A dedicated sports newspaper

I know this is probably of no interest to anyone, but living outside of Ireland and the UK I got to experience different media and one thing always struck me as odd. Apart from Horseracing, there are no dedicated sports (daily) papers in the UK or Ireland. (The Sport newspapers don't count!).

In Italy, France, Spain they have the most known ones. In Russia, the former Yugoslav states (only Slovenia I'm not sure about), Austria and Portugal have them, in Russia each large (over 400,000) town has it's own as well as the national offerings.

But any efforts to launch in Ireland or the UK have failed, in Ireland even the weekly dropped without a trace - but gave us David Kelly amongst others!

I just wonder is it time or is there a chance for one in Ireland?

The internet killed any hope imo.

There's barely enough sports news for the regular papers to fill space, and you'll just end up with pointless, made up, fillers which is my impression of much of the continental sports papers.

I thought one of the UK racing papers re-branded itself as a general sports paper in the last few years - did it crash and burn?

Also, the other thing about those other countries/ regions is that they follow their local sporting teams.

The Title lasted what - six months? - before being subsumed into one of the Sunday papers.

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Originally Posted by Macy

The internet killed any hope imo.



Also, the other thing about those other countries/ regions is that they follow their local sporting teams.

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The internet has hit it, but still in spots like Croatia the locals lap up their SN (sports news) paper and it's the main guide for betting. But the point also is, they follow their own sides!

Stu, I think it went into Ireland on Sunday, but the Title (I'd forgotten the name) was actually a pretty good offering.

Well, there was the Title for about a year, and it sold pretty well, becoming the second sunday paper of choice for many, selling maybe 80,000 IIRC. Because it was successful, it became a standard newspaper called Ireland On Sunday, featuring the Title, then they did away with the Title, then it died very slowly over about six or seven years, and became what it always was - The Irish Daily Mail & General Hatred Rag On Sunday.

Hubris destroyed The Title, a flawed newspaper, but one with some potential. Since then all the daily papers and sundays upped their sporting ante - even the Irish Times and the Guardian have developed passably good sports sections - to prevent further slippage, and to possibly increase sales.

Traditionally new newspapers have not done well since the 1980s, and especially since the internet's arrival. Look at The Daily Ireland (terrible name too), and in Britain, Today. Indeed, more newspapers have died than been born. The only "success" stories really have been the migration of an established and well known title into a new market, and that has been debatable at best. The "Irish" Daily Mail is a rarity, largely subsidised by the mothership, and heavily promoted. It does well in print largely because the rag is read by more people who do not go online than any other "quality" paper.

For a contrast, look at how difficult the Cork Examiner - a decent news paper, and like to the Irish News - has found the transition to national status. Without insanely heavy backing, it did not have the money to compete, and sits third at about half the circulation of the IT - only about 10,000 more than the Irish News.

So, it would appear to me that there would be little incentive for a buisiness man to back a new newspaper in Ireland. We all know that this will be met by the line "Sure aren't the Irish cracked about Sport". But we here also know that the Irish are cracked about sport that is delivered to their door successful, free, clean of unpleasantness, and with instant replay.

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Originally Posted by weecountyman

The internet has hit it, but still in spots like Croatia the locals lap up their SN (sports news) paper and it's the main guide for betting.

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But in those spots, was the paper established before the net took hold? It'd be one thing if they were already established trying to compete, but trying to launch against the internet is impossible imo. Newspapers in general are suffering ever reducing sales.

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Originally Posted by weecountyman

(only Slovenia I'm not sure about)

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Slovenia has Ekipa, it's a bit of a rag.

What ever happened to the Weekly sport?

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Originally Posted by Macy

But in those spots, was the paper established before the net took hold? It'd be one thing if they were already established trying to compete, but trying to launch against the internet is impossible imo. Newspapers in general are suffering ever reducing sales.

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It's hard to say Macy (not being funny here) as it was present pre-war, then disappeared, the internet arrived, but then it was re-launched. Now internet access could be able to explain some of it's success, but also the culture could also come into play. Cafe culture, betting shops and fanatical interest in sport (especially for local sides) is important in Croatia, while I've seen in Italy it's more people on the move reading Gazzetta etc, Russia would be the same but less on the gambling and more on news. I saw results on newspaper and book sales in Russia and it's one of the, wait, it has the highest reading numbers in 30 European countries surveyed.

I guess the internet has hit newspaper sales in Ireland hard, I know personally I'd read the Times and Indo online before I'd pick up a copy in the shop, but there is nothing like sitting down and reading through the paper.