Inside Football - new format

[Ron The Bear]

How many on BF read this and have noticed the new format? Short & squat, slightly smaller than a tabloid, with a pseudo-glossy cover; a cross between a newspaper and a magazine. But the main change is that it will now be issued monthly.

I've bought it regularly for a dozen years or so to read over lunch. Don't always get through it - sometimes just have time to read the potted player comments on last week's games (AFL & VFL) & the preview for my club, plus the funnies on the back page. A more leisurely read will take in the Rhys-Jones past player interview, the editorial and maybe the feature stories. Its perspectives from outside the AFL mainstream are often refreshing.

IF has undergone several changes of late - Thursday availability instead of Wednesday; page length abbreviated; online version which I presume is still available. And now this. Issuing monthly means the content will be far less topical. Obviously the changes are dictated by market forces, and magazines in general are struggling. Get the feeling that after nearly 50 years, the end is nigh.

 

[sataris]

Great thread, would read again.

 

[Decimation]

wut

 

[Hoooops]

That's sad. Hope it doesn't die completely.

 

[Garlic muncher]

Haven't read it for years, TBH was not even sure it was still around.

Used to buy it in the day with a Mad magazine, perhaps if was feeling trendy a Cracked as well.

 

[Boxhead_31]

How many on BF read this and have noticed the new format? Short & squat, slightly smaller than a tabloid, with a pseudo-glossy cover; a cross between a newspaper and a magazine. But the main change is that it will now be issued monthly.

I've bought it regularly for a dozen years or so to read over lunch. Don't always get through it - sometimes just have time to read the potted player comments on last week's games (AFL & VFL) & the preview for my club, plus the funnies on the back page. A more leisurely read will take in the Rhys-Jones past player interview, the editorial and maybe the feature stories. Its perspectives from outside the AFL mainstream are often refreshing.

IF has undergone several changes of late - Thursday availability instead of Wednesday; page length abbreviated; online version which I presume is still available. And now this. Issuing monthly means the content will be far less topical. Obviously the changes are dictated by market forces, and magazines in general are struggling. Get the feeling that after nearly 50 years, the end is nigh.

Looks like they have got rid of a heap of the former contributors if the most recent issue is anything to go by.

 

[TheGoatBaron]

I use to love this magazine back in the day even if it's just for Jim Main's comment section. Shame to see what it has become. Prefer the old tabloid.

 

[Supercoach Bargain]

If a week is a long time in football, a month is very old news.

 

[Rob R]

I used to buy it most weeks despite the difficulty finding it in hell (otherwise known as Canberra) but last year I found it was hardly worth it with the news frequently outdated by the time you got it eg. reading on Thursday that players might be suspended three days after they were. This years is monthly so it will be even more outdated and a quick flick through showed it is even more shallow and pointless this year - doubt it will make it half way through the season. Hope noone is silly enough to buy a subscription out of habit.

 

[Daniltchenko You Beauty]

Endangered species. Has done well to survive this long, but its days are surely numbered.

Having said that, their player ratings are awesome and online now. Only place I know of to get reserves reports for every player, every week. Definitely a site to keep an eye on.

www.aflplayerratings.com.au

 

[Garlic muncher]

I use to love this magazine back in the day even if it's just for Jim Main's comment section. Shame to see what it has become. Prefer the old tabloid.

Yes, Jim Main was quite amusing for his over the top love of South and having a go at Rugby League

 

[LeverPuller]

Unfortunately not a surprise. Even with the SEN linkup it's been dying for a while.

 

[BuntonRules]

Oh yeah, life goes on. Long after the thrill of living has gone.

John Cougar Mellencamp.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Wasn't Crackers Keenan a recent regular contributor? No wonder....

Plus it's draft special just had quotes from the next players coaches who basically all same the same thing.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Trash tier publication.

 

[Tiger_Of_Old]

Use to love the page 3 girls.

 

[Garlic muncher]

Use to love the page 3 girls.

Picture or Post ?

Now they were magazines!

 

[hairy biker]

Happening with a number of weekly sports papers (here and overseas).
The internet has made the information (team lineups/injuries/player ratings etc) redundant and the monthly editions generally simply don't offer enough point of difference to make them worthwhile reading. The monthly editions invariably go the way of the dodo.

I buy IF once a year; the draft edition.
It's a handy ready reference and hopefully when IF does fold a replacement draft 'guide' fills the niche.

 

[thejester]

Used to read it semi-regularly in 2011-12 when I was flying a lot. Found some stuff engaging but, as others have said, it suffered from the weekly format. All of the news I could get much quicker elsewhere, and most of the columnists/regular contributors were C grade at best. Actually laughed out loud at the article in which Nathan Burke compared Demetriou to Stalin on the back of his reading of Animal Farm.

The best stuff in it were the features and interviews that went into more depth than the stories carried in papers. I guess the obvious problem with that is they cost more money but it's surely the only area they can compete. Could do a lot worse than give someone like Ethan Meldrum a column explaining tactics - at least that would set them apart.

 

[raymond35]

If you lived in nsw or qld in the 80s and 90s inside football was brilliant and the only way to get your footy news, but the Internet has made it completely obsolete.
It brings back the question of why anyone under the age of 70 buys newspapers today.

 

[tenderwarrior]

loved buying it with my paper-boy money as a tweenager back in the late 80's, and I still have the awesome posters of all my favorite Geelong players - it was very sad when they changed to photo posters rather than the cartoonistic ones

 

[tenderwarrior]

If you lived in nsw or qld in the 80s and 90s inside football was brilliant and the only way to get your footy news, but the Internet has made it completely obsolete.
It brings back the question of why anyone under the age of 70 buys newspapers today.

The same reason people buy books? I love the feeling and smell of books, and it feels different - more relaxing to hold a book than to read on a tablet or phone - though I know it makes so much more sense to buy digital books..

 

[Trav 20]

How many on BF read this and have noticed the new format? Short & squat, slightly smaller than a tabloid, with a pseudo-glossy cover; a cross between a newspaper and a magazine. But the main change is that it will now be issued monthly.

I agree. I wouldn't buy it every week, which in part is due to following a basket case of a club for near 10 years, but would always take a look at the content before choosing. Now it's monthly it becomes out of sight out of mind.

Doomed.

 

[Sttew]

That's sad. Hope it doesn't die completely.

Why wouldn't it? We live in a the digital age. Newspapers and magazines are dinosaurs.

 

[footyfan1978]

Use to love the page 3 girls.

The Truth went long ago.
Maybe late 1980's ?

Bought this weekly magazine from time to time but when the VFL expanded in late 1980's it was already losing something because it had a section for every state league and as a Victoria loving football in general it was good to pick up snippets from interstate and see what was going on with ACT, Tasmania, West Australia and South Australian leagues and the actual ladders for all these leagues. Seeing what teams were doing well in WAFL and SANFL as other strong leagues was of interesting. Seeing how Bosustow was going back in WAFL and checking scores, best in team and any small articles had some interest. But once Eagles and then Crows come along it meant the best of what was left was going towards those clubs in our expanded VFL league. Slowly but surely with WAFL, SANFL, VFA, Reserves and Under 19's reduced to no real relevance beyond early 1990's, the interest in seeing those scores and articles is no longer there for such a publication. Add in the internet a few years on that everyone has now and as a weekly newspaper completed outdated over a decade ago. It used to have a weekly sueprcoach type game in it around 2000 so getting it for those scores had some reason to buy if you played it then. Now with Supercoach on internet it has very little left to offer. There is still some good articles in it but those same people can do articles online so a monthly type thing probably in their last hope of giving it life in this decade.