no pools in tonights paper. anyone have an opinion? to be honest the main reason i bought the mail was for pools news, i think they may have shot themselves in the foot

Wish someone would shoot you.

The Mail are seriously deluded if they think people won't go to the match becuase of there lack of coverage, however people won't buy the paper if they have no Pools coverage at all. Every day will be like a Saturday all boxing and Sunderland!!

As it stands the Pools news like the rest of the paper is a full day old, gone are the days when you relied on the Town Final to see if we'd signed someone. They should cover the games as best as they can if this continues they'll lose readers. Pools fans don't need the Mail, the message boards and official website provide all the news and gossip we need.

Get off the mails back. They do a wonderful job. And their reporters are top notch.

Some of them have lovely hairs as well.

agreed

there all lovely down at t'mail

As it has been said they both need there heads banging togeather.
I get the mail every night only for the coverage of pools which is first class by the way.

Some fans still need the local paper to stay in touch with Pools', not everyone even in this day and age have the use if the internet.

The sales of the Mail have gone down, since they moved to Sunderland and just the one issue per day, as opposed to the town final when it was printed in the town.

This will seriously hit their sales even more, I had purchased mine and had to go to another shop when I mentioned to someone in the queue their was no coverage of Pools for tonight's game he placed it back and left without a copy. Thats 1 copy less tonight. So how many more if this continues?

A local paper needs to cover as much local news as possible. I can see the Mail going the same way as the Football Mail and disappear, with only a copy of the Sunderland echo appearing with some news on the issues of Hartlepool featuring in that. Just my opinion.

And your proof is....?

I find it hilarious how childish the Mail is. A friend told me today they had stopped coverage so he rang his newsagent up to cancel his daily delivery. (only gets it for Pools news) The newsagents response.... "not another one!!"

I find it funny as fuck and even better if sales drop dramatically.

It is just a shitty local rag but I think that there will be some who rely on it. It is bad for both Pools' and The Hartlepool Mail if there is no Pools' coverage.......

Your first 7 words sum it up. We should have a paper we can be proud of but its been shite for years.

It has been rubbish for years but the sad thing is people rely on it. The reports generate interest but it is a reminder to people that when / where Pools are playing.

I think that the mail will end up being the main loser though if they continue with this stance.....

What newspaper is decent these days, even the daily tabloids only the times or the telegraph are worth reading, the rest are shite.

What is it supposed to do, it can only write on what happens, frigging ell, Hartlepool isn't New York!!!

How can they write about pools if the club gives them no access

I don't see how a ban on press passes and photographs prevents reports and previews.....

Why don't they just make it up like they usually do?

They have scored a worse own goal than that lad from Cheltenham today. I've heard LOADS* of people tonight say they picked up the Mail in the paper shop and put it straight back down.

*at least three people

I put this on the board a while back and it makes a good read. Who is right? I bet the Mail got the pictures from last nights game - how - The club is taking on all the press photographers from around the country and media outlets because the press all piss in the same pot. Wake up pools because you are the only club in the country at war with your own towns free publicity machine.. Grow up the pair of you's ...


Hartlepool United F.C & The Media War


IN DEFENCE OF THE PRESS


THE recent news that HUFC have banned both the Hartlepool Mail and the Northern Echo has all the makings of a serious own goal by the club.


Both papers have recently run articles confirming that they have been banned for the foreseeable future and this can only hurt the club in my humble opinion.

It appears that the original dispute has something to do with commercial image rights as the club has been banned from taking photos at home games and was very upset when the local paper was supplied with images from the Northern Echo. I am sure that everyone has noticed that the copyright notice on the bottom of all articles on the official web site seems to be much larger than of late.

Of course, this is nothing new in the history of the club. Speaking as an ex-Mail employee I can remember numerous conflicts involving Arthur Pickering, Jeff Stelling, Colin Cameron and James Bond on the Mail side, and Vince Barker, John Smart and Garry Gibson on the Pools side.

Invariably, the disputes would be petty and would be as a result of a perceived criticism of players, managers, owners or even just a misinterpretation of a match report, and which would involve a two-week ban, petulance on both sides which was then forgotten in a month.

But this seems to be far more serious.

The board of Hartlepool United need to finally understand the uniqueness of owning a football club. It is not as if IOR bought a manufacturing division where profit, turnover and capabilities can be quantified on a spreadsheet - it simply is a football club.

A football club that causes countless discussions and arguments in pubs and clubs, a football club where supporters have spent tens of thousands of pounds over decades to grotty dim ends of the country to watch their team in an uncovered stand in torrential rain on a cold January Tuesday night. A club that inspires devotion and passion and faith and belief. To some supporters HUFC is their church - when did that last happen in a manufacturing plant!! This is a principle the owners refuse to accept.

I suspect what really sticks in the throat of the board, is the fact that they cannot do without the supporters - it is their money that ultimately pays the bills, and to be beholding to this group I suspect sticks in their collective throats.

This is where the press can help the club, with its daily stories (not the sanitised Politburo versions on the official web site), its comments, rumours and match previews, when it is done right and generates interest, a well written preview can add hundreds to the gate of a home game.

Down the years, it has been standard practice by clubs around the country to leak interest of a player to the press, therefore getting it to write an article that suddenly makes the intended player aware of the interest and therefore making the negotiation far easier. It was a comfortable association that benefited both parties.

But the naivety of owning a football club is long gone, gone forever are the genial chairmen and now all clubs are run in an extremely hard nosed manner where multiple revenue streams are paramount.

I would hope that this current spat would be a storm in a teacup and in a normal environment would be resolved with an off the record chat over lunch and a nice bottle of wine. But the current (non football) management team have consistently shown their contempt for supporters and press alike and I suspect something major will have to give before this current dispute is resolved.

Ken just never learns does he.

By Steve Dawson


http://hartlepoolunited.rivals.net/teams/pgclubhome.aspx?clubid=37

Good article but be prepared to be shot down by the followers!!!

Spot on there, it's been bobbins for an age

What ever happened to Windy Dicky Coomber??

Ken never learns......

What a load of fcuking A1 horse/dog/cat/man/woman/boy/girl sh1te....................

So why did the Mail completely ignore Pools even existed for 2 days and then start writing again?
People have already cancelled their delivery so may be too little too late.

Serious question here. If it's so crap and you don't buy it and aren't bothered about it, why do you go on (at length) about it?

Cos it narks me how shit it is and how much of a joke it is. A primary school child can use better english than that bunch.

For a 40p paper we pay a 25p delivery charge so I have been thinking of cancelling anyway - I only really get it for the Pools coverage, so its getting cancelled.

Of course the town needs the Mail, while any paper contains the dross of eveyday life, how organisations would love it if there was no indepenant voice to highlight the things that affect your life... the hospital is an example...no Mail and we'd have had to rely on the politicians words ...anybody who buys a newspaper just for the 'match report' and doesn't see the irony of it is beyond help.

Any form of freedom of speech in this country is a very important right our forefathers died and fought for. The bigger picture is having a form that is not printing the sanitised media dross that some information outlet wants you to read and believe.
If the mail prints letters from members of the public that are not in line with a companies agenda, then differences will appear between the two. We live in a capitalist society that allows press coverage that is colourful, sensational, annoying and right out intrusive. But with out the likes of the Mail, were would you turn for independent news coverage of Hpool in the town.
Its easy saying we don’t need this etc but look around the world to see countries that don’t have independent news coverage. So short sighted followers!

If I was to look for the word 'pompous' and 'moron' on the internet, there would be a picture of you there for reference fatfingers, or whatever you rib-busting name change is this week

For every shite story, there is another shite story

Your support for it has nothing to do with the fact your kids football team are in there every week, has it?