Until recently, if you searched for “gold, silver and bronze packages” at Newcastle United FC, the chances are that you would have been a Magpies fan looking for a wedding venue.
But the football club is now looking at introducing a second system using the same terminology – and this time it is aimed at newspapers. Editors who want their titles to have access to the manager and the players will have to sign up for one of these packages.
At least one national title has apparently already rejected this scheme, which comes in the middle of a separate spat between the club and the locally-based titles that have shown so much support for their club over the years.
READ MORE: {}
The Evening Chronicle and its sister titles have been banned after Newcastle were stung by what they saw as an injustice in the local rag. It all stemmed from coverage of a recent protest march by fans, with the club believing that the paper was out to stir up trouble.
In a letter to the Chronicle’s editor, Wendy Taylor, the head of media at Newcastle United, said: “The club’s owner, director of football, board of directors and team manager have reached a unanimous decision that... the Chronicle, the Journal and Sunday Sun will not be permitted access to any media facilities, press conferences and player interviews at Newcastle United indefinitely and with immediate effect.”
The sign-off was: “We do not require a reply to this letter.
“Our position on this issue is not up for negotiation.” Editorial stances are subjective, and there’s no reason to doubt that the powers-that-be at the Magpies genuinely felt they had been treated unfairly on this occasion. But Newcastle have hardly given themselves the most positive image in recent years. The team is flying at the moment, but controversies such as Joe Kinnear’s appointment, the signing-up of payday loan firm Wonga as a sponsor, the renaming of St James’ Park and the love-hate relationship between owner Mike Ashley and the fans have all been news stories of genuine interest – but news stories that the club would probably have wanted to go away quickly.
That’s life. When you’re in the spotlight – and there are few, if any, organisations in Newcastle that are bigger than the football club – you won’t always enjoy the glare.
Most Read
Newcastle’s reaction is just another sign of how powerful the big football clubs have become. Think about what the reaction would be if was attempted elsewhere – if political parties, local councils or the police tried to ban certain titles, for example. Newcastle would probably counter with the argument that these are all public bodies, whereas a football club is a private enterprise and can choose how it deals with the media.
That is an interesting argument. Football clubs ARE private entities, but they spend a lot of their time telling anyone who will listen that the fans are the true owners – spiritually, if not legally. One of the most common clichés in the game is the “We’re only the custodians of this club – we’re looking after it for the fans” regularly trotted out by owners or chairmen looking to highlight their well-meaning credentials.
Meanwhile, there has been a surge in applications by supporters’ organisations recently to have their clubs’ grounds listed as assets of community value (ACVs), giving these groups a legal right to be consulted should their clubs want to move from their existing homes. Some of the supporters’ groups are from smaller clubs, but fans of Manchester United and Liverpool have also successfully applied for ACVs. They want to make sure that despite the mega-money being chucked at their clubs today, the fans will retain some say in the long-term future.
These supporters remain firm in the belief that the clubs belong to the local community and are not simply the playthings of billionaires.
Yet if other clubs follow Newcastle’s lead, the papers that the fans often rely on for impartial coverage of their clubs face being denied access to the people that the readers want to hear from. And if a newspaper is willing to sacrifice its principles and agree to write only favourable stories about a club just to avoid a ban, what confidence can its readers – the supporters – have that it is going to remain fiercely independent the next time a contentious issue comes along?
These papers will still be around when the going gets tough. If Newcastle or any other big club goes through a rough period and falls out of the top divisions, the local journalists will still be on hand to provide coverage (and all the free advertising that this entails) long after the national broadcasters have lost interest. They will continue to gee up the local fan base before big games; they will continue to print pictures of players wearing their branded kit, helping justify the money the shirt sponsors are paying to the club; and if things get really bad financially, the papers will be at the forefront of any campaigns to raise funds.
Away from the ban given to the local titles, the national papers are likely to refuse to play ball when it comes to paying for access. Although huge sums of money are paid for television access, that cash comes from broadcasters who want to have exclusive entertainment rights. Newspapers operate differently.
Don’t miss
The likes of Sky and BT Sport don’t provide “news” in the same way the print media does. There might be a channel called Sky Sports News but it isn’t somewhere most fans go when they want to hear in-depth analysis on the issues of the day.
As for the post-match interviews following the big matches, viewers can usually enjoy such probing questions as “How important a win was that for you, Arsene?”; “Did Wayne’s superb performance today show him at his best?”; or “How delighted are you that you kept a clean sheet?”
That’s not a criticism of the big broadcasters. People subscribe for pay-TV because they want to be entertained, and the channels that give it to us do a very good job. But they aren’t news gatherers, so using that business model as a way to justify charging newspapers is like comparing apples with pears.
By attempting to charge for access and banning certain titles, Newcastle appear to be laying the foundations for a complete rethink of the relationship between the press and the sport.
That football clubs want to control the news agenda is not surprising. But Newcastle – and others – should be careful what they wish for.