Press restrictions.

[pauld]

It's a small business. We're customers. Emotionally attached (or deranged) ones, but customers none the less.

In business/legal terms you are strictly correct. In every other respect, you are as wrong as Scudamore.

[Sir Pissalot]

According to Sam the "change in arrangements" may well be on Channel 4 news, they have been talking to the Adver!!!  Bit of a hole being dug all round i fear!!

Yes, the list of journos with noses out of joint seems to be growing daily:

http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/normal-ban-journalists-football/9763

[Skinny Pete]

Very strange sectarian exchange of tweets on the subject

[Batch]

It all seems so unnecessary doesn't it.

Whether you think the club are within their right, or completely out of order, the result is the same. Negative press. The press are nearly as bad as cyclists in closing ranks if you upset them. Well, the club made their bed, they can lie in it.

Power isn't stupid. Ruthless yes. Stupid no.  Stupidly stubborn, maybe.

We can argue about whether we are missing out or not until we are blue in the face. The purpose of press exclusion isn't clear to the average fan. The "protect the children from nasty comments" explanation is surely mostly bollocks. If you want to protect them, turn off comments on FB via privacy. Everything else is not controllable by the club, and so trying to force people through Fanzai won't stop this -if kids have access to the mediums now they will continue to do so.

[suttonred]

Yes, the list of journos with noses out of joint seems to be growing daily:

http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/normal-ban-journalists-football/9763

Should someone tell matey boy that although LP lives in Switzerland he may not be there 24/7 with the new season 3 days away. That's damn irresponsible implying he's sat there screening his calls.

[Panda Paws]

In business/legal terms you are strictly correct. In every other respect, you are as wrong as Scudamore.

Fair comment - Yes and no. Lots of different organisations like to think they're more than they actually are. Obviously to us all, STFC are far more than just a small business, but if this was anything other than football there'd be absolutely no reaction whatsoever by anyone. Simply, as football fans, we believe we have the right to more but why?

[singingiiiffy]

I understand that some are concerned with the 'Bigger Picture' and that any perceived form of censorship is unpalatable to a lot of people, but let's look at this from a logical perspective. Using the Adver as an example, what have they actually lost and how does this effect their reporting?
Prior to 'The Ban', readers were supplied with what? In the main it was the post match interview on the BBC, cut up and spread out over the week. Other stories concerning the club weren't sourced from the club directly anyway. The Adver can still hold the club to account, without having items spoon fed to them; isn't that what investigative journalism is all about?

I'm not saying I agree with the Club's stance, but I fail to see how it will hugely impact the coverage local media provide.

Exactly my point.  if the selected press ban wasn't made public none of us would have even realised!

[Panda Paws]

Should someone tell matey boy that although LP lives in Switzerland he may not be there 24/7 with the new season 3 days away. That's damn irresponsible implying he's sat there screening his calls.

Also, the suggestion that we're suddenly going to lose hundreds of fans because Tom Bassam and Morshead aren't at a press conference on a Thursday is equally bizarre.

As I said, I actually don't agree with the club, but the reaction has been.... disproportionate.

[Sir Pissalot]

It will be interesting to see what proportion of today´s Total Sport Web Chat (1230) will be taken up with this issue. 

[Berniman]

Also, the suggestion that we're suddenly going to lose hundreds of fans because Tom Bassam and Morshead aren't at a press conference on a Thursday is equally bizarre.

As I said, I actually don't agree with the club, but the reaction has been.... disproportionate.

Agree, although this stance by the club cannot help when they are sending out "rallying cries" at least once a season to encourage fans to turn up or buy season tickets etc.  Also it only makes the trust's job harder when trying to convince people to hand over their cash to build a stand.

I have not decided the level that I am going to donate yet, but not feeling valued or informed by the club is hardly going to increase the take up of donations is it?

[Reg Smeeton]

Agree, although this stance by the club cannot help when they are sending out "rallying cries" at least once a season to encourage fans to turn up or buy season tickets etc.  Also it only makes the trust's job harder when trying to convince people to hand over their cash to build a stand.

I have not decided the level that I am going to donate yet, but not feeling valued or informed by the club is hardly going to increase the take up of donations is it?

A fair point about the annual season ticket rallying cry....but surely not the Trust, if anything the current arrangements improve the Trusts chances.  Power seems to get on OK with the Trust, and there's nothing stopping the Adver or Morshead talking to them and printing their news, in fact, if we're now led to believe there's a news vacuum the Trust can fill it.

[Panda Paws]

I have not decided the level that I am going to donate yet, but not feeling valued or informed by the club is hardly going to increase the take up of donations is it?

See it's this idea of being 'valued' that I struggle with. How do you feel valued as a fan, and why do people need to feel valued?

I follow the club out of habit and enjoyment. I always will. I don't feel the need to get anything tangible back, certainly in media terms, from them to heighten my sense of fandom.

[Skinny Pete]

It's a sense of ownership that fans feel. It's their/our club ergo we are entitled to know every nut and bolt of what's happening at the club.

That aint ever going to change.

[Berniman]

See it's this idea of being 'valued' that I struggle with. How do you feel valued as a fan, and why do people need to feel valued?

I follow the club out of habit and enjoyment. I always will. I don't feel the need to get anything tangible back, certainly in media terms, from them to heighten my sense of fandom.

I just want the club to be up front and let me know what's going on when it is going on rather than 4 weeks later, that makes me feel valued.  Also pricing fans groups out of things like player sponsorship does not help.

[ron dodgers]

as said before, journalists can still do what they should do, i.e. investigate rather than commenting on the size of a Kardashian ingrowing anal hair, or making up stories from unnamed sources. Do I care? No, not much I read the match reports on here or I go to the match; if there is shenanigans going on then I expect the journalists to find out, that is their job, they can still doorstep just like the tabloids do if they need a comment - but they won't because they're not real journalists.