Hotspur Magazine/Spurs Monthly RIP

[Gutter Boy]

I've just seen the notice in with June's edition announcing that it will be the final ever one.

I know being a club publication it's always been a bit 'pravda', but I will be quite sad when next month is the first time in nearly 20 years (August 1994 was the first edition by the looks of it) that it won't be dropping through my door at the start of the month. :-(

 

[Kingdawson]

wow that is pretty damn sad man. I remember i used to live of Spurs monthly as a kid

 

[Yiddo]

I get a Spurs monthly every 4 months.

 

[Superhudd]

Should make a digital option. More people would purchase IMO

 

[superspurs]

Should make a digital option. More people would purchase IMO

I believe that is what is happening, going to members I think... sure I read that somewhere.

Edit via twitter:
Here's our final edition of Hotspur! After 30 years producing a monthly magazine, we're going digital for members ow.ly/i/2eRIe

 

[thfcsteff]

Very sad to see this. I've written for it a fair few times in it's various guises, but it was getting tougher and tougher to get any outstandingly entertaining editorial in there. One time, about 6 years ago maybe, I wrote an article on egregious hairstyles over the years and absolutely slaughtered Alana Brazil among others (all in good taste!!!!) but alas 'twas watered down to about an inch of humour in the end of it. They went totally 'in-house' about three years ago now. I think it's a great shame though. There was fantastic opportunity to get a little edgier with their editorial IMHO, but there we go...I will try and dig out the original 'hairstyles' piece and post. Aside from doing some stuff in the Opus, my favorite feature was one I did with Tony Galvin. Ledge.

Hotspur RIP.

 

[Millsy_Yiddo]

Bit Gutted about this, read it religiously as a kid from the day my Dad got our subscription.

 

[Gutter Boy]

I believe that is what is happening, going to members I think... sure I read that somewhere.

Edit via twitter:
Here's our final edition of Hotspur! After 30 years producing a monthly magazine, we're going digital for members ow.ly/i/2eRIe

An eNewsletter is not much of a substitute for a 100 page glossy magazine. You just don't get the depth or the quality online.

 

[Gutter Boy]

Should make a digital option. More people would purchase IMO

Its circulation was about 33k, which is pretty big. About 1/3 of FourFourTwo say.

At nearly £3.50 a pop, that's annual income for the club of getting towards £1.5m.

 

[DHSF]

Very sad to see this. I've written for it a fair few times in it's various guises, but it was getting tougher and tougher to get any outstandingly entertaining editorial in there. One time, about 6 years ago maybe, I wrote an article on egregious hairstyles over the years and absolutely slaughtered Alana Brazil among others (all in good taste!!!!) but alas 'twas watered down to about an inch of humour in the end of it. They went totally 'in-house' about three years ago now. I think it's a great shame though. There was fantastic opportunity to get a little edgier with their editorial IMHO, but there we go...I will try and dig out the original 'hairstyles' piece and post. Aside from doing some stuff in the Opus, my favorite feature was one I did with Tony Galvin. Ledge.

Hotspur RIP.

So youre to blame for its downfall?

When are we going to get a THFC sky channel anyways?

 

[billyiddo]

i just remember it being quite bland really - i guess it's another thing the internet has killed off.

re THFC sky tv - more chance of them investing in their internet tv channel id have thought

 

[DHSF]

i just remember it being quite bland really - i guess it's another thing the internet has killed off.

re THFC sky tv - more chance of them investing in their internet tv channel id have thought

I think I still get charged £3 a month, I registered when I had a mac and that thing never worked on a mac.

Now I cant even use it etc. Should get it sorted.

 

[chicken_badge]

Hmmm I've always thought it's overpriced nothingness really. I mean, you buy 442 and you tend to learn something new, like an article about a random away trip to Anzh. In Hotspur it was all interviews and articles about stuff I knew. Plus because it was basically the PR arm of the club it couldn't really put anything juicy or controversial. The last issue I bought was when they had the plans for the Northumberland Park stadium.

Having said that, just because I won't buy it doesnt mean its a valid publication and if they are making a profit on it then it is a shame from that point of view. There's also the statement it makes, to see our mag in shops up and down the country. Actually, that is one thing I will miss.... everytime I'm in WH Smiths I do check to see if it is on the shelves. I always turn the Arsenal mag upside down and if ours is there, I put it in front of the gooner rag. Childish and petty I know but so is holding your breath when on the Picadilly Line when the doors open at Arsenal tube station and to date I have never inhaled any Arsenal germs.

 

[mudshark]

i just remember it being quite bland really - i guess it's another thing the internet has killed off.

re THFC sky tv - more chance of them investing in their internet tv channel id have thought

Bland and full of ads is the way I remember it.

 

[a spur from swansea]

Hmmm I've always thought it's overpriced nothingness really. I mean, you buy 442 and you tend to learn something new, like an article about a random away trip to Anzh. In Hotspur it was all interviews and articles about stuff I knew. Plus because it was basically the PR arm of the club it couldn't really put anything juicy or controversial. The last issue I bought was when they had the plans for the Northumberland Park stadium.

Having said that, just because I won't buy it doesnt mean its a valid publication and if they are making a profit on it then it is a shame from that point of view. There's also the statement it makes, to see our mag in shops up and down the country. Actually, that is one thing I will miss.... everytime I'm in WH Smiths I do check to see if it is on the shelves. I always turn the Arsenal mag upside down and if ours is there, I put it in front of the gooner rag. Childish and petty I know but so is holding your breath when on the Picadilly Line when the doors open at Arsenal tube station and to date I have never inhaled any Arsenal germs.

Lol,thats what i use to do pick up a few issues and cover the goons,man ure,and chelski comics.....bit small time but made me happy.

what i didn't understand as a marketing tool there was never any catalogues in it,no offers for kits or any club merchandise,e.g if you buy the magazine you can get 10 % off at the club shop,no competitions to win tickets nothing to target fringe supportetrs or to attract new supporters.

there was some nice articles in it but nothing i didn't really know already,though I will miss the xmas issue of a recent signing with a blue pointy xmas hat on and those whistles that blow out a piece of paper you find in crackers.

 

[Gutter Boy]

i just remember it being quite bland really - i guess it's another thing the internet has killed off.

re THFC sky tv - more chance of them investing in their internet tv channel id have thought

I'm not so sure about that. This ran from 1994-2013. The internet really took off on a mass scale in about 1998 (with GG following not long after).

If the internet did cause it's downfall, then it was a very Habsburgian one.

 

[AdamB]

Its circulation was about 33k, which is pretty big. About 1/3 of FourFourTwo say.

At nearly £3.50 a pop, that's annual income for the club of getting towards £1.5m.

You realise that there's costs involved as well?!? I assume its being stopped as its no longer profitable, so rather than the club losing £1.5m, closing it should be beneficial

 

[AdamB]

Its the sort of thing which you read til you're about 10 years old and then you realise that its garbage/propoganda. Cant say that the world is a worst place with it no longer existing

 

[Spursalot]

You realise that there's costs involved as well?!? I assume its being stopped as its no longer profitable, so rather than the club losing £1.5m, closing it should be beneficial

It's not closed. It's moved to a digital form.


As for the internet killing it off, that's very unlikely. It's been out many years whilst the internet has been around. Far more plausible that the people who run it want to cut costs and are therefore moving to a cheaper online medium.

 

[Gutter Boy]

You realise that there's costs involved as well?!? I assume its being stopped as its no longer profitable, so rather than the club losing £1.5m, closing it should be beneficial

Yeah sure. But I doubt the print run, an editor and a journalist or two make a massive dent into that. Remember there will be advertising revenue in addition to the sales income too.

I'd imagine its more rationalisation/streamlining of portfolio, rather than to do with profits.