Boxing News - shock/horror!!!

[dalcumly]

They've went and done it !!! Ricky Burns world title fight on the front cover ???? Its incredible really. I mean -there's only 3 months to the Grove and Froch fight and Boxing News DON'T have either on the front page!!! For goodness sake, the staff will get the sack because the sales will plummet this week. As you will recall having Froch and Grove on he front page in the news stands sells more copies. Big risk this week .

Maybe, just maybe, there might be a change in direction afoot. Perhaps in the near future in the 60 Second Interview section we might get British boxers we're interested in instead of guys who are virtually unknown in their own gyms !!!

I keep beating the drum about this -it's a BRITISH magazine. We continually get quite extensive coverage of 'Speedy Gonzalez ' fighting ' Wan Long Pee' and 'Pancho Villa' in with 'Wi Wun Wunce' and 'No Wun Sins', and squeezed away in the corner is a reasonable British bill.

There was a nine fight bill in Scotland last night ,and I might have missed it , but was it featured in any way. If it was - it would be a massive change.

Come on , Boxing News , I love my weekly read, and I'm loyal , but if you really want to win back the lost thousands, get back to being BRITISH.
( if the sales figures are not down from ,say, 10 years ago, publish the proof)

[bennie]

By the way, Jim, Jack Hirsch is the man to get hold of for Mamby in New York, or you could try Danny Herbert, who did a feature on Mamby in BN a few years ago.

[Alba]

They've went and done it !!! Ricky Burns world title fight on the front cover ???? Its incredible really. I mean -there's only 3 months to the Grove and Froch fight and Boxing News DON'T have either on the front page!!! For goodness sake, the staff will get the sack because the sales will plummet this week. As you will recall having Froch and Grove on he front page in the news stands sells more copies. Big risk this week .

Maybe, just maybe, there might be a change in direction afoot. Perhaps in the near future in the 60 Second Interview section we might get British boxers we're interested in instead of guys who are virtually unknown in their own gyms !!!

I keep beating the drum about this -it's a BRITISH magazine. We continually get quite extensive coverage of 'Speedy Gonzalez ' fighting ' Wan Long Pee' and 'Pancho Villa' in with 'Wi Wun Wunce' and 'No Wun Sins', and squeezed away in the corner is a reasonable British bill.

There was a nine fight bill in Scotland last night ,and I might have missed it , but was it featured in any way. If it was - it would be a massive change.

Come on , Boxing News , I love my weekly read, and I'm loyal , but if you really want to win back the lost thousands, get back to being BRITISH.
( if the sales figures are not down from ,say, 10 years ago, publish the proof)

Im going to defend the BN , Its a Boxing magazine , not a British magazine and i enjoy there coverage of oversees fighters aswell as uk based fighters. As a boxing fan, i really dont buy into it has to be British boxing story as opposed to an overseas one ,if the story is interesting or a good read it dosent make two jots . The worlds getting smaller these days.

As for your comments about burns being on the front, they cant win . you complain when they dont have him, and you complain when they do (even though in a flippant term )

As the person who has been beating the drum for the fight card last night , they didn't cover it before the card ,apart from the listings. However this isint because it was scottish show (although they did fornicate up with the review frm the wishaw show the other week, have a look at the flag) its because it was a small hall show, equivalent shows in London, Newport, Ballymena they wouldn't give the coverage .

[JimStone]

I agree with Alba. They're damned if they do, damned if they don't. The biggest puzzle to me about Boxing News is how they're still in business at all in the paper and ink format. Who are these Neanderthals still buying magazines?

[dalcumly]

Alba

I take your points. The fact that they DON'T preview small hall shows in Ballymena Newport etc IS MY VERY POINT. I don't understand where you're coming from that it's not a British magazine .If I buy a national newspaper I expect to get BRITISH news and a bit of world coverage.Not the other way round.

If , for instance, ( and I know you're Scottish) the Daily Record had a front page headline about a water shortage in Mexico followed by page after page of Thai, Malaysian, Armenian news etc and then the sports section was all about ice hockey in New York, ping pong in China and Hungarian wrestling do you think the paper might go bankrupt??

This is why the Boxing News is struggling. The excuse is that people don't buy newspapers anymore - it's all online. That's only partly true.

If you're a BNat subscriber you may have got an email last week about an investment opportunity. In that document there was market research carried out last year which indicated that 2.7 million people in Britain described themselves as being 'very interested' in boxing. Around 10,000 of those buy the Boxing News regularly. I think that's around 0.3%. Put another way around, 1 in every 300 people who describe themselves as being very interested in boxing buy the Boxing News.

More than not even covering the Wishaw show last night, the Boxing News should have been given out FREE to all those in attendance so that at the very least they would then know it EXISTED!!! If a few read it when they got home they might even think about buying it, but not if its full of Speedy Gonzalez fighting In Jin Chi in Outer Mongolia or reading a fascinating interview with Yvegeny Rasputin who cried the last time Anzi Machkachkala beat Rubin Kazan!!!

[JimStone]

This is why the Boxing News is struggling. The excuse is that people don't buy newspapers anymore - it's all online. That's only partly true.

I think they'd be struggling even more if they concentrated on reporting on obscure small hall domestic shows at the expense of pieces on the big names and big characters of the sport here and overseas. The only people who care about small hall shows are the people on them and the hardcore geeks. The people on them know what happened and the hardcore geeks can check boxrec.

[SNG]

Do you think it matters who's on the front cover? I would have thought a specialist mag like BN would have a pretty regular readership.

[JimStone]

Do you think it matters who's on the front cover? I would have thought a specialist mag like BN would have a pretty regular readership.

I think it matters. Yes, there will be a core of weekly buyers who would buy the magazine even if it meant their kids going without nappies, but there are irregular and impulse buyers who will pick it up and buy based on the picture on the cover.

[Alba]

Alba

I take your points. The fact that they DON'T preview small hall shows in Ballymena Newport etc IS MY VERY POINT. I don't understand where you're coming from that it's not a British magazine .If I buy a national newspaper I expect to get BRITISH news and a bit of world coverage.Not the other way round.

If , for instance, ( and I know you're Scottish) the Daily Record had a front page headline about a water shortage in Mexico followed by page after page of Thai, Malaysian, Armenian news etc and then the sports section was all about ice hockey in New York, ping pong in China and Hungarian wrestling do you think the paper might go bankrupt??

This is why the Boxing News is struggling. The excuse is that people don't buy newspapers anymore - it's all online. That's only partly true.

If you're a BNat subscriber you may have got an email last week about an investment opportunity. In that document there was market research carried out last year which indicated that 2.7 million people in Britain described themselves as being 'very interested' in boxing. Around 10,000 of those buy the Boxing News regularly. I think that's around 0.3%. Put another way around, 1 in every 300 people who describe themselves as being very interested in boxing buy the Boxing News.

More than not even covering the Wishaw show last night, the Boxing News should have been given out FREE to all those in attendance so that at the very least they would then know it EXISTED!!! If a few read it when they got home they might even think about buying it, but not if its full of Speedy Gonzalez fighting In Jin Chi in Outer Mongolia or reading a fascinating interview with Yvegeny Rasputin who cried the last time Anzi Machkachkala beat Rubin Kazan!!!

what is the demographic of the Boxing fan in the uk ? I will give you an insight into what i have mate . On the FB page for prospect, we have 1360 likes, the age is 25-34 . Out of all those people how many do you think will get there boxing details from the web ? ill go as far as saying proberly 60-70 % of them will . Now if the BN started covering more "British" news they wouldnt change that habit, cause its just now how folk think nowadays, obv there are hardcores who are exception to rules ...but the maj is what drives editorial policy. I would love to see the previews of small shows, god it would make my job easier, i can just see the reasoning for it ,Plus aswell i dont think there is that much new news developments on a weekly basis to fill it.

According to the records, for 2012 it was 10,421 was the reguler circulation. So its not a massive one i couldent imagine that has changed much over the time, maybe more folk using the online one

[Final round]

I agree with Alba. They're damned if they do, damned if they don't. The biggest puzzle to me about Boxing News is how they're still in business at all in the paper and ink format. Who are these Neanderthals still buying magazines?

Me. I bought BM on Wednesay and slipped off for a couple of pints to read it. Top quality front to back, once you got past the dodgy mugshot of Glyn.. I buy BN sporadically depending on the previous weeks action, which I like to revisit. I read a lot online so having a physical copy is a nice treat and I wonder if I would have read it front to back digital format.
.

[JimStone]

I agree with Alba. They're damned if they do, damned if they don't. The biggest puzzle to me about Boxing News is how they're still in business at all in the paper and ink format. Who are these Neanderthals still buying magazines?

Me. I bought BM on Wednesay and slipped off for a couple of pints to read it. Top quality front to back, once you got past the dodgy mugshot of Glyn.. I buy BN sporadically depending on the previous weeks action, which I like to revisit. I read a lot online so having a physical copy is a nice treat and I wonder if I would have read it front to back digital format.
.

That's fair enough. Unfortunately I can't read books or magazines in public, I wish I could but for some reason I've never had the ability to fully concentrate on reading unless I'm by myself.

[reggaereggae]

Do you think it matters who's on the front cover? I would have thought a specialist mag like BN would have a pretty regular readership.

I think it matters. Yes, there will be a core of weekly buyers who would buy the magazine even if it meant their kids going without nappies, but there are irregular and impulse buyers who will pick it up and buy based on the picture on the cover.

I bet their sales went up in Scotland mind.... BN is an unusual case in that it is British, but I believe a growing global readership. Is there any weekly global boxing magazine that comes close? I doubt it.

BN is one magazine I never miss. I also but BM, although probably read only half of it.

I think BN has done very well in modernising the mag - a great mix of snippets plus editorial.

In that way Tris Dixon has done very well. However some of the writing is subpar and it seems like the issues are not proof read thoroughly. I see mistakes of all descriptions every issue.

[Final round]

I agree with Alba. They're damned if they do, damned if they don't. The biggest puzzle to me about Boxing News is how they're still in business at all in the paper and ink format. Who are these Neanderthals still buying magazines?

Me. I bought BM on Wednesay and slipped off for a couple of pints to read it. Top quality front to back, once you got past the dodgy mugshot of Glyn.. I buy BN sporadically depending on the previous weeks action, which I like to revisit. I read a lot online so having a physical copy is a nice treat and I wonder if I would have read it front to back digital format.
.

That's fair enough. Unfortunately I can't read books or magazines in public, I wish I could but for some reason I've never had the ability to fully concentrate on reading unless I'm by myself.

Yeah people are a distraction, have to pick your spots and times.

[dalcumly]

I do like the people on the Boxing News staff and most importantly I believe they are sincere. But what age are they? What age group does MOST people on here belong to. For my generation, and I would argue, that is where there will be a higher percentage of boxing fans, the Boxing News is more like a magazine for young people. If it caters more for young people are they more or less likely to buy a boxing magazine? I'm not a journalist or a marketing chappie, but I don't think I ' m thick either. If they want to increase sales they have to change their target audience I think.
I would imagine that Tris, Matt and Danny can probably have personal recollections as far back as around the mid 1990's. So, Turpin, Cooper, Stracey and Minter are nothing more than historical figures. There is no continuity with the historical roots of boxing.
They need a wise old head who has his finger on the pulse. Does Tris cover small hall shows around the country? Does he ever get to meet those involved at the grass roots. Has he ever visited gyms used by journeymen in Newark, Birmingham, Swansea , Belfast. Does he know the match makers.
This is not an attack on Tris, far rom it, I like the sound of the guy but he needs people around him who know the movers and shakers further down the money tree.
There are still many millions who buy newspapers and many more who read somebody else's . If its all about online readership then give up printing the magazine and just keep the website.

[palooka]

I agree that the magazine has moved from a trade paper to one that is colourful and noticable. I'd like a return to the old black and white paper edition, I felt like an insider and part of a clique - news from all over - I accept though that the world has changed and financial imperatives made the changes neccessary.

[chad]

Do you think it matters who's on the front cover? I would have thought a specialist mag like BN would have a pretty regular readership.

I think it matters. Yes, there will be a core of weekly buyers who would buy the magazine even if it meant their kids going without nappies, but there are irregular and impulse buyers who will pick it up and buy based on the picture on the cover.

The cover doesn't matter to me. The newsagents where I live never have the magazine front and centre in the sports section. It's always tucked behind football and golf magazines with just the name of the magazine protruding over the top of the others.

[palooka]

Do you think it matters who's on the front cover? I would have thought a specialist mag like BN would have a pretty regular readership.

I think it matters. Yes, there will be a core of weekly buyers who would buy the magazine even if it meant their kids going without nappies, but there are irregular and impulse buyers who will pick it up and buy based on the picture on the cover.

The cover doesn't matter to me. The newsagents where I live never have the magazine front and centre in the sports section. It's always tucked behind football and golf magazines with just the name of the magazine protruding over the top of the others.

It should be on the top shelf next to MILF magazine.

[chad]

I agree that the magazine has moved from a trade paper to one that is colourful and noticable. I'd like a return to the old black and white paper edition, I felt like an insider and part of a clique - news from all over - I accept though that the world has changed and financial imperatives made the changes neccessary.

I kind of a agree but I'm not too sure if a revert to type would be successful. As suggested the world has changed. Boxing fans are more informed and connected than ever before. We've now got weekly boxing pod-casts, weekly boxing radio shows, 4 dedicated boxing news shows on UK TV, Social Media, YouTube, boxing forums etc... Almost everything that happens in boxing is out in the public domain in an instant. I'm surprised that boxing magazines are still doing so well.

[chad]

It should be on the top shelf next to MILF magazine.

Thanks to the internet I've not had to buy a jizz book for nearly a decade. Is Razzle still in circulation?

[palooka]

I agree and in my mind can imagine that a return to an earlier incarnation of very basic typeset and paper and very good reports and coverage would work; any fan can access whatever they want in seconds. I used to walk miles (from Edlington in Doncatser to the Market Place in the town centre) to buy the magazine every week. I loved it being 'the trade paper'.

[Deserter]

market research carried out last year which indicated that 2.7 million people in Britain described themselves as being 'very interested' in boxing. Around 10,000 of those buy the Boxing News regularly. I think that's around 0.3%. Put another way around, 1 in every 300 people who describe themselves as being very interested in boxing buy the Boxing News.

And the one thing I can tell you about that data having worked at a major publishing company is that it's borderline useless at best and almost certainly inaccurate at worst.

[straali]

I like the fact that in this week's editorial the possessive pronoun is used with incorrect spelling in the first sentence.

[johnnykayo]

i got rid of the boxing news 4 years ago as i had it religiously since 1976,it just went down hill after claude abrahams left. so give it the big toe as you can get all the news off here and its instant

[reggaereggae]

I like the fact that in this week's editorial the possessive pronoun is used with incorrect spelling in the first sentence.

I noticed that..... It's instead of its!!!?

Also claiming Ali would never quit when he was desperate to quit vs Liston the first fight shows a lack of boxing knowledge

[reggaereggae]

market research carried out last year which indicated that 2.7 million people in Britain described themselves as being 'very interested' in boxing. Around 10,000 of those buy the Boxing News regularly. I think that's around 0.3%. Put another way around, 1 in every 300 people who describe themselves as being very interested in boxing buy the Boxing News.

And the one thing I can tell you about that data having worked at a major publishing company is that it's borderline useless at best and almost certainly inaccurate at worst.

I thought it sold about 90,000??