Mikes latest scheme

We all know Ashley loves a quick buck, and it looks as though the media are his latest customer according to NBC Sports.........


Newcastle United to charge media for exclusive access?

Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley’s actions and words causing controversy with the media is not a new phenomenon, but word of a “pay to play” package for publications covering the Magpies is a fairly outrageous idea.

And apparently true.

On the heels of banning local paper The Chronicle from covering the team for their coverage of an Ashley protest (picture above), NUFC is said to be introducing an “exclusive access” package to publications. At a charge, reporters would be allowing further privileges than the non-paying media.

From the Chronicle:


“They have told reporters from national titles who are working in the North East that they will no longer be given access to their players between matches this season and will instead give those “privileges” to organisations that pay them.”

The idea is receiving widespread condemnation and may be unlikely to stand the test of popular opinion, but Ashley is no stranger to controversy, having changed the name of St. James Park to Sports Direct Arena and back again among several perceived foibles since buying the Northeast club in 2007. The Chronicle post criticizes Ashley’s new media approach for even simpler reasons; There was less coverage and good will for Newcastle players’ recent visit to an area hospital.

Such an idea seems to be a first and should be viewed as the most slippery of slopes. What would stop Newcastle, or any club employing a strategy, from slapping restrictions on reporting or encouraging bias in the already murky waters of media access? How far are we from plenty of pertinent stories missing the media completely?

In short, this could set a standard that would transcend soccer to other major sports and endanger truth in reporting.

 

he can't bare to see Newcastle in the spotlight for good reasons, can he

another scheme to make the club look daft

 

Unfathomable, as usual.

 

We are the football club equivalent of North Korea

 

His "scheme" has one agenda. To ensure the Sports Direct news service is the only one with "exclusives". I dare say that comes ahead of NUFC.co.uk.

He
Just
Doesn't
Get
It.

 

I knew there was some PR gaff waiting to get launched... it's just too good to be true....

 

I mean, wuh-tuh-fuh is it about this fuh-king guy? How does anyone ever operate in this way? It must be that he simply wants desperately to look like a cnut and gets upset when he disappears out of the news.

 

Words fail me over this latest master plan. Who does he think is going to pay for it? One word describes the Fatman NUMPTY

 

Not the best idea in the world however considering how some of the media report I can see why, when you consider that our win against Man Utd was reported almost exclusively as MU in crisis with very little focused on the fact that we actually had a plan and did well, far too often there seems to be almost a sneering approach to reporting about us from a very southern centric media, it does make it seem as if why bother.

 

You have to hand it to Mikey, always one step ahead of the rest and thinking outside the box.

I can just see it now, the bigwigs at Old Trafford etc, watching with intent and getting their legal teams to draw up 'Media Rights Contracts' worth £ millions for another nice little earner if it
comes off.

Of course we would get f*** all from Sports Direct so it will be a complete waste of time other than drawing attention to us for the wrong reasons yet again.

 

Are they saying if they have to pay someone for access to reportable news then they may forgo that and just make some **** up?

I think, perhaps, they have too clean an image of themselves there.
It's been many a year since I picked up a paper with the belief every word in it would be true.

 

You mean it isn't?

 

Something similar happened with the BHA (British Horseracing Authority) which are the racing equivilent of the FA. Matched only by the FA by their croneyism and ineptitude. But anyway, the BHA decided that it would be a good idea to charge the media for the racing information which appears in the back pages of the daily papers.

Until now the BHA dished out the cards and the papers picked it up and all was good. Then the BHA got greedy and decided to charge for the data. After all, the BHA said, you are using our data and you should pay for it in much the same way that you pay the FA to publish the fixture lists.

Sod that said some newspapers. The Independent, until then a strong racing broadsheet, said that they would go further and REDUCE their racing coverage because in actual fact the BHA should be paying them for the coverage.

So now the coverage of the Sport of Kings has been massively reduced in the media because the 'stakeholders' (for wont of a better ****word) wanted payment for 'their data'.

Be warned Mr Ashley. Soon you will have no coverage, no TV broadcast and not even your results printed in the papers. If you take on the media there will be only one winner unless you're the United of the Newton Heath persuasion.

The man is an utter cockwomble.

 

I like that, I think I'll use it. There is no doubt this is about ego as much as it is money. The media and the club are at loggerheads. We can all see we're not big enough to win this war. But Mike sees it differently. I have a Teflon approach to his idiocy now.

 

I have to admit to unashamedly nicking the term from El Reg (www.theregister.co.uk).

 

We'll we do get called dictatorial communist by some laid back liberal boards

 

He had probably commissioned a Cnut approval rating and when he gets remotely popular it triggers a knee jerk reaction to reset him back to utter Cnut levels.

 

A disgrace, but while results are good on the pitch, you do have to wonder who of the fans will actually have any sympathy for members of the media!

 

On reflection I have no issue at all with this.
All media sources will naturally bleat on which is their perogative (and in most cases sensationalise it).
But in the end, the fact that the Southern hacks have to pay... whilst at the same time the club are still able to offer £5 bairns tickets and family ST deals (I pay about £445 for TWO tickets in the Milburn)..
This surely can't be a bad thing?
Like anything in life, the press have a choice... pay it or don't. I mean how many of you actually give a monkeys what the hacks write anyway?
As long as the common fan isn't getting charged say, a £1 for having a piss etc.... then it doesn't impact on me.
A slight PR own goal... yes... but only because we know about it.... from the press..

 

There won't be a media blackout on Newcastle as they'll still have to honour their commitment to Sky as part of their TV money deal, Sky Sports will have just as much if not more coverage on your team now. The day I'd start to feel sorry for the tabloids is the day hell freezes over (hypothetically speaking as I don't believe in hell), if they didn't tap into people's phones maybe I would have sympathy, but there's less moral fiber in the media than there is in Mike Ashley and that's for certain.