https://www.canaries.co.uk/content/club-holds-agm-for-shareholders-at-carrow-road In the absence of any local media, there's a report on the Pink'Un Forum by ricardo https://forum.pinkun.com/index.php?/topic/150396-ricardos-report-the-agm-2022/ Mark Attanasio was among those present and answered questions.
Club "We're proud of our in-house content team" Also the club "here's some photos of the AGM, that's all you want, right?" Pleased to hear vocal support for the local media, really feel the club have dealt with that childishly, and they've underestimated the support journalists have from fans.
"The times they are a-changin" and neither the club nor the local media can afford not to change with them. The current spat came about because neither the club nor the local journalists recognised that the cosy relationship the club had with Archant was bound to lapse with Archant's demise. I'm in favour of this parting of the ways; let the club develop its direct lines of communication with supporters, and let the journalists operate as they will.
Also, I find the Pink'Un grumbling about not being allowed in to cover the AGM pretty pathetic. Are you telling me that not one single Pink'Un journalist or columnist is a shareholder in the club? MB was there I believe. Chris Lakey's subsequent article suggests that fanning the flames was deemed more important than covering the meeting.
I think the danger of this are fourfold. Firstly, it risks disenfranchising a significant section of the fan base, particularly older fans who are far more reliant on print media/radio than digital content. You need internet access to see any in-house content, and that's unlikely to change. Secondly, whether accurate or not, there's always going to be the impression that the club are dodging difficult questions by only publishing answers on their own platforms. They can choose to not ask a question, or if a difficult question was asked at the AGM, choose not to publish the answer. The in-house AGM coverage is laughable, when it sounds like genuinely interesting answers were given by Attanasio and others. Thirdly, as the club continue to increase their in-house coverage and diminish what the EDP/EEN/BBC/Pinkun/Athletic can produce, how long are they going to be content to offer their "exclusives" for free? Norwich have spoken if the need to maximise revenue streams, whilst so far they've largely increased spending in their media department without financial return. Subscription-based, in-house media is increasingly common in North American sports (https://thehockeynews.com/news/how-the-digital-game-continues-to-change-hockey-media discusses the developments in hockey, for example), and I'm sure there's football teams in the UK already doing it. £10 a month for pre/post-season content, pre/post-match interviews, extended highlights, maybe youth team coverage, etc. It doesn't feel that far fetched. Finally, much as the club won't want to admit it, external interviews do offer a feedback mechanism of sorts. There's no way the local journalists would have let an answer claiming essentially "there's no disconnect between club and fans because they keep turning up" go without a follow-up. And that follow up probably would have gone a long way to preventing that PR own goal. .... On the shares issue, Archant sold theirs in the last few years, so I don't believe any of the media are shareholders. Additionally, Radio Norfolk, BBC East, Michael Bailey were all not invited to the AGM, when they have been for every previous AGM since Delia came in. The incentive for media to own shares to access the AGM hasn't existing for a long while. ... I agree the Chris Lakey article was poor, if you're being accused of petty coverage then that wasn't exactly attempting to rise above the accusations. If the club aren't relenting, it smacks of desperation. I think if they want to continue providing NCFC coverage and make a point (ie not protest in the form of a complete blackout), the way to do it is to try and hit Norwich financially. Norwich are selling ad space on kit and around the grounds because that ad will appear on TV, Newspapers and everywhere else. Norwich are essentially selling the fact that they can place a brand's logo in the EDP, etc, practically every day. Just black it out. Replace every Lotus, Joma, Green Farm Coffee, etc logo with a black box, and see how long it takes for the sponsors to complain.
Yeah they have sounded pretty pathetic over not being invited to the AGM, I’ve been finding myself tiring with the constant jibes about their lack of access at every possible opportunity on every single piece of media. And when I heard the reason I can kind of understand the clubs decision
Michael Bailey spoke briefly about whether he attended the AGM on his latest Athletic podcast. I couldn't quite understand how he phrased it, but either he is a shareholder but had to send a proxy on his behalf because media weren't allowed, or he went as a proxy for another shareholder, but couldn't act as media. He just about stopped short of accusing the club of spreading "fake news" in response to a question at the AGM about the absence of Dean Smith. The answer given on the day was that the head coach has never attended the AGM, but Bailey checked and Farke attended at least twice, when they were still in person before COVID.
https://www.canaries.co.uk/club/supporters-panel-meeting-1-11-2022 Minutes from the recent supporters/club panel. Some interesting comments, some that raise an eyebrow. Few comments around the effectiveness of the panel, fan members feeling there's a lack of transparency. "JBr reiterated his point regarding the taps in the South Stand toilets and how nothing has changed on this despite the Panel raising it. He said he uses this as an indicator for the effectiveness of the Panel. CO’G stated that even if the Club wasn’t going to act on Panel suggestions, that this should be reported back to the Panel with an explanation." Fair point raised around the club doing winter training in Tampa this year. With Josh at the World Cup this was an ideal opportunity to promote the club in the USA, but they haven't even told supporters groups what the schedule is, never mind anyone else. On the "fan disconnect" debacle: BF mentioned the disconnect with fans question following the Insight video and stated that he believed that the wrong words were chosen by the person asking the question. BB agreed with this and alluded to how open the Club and players are for Norwich City Fans Social Club events. CO’G felt that some of the local journalism had been poor but suggested the club make an effort to improve the relationship with local media. SH explained the point of the Insight series and how it is to give an insight into the running of the Club. Although each episode includes a spotlight on one of the 6 areas of the Executive Committee, the members of the Executive Committee answer questions on any topic proposed by fans which are key issues at the time. This demonstrates that each member of the Executive Committee is across all of the crucial issues at the Club. BB said that in future the Panel should be used to look at videos such as this to identify any potential issues in them. SH acknowledged this point but queried where the line is drawn regarding any content released by the Club. EK responded to points regarding why the Finance Director was answering non-finance questions and stated that the questions are asked by the fans and that the Club pick these based on demand of certain questions, hence why questions around the local media and fan disconnect were raised in Anthony Richens’ video. Stadium atmosphere improvement suggestions: BF suggested clappers, including with song lyrics written on for newer songs. EK confirmed that he had been approached by City Elite to have a singing section at Swansea away and that the Club were exploring this. MC raised that the Club could use its social media profiles to seek volunteers to assist Along Come Norwich with setting up flags/tifos. BB raised the walk-on music and how she preferred One Republic’s ‘Love Runs Out’ due to the atmosphere it creates and the meaning of the lyrics. JB referenced the lightshow and how more could be made of this with music and accompanying videos on the big screen of previous Norwich goals with the commentary on. BB raised previous ‘cheesy’ songs which have been played such as ‘Daydream Believer’ and ‘Yellow Submarine’ and that she believes a change in music would help the atmosphere. BF raised a ‘countdown to kick-off’ on the big screen as done at Aston Villa and Sunderland to create/build atmosphere. BB raised the big screen and playing clips of previous goals against the opposition team. JB stated that he thought this was already done, but that this could be made more of with the use of commentary over the PA system.
He attended as proxy for a shareholder, so not in any media capacity. As regards the question about Dean Smith not being present, Bailey's take on it smacked of media spat sour grapes to me. Nothing so sinister read into it in the reports (e.g. by Ricardo and Parma) on the Pink'Un forum.
