Quote: McClennan "Are people still reading the sports sections of newspapers? '"
Yes. Quite a few actually. Me included.
Quote: McClennan "You might find anyway that the reason for that drop is linked to some of the papers getting rid of their RL correspondents which took place before the Monday games were announced. I'm not 100% on this but I thought both Dave Hadfield and Chris Irvine's roles were reduced on the Indy and Times before the season started. That leaves the Guardian, Torygraph (ha) and tabloids. We've done okay without decent press coverage for over hundred years so I don't think that's a major issue.'"
It was Chris Irvine who tweeted!
Chris Irvine lost his job at the Times two years back. He still appears in the sports pages though but works on a freelance basis (he is also a lecturer at Hudds Uni). The guy at the Telegraph lost his job the year before Irvine (although Beth Ashton, student, sometimes posts online) and Hadfield lost his job at the Independent last year although he has now been reinstated. The Mail's correspondent is weekends only. Andy Wilson was told to put RL second behind cricket earlier this season (or else he would lose his job) and that has shown because he used to do a great Set of Six online but now he only does it when the cricket is rained off. The People is probably the best bet and both the Sun and Mirror still have their RL correspondents, but I suppose that says a lot about who the media types think watches rugby league.
I know this won't fit in with some RL supports' way of thinking but we did actually have very good press coverage in previous eras, in the north anyway when there used to be northern editions of the various papers. So unfortunately it isn't a question of us suffering at the hands of the press for 100 years.