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[CaithnessLadies]

Little bit of a bias rant, What I am really annoyed at is our county's first ever ladies football team are competing in the Scottish Cup tomorrow against Hibernian. We got no exposure in this weeks paper. We have a squad of 18 female footballers in Edinburgh ready to represent there county, we didn't ask for much an inch, a mention...anything! We are trying to raise awareness for the sport in the north of Scotland, obviously we understand the paper must make money by selling advertising space to continue, but come on! We are hoping to take this club to the next level, we are not another pub team, we are the ONLY ladies football club In Caithness, to stand a chance we need the county's support!In behalf of the club I would like to thank everyone who has made tomorrow possible, thank you for the support we have revived and I hope we can rely on your support in future matches.Yours in grassroots footballMarkHead coach Caithness ladies football club

[morvenview]

You paid for a mention did you? (Qoute " we didn't ask for much an inch a mention....anything!)
And the shock is what??????? What did you ask? or......

[charlie]

Mark,

Perhaps some prior promotion may have got the county interested?
A wee rant don't help however bad you feel.
If folks dont know....well!

Best of luck on the day and bring that cup back!!

[CaithnessLadies]

You paid for a mention did you? (Qoute " we didn't ask for much an inch a mention....anything!) And the shock is what??????? What did you ask? or......The shock is that the girls are competing at a national level and that it isn't deemed newsworthy

[Bill Fernie]

If you need more exposure Caithness.org always offers that completely free if you tell us about what you are doing. At present you have no profile and not a page ion the Caithness.org sports section. The index pages are free and can have all your details and a photo on that page. You can send reports about any of your games with photos and we will add them to the web site and link to your profile page.

What you need to remeber is that nowadays the local paper has less reporters than they did years ao. They and we need you to send your information in. It may be that the paper thought to wait until you filed your story about the match.

Send anything you would like on to bill@caithness.org and complete the fomr in the sports section to get your free page. Go here http://sport.caithness.org/submit_details.php

G (http://sport.caithness.org/submit_details.php)ood Luck for the game in Edinburgh

Bill

[sids]

They and we need you to send your information in.

Oh dear. Do you think Caithnessladies has sent no info to the Groat but is now ranting about the sex discrimination issues of the info not appearing in the Groat?

[Bill Fernie]

I think it could be more down to lack of details rather than anything else. I get information sent to me from time to time but in a form as if I will write an article which I rarely have time to do. all the media is pressed for time now and items that some in form ready to use are more likely to get used than if its just in the form of small snippets not joined up into an article. A photo also helps as it gives something to see. Group photos are very popular for a local paper and web site as more folk are likely to view it.

I would say generally ladies football probably has lower profile. To raise that as I say my suggestions are for the local paper and here would be to send reasonably written two or three paragraphs about the club, or about the games, preferably with a photo or two. Caithness.org items also flow from parts of the site on the Caithness.org Facebook pages and that gives an even wider coverage.

The weakest items are ones that come with scant details and not written in a ready made article. Sometimes the newspapers will do it all if the item is likely to be interesting to their readers. But as time is short in the media now the more you help by providing ready copy the more likely it is to be used. There are many competing items arriving in the email here and even more at the newspaper so if space and time are limited you need to do more than send in the bare information. You are competing for attention with professionally prepared copy from companies and many local groups are well versed in getting their items on.

I am not a journalist but have been receiving press releases for a good number of years. The items need to be received in plenty of time ahead of the dates of events and if its too close to deadlines for the paper then they will just not get to it in time. In my own case my email is enormous and if I am away then it waits will I come back to it maybe a week later. But even the newspaper has many deadlines and pressure so get things in as early as you can to increase the chances of it being used. Nowadays there is much more coming in to every media source but not enough time for it all to be used. I still receive items saying can you put this on for something happening tomorrow or the next day. Often its too late for me as I may not even be in Caithness.

Facebook is one way to put items up yourselves and if linked to Caithness.or Facebook will flow to many other places if people LIKE it.

The above applies to all groups trying to get their news out or raise their profiles. Another tip regarding the written pieces please write them in third person grammar and not first person as it does not read well. If you want to use first person use quotes. I receive items telling me about groups such "we are doing this or that". But that needs to be changed around mostly. I know its basic to some people to some people depending on your writing experience but it takes time to change it all to make it sound right for readers. Correctly written pieces will usually go on fast on the web site but if it needs changes for the newspaper they may run out of time.

Thinks about posters in jpeg form and you can now add those to the What's On. A nice poster on there will catch the eye and you can have all your details in. But try to do jpegs as word docs cannot go on and even if they are changed to jpeg they often do not make the change very well. More and more are now going in and you can see several examples now in the "Whats on"

Hope that helps.

[veekay]

I wish this was not such a common story. Haven't you noticed how womens' sport is ignored? Ladies cricket world cup big splash, lots of coverage NO. Ladies football world cup big splash wall to wall coverage NO. Ladies anything - well you might find it on the red button if you are very lucky. If the 'big names' don't get coverage small names don't stand a chance - even in their locla papers. The media in any of its forms just don't do ladies unless they are topless! Why? because it doesn't sell nobody is interested in watching them. Well yes they are and if you cover the sports, the audiences will be there.
Sorry rant over but his has been going on for so long and nothing is ever done about it.
Good luck Caithness Ladies

[sids]

Can't the ladies just enjoy playing games of football? Do you really aspire to the degrading level of media attention and public hysteria accorded to the men's sports?

[Bill Fernie]

The Caithness Ladies Football Club are right to try and raise their profile. Girls drop out of sports very young in this country and that affects their fitness possibly for their whole lives. Boys have always seen their sport given lots of coverage and so are encouraged to play more often. But there is national problem with young people in this country and its obesity. The average weight of young people has gone up and up relentlessly. Activity levels have gone downwards. Young kids play less out doors and teenagers spend too much time in front of the computer and TV.

Medical people are predicting a huge rise in diabetes from the current younger generation as they get older. They are even saying older people will have the unfortunate experience in more case in burying their children - something we do not want to see. If people die younger from a range of diseases including more heart diseases then many would wish we had done more now and in the next few years to get folk active.

Straying a little from more coverage in the newspaper but the two are maybe tied together. More coverage for ladies sport might encourage more activity by young women and girls and they will have less health problems in later life. The predictions for health problems are indeed gloomy but they can be changed if more people get active. Activity can be team games like football but for those not interested any form of activity is beneficial - say swimming, dancing or walking and cycling. There is wide range of sports clubs in Caithness and they all welcome new members.

Hope its going well for the ladies footy team in Edinburgh.

[CaithnessLadies]

The reporter actually phoned me for some more information on the club after i had sent an email advising of what the club was up to. As for womens sport in general the lack of coverage nation wide is disgusting.

As for Sunday we were well beaten by a vastly experienced Hibernian, the girls gave it everything and that is all I can ask! So it is back to training for us to focus on the up coming games.