The ‘Fantasy’ In Fantasy Newspaper Editor

November 19th, 2007, By Duncan Gough

Recently, I posed the question of who would I have in my fantasy newspaper. It’s still a nameless affair, but the overriding motto is one of ‘Culture, Media & Sport’ and I’m sorely tempted to put sport on the front pages, politics and murder on the back (hint – the one being treated like a game isn’t the one that should).

I should, however, pay some respect to the articles that sparked all this. Football365 is part of the 365 conglomerate of websites that covers the most important sports. In general, their coverage is much better than P.A. affairs like Sporting Life, and less behind the times than BBC Sport. Their ‘mailbox’ feature is a good reflection on what fans think of the game, much more so than the pull-quotes on the BBC site, for example. In comparison with the BBC, perhaps the F365 mailbox compares favourably with the better slices of 606. Be warned, though, both are examples in baiting the audience to get some cheap content. Every now and again, though, the better emailers and callers make exemplary points. Often, within an episode or web-page you’ll find a soundly expressed opinion that puts to shame anything else from Match of the Day or Sky Sports, both of which sports fans are paying for.

A recent, regular feature on Football365, has been its review of the sports pages of our national newspapers. The idea being to find out which is the best. Reading those over the last month or so, has been the spark to write about fantasy newspapers. In this recent edition, for example, comes the revelation about The Daily Star:

According to the latest audited figures, 771,197 copies of The Daily Star were sold on average every day during the month of October. That may be a fraction of The Sun, Daily Mirror and Mail’s circulation, but it is almost on a par with The Daily Telegraph’s, slightly in excess of The Times’, twice that of The Guardian, and three-times that of The Independent.

Oh shit. Not only is that a depressing statistic, but it’s also a damning indictment on the majority of sports fans:

The Daily Star’s growing success – and that of its sister newspaper – puts the frequent exasperation with the dumbed-down level of football coverage available on our television screens in depressing perspective. To complain about the stupidity of the punditry is stupidity itself when confronted with the realisation that this is the level of insight sought – and paid for – by the majority of the population

The good news is that BBC Radio 5Live still has the best coverage by far, despite there being no serious competition and the fact that they lapse into taking cheap shots with Alan Green and fill up the aftermath of games with a phone-in. If you’d like to read all of the newspaper reviews, and they are all well worth a read, then follow these links:

Now that you’re read that lot, why not come and help me setup a British, Online-only, Quality Newspaper focussing on Culture, Media & Sport?

« Fantasy Newspaper EditorPassively Multiplayer.com »