The Herald to dump horse racing

Barry and Shayne, The Herald is not a high-brow paper no, and PE is a small centre - coastal town (not too small in population) on the east coast. Interesting to note however is Phumelela's Karin Le Roux's endeavours to save this press activity? (smacks of desperation) when all of the high brow papers in the country already do not carry racing for years already - unless of course very major Festival races (I stand under correction - the July apparently was pressed this year, but the Met for instance, for years only got coverage in The Sunday Times the day AFTER the race?).

in fact, which paper still carries racing in the sports section every week in SAF?

so its ok if one small paper does this.... what happens when the bigger paper start to follow and its too late to throw something in the bag of tricks to stop this...

Thats the point Russell thanks,Horse racing is already became a forgotten sport/pastime in SA

Don Wrote:

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> perhaps Phumelela would like to participate in a
> forum discussion like RA? Scotia?

Also trying Don

I don't have all the answers or connections but I wouldn't like this sport to be lost all together after all the hard work that many put into this game. If someone can do something they need to step up to the plate and give horse racing the home run it needs/deserves

@russelldewee:

The first step- transparency and accountability..... very, very first!

(td)

This is a world-wide problem not restricted to So Africa. Racing has done a piss-poor job of cultivating sports editors.

Must say that the Citizen is full of racing today front and back pages plus plenty inside, nothing wrong, great punt for racing -D

Barry Irwin Wrote:

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> This is a world-wide problem not restricted to So
> Africa. Racing has done a piss-poor job of
> cultivating sports editors.


Barry, racing has done a worse than piss-poor job of cultivating their own customers in some countries! let alone editors and photographers - the eyes of the customers not on the track...even here in the UK where there is good coverage of racing in the press, it is still dismal when you consider vying for new entry customers - reading the racing page is like trying to learn greek, and going to the race course is worse! like a ship in the mist with no help for beginners. No wonder so many give up trying shortly after the gates of 'trying racing' open. 'Its boring' say the ones who you can still engage (the more difficult ones say 'its crooked innit?') - we already know its not boring - its just that they don't understand the spectacle - why? lack of information and direction! Unfortunately you have to know someone who will make the time to explain it to you...

I wonder how many of those young corporates Phum had a special day for in Jhb are still hooked...

Umlilo - first step is acknowledging what the product is and who the customer/s; market segment is...its worse than we think I suspect lol! (marketing 101?)

Dave agree with you fully, lovely to see The Citizen this morning, I hadn't seen your post here so mentioned the great job they have done under Turffontein Kenilworth Today. (tu)

@Barry, Scotia, etc:

Besides the marketing elements (product, market segmentation, acceptability, etc), the potential market (even 'captive' in this instance), has to be researched, analysed and then presented with the product.

Here, there are no answers or accountability whatsoever! No considerations of allergic reactions, unpalatable taste, or (even to the extreme), whether kosher or halaal!

In short, no 'customer careline'; if there is, it's not manned (like our President's 'hotline' or some Government departments.... 'your call is important to us.....')!!!!

Finally, The Citizen is not everyone's cup of tea (it bolsters its circulation figures by giving free handouts at chain stores, garages, etc and it carries its 'manufactured during apartheid' rubber stamp to this day!) and is not available countrywide.

I cancelled my subscription to it after years of innumerable non-deliveries (at least twice a month)! They had all sorts of excuses until one of the delivery managers admitted that a carrier was selling the papers and pocketing the cash whilst blaming the non-delivery on 'a passerby must have pulled it out of the gate/box, etc!'



(td)