Hello!? The A League is about to start... WAKE UP NZ Media!

Marquee
1.5K
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6.4K
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about 14 years

Jeez the NZ media's apathy to New Zealand football really gives me the shits!

The A League starts ON FRIDAY , but you wouldn't know it.

www.stuff.co.nz is almost blissfully unaware...

Here is their Sports section headlines. 3 stroeis about the All blacks, one about F1 and one about Rugby League.

Okay, but they have a dedicated Football section. 

Surely that will mention that the A League starts on Friday... errrr, no, all about English and European football... 

... oh wait! On the third row of the grid (in the red rectangle below) there's a story about the A League launch... with a photo of David Villa - yeah, he is a significant story headline, fair enough... 

The Phoenix play in the A League so SURELY there is at least one story buried somewhere about them...

Nope... in the blue rectangle there is a stroy about Leo Bertos signing a new contract in India... and in the Green rectangle there is a story about Winston Reid's rumoured switch... all of course filed BELOW all of the important football news about England and Europe.

Oh and then in the orange rectangle there is an opinion piece (and a really good one too) by Danny Hay from THREE DAYS ago about how the Phoenix need to start well in the A League.

Jeez, so with the biggest football league in our part of the world kicking off on Friday we almost can't be arsed covering it apart from regurgitating the press release from the A League launch.

There's even an opinion poll in the football section... but it's not about the A Legue, or the local football scene, it's about the European Champion's League.

#ApatheticNewsFail

Maybe the NZHerald can do better?

Sort of, but not really.

Their Sports front page at least has THREE football stories. 

Top right in the red rectangle is the Editor's Pick story about the All Whites need for player depth (a good story). 

And two other stories about European football. 

FFS!!!! The A League starts on Friday you muppets!

I wonder what their Football section says?

Wow! A story about the Phoenix (red rectangle bottom right). 

However it is FOUR DAYS OLD and about Wee Mac finally joining the Phoenix - wasn't that sealed and delivered AGES ago? 

And a story about Siggy's All Whites retirement.

Doesn't the A League start on Friday????

Oh and lots of good stuff about English football - including the live and up to date Premier League table.

Oh, but don't panic, if you really search hard for it they have an section dedicated to A League football. 

At last, this MUST be it...

Errrr, nope.

Latest story there is from September 19th about the Phoenix confirming plans to play games at the Hutt Rec.

My goodness. 

I can't be the only news consumer gagging for articles about the A League can I?

Listen here Fudgeface
3.7K
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15K
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about 14 years

The A-League doesn't start tomorrow...

Besides, the mainstream media is not a good place for A-League news. Better to look at dedicated sites like 442, Fox Sports or SBS, or look at some of the independant websites like The Football Sack or The Leopold Method.

First Team Squad
280
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1.6K
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almost 12 years

patrick478 wrote:

The A-League doesn't start tomorrow...

lol
Marquee
1.5K
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6.4K
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about 14 years

Good point Patrick. In my excitement I had convinced myself it was Thursday today... sigh. An extra day to wait.

Edited to "on Friday"...

Legend
1.8K
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22K
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over 15 years

So... Phoenix Thursday tomorrow then?

Marquee
1.5K
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6.4K
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about 14 years

Junior82 wrote:

So... Phoenix Thursday tomorrow then?

:) I am doing Phoenix Friday all week this week.

I did a shirt and yellow and black tie, Nix Scarf and Beanie on Monday.

Yesterday was a Reiralution YF T shirt under my new Hoopy, scarf and beanie...

Today is away shirt over the top of a YF You Better Believe Us '11 T shirt, season one scarf and a beanie.

Tomorrow is a short sleeved stripey...

Friday will be the long sleeved stripey.

#COYN.

First Team Squad
500
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1.9K
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about 17 years

They just cover what people are interested in. I don't really care what different media outlets cover - if they don't cover what I want I just won't go to those media outlets. 

The Buenos Aries Herald only had this to say about Argentina's historic victory over Australia.

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/171439/pu...

I'm sure there are some darts fan who get annoyed that Darts doesn't get front page coverage.

Marquee
5.3K
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9.5K
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over 12 years

Ryan54 wrote:

They just cover what people are interested in. I don't really care what different media outlets cover - if they don't cover what I want I just won't go to those media outlets. 

The Buenos Aries Herald only had this to say about Argentina's historic victory over Australia.

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/171439/pu...

I'm sure there are some darts fan who get annoyed that Darts doesn't get front page coverage.

Except... they probably measure what people are interested in by the number of clicks the articles get but if football is always buried then less people will click on those articles because I'd guess the way most people view online news sites is a quick glance to see if there's anything interesting before going back to work or to another website. The editors who made the original decisions about what to prioritise on the news websites probably based it on dated market research based on print newspaper coverage. NZ only has 2 news sites to speak of and they both demonstrate the same editorial slant on sports matters so there's not enough of a free market in NZ sports media online to say that the supply of football news and the demand for it have met a natural equilibrium. If a new news site started and prioritised football over rowing and cricket and netball they might get more clicks, generate more ad revenue, and drive the other sites to change their ranking of sports stories.

As a brief gauge of interest levels - the Nix FB page has about 80,000 likes whereas the Breakers page has about 12,000. Obviously Facebook is a skewed sample but that would indicate that about  seven times as many people are interested in the Nix than are interested in the Breakers but there's no way the Nix get seven times the media coverage of the Breakers.

Marquee
5.3K
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9.5K
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over 12 years

Not to mention of course the obvious point that if people don't know something is happening (the A League is starting, for instance) they can't be interested in it. The relationship between media and audience goes both ways. If you're exposed to certain stories more you'll think those stories are more important.

So there's the people who are interested already but not seeing it in the news, and the people who might be interested if they were aware of it.

Tegal Fan Club Member #1.5
200
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2.2K
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over 16 years

In Australia the papers and media have had the A-League every day and heaps of articles ... TV sports shows all have A-league guests ..

Read a report roughly two years ago linking crowds, TV Ratings to media coverage ... there is a massive co-relationship ... hope your media improves...

Just to show some links

SMH

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer

News

http://www.news.com.au/sport/football

ABC

http://www.abc.net.au/news/sport/football/?WT.z_na...

Marquee
970
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6.5K
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over 11 years

Midfielder wrote:

In Australia the papers and media have had the A-League every day and heaps of articles ... TV sports shows all have A-league guests ..

Read a report roughly two years ago linking crowds, TV Ratings to media coverage ... there is a massive co-relationship ... hope your media improves...

Just to show some links

SMH

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer

News

http://www.news.com.au/sport/football

ABC

http://www.abc.net.au/news/sport/football/?WT.z_na...

Fuck me you're like a one note trumpet Blue.

tradition and history
1.5K
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9.9K
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almost 17 years

Jerzy Merino wrote:

Midfielder wrote:

In Australia the papers and media have had the A-League every day and heaps of articles ... TV sports shows all have A-league guests ..

Read a report roughly two years ago linking crowds, TV Ratings to media coverage ... there is a massive co-relationship ... hope your media improves...

Just to show some links

SMH

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer

News

http://www.news.com.au/sport/football

ABC

http://www.abc.net.au/news/sport/football/?WT.z_na...

Fuck me you're like a one note trumpet Blue.

But true.

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