Freebie Friday: Does the printed programme still have a place in the modern day game?

On paper or online or not at all, have your say in the comments

Welcome to the Freebie Friday posting, and to those of you who are new to www.footballwriting.co.uk this is the weekly posting for all subscribers to see and a taste of what you can get behind the paywall.

Over the past few weeks the topics for this free piece have engineered some debate which is exactly what they are designed to do, everyone has an opinion and I’d quite like you to share it with me and the rest of the readers, it’s never right and it’s never wrong, it’s unique to you.

This week’s piece comes from me asking a group of bloggers and journalists from Twitter whose work and opinions I value. Chris Phillips who covers Southend Utd in the National League for the Southend Echo came up with a handful of ideas, some of which you will see alongside this one in the weeks to come, this particular one is about the printed programme, it’s evolution to online and what does the future hold for something that has an undecided meaning for all.

When I first started going to games back in the late 80’s I used to purchase two programmes or rather I was given the money for, one I could squiggle team changes, goal times and substitutions on and the other kept in pristine condition.

Programme from Maidstone Utd’s first Football League home match

It wasn’t the case for every single match but once Maidstone Utd won promotion to the Football League it was the norm for me, pretty much because I recognised even back then that being only the second non-league team Lincoln City returned at the first attempt between Scarborough and Maidstone Utd) to gain automatic promotion since it began a year earlier they might be worth a few quid at some point if I ever decided to sell.

As the club folded within three years of going up, I really do need to find out if they might fetch a return of some sort, I even made sure I got a copy of the never played first game of the following season when they should have visited Scunthorpe Utd on the opening day, the club disappearing down the rabbit hole in the coming weeks after.

Today, the matchday programme isn’t what it once was. Social media for one has overtaken means of getting information out to supporters and everything is available at your fingertips. Finding a volunteer or six to contribute, put it together and sometimes at short notice is becoming harder year on year and it’s not a surprise to me to see online programmes becoming considered the norm although not for every club.

I do have a vested interest in printed programmes still, I am one of those contributors but at a price. Glebe FC in Kent, East Preston FC in Sussex and Met Police FC in Surrey all have a weekly column written by me.

Now, the reason I charge for it is because those three clubs receive a completely different column each week, even if all three are playing at home on the same Saturday, it’s unique to each of them and once they have the copy they’re free to use it wherever they want safe in the knowledge it’s only theirs and not seen anywhere else.

Writing is a business for me, it’s time being paid for, no different for any other service but it’s available for any club that wants it, there is always plenty to be writing about. If I trotted out the same speel for them all I wouldn’t dream of charging individually for it, that’s just plain wrong in my book.

I have produced a couple of issues in my time as well, already templated whilst the programme editor was on holiday, but more with reading material than adverts, that is my one bug bear with them. I have nothing against a club filling their programme with sponsor adverts, indeed they help all clubs tick along, but what I do have a gripe with is charging the same price as a club who puts something in for the grey matter to mull over before, during and after the game, I don’t pay to read adverts on the internet, should I be doing so at a football match?

There are some great programme printers out there who produce outstanding work for clubs namely JMA Programmes, footieprint.co.uk to name I couple, there are more out there, but Twitter keeps changing its boundaries making it harder to find what you want. I’ve had dealings with a few and read some of the others, the tradition is being kept alive.

I can fully understand the move to an online programme, less costs as the main reason and uploaded without a middle man to print and deliver to you, readable for the game normally a couple of days in advance.

My club Barnet went to online only a few years ago, I can count on my fingers and have plenty left over the amount of times I’ve actually read it. I have always had a long journey home, either by car or train and tube. The matchday programme passed the time away on the latter while the former was me grabbing food on the way home and reading it then, the question of course comes down to how much profit is in the margins and the time taken to get contributions in for deadlines.

Littlehampton Town FC Programme 2022-23

Groundhoppers I know love a printed programme, for some it is one of their stipulations for visiting a club and getting the ‘tick’. The Southern Combination in Sussex used to insist that a programme in printed form was available or a club would be fined, I would imagine now it’s an offering of either sort, but I’m sure someone reading will confirm that for me.

It has been encouraging to see a lot of clubs going back to the printed version this season too, online of course was easier a couple of years ago with minimal contact and transaction the name of the game, now it’s a different ball game again.

Do I think it still has a place in the game? Yes I do, not just from a more selfish point of view of wanting to be in more programmes next season but there is so much going on inside clubs you just don’t see or realise and even in this day and age not everyone has a smartphone or wants to read the tiny font version on their phone.

My takings from this, print a programme if you can as a club, don’t fill it full of adverts and charge the same price as someone else who has gone to the time and effort to get some words written for free or charged for, remember this is for your supporters who will be here long after players and managers, it’s nice to give something back isn’t it?