times cares very much that it has excluded the Rugby League World Cup from its year in sport preview.

Newspapers are becoming less and less relevant as sources of information and are essentially creating pieces relevant to the audience that they target. They need to feed their chosen demographic and they will become more specific and polarised in their content than ever as we move forward.

The Sunday Times has a circulation of 660,000 while the UK has 46 million users of Facebook and the BBC website has 179 million monthly unique browsers. A few decades ago when the latter two didn't exist, it was important for Rugby League to at least get a few scraps of space in newspapers. Today, there is much more accessible ways to reach people with self generated content and I have seen enough activity on Facebook and other social platforms to see that RLWC 2021 is doing a decent job there.

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

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10 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

To be perfectly honest, I don't expect the Sunday Times cares very much that it has excluded the Rugby League World Cup from its year in sport preview.

Newspapers are becoming less and less relevant as sources of information and are essentially creating pieces relevant to the audience that they target. They need to feed their chosen demographic and they will become more and specific and polarised in their content than ever as we move forward.

The Sunday Times has a circulation of 660,000 while the UK has 46 million users of Facebook and the BBC website has 179 million monthly unique browsers. A few decades ago when the latter two didn't exist, it was important for Rugby League to at least get a few scraps of space in newspapers. Today, there is much more accessible ways to reach people with self generated content and I have seen enough activity on Facebook and other social platforms to see that RLWC 2021 is doing a decent job there.

All too true Dunbar they're declining fairly rapidly and I doubt many will mourn and less attend the funeral. The legacy media forgot what it was there for and began to make things up. We shouldn't be too bothered about their lack of interest but neither doesn't that mean we should agree with them about it.

 

2 warning points:kolobok_dirol:  Non-Political

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Pie tries said:

I agree - however have you written to the ST to complain?

We ALL need to this this. I’ve written numerous letter over the years complaining about the Luddite idiot Stephen Jones - with a couple of apologies along the way.

If we don’t complain we won’t get anywhere. Everyone who reads this thread must do so. It takes seconds to dig out the email address

sportletter@sunday-times.co.uk

 

Just done

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1 hour ago, Dunbar said:

To be perfectly honest, I don't expect the Sunday Times cares very much that it has excluded the Rugby League World Cup from its year in sport preview.

Newspapers are becoming less and less relevant as sources of information and are essentially creating pieces relevant to the audience that they target. They need to feed their chosen demographic and they will become more specific and polarised in their content than ever as we move forward.

The Sunday Times has a circulation of 660,000 while the UK has 46 million users of Facebook and the BBC website has 179 million monthly unique browsers. A few decades ago when the latter two didn't exist, it was important for Rugby League to at least get a few scraps of space in newspapers. Today, there is much more accessible ways to reach people with self generated content and I have seen enough activity on Facebook and other social platforms to see that RLWC 2021 is doing a decent job there.

Of which, a sizeable proportion won’t even have read/be interested in the section.

The only thing the Times is good for is chip shop paper

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