National Media

[rlno1]

I was reading that Dave Craven is moving to the Daily Mirror as their RL correspondent.

Can someone list the other national newspapers and their RL writer? Thanks.

[Futtocks]

7 hours ago, rlno1 said:

I was reading that Dave Craven is moving to the Daily Mirror as their RL correspondent.

Can someone list the other national newspapers and their RL writer? Thanks.

It looks like Craven's predecessor, Nigel Wiskar, has moved into an editorial position and is still at the Mirror.

[Oxford]

On 13/05/2022 at 08:58, rlno1 said:

Can someone list the other national newspapers and their RL writer?

Do any of the others have RL writers or just Our Rugby Correspondent?

Our Rugby Correspondent speaks volumes about emphasis, leaning and what will and won't be covered.

[The Future is League]

On 13/05/2022 at 08:58, rlno1 said:

I was reading that Dave Craven is moving to the Daily Mirror as their RL correspondent.

Can someone list the other national newspapers and their RL writer? Thanks.

The Daily Mirror and the Daily Star and about the only national papers you get regular coverage of, of our game.

The Sun used to be good, but has fallen behind the above 2 with its TGG coverage

[M j M]

On 13/05/2022 at 16:25, Futtocks said:

It looks like Craven's predecessor, Nigel Wiskar, has moved into an editorial position and is still at the Mirror.

Craven's predecessor was Gareth Walker who left a couple of month's ago.

James O'Brien from the Hull Daily Mail in turn took over from Craven at the Yorkshire Post.

[yipyee]

22 hours ago, The Future is League said:

The Daily Mirror and the Daily Star and about the only national papers you get regular coverage of, of our game.

The Sun used to be good, but has fallen behind the above 2 with its TGG coverage

Does murdoch family still own Sky and The sun. Or maybe less of each?

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

The Times got rid of the post of full time RL correspondent about twelve years ago, I think.  The incumbent was Chris Irvine.  He has still provided copy since, but they seem to make increasing use of Ross Heppenstall and, personally, I prefer the latter's writing.  Then there are other items which are not given a by-line.

[The storm]

Some rugby league web sites give us access to information although some are not very good

[JohnM]

23 hours ago, yipyee said:

Does murdoch family still own Sky and The sun. Or maybe less of each?

Hope this helps.

https://googlethatforyou.com?q=does rupert murdoch own sky

[Szymala]

Long gone are the days when each paper had their own correspondent. 

I recall Brian Batty at the Daily Mail for decades, Alan Thomas at Express, Paul Harrison at the Sun, John Whalley at the Telegraph, Dave Hadfield at the Independent, Martin Richards at the Mirror, Peter Wilson at the Daily Star, Ray French (Today), Keith Macklin (Times) and Raymond Fletcher (Yorkshire Post). 

[rlno1]

So who provides content for these papers now if they have no fulltime RL writer?

[Gerrumonside ref]

30 minutes ago, rlno1 said:

So who provides content for these papers now if they have no fulltime RL writer?

Freelancers I guess.

[Hopping Mad]

14 hours ago, Szymala said:

Long gone are the days when each paper had their own correspondent. 

I recall Brian Batty at the Daily Mail for decades, Alan Thomas at Express, Paul Harrison at the Sun, John Whalley at the Telegraph, Dave Hadfield at the Independent, Martin Richards at the Mirror, Peter Wilson at the Daily Star, Ray French (Today), Keith Macklin (Times) and Raymond Fletcher (Yorkshire Post). 

Paul Fitzpatrick, at The Guardian, was a favourite of mine. Staffer Aaron Bower does a bit of rugby league (when he's not required for football) in The Guardian. Frequently, though, The Guardian relies on copy and pics the Howden-based sport department of the Press Association, an agency, hawks around redundancy-decimated regional and local newspapers.

Edited May 17, 2022 by Hopping Mad

[Szymala]

16 minutes ago, Hopping Mad said:

Paul Fitzpatrick, at The Guardian, was a favourite of mine. Staffer Aaron Bower does a bit of rugby league (when he's not required for football) in The Guardian. Frequently, though, The Guardian relies on copy and pics the Howden-based sport department of the Press Association, an agency, hawks around redundancy-decimated regional and local newspapers.

I knew there was one paper I'd forgotten and Paul Fitzpatrick was arguably the best of all. A superb writer with a genuine love of the game having come over from football and found access in rugby league to be a breath of fresh air. Happy times.

[Hopping Mad]

14 minutes ago, Szymala said:

I knew there was one paper I'd forgotten and Paul Fitzpatrick was arguably the best of all. A superb writer with a genuine love of the game having come over from football and found access in rugby league to be a breath of fresh air. Happy times.

Seem to remember Paul writing for Harry Edgar's Open Rugby, too.

[Rowan]

On my first tour to Australia and New Zealand in 1979 there were 14 full-time fellow RL reporters plus BBC and local radio (it was a 14-week tour).but by the time I was on the redundancy list  and then retired it was down to less than half a dozen. After that most papers decided that a full-time RL reporter was a luxury and the game could be covered by freelances and agencies.

On reflection, the switch to summer and late night finishes to games did not help and soccer coverage was going through the roof.

 

[soulboy]

4 hours ago, Hopping Mad said:

Seem to remember Paul writing for Harry Edgar's Open Rugby, too.

Correct, along with the excellent Neil Hanson.

Open Rugby was the best RL magazine by a country mile.

[rlno1]

On 17/05/2022 at 20:19, Hopping Mad said:

Paul Fitzpatrick, at The Guardian, was a favourite of mine. Staffer Aaron Bower does a bit of rugby league (when he's not required for football) in The Guardian. Frequently, though, The Guardian relies on copy and pics the Howden-based sport department of the Press Association, an agency, hawks around redundancy-decimated regional and local newspapers.

I think he did the Yearbook of 1982/83 which also covered the Kangaroos. It was the first book on English league I bought. 

Treasured it. 

[Dunbar]

We are about one generation away from the phrase national media being completely redundant.

People access information - particularly about their interests and passions - in a completely different way now that the Web has completely democratised the this part of life.

If there is one thing I hope IMG do for us it is to help us realise the opportunity this provides us as a sport that has suffered as much as any in the political world of national media.

[Toby Chopra]

24 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

We are about one generation away from the phrase national media being completely redundant.

People access information - particularly about their interests and passions - in a completely different way now that the Web has completely democratised the this part of life.

If there is one thing I hope IMG do for us it is to help us realise the opportunity this provides us as a sport that has suffered as much as any in the political world of national media.

Although I'm sure we could be a lot better at navigating democratised media, as you say that is how people feed their existing interests. 

We have a sport that has a great story to tell to a much wider audience and "national media" such as the BBC and Channel 4 and the bug newspapers websites are absolutely crucial to that. They will survive, albeit in different form to 20 years ago. 

I guarantee that the World Cup on BBC this autumn will be the biggest boost in recognition weve had since... the last World Cup in the UK. 

Our challenge will be to make the most of it unlike before. Hopefully IMG will help us do that.