Lee Power radio phone in

[Bumpkin]

Maybe there's some tax payers in Swindon that buy and read the Adver that might not be STFC fans.  It's all about balance.

[Flashheart]

Maybe there's some tax payers in Swindon that buy and read the Adver that might not be STFC fans.  It's all about balance.

What the beejaysus does paying tax have to do with it?

[horlock07]

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't defending the Adver's reporting - as I said, it's been shit all season. But I worry about the effect of a ban on other media outlets in the future. My concern is not whether or not the Adver have been hard done by, but that it sets a worrying precedent.

To be honest the reporting on the Adver has gone down the pan since they stopped reporting on stories relating to mattresses dumped in Alleys!

[Bumpkin]

Er, one of the stories was about STFC not paying rent forcing SBC to start legal action. Do the other websites do news that isn't sports related?

[pauld]

What the beejaysus does paying tax have to do with it?

Well, for example, at a time when the club are looking to work with the council on stadium redevelopment, it might be an idea to try to court rather than alienate broader public opinion in the town. The Adver is a potential conduit to that. As RedFrog said, if they're publishing stories the club don't like then courting them might be a better option than banning them which serves only to give the Adver a sense of grievance and runs the risk of looking tinpot/dodgy/arbitrary to the wider public who may therefore be less sympathetic to their council helping the club redevelop.

[Flashheart]

Do the other websites do news that isn't sports related?

FLIC and the BBC do, Yes!

[Batch]

It's a shame they've been banned. Stupid in fact.

[Dr Pierre Chang]

People seem to forget that they are still welcome at matches - it really isn't a full ban at all.

It's just one less local media outlet dragging out the tedious post match/midweek interviews - FLIC and Link will ensure we remain well covered on that front so I don't really see the issue.

[Dr Pierre Chang]

Dan the fans joined in now haha

@danwjonson: The club could be sitting top of the Premier League under Mr. Power & he’d still be doing a bad job if he is banning local media #STFC

@danwjonson: Sir Alex was a great manager, but this was how the old fool treated the media at Utd for years, he ruled by fear, do we want that at Town?

@danwjonson: Just when u think the regime at Town is starting to get it right, they ban the local newspaper f/ the club, a pathetic move from Mr. Power

@danwjonson: Despite all the new media available, @swindonadver is the only daily print dedicated to #STFC, he’s harming the fans & club w/ this decision

@danwjonson: How can the Chairman expect local people in Swindon to be interested in #STFC & come to games if he bans local media?

Get in!

 

I also enjoyed the latest comment on the adver article:

Fair play to lee power,the whole standard of journalism, stfc related or not,from these Oxford based reporters has sunk to such levels it is quite frankly bordering on disrespectful to the buyers,or former buyers like me,of this rag. Words missing,letters missing,locations wrong,spiteful misleading headlines etc. I would checks the date is correct on it these days.

[Utter Kant]

Dan the fans joined in now haha

@danwjonson: The club could be sitting top of the Premier League under Mr. Power & he’d still be doing a bad job if he is banning local media #STFC

@danwjonson: Sir Alex was a great manager, but this was how the old fool treated the media at Utd for years, he ruled by fear, do we want that at Town?

@danwjonson: Just when u think the regime at Town is starting to get it right, they ban the local newspaper f/ the club, a pathetic move from Mr. Power

@danwjonson: Despite all the new media available, @swindonadver is the only daily print dedicated to #STFC, he’s harming the fans & club w/ this decision

@danwjonson: How can the Chairman expect local people in Swindon to be interested in #STFC & come to games if he bans local media?

Dan the Fan is a complete cretin

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

Upset that the only paper who will even consider letting him write for them has been given the chop by the club. Diddums.

[Red and Proud]

I saw Rod Stewart and George Best play there in the 70's in charity matches. Used to watch training from top of the old metal railway footbridge that we used to call the bunky bridge.

We used to walk from Walcot down through the old canal bit by what we called the four squares which we full of water behind the old Coopers slaughterhouse. Down the side of there across Shrivvy Rd to the old training ground and we called the bridge simply Iron Bridge.

[BruceChatwin]

It all seems quite childish from both sides to be honest.

[Frigby Daser]

Having read the Adver religiously for the past 25 years  (or at least looked at the pictures in the brilliant Kick Off (?) supplement the used to do on Friday nights in the early 90s (?)) - I've always been a supporter of them and... nostagically, the printed press too. I enjoyed the resurrection of the Football Pink in the late 90s....the Adver really used to dedicate a lot to the club. We've had some really good journalists who, when needed, challenged, but seemed to gauge the mood of the fans. Matt Reader, Gary Rose, Sam, the bloke who went to Newcastle, even Andy 'City fan' Cryer, all did a bloody good job.

The new lot are the first who seem to have failed to gauge the mood of the fans in what they report and how they report it - so for the first time ever, I've stopped bothering to read it. It's a great shame and, I think, a bit if a misjudgement from the current reporters.

But that aside, I can't see there being any case whatsoever for banning them. Talk to them, manage them, encourage them to support the club rather than focus on headlines. I like what Power is doing, but not this.

If it's papers you are trying to sell, or more likely, advertising space, I agree you need to report stories such as the council issues. But equally, don't alienate the readers you already have (or had) with cheap stories and lax attention to detail.

I'll be genuinely sorry to see the Adver go. But it's a dead man walking.

[ronnie21]

Standards have gone down so far in recent years,when I worked there (print not journo) we had several editions including the "final" which would include the day's racing results and late news - today I can read about a toaster that caught fire in Ashton Keynes on Sunday, hardly major news and five days behind the times!!  Sadly on its way out and will become a weekly at some time in the not too distant future.