The Bloggers Don’t Have The Reach Of The MSM … Yet
This is the main reason why we can’t let these people get away with doing the things they do.
The media reach is longer, by far, than that of the bloggers at the moment.
The Record itself shifts more than 100,000 copies every single day, and the accepted wisdom within the trade is that readership is roughly three times circulation, which means that The Record still gets picked up and read by 300,000 or so. That’s an enormous number for a country this size.
It gives the paper many things, including credibility with the clubs, the governing bodies and even the political parties.
Do not underestimate those things. The print media still thinks it can set the agenda. During the independence referendum it was the Record that published the notorious (and soon discredited) Pledge to Scotland … it didn’t last but it did the job, and helped the No campaign get over the line.
That’s what we’re up against. Don’t forget that.
For all that, there’s good news.
There was a time when the media could write what it wanted and go essentially unchallenged. The blogs might not have the reach of the MSM yet but the readerships are growing and the influence of the bloggers is now, arguably, greater than that of the hacks at their own individual clubs.
Things are changing, slowly, and whilst the current generation of “leaders” in the sport try to pretend we’re not here the next set of them are going to have factor us in to every single thing they do. It’s going to get better.