programme article 21 09

All Midland League clubs and non-league clubs in general, face tremendous challenges in gaining any publicity with local media these days. Going back 10 years, press boxes around non league had a smattering of local journalists plus those covering the away side. In recent years, from Step 3 down, you can be hard pressed to find one local journalist never mind a pack of them. Why the sudden change? Well there are a number of factors not least the move away from written media to the production of digital or on-line versions. In some ways, you would think that digital media would allow for more coverage not less. Most newspapers have cut back on the number of journalists and see the cost of sending a reporter to a game as prohibitive. This definitely hasn’t been the case with football at our level. When we have such a quality product which is excellent value for spectators, what do we have to do to improve matters? Unfortunately, there is no magic wand. The one thing that we can all do is ensure that the various press agencies continue to receive updates, newsletters, results etc. The more we send them, the more chance we have that they will be used. Non-League Day, which is to be held on October 10th, is the perfect opportunity to put the Midland Football League in the shop window. It is time for us to welcome these new faces that we see at all of our grounds on that day, and to make sure that the product, on and off the pitch, is as good as it can be. Given the quality of the football seen across all Midland Football League divisions this season, let us all hope that those first time visitors decide to come back on a regular basis once they realise what good value the MFL is.