Matt Christie - can you explain ?

[dalcumly]

My nephew brought round his Boxing News this week ( I gave up buying it in January after 40 years ,due to Danny declaring it was no longer a British magazine) and I was wondering if Matt could come on here and explain why 2 or 3 London shows were covered in full ( one of which consisted of 4 round fights) while other British shows ( arguably better attended - Glasgow) were only covered in the round up section.

Incidentally, I 'm delighted Matt has got the Editors job and I hope he can give us back OUR magazine. ( I might buy it again !!)

[Floyd the snake]

Must admit I think the same been buying boxing news for 30 years now , I've got used to reading about every result in every show regardless of how small the show is that was boxing news was all about .

[kamicazze]

Must admit I think the same been buying boxing news for 30 years now , I've got used to reading about every result in every show regardless of how small the show is that was boxing news was all about .

Yeah I thought it was a staple of it. Allowed me to follow some fighters who didn't get the big exposure

[Floatlikeabutterfly]

I always found this to be the best part, reading a report on all shows, no matter how big. Don't know if it's a cost issue, but every area has budding reporters.

[Bodyshot3]

I do like and appreciate Andy Whittle who does a huge, largely unsung but highly professional job doing hundreds of the small-mid size provincial shows for Boxing News....blimey that guy must have seen more live boxing than just about anyone in the country and in some less than glamorous spots. He writes-up those big cards from various damp town halls really well for my money and has a very good eye for calling-out someone worth watching.

Boxing News has had some great jobbing reporters down the years in the UK and overseas....Pete Moscardi used to do a top job doing the South African fight scene and Windsor Dobbin did Australia very well. They also had Matt Bozeat who did lots of fights across the Midlands and Daniel Herbert stills does some of the London shows....he writes well.

[Coco]

Gareth Jones too

[fightscorecollector]

i enjoyed covering most of the scottish scene, often taking days or nights off work to cover shows. Thought it was a bad move to do a round up section when most fans want to read about the small hall shows that arent on TV

[kamicazze]

Can we start a petition

[The Insider]

I do like and appreciate Andy Whittle who does a huge, largely unsung but highly professional job doing hundreds of the small-mid size provincial shows for Boxing News....blimey that guy must have seen more live boxing than just about anyone in the country and in some less than glamorous spots. He writes-up those big cards from various damp town halls really well for my money and has a very good eye for calling-out someone worth watching.

Andy "Moses" Whittle covers a huge amount of stuff and carves shows up between a few publications to get as much work as possible. It’s a shame that people encroach at times by offering local publications free stuff just to get themselves a vanity byline in the print press. We'd be f*cked without people like Andy. We'd all drown in the Red Sea.

Amen to that.

Andy does a great job.

[dalcumly]

When I started this thread yesterday I had no ulterior motive, I simply wondered why the situation has arisen. From the posts so far the penny is starting to drop.

In January Danny Flexen came on here ( to his credit, I hasten to add) and declared that the magazine was no longer British. What he meant was that it had to appeal to a wider audience in this modern media age and that to have a predominately British focus would be restrictive. I understand but don't agree -that's why I've protested by not buying the magazine any more.

But, I'm starting to get a bad felling 'in my water' that this appeal to a wider audience seems not to include their subscribers in Scotland, and perhaps elsewhere in the UK. I don't understand journalistic norms but Scotland had 3 people I can recall who covered fights up here - Jim Black, Brian Donald and the chap who runs 'fightcollector' ( or something like that).

Matt/Danny this lack of coverage in Scotland does you no good. Our run of world champions with Scott Harrison and Ricky Burns has come to an end, but who knows what the future holds. Don't cut the magazine off. Get it sorted out.

You might like to get one of your reporters up to Scotland during the quiet season and do a couple of features. Can I suggest Mike Towell at Dundee and Sam Ball in Greenock for starters, because you will HAVE to cover them in detail over the next 12 -18 months I can assure you !!

[kamicazze]

When I started this thread yesterday I had no ulterior motive, I simply wondered why the situation has arisen. From the posts so far the penny is starting to drop.

In January Danny Flexen came on here ( to his credit, I hasten to add) and declared that the magazine was no longer British. What he meant was that it had to appeal to a wider audience in this modern media age and that to have a predominately British focus would be restrictive. I understand but don't agree -that's why I've protested by not buying the magazine any more.

But, I'm starting to get a bad felling 'in my water' that this appeal to a wider audience seems not to include their subscribers in Scotland, and perhaps elsewhere in the UK. I don't understand journalistic norms but Scotland had 3 people I can recall who covered fights up here - Jim Black, Brian Donald and the chap who runs 'fightcollector' ( or something like that).

Matt/Danny this lack of coverage in Scotland does you no good. Our run of world champions with Scott Harrison and Ricky Burns has come to an end, but who knows what the future holds. Don't cut the magazine off. Get it sorted out.

You might like to get one of your reporters up to Scotland during the quiet season and do a couple of features. Can I suggest Mike Towell at Dundee and Sam Ball in Greenock for starters, because you will HAVE to cover them in detail over the next 12 -18 months I can assure you !!

Marc Kerr has good potential too

[jonp]

i stopped buying ages ago and so have a lot of trade figures who have brought for years when i pointed this out to danny he said so we made the right decision to stop aiming at the trade level?
I realy thought keeping the long term avid readers happy and adding to it would be the way to go but as danny said judge them on results if readership goes up they have done there job.
I buy every now and then and think its kind of rubbish now tbh

[ste1983]

They've took a lot of stick recently (on twitter over theyre choices of cover) sadly its a balancing act I'd love them to be the trade paper but its likely selling to just hardcore fans etc just isn't enough to keep them going. Its only the same (in fact its not as bad they still have some what you would call 'trade' content) as Hearn/Sky pandering to the casuals. Ironically some of the people on twitter having a pop at Boxing News would never dream of criticise Matchroom for similar.

[jonp]

iv just stopped buying same as almost most of the boxing people i know.If a decision is made what can you do i asked questions and just got told this is what we are doing we know what we are doing.So i just dont buy now and i hope BN doesnt go the way of fighting fit the last magazine that was tryed as a fitness boxing type mag that appealed to the 20 min crowd

[ste1983]

I don't buy as much as I used to (used to be every week) I must admit.

Hope they can somehow find a balance

[kamicazze]

iv just stopped buying same as almost most of the boxing people i know.If a decision is made what can you do i asked questions and just got told this is what we are doing we know what we are doing.So i just dont buy now and i hope BN doesnt go the way of fighting fit the last magazine that was tryed as a fitness boxing type mag that appealed to the 20 min crowd

I really enjoyed reading fighting fit. But I was buying it as a boxer trying to see if there are any techniques I can utilise. (On that subject I'd like to come spar at your soon jon).

With boxing news I'd buy it to get weekly boxing news. I personally loved reading the news part, previews, review of all the weeks shows and when they do the ranking all active British boxers part.

Be interesting to see if sales have gone up?

I also enjoyed the boxrec debutant watch. Shame the news section is no longer

[elephant man]

Like others, I stopped buying a while ago. At one stage I was getting RING, News and Monthly but the two have faded out now and only Monthly remains for me(which has always been my fave and is still top quality). No offence to anyone at Boxing News, I just don't really enjoy the mag that much in the internet age with so many pages of reviews. Just my opinion.

[jonp]

iv just stopped buying same as almost most of the boxing people i know.If a decision is made what can you do i asked questions and just got told this is what we are doing we know what we are doing.So i just dont buy now and i hope BN doesnt go the way of fighting fit the last magazine that was tryed as a fitness boxing type mag that appealed to the 20 min crowd

I really enjoyed reading fighting fit. But I was buying it as a boxer trying to see if there are any techniques I can utilise. (On that subject I'd like to come spar at your soon jon).

With boxing news I'd buy it to get weekly boxing news. I personally loved reading the news part, previews, review of all the weeks shows and when they do the ranking all active British boxers part.

Be interesting to see if sales have gone up?

I also enjoyed the boxrec debutant watch. Shame the news section is no longer

Yep i used to get fighting fit but im just worried that the kind of format that people who are into the passing fad will buy for wont work on a longterm readership.It might go up for a short wile but then lose the latest readers and find it has alienated its longer term loyal readers.

[jonp]

iv just stopped buying same as almost most of the boxing people i know.If a decision is made what can you do i asked questions and just got told this is what we are doing we know what we are doing.So i just dont buy now and i hope BN doesnt go the way of fighting fit the last magazine that was tryed as a fitness boxing type mag that appealed to the 20 min crowd

I really enjoyed reading fighting fit. But I was buying it as a boxer trying to see if there are any techniques I can utilise. (On that subject I'd like to come spar at your soon jon).

With boxing news I'd buy it to get weekly boxing news. I personally loved reading the news part, previews, review of all the weeks shows and when they do the ranking all active British boxers part.

Be interesting to see if sales have gone up?

I also enjoyed the boxrec debutant watch. Shame the news section is no longer

Oh yr welcome to come spar mate sunday afternoon is best day for variety at the mo its a little quiet as we had a show saturday everyone boxed and the season is nearly finished but when its busy yr welcome mate

[kamicazze]

iv just stopped buying same as almost most of the boxing people i know.If a decision is made what can you do i asked questions and just got told this is what we are doing we know what we are doing.So i just dont buy now and i hope BN doesnt go the way of fighting fit the last magazine that was tryed as a fitness boxing type mag that appealed to the 20 min crowd

I really enjoyed reading fighting fit. But I was buying it as a boxer trying to see if there are any techniques I can utilise. (On that subject I'd like to come spar at your soon jon).

With boxing news I'd buy it to get weekly boxing news. I personally loved reading the news part, previews, review of all the weeks shows and when they do the ranking all active British boxers part.

Be interesting to see if sales have gone up?

I also enjoyed the boxrec debutant watch. Shame the news section is no longer

Oh yr welcome to come spar mate sunday afternoon is best day for variety at the mo its a little quiet as we had a show saturday everyone boxed and the season is nearly finished but when its busy yr welcome mate

I'm out until end of July following removal of wisdom teeth (who knew them little buggers were so painful) so it be after then.

I think fighting fit as more of a place as an annual. Sell it for a bit more like 7.99. I would purchase it then

[Bodyshot3]

I continue to buy Boxing News...the writing remains good and has actually been on the rise again with the features and as I've mentioned at some other juncture, producing a quality product each week after the total smashing the publising industry has had is no mean feat. Smaller budgets, less staff (often wearing two hats) but facing the same tight deadlines is a tough gig.

To put things in perspective...something weekly like Auto Express is probably put together a team of staff and freelancers three times the size of the BN team and with big PR departments saving them time and money by doing all the photography.

[ERIC GUY]

I am lucky to get 1 pic in the amateur section a week...........

[Teddy's Toupee]

I am lucky to get 1 pic in the amateur section a week...........

Of yourself?

[Emmseegee]

I have recently just renewed a years membership with boxing news, its priceless for me to be honest as I spend more than 6 months of the year working offshore missing most shows and news so its good to get it on the ipad and catch up.

The content is still good if you ask me although I would like to see a couple of pages dedicated completely to scottish boxing but appreciate thats unlikely to happen!

[palooka]

I am lucky to get 1 pic in the amateur section a week...........

Of yourself?

Teddy, you don't want ERIC after you, clash of the mustache and the toupee, who'll video that one?