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Grant Holt is a Monster

Archant not producing - Too cosy with NCFC?

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Archant are putting very little effort into covering City these days. Whilst they''ll recycle one of the redtops transfer tips as a back page to get us to buy a copy, they''re writing very little if anything themselves. The players have been back in training for a fortnight and we haven''t seen a single picture of this whereas other PL clubs have clips of training on Sky Sports News. Are our pre-season workouts so top secret that the club won''t let Archant photographers in, or are they just not bothering to send anyone?

 

I know the club won''t comment on transfers and I understand and respect that, but since Archant got someone appointed to the board of NCFC the coverage has become progressively more anaemic, sanitized and geared around secrecy at all costs. With less than a month to go before the season starts they won''t even announce squad numbers so the kids can get players names and numbers on their new shirts.

 

If Archant are in bed with the club to this extent are they even relevant as a reporting tool? You get far more insight from other online sources than what should be the closest one to the club.

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It''s the close season, what do you expect?

 

The Archant/Norwich City relationship is a bit unusual as it is rare that a local paper only has one club to report on, but I don''t think you can blame them for the lack of news, you can only report on what you are being told and Norwich seem to have become a very closed shop recently. If Norwich City don''t make the training sessions open or allow photographers in then Archant can hardly go hide in the bushes and take pictures. The clips you see on Sky Sports News come from the clubs that have their own TV Channels so are all filmed in house, and it''s not like they are highly interesting. Maybe people''s expectations have risen due to the trend for 24 hour rolling news - everyone is suppose to forget about football between June and the beginning of August.

 

I don''t think any club has done squad numbers yet, certainly not finalised ones. Better not say anything than have players changing their number after fans have had the shirts printed (a la Bendtner a couple of seasons ago)

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[quote user="Grant Holt is a Monster"]

Archant are putting very little effort into covering City these days. Whilst they''ll recycle one of the redtops transfer tips as a back page to get us to buy a copy, they''re writing very little if anything themselves. The players have been back in training for a fortnight and we haven''t seen a single picture of this whereas other PL clubs have clips of training on Sky Sports News*. Are our pre-season workouts so top secret that the club won''t let Archant photographers in, or are they just not bothering to send anyone?

* - only when there is other news involved with the Club, they just don''t turn up and film the players training.

I know the club won''t comment on transfers and I understand and respect that, but since Archant got someone appointed to the board of NCFC the coverage has become progressively more anaemic, sanitized and geared around secrecy at all costs.

The pinkun journalists don''t have to work that hard, apart from the occasional press conference it''s all web based.

 With less than a month to go before the season starts they won''t even announce squad numbers so the kids can get players names and numbers on their new shirts.

Who won''t announce the squad numbers, Archant? Always thought it was the Club who allocated them.

If Archant are in bed with the club to this extent are they even relevant as a reporting tool? You get far more insight from other online sources than what should be the closest one to the club.

What other insight is there apart from transfer specualtion?

[/quote]

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The idea that the relationship between the EDP/EN and Carrow Road/Colney is too cosy would produce the hollowest of laughs at Archant Towers.

 

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Apologies, the use of the word "cosy" has given this a false tint.

 

What I''m really driving at is that Archant is totally off point with anything at Carrow Rd at the moment. Just a few minutes ago the headline on the Pink Un changed to the story about Zak Whitbread''s contract which they have no knowledge of but which Sky reported yesterday. It''s hardly big news and the sort of thing you''d expect the local press to pick up on ahead of the major networks (rather than transfers which because they involve 2 clubs from different regions are usually picked up on by the big boys first). Archant have based the whole piece on the fact that Sky have mentioned it. No work by them at all. Same as why there are no pics of training, no effort made by Archant.

 

I suggested cosy because if the director (apologies cannot remember his name) also works for Archant it seems odd for there to be such a schism, and the most obvious reason for Archant''s lack of effort is that it''s deliberate and partly influenced by the clubs wishes.

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[quote user="Grant Holt is a Monster"]

Apologies, the use of the word "cosy" has given this a false tint.

 

What I''m really driving at is that Archant is totally off point with anything at Carrow Rd at the moment. Just a few minutes ago the headline on the Pink Un changed to the story about Zak Whitbread''s contract which they have no knowledge of but which Sky reported yesterday. It''s hardly big news and the sort of thing you''d expect the local press to pick up on ahead of the major networks (rather than transfers which because they involve 2 clubs from different regions are usually picked up on by the big boys first). Archant have based the whole piece on the fact that Sky have mentioned it. No work by them at all. Same as why there are no pics of training, no effort made by Archant.

 

I suggested cosy because if the director (apologies cannot remember his name) also works for Archant it seems odd for there to be such a schism, and the most obvious reason for Archant''s lack of effort is that it''s deliberate and partly influenced by the clubs wishes.

[/quote]

Probably because there is nothing to report? What do you want them to do? Make stories up?

They can''t report on something which isn''t there. Also remember a couple of columnists may be on holiday so they are probably a few men down at the moment, as this may be the only time they can go on holiday.

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[quote user="Grant Holt is a Monster"]I suggested cosy because if the director (apologies cannot remember his name) also works for Archant it seems odd for there to be such a schism, and the most obvious reason for Archant''s lack of effort is that it''s deliberate and partly influenced by the clubs wishes.[/quote]The director, Stephan Phillips, left Archant several months ago.

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[quote user="Grant Holt is a Monster"]

Apologies, the use of the word "cosy" has given this a false tint.

 

What I''m really driving at is that Archant is totally off point with anything at Carrow Rd at the moment. Just a few minutes ago the headline on the Pink Un changed to the story about Zak Whitbread''s contract which they have no knowledge of but which Sky reported yesterday. It''s hardly big news and the sort of thing you''d expect the local press to pick up on ahead of the major networks (rather than transfers which because they involve 2 clubs from different regions are usually picked up on by the big boys first). Archant have based the whole piece on the fact that Sky have mentioned it. No work by them at all. Same as why there are no pics of training, no effort made by Archant.

 

I suggested cosy because if the director (apologies cannot remember his name) also works for Archant it seems odd for there to be such a schism, and the most obvious reason for Archant''s lack of effort is that it''s deliberate and partly influenced by the clubs wishes.

[/quote]

---

GHIAM, it''s Stephan Phillips, although he no longer works for Archant. He took early retirement a while back. More generally, the current relationship between Carrow Road and Archant Towers is an interesting one but, frankly, this is probably not the place for a more detailed analysis. What I would say is that any failings you see in Archant''s coverage are certainly not caused by being too close to the club.

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[quote user="Grant Holt is a Monster"]

Apologies, the use of the word "cosy" has given this a false tint.

 

What I''m really driving at is that Archant is totally off point with anything at Carrow Rd at the moment. Just a few minutes ago the headline on the Pink Un changed to the story about Zak Whitbread''s contract which they have no knowledge of but which Sky reported yesterday. It''s hardly big news and the sort of thing you''d expect the local press to pick up on ahead of the major networks (rather than transfers which because they involve 2 clubs from different regions are usually picked up on by the big boys first). Archant have based the whole piece on the fact that Sky have mentioned it. No work by them at all. Same as why there are no pics of training, no effort made by Archant.

 

I suggested cosy because if the director (apologies cannot remember his name) also works for Archant it seems odd for there to be such a schism, and the most obvious reason for Archant''s lack of effort is that it''s deliberate and partly influenced by the clubs wishes.

[/quote]

Even though Norwich is the local club for the Pink Un it will be pretty much impossible for them to get some stories first. Look at the Whitbread story - where do you think it has come from? The club wouldn''t release that information as they wouldn''t want details of contract negotiations out in the public, it only serves the player''s interest. This story has one of two beginnings; 1) It''s an educated guess, someone at Sky looked at when contracts expire and looked at players who featured a lot last year and went "ah, Whitbread was an important player coming into the last year of his contract - I bet they are discussing a new one" or 2) Whitbread''s agent (who almost certainly has contacts at Sky) has told them to get his player''s name in the press and raise his profile slightly. In the case of 2) the agent won''t give two hoots about slipping the information to a local paper as it isn''t high profile enough - go straight for the national press.

 

I reiterate with the training pictures - unless invited by the club Archant cannot sent a photographer down there taking pictures. Most of the training pictures you see from clubs are done in house and then provided to media outlets, if Norwich City haven''t done this it is hardly Archant''s fault. If Norwich want to keep quiet Chris Lakey et al can hardly go down to Colney banging on the door and demanding access. They can work for sources within the club, but I doubt many employees want to risk their jobs by slipping information to the local jurno about who dropped out of the bleep test first in training.

 

I think the accusation about the Archant guy being on the Board of Directors has been brought up many times - but isn''t he more a marketing guy than a media man?

 

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I think the problem probably lies with the fact that most of the regular contributers to NCFC stories on the Pink''un, seem otherwise engaged. 

 

Michael Bailey has been covering a lot of F1 news of late, and I don''t think its a coincidence that more stories have appears since his return from those duties.  I''m not sure if Chris Lakey is on holiday but he''s been notably absent of late. 

 

A lot of the stories seem to be coming from names I don''t recognise, Cuffley aside, so although I agree that the output at the moment isn''t really of much note, it doesn''t really seem sinister in its origin.

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SDP, Purple, Bethnal - Thanks for responses. Queries answered and good points made.

Little - I''m not suggesting they make things up but there seems to be a total apathy and even the "easy" stories, i.e. training pics, which they used to do they now aren''t and are simply rehashing stories found in the national press instead. I wondered whether this was a result of Stephan Phillips'' connection but the gents above have answered my question there.

 

So, from all accounts it seems that Archant are split so far from the club that it''s better to get your NCFC news elsewhere, which is sad because I''ve always seen the two as being part of the same football experience.

 

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[quote user="Evil Monkey"]I''m not sure if Chris Lakey is on holiday but he''s been notably absent of late. 

 [/quote]

New Head of Sport.

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[quote user="Grant Holt is a Monster"]

SDP, Purple, Bethnal - Thanks for responses. Queries answered and good points made.

Little - I''m not suggesting they make things up but there seems to be a total apathy and even the "easy" stories, i.e. training pics, which they used to do they now aren''t and are simply rehashing stories found in the national press instead. I wondered whether this was a result of Stephan Phillips'' connection but the gents above have answered my question there.

 

So, from all accounts it seems that Archant are split so far from the club that it''s better to get your NCFC news elsewhere, which is sad because I''ve always seen the two as being part of the same football experience.

 

[/quote]

Other then training pictures, what are the other easy stories?

I think they are usually good delivering stories swiftly and don''t see where the problem lies. But each to there own.

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Maybe Archant should start hacking into PL''s voicemail or listen in to McNally''s calls... There''s no harm in that ''investigative journalism'' right? Right?

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GHIAM-totally agree about Archant.All recycled stuff.They need to get together with the Club to ensure that the fans appetite for hot news (scoops if you like) is met .I sent a similar topic to another forum under the heading "oh, for the good old days".-Thinking of cancelling the EDP which would be a shame.

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[quote user="Sports Desk Pete"][quote user="Grant Holt is a Monster"]

I suggested cosy because if the director (apologies cannot remember his name) also works for Archant it seems odd for there to be such a schism, and the most obvious reason for Archant''s lack of effort is that it''s deliberate and partly influenced by the clubs wishes.

[/quote]

The director, Stephan Phillips, left Archant several months ago.
[/quote]

What does he now contribute as a Director of the club?......Does he usher people to their seats in the Director''s Box on matchdays?.....Or, something more important?

 

I personally, never really understood why Mr Philips was appointed to the NCFC board?

 

Is he absolutely minted......?

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[quote user="ur just a man in a jacket"]Always makes me laugh posters slagging off archant on here - the owners of this website which we all use for free.[/quote]I would suggest that our consumption of the banner and skyscraper ads on every page account as our ''payment'' to Archant. Bar that completely agree with your post.

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