Forest Matchday programme - your feedback wanted

[Ian Moore Gone Little]

As some of you will know, I contribute to the matchday programme. With sell-out crowds and digital programmes sent to SC holders and members the readership is probably the biggest it’s been for a long time, so I think it’s in the club’s interests to make sure it is something people want to read and enjoy. As with everything else about the club I’d like it to be the best it can possibly be so I have offered to canvas supporters’ views on the programme and collate the feedback. I’m hoping we’ll include some sort of survey in the programme itself but I said I would also get the opinions of people here and in my branch of the Supporters’ Club.

So I would welcome your comments about the programme, including but not limited to:
- what do you like?
- what don’t you like?
- what would you like to see more of?
- what would you like to see less of?
- what would you like the programme to include which it doesn’t currently have?
- given the cover price had been £3 for many years before this season’s 50p increase, would you accept a further price increase (those who buy the physical programme) for more pages?

Basically, I’d like any constructive feedback that might help improve the programme. Apart from being a contributor I am not otherwise connected to the club, but apparently a new staff member will soon be starting with responsibility for the programme (the editor also currently provides web and social media content so is understandably stretched a bit thin at times) so I would hope some changes could be implemented if not this season then in time for next season.

Finally, there are regulars in this forum with lots of interesting Forest memories and stories, so if anyone might be potentially interested in contributing to the programme either regularly or as a one-off do please let me know.

Thank you.

 

[Deleted User]

I'm not sure this is massively relevant or helpful but here's my take.

I've not bought a physical programme for well over a decade but I've been getting the digital ones for however long that's been going. The problem is that I don't even open it. I have however done that just now and it seems a lot easier to read than when it first came out and I think I'll probably open it from now on, hopefully. Content-wise, it's exactly as I'd expect but I'll let others say more on that.

One thing I would add is that I only opened it today because of your post above so maybe people need a little reminder now and again. The Ramon Sosa piece is a good example and maybe lobbing out a free page or two on Twitter/Instagram from last weeks so people are reminded and maybe put something out saying what is going to be in the next one would be helpful.

 

[Strummer]

I get the digital versions via email as I’m a MyForest member.

The layout is much improved recently (maybe they got a new designer?) and it’s presented in a clear and concise way.

 

[Annesleyred]

Not seen a digital programme. I've got SC . Do I have to pay for this?

 

[Carlos]

If the programme are ever interested in a Carlos Column let me know. Happy to write a Casserole recipe or a tale or two about completely random topics

 

[Bing Crosby's Head]

Not seen a digital programme. I've got SC . Do I have to pay for this?

They usually send out a couple of emails on match day. The link to the programme comes in the second one (late morning / lunchtime) for 3pm kick offs

 

[redodare]

Thanks for requesting feedback.
Very much appreciated.

I buy a programme every match.
Out of habit really.
My father bought one and I carried on the tradition.
I do sometimes wonder why
Main purpose is to identify opposition players - so please don't remove the teamsheets from the back page .

I always enjoy the softer interviews with the players.
Highlights over the years
Nigel Clough favourite drink: Half of lager
David Prutton ; favourtite hobby : Walking down the bottom of the garden and talking to the shrubs.

Sean O'Driscolls programme notes were a thing of wonder - tactics and details that went on for pages
Nuno's probably the worst of all time. But he get's a pass while we're doing well.

We also use the programme to get an eight year old interested in reading. In fairness his pronunciation of eastern european players names is better than mine. But stuff for kids to read - not just the puzzles welcome .

It would also be the perfect place to get details on stadium plans and to to host longer term planning debates in general

 

[Captain Sinister]

I get the E mailed, digital version - presumeably because I am a season ticket holder.
I do like to flick through it, but will only read the bits that attract my attention.
I appreciate it has to interest all age groups, personal pronouns and genders, so the bits I don't like, I just ignore.
I wouldn't part with £3.50 for the printed copy.
I can buy whole books for less.

 

[SlabSquareHero]

There are too many adverts. In days gone by Ken Smales used to write very newsworthy notes on pages 2 and 3 and there also used to be a very interesting letters page that was not always sugar coated in favour of the club.
The programme tokens were also a route to Wembley tickets in the past.

 

[Captain Sinister]

There are too many adverts. In days gone by Ken Smales used to write very newsworthy notes on pages 2 and 3 and there also used to be a very interesting letters page that was not always sugar coated in favour of the club.
The programme tokens were also a route to Wembley tickets in the past.

That was when it was worth paying out the 1 shilling and 3 pennies it cost.
I used to have an old wooden tea-chest full of Forest programmes from when I first started going to games, up until my first wife and I separated, and I moved out.
I bet they are still up in the loft with my Charles Buchan's Football Monthly magazines, my old stamp Albums (complete with some rare and collectable stamps).

 

[Ian Moore Gone Little]

Thanks for the replies so far and do keep them coming.

I think we’re best leaving Carlos’s recipes for the matchday threads on here so he doesn’t run out of them too soon…

My understanding is that all SC holders and members are sent the digital programme so if anybody isn’t I would hope the club will soon see them right if they contact them.

And yes, I agree that there are too many adverts - I accept the club has lots of things to tell us or flog us but it grates that some of them are repeated (multiple times last season) in the same issue. I would also like there to be more to actually read and also fondly remember Ken Smales’ informative and wrily humorous editorials.

So please keep the suggestions coming. I want us to have a programme we can be as proud of as the team as we look to establish ourselves in the upper reaches of the Premier League.

 

[Flaggers]

There are too many adverts. In days gone by Ken Smales used to write very newsworthy notes on pages 2 and 3 and there also used to be a very interesting letters page that was not always sugar coated in favour of the club.
The programme tokens were also a route to Wembley tickets in the past.

Oh I remember collecting the tokens and it did indeed work for cup final tickets

Ah.. happy days!

 

[football post]

Oh I remember collecting the tokens and it did indeed work for cup final tickets

Ah.. happy days!

I've got every home and away programme from the year we won the league.
All the home ones have got the token cut out. Must have been for a league cup final ticket.

 

[Lady Penelope]

thanks for starting this thread. I get the digital programme, but until recently, I had stopped opening the email because the programme / match day magazine contained very little of interest.

A few points:

What I like .....

women's team pieces

the bits about the history

Grumbles about the present offering .....

there are issues of concern to all supporters that the programme so obviously must highlight, stadium development (and options) being one of them, and training facilities being another outstanding item

the adverts are a fact of life, but when they are repeated it does suggest that there is not enough content to fill the programme, so is content from elsewhere actively sought?

it needs to be proof read, the many errors are embarrassing

simply put, and with due respect for the contributions from Ian Moore Gone Little, there is sfa to read

compared to the offerings from other EPL clubs, it is poor indeed

if the programme seeks to enhance the reputation of Forest, as it should, then I say that it is failing

What I'd like to see .....

more pieces like the informative and interesting Ramon Sosa article

the promotion of a serious discussion about the stadium plans and an invitation to contribute to the debate

more about the B team

more about the enhancements that have taken place at the WFCG (the good, the bad and the ugly)

more articles that stimulate the reader to think rather than being a "customer"

U Reds.

 

[Viktor]

I'd rather they binned it off and the membership was a few quid cheaper, myself.

 

[Barrynakis]

As a kid i used to love the smell of a new programme, fag smoke, Bovril, farts and a programme will always remind me of match days

 

[Costanillas]

I always enjoy the softer interviews with the players.
Highlights over the years
Nigel Clough favourite drink: Half of lager
David Prutton ; favourtite hobby : Walking down the bottom of the garden and talking to the shrubs.

With you on that. Those Shoot-style Q&As were usually the best part of the programme when I was a regular buyer in the 90s (I don’t think I’ve bought more than a dozen since then but never mind).

There was often a question about what the player’s girlfriend thought was his most attractive feature. Ian Woan: “My bank balance.” Kevin Campbell: “That’s unprintable!”

 

[Quntib Hollox]

That was when it was worth paying out the 1 shilling and 3 pennies it cost.
I used to have an old wooden tea-chest full of Forest programmes from when I first started going to games, up until my first wife and I separated, and I moved out.
I bet they are still up in the loft with my Charles Buchan's Football Monthly magazines, my old stamp Albums (complete with some rare and collectable stamps).

Doesn’t every owd bogger have a collection of programmes/fanzines and stamp collection collecting dust in the loft?!

 

[Simmo's Bus]

I have had a season ticket for donkey’s, but have never received a digital match-day programme? Any idea on how I can rectify that?

 

[Deleted User]

I have had a season ticket for donkey’s, but have never received a digital match-day programme? Any idea on how I can rectify that?

Email the ticket office I think and ask them to add your email to the circulation list. Or they’ll click something on your account to make it work. I think that’s what people did a while back.

 

[Simmo's Bus]

Email the ticket office I think and ask them to add your email to the circulation list. Or they’ll click something on your account to make it work. I think that’s what people did a while back.

Thank you

 

[trent end loyal]

I remember back in our euro glory days you could go in the”Souvenir Shop” as it was then when Adrian Sheldrick ran it and there were boxes of away programmes that the club brought back from each game to sell to fans on the counter….got every one that way….AEK Athens away is just a yellow four page folded card with the black AEK crest on the front, greek notes on the inside two pages and the teams on the back in greek….it’s considered a rarity of rarities in the programme world and i’ve seen offers of £400 for it!….Arges Pitesti is a newspaper type programme,as was Cologne’s which is called the GelsbenblochEcho!…they’re worth £50 plus!
Every european away programme back then portrayed Forest in a positive light,research was always spot on too.

 

[Ian Moore Gone Little]

I remember back in our euro glory days you could go in the”Souvenir Shop” as it was then when Adrian Sheldrick ran it and there were boxes of away programmes that the club brought back from each game to sell to fans on the counter….got every one that way….AEK Athens away is just a yellow four page folded card with the black AEK crest on the front, greek notes on the inside two pages and the teams on the back in greek….it’s considered a rarity of rarities in the programme world and i’ve seen offers of £400 for it!….Arges Pitesti is a newspaper type programme,as was Cologne’s which is called the GelsbenblochEcho!…they’re worth £50 plus!
Every european away programme back then portrayed Forest in a positive light,research was always spot on too.

It was the portacabin thing in the Main Stand car park when I started collecting programmes. I’ve just checked and I have all the away European programmes you mention, thanks to having a regular programme order at the time with (my predecessor as a columnist) Peter Tozer. For the Athens one mine isn’t a card but a small, rather flimsy paper 4-pager with little more than the AEK crest and the teams in, as you say, Greek script. Maybe it was a reprint or copy of the card? I also have a separate 4-pager the same size as our home programme, also yellow and in Greek, which I think was created by the late Keith Mellor of the All Our Yesterdays emporium in Carlton. I remember trying to make sense of the Arges Pitesti programme a year or two later when I was doing O level Italian alongside my A levels, as Romanian, being another Romance language, has some similarities with Italian. I’ve got both the red and orange programmes for the final as well as a special edition Malmö published.

I’ve looked at old programmes before in my programme features, but usually for games against the day’s opposition. There might be some mileage in a future season in just looking at particular items of interest from my collection, even if they aren’t connected with the opponents.

 

[Strummer]

Doesn’t every owd bogger have a collection of programmes/fanzines and stamp collection collecting dust in the loft?!

Not if you live in an apartment…!

(I‘ve got a bunch of stuff crated up somewhere in my garage).

 

[chaospunx]

I have never not been to a game and not brought a program that's since 1983 used to read them cover to cover when I was younger these days I pretty much never even open them it's just some weird routine we seem to pick up oh and my son likes them and he will occasionally at least open it.
Sorry this doesn't help your question at all but hopefully put you at ease that you can put what you want in there and I'll still buy one lol
But seriously some good ideas above