THE NON-LEAGUE PEOPLE’S FRONTS

To many, the split in the national non-league press is one notch below arguments about how many angels you can fit on the head of a pin. Or the most popular peoples’ front in Judea. The emergence of Non-League Today (NLT) as a rival to the seven-year-old Non-League Paper (NLP) has come from internecine strife not supply-and-demand. And it could scarcely have come at a worse time, as the Blue Square (ex-Conference) League’s Setanta TV deal puts the non-league game in the spotlight as never before. Whether the benefits of increased competition will overcome this turmoil remains to be seen.

The split has been coming, though. The NLP has had a fraught financial history, having taken chapters out of the Peter Ridsdale book of economics, with more owners than Milan Mandaric has had managers. Former Express head of sport David Emery set up the NLP in 2000, after his plans for incorporating a non-league section into the Sport First publication covering professional football were rejected. But despite the NLP’s early success, with sales approaching 50,000, its parent company Non-League Media went into administration in June 2002, £272,000 having fallen down the back of a (for reasons of legal dispute) unidentified settee.

Four months later, the paper was saved by a management buy-out, backed by multi-millionaire Chris Ingham – who had bought Woking FC at about the same time - with Emery as managing director and editor-in-chief. The operation expanded to include twice-weekly and Welsh (!) editions (the paper didn’t cover the differently-structured Scottish game) before launching the League Paper in September 2005, taking advantage of the Football League’s alleged new popularity. “Watched by more people than Serie A in Italy” trumpeted commercial director Ron Coles, disingenuously comparing one division with three.

This proved over-ambitious. And last June another “big hole” was “unexpectedly” found in company finances while Emery was putting together another management buy-out. He claimed: “We’ve all been victims of an elaborate financial swindle – investigations are ongoing and it is likely the police will be involved” (they aren’t yet). Out-of-pocket freelance journalists owed up to £7,000 took a simpler view: “To go into administration once is unfortunate, to go into it twice is downright unforgivable.” remarked Oscar Wilde… sorry…Colin Mafham (though Mafham was honest enough to admit he was “foolish” to allow his bill to run so high – I’d have started bleating about two decimal places to the left).

The ‘saviours’ this time were BHT Media, their package headed by ex-Press Association executive Simon Burrell. And the “financially-swindled” Emery remained editor-in-chief. An ex-colleague noted: “The paper has crashed more than Barry Sheene’s old motorbike… with the rider remarkably unscathed.” Emery claimed not to have met this ‘ex-colleague’ although: “Now I would like to make contact with him, for about five seconds.”

The struggling League Paper amalgamated with the NLP to form the Football Paper. But this pleased no-one, least of all NLP regulars, and a combined 62,000 circulation quickly became 45,000. Last March, buy-out number 94 appeared, before any administrators re-appeared, led by…Emery.

Others had had enough. NLP’s news editor David Watters left, saying: “In my opinion, BHT killed the golden goose.” Critical of the NLP/League Paper amalgamation, he added: “I believe non-league football deserves its own newspaper” before concluding, somewhat prophetically: “It should have ten newspapers.” He certainly did his bit towards this, being hired during the summer by Australian media company IPG – publishers of the British Football newspaper for expatriates – as NLT group editor, announcing: “I wanted to launch this paper because I think I can do a better job than the NLP is doing.”

Emery claimed Watters had “a clause in his contract saying he couldn’t work on a non-league paper” although it is disputed whether launching a title legally equates to working on one. Either way, when Emery also claimed: “It’s nice to have a rival out there” you sensed it was through gritted teeth.

But however we’ve got to where we are the papers’ futures will depend more on the basics such as content. The main distinction is NLT’s emphasis on news stories and behind-the-scenes features from the talented team Watters has assembled (including some ex-NLP-ites and ex-Blackburn striker Simon Garner, who undertook journalism training at the NLP’s Wimbledon offices only last year). The NLP gives more room to a breathtaking match report section which covers most levels above back-garden kickabouts, making Wisden Cricketer’s Almanack look like a brief overview and the Telegraph look like it ignores rugby.

Supporters are divided. Some note that club websites have their own match reports, which is increasingly though not entirely true – and you’d be days reading them all. And there’s an unhealthily strong insularity amongst the non-league ‘fraternity’ when it comes to leagues other than their own club’s. Many dispute the value of a Kingstonian match report to someone living in Workington (many dispute the value of my Kingstonian NLP match reports to people living in Kingston but that’s another matter).

Others enjoy the “propagandist” match reports. The NLP assign reporters down to the lower reaches of the British Gas Business (Southern Premier), Unibond (Northern Premier) and Ryman (Isthmian) Leagues. Mostly hard-pressed club officials, whose understandable bias sometimes edges towards head-explosion. If you think the paper’s reports are “propagandist” you should see them before they are sub-edited. At least two-thirds of the goals conceded by one un-named Ryman League club (Dover) last season were apparently yards offside – even the penalties.

There are also those who would elbow match reports entirely and hanker after pages of statistics down to County Level…and beyond. Though such people shouldn’t necessarily be allowed near newsagents in the first place.

There’d be room for both publications in a perfect world, if they can establish distinctive identities. Especially if Setanta’s coverage has the desired effect – a heightened awareness of football below League Two, in particular of sides near Premier League clubs with well-thumbed ‘house full’ signs and orbital ticket prices.

And whatever happens, Barry Sheene’s stunt-double David Emery will surely be editor-in-chief of something.

‘MotorMurph’ is written by Mark Murphy

Entry Filed under: MotorMurph Column

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