This is a time of change in the newspaper industry – indeed, I should
really say media industry. At the Derby Telegraph, we are now part of a group
called Local World which also includes the Burton Mail and a lot of other media
outlets in the Midlands and further afield.
Much emphasis is being placed on the internet and – if you want to read
them – you will, as things develop, find more and more small snippets of
up-to-date news on our website, www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk.
They will be flagged up on Twitter and Facebook more and more too. I expect to
update more often on Twitter from matches: @ColstonC if you’re not already
following.
The aim is to make sure that whatever I get to know about the Brewers
will be shared as widely as possible.
I’m a traditional old newspaper hack getting to grips with this new
world and while part of me is disappointed that the newspaper itself is not
necessarily the first port of call for information any more, I’ve been
conscious for a long time that the Derby Telegraph is hard to find in Burton.
That’s not the case with the info on the internet, in whatever form, so my
target is to increase my internet audience.
It’s an exciting time to follow the Brewers and an interesting time for
the media coverage of them. Join me for the ride!
*************
Well, the League Two table has an interesting look to it after the
midweek games.
Burton Albion could have done without Cheltenham sneaking a stoppage-time
goal to beat Chesterfield but never mind, it was always unrealistic to think the Brewers would stay in the top three every single
day until the end of the season, given the games in hand other people had.
What’s interesting now is that a lot of the games in hand other people
had are out of the way. We actually go into the Cheltenham match on Saturday
with a game in hand over them and we’ve played the same number as Port Vale,
Northampton Town and Exeter City.
Suddenly, below the top seven, a seven-point gap has appeared and it’s
one that can’t be made up with their one game in hand by either Southend United
or Fleetwood Town, nor by Bradford City with two games in hand. Imagine the
pressure on them now to turn that game or games into maximum points.
Fleetwood v Exeter and Port Vale v Southend are two other games this
weekend which see promotion challengers going head to head.
I wouldn’t like to predict how it will all end up but it’s fascinating
and isn’t it brilliant to be involved in it at all, rather than being at this
stage and talking about the handful of points we still need to guarantee a
place in League Two next season?
************
It’s a shame that the club worded their announcement of season ticket
prices a little ambiguously, because it enabled those who want to have a moan
about anything possible to, well, have a moan.
The initial wording rather suggested that both existing season ticket
holders and new applicants could take advantage of the same frozen price for
next season and this actually isn’t quite the case. New applicants will pay a
little more. The critics predictably suggested that new applicants should be
paying the same, as we need to encourage new applicants. It isn’t rocket
science to work out that, had the prices been the same, the critics (possibly
the self-same people in some cases) would have turned it around and said the
club was failing to reward existing season ticket holders for their loyalty!
In the end, the other thing that isn’t rocket science is that the prices
are exceptionally good, compared to every other Football League club and that
is the main thing to take from this.
The best prices, of course, are there for those prepared to commit
early, which means they will buy not knowing which division the club is playing
in. Surely, that isn’t relevant. If Burton Albion are still a League Two club
next season, this will still have been an exceptional campaign for a new squad,
with a new manager, who the bookies installed as relegation favourites.
Football club chairmen and administrators are there to be shot at and we
all know that Burton Albion do not get everything right; they would be an
exception if they did.
But given the loss made last year, there must have been a temptation for
Ben Robinson to raise prices. He didn’t do it. Credit where it’s due.
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