A Mission of Disengagement: How a Local Paper Alienated Itself from Its City

The absence of incisive reporting will be their downfall, I believe. They should be all over EvertonÂ’s decline from 5th to 11th, BarkleyÂ’s bizarre transition from exciting starlet to ridiculous back-passing marionette, LukakuÂ’s dreadful decline in form...

Local newspapers throughout the country have had to reinvent themselves, some more successfully than others.

I don’t think the Echo is going to change it’s approach – purely for the reasons Chris describes in his article. It’s notable that the journos it employs tend to move on to national titles – not always within Trinity Mirror – within a couple of years.

Things like employing a died-in-the-wool RS fan to report on Everton news (not O’Keefe – a guy who was pictured bawling at Crystanbul last season). They treat the fanbase with contempt, and are in the pockets of the club in putting down any negative talk. I think I recall Greg O’Keefe attending one of the BU meetings at The Casa in a personal capacity – as the paper wouldn’t be reporting on it. Despite Sky having a camera crew there.

The RedEchoÂ’s on borrowed time. Away from the football, itÂ’s just pish. I really donÂ’t see why people spend ١-4 a week buying it, other than out of habit.

Certainly explains some things.

As far as Everton is concerned the Echo’s credibility and lickspittle attitude is indisputable. It has allowed Kenwright and his board to get away with things it would not dare to with the Red half.

Without serious question from BK or the Echo our already well paid manager was allowed to moonlight in Brazil at precisely the time when other managers were gearing up for the new season.

The Echo accepted without question why Everton underwent its worst preseason in living memory.

The Echo did not mention nor query whether it may have resulted in our players being completely unfit for the first few months of the season.

Echo Â’expertsÂ’ were also silent while Martinez philosophy was inflicting the most boring slow moving rubbish onto spectators since the Walter Smith era.

Without question from those so called Â’expertsÂ’, Martinez spouted ridiculous mantras about possession being more important than goal attempts.

Had they two brain cells to rub together they had a duty to readers that come above paper politics.

Currently we are in a stadium bubble and the important question is whether the Echo has a prick or the gumption to burst it.

Chris, more power to your pen.

OK, maybe we wonÂ’t get parity with the RS but surely something more than the shit we get now.

For me, the Echo started to go down hill once Tommy Smith started (with Howard Kendall?) the letters section. Smith was always very abusive towards Everton and it was obvious that our complaints were being ignored. Despite writing dozens of letters to the pock-faced, lying, dirty fucker, not one of them was ever published. For me that was the beginning of the end.

They could also be doing the current board a favour because any negative campaign in the Echo would make a greater number of Evertonians question Bill and his associates and make life very difficult for the club at least in the short-term.

However, if the Echo is only adopting a sympathetic position towards the board for purely financial reasons due to the many links identified by Chris, then that is very worrying not just from an Everton perspective but from every point of view be it politically, socially or economically.

Newspapers and the media in general shouldnÂ’t be so over-focused on pandering to the largest percentile of their audience, they should be producing stories that extend its audience by giving them solid and reliable information, and the only way of doing that is to investigate and carry out proper journalism on behalf of its readership, it would be more expensive, it may even prove hazardous but if any media outlet wants to be taken seriously it has to be more than an adult version of the Beano or the Dandy.

If big business - Everton is a big business in its own city - controls and influences the media, as this article suggests it might, the population, on Merseyside at least, will not get the information they need to form a balanced and fair judgement on the club and its hierarchy and if there are any skeletons in the cupboard, it will come as a great shock to many if or when they are revealed.

Matt Traynor has it right too when he says its been going on for years and the reason is not just the Trinity Mirror tie in. Sadly Liverpool FC are Â’THE STORYÂ’ as far as almost all media outlets are concerned.

For the Echo to do the job as outlined by the OP, then somehow fans and fan groups should somehow get the national media interested enough to run the stories that the Echo can get behind by little more than reprinting them as someone elseÂ’s work.

Getting the national media to look beyond LFC as the only football story on Merseyside is a mammoth task but maybe that is what it will take. I hope we can gain those with expertise in this area to join the effort.

UP THE BLUES.

You are correct: it will take the national media to take this on.

Mind you, remember when the Blue Union was in full flow? That arsehole Samuels at the Daily Mail wrote a piece hero-worshipping Bill? Well I say he wrote it... it could well have been Bill himself!

Unfortunately the nationals canÂ’t see past Chelsea, Man City, Man Utd, Arsenal and the RS.

I was a regular Echo reader but stopped when they started printing the Echo in Oldham. Before the internet revolution, the Echo was the only way to keep up with local news and events as well as the football side. But now instead of it being an afternoon edition paper, you can buy it in the morning just like a national paper, so for me its lost that updated local news.

As for why we don’t get the same critical inspection of our board as the other lot, well maybe the fact that our chairman is a local boy. Whereas the other lot have what I call absentee landlords, so far easier to be critical of American owners, who wouldn’t ever read the Echo.

I don’t blame the reporters – they have their jobs to worry about and it is down to the Echo management to sort this out. Given the facts that Chris has reported, that is not going to change.

IÂ’ve always said that our owners could teach a thing or two to some of the main political parties, they are that good at manipulating the press.

HereÂ’s a starter for ten if the Echo want to ask some questions:

Why have we had four Vibrac in loans in four years?

What is Philip GreenÂ’s involvement at EFC?

Why do the board refuse to invest in their own business?

After three failed ground moves, do you actually think you can take EFC forward?

Aston Villa are due to be sold after 12 months, they said they had offers from all over the world. Is EFC really on the market, and of so, why canÂ’t you name a figure as the Aston Villa chairman did?

Why is our commercial performance so poor? Do you think Kitbag was a good deal?

Joe Beardwood basically poured scorn on your Â’business planÂ’; he stated you didnÂ’t have one!

What is the plan now WHP has fallen through?

Hi Andrew

If you or someone from the paper were to post a reply (whatever it is) your credibility would rise dramatically.

http://ToffeeWeb.com/season/14-15/comment/fan/30110.html

Regards

They genuinely believe they have done and continue to do a great job. And the Echo supports that view.

These questions will never be asked until the fans start to make their voices heard. But as long as the Wizard of Oz gets a standing ovation at GP every time his fat gob appears on the big screen then no one will dare put forward these concerns.

Why on earth would I look in a newspaper for information Everton where there is far more depth, knowledge and passion within these hallowed pages?

It's a challenge for print media globally. I don’t think the Echo or many local papers will survive and not many national titles will survive either. The Internet has destroyed their business model – young people (by which I mean anyone under 35) just don’t read newspapers. I don’t think my teenage kids have ever read one, and I certainly read one every day at their age.

TheyÂ’re DOOMED Captain Manwaring... DOOMED I tell yee.

Also, a lot of what I read online in some of the papers is utter fantasy.

One of the reasons why the Red Echo is bigger on supporting the Reds, however, is that they win more football matches than us. I take a look at their squad and our squad and I donÂ’t really see the reasons for this. They too are a failing brand. They couldnÂ’t hold on to Suarez or Torres and they have made a right hash of the Sterling situation. Their recruitment last year was woeful.

I accept that the relationship between the Echo and the club is going to be polite at best, thatÂ’s why I look for my news on ToffeeWeb! I donÂ’t go to the Telegraph or the Mail to read left wing propaganda any more than I would go to the Echo to read incisive critical reporting on Everton.

I agree with most of the posters above, some great questions by Kevin Tully. It is shameful that, with all the money in football, we havenÂ’t seen any progress on the Ground issue but it doesnÂ’t completely explain our lack of success on the pitch. LetÂ’s have some belief from the players and management.

There is nothing quite like buying a Sunday broadsheet the day after an impressive and unexpected Everton victory. Reading the main report and catching a glimpse of further comment, often in darker print, at the bottom of the right hand page. Then deciding to read the rest of the Sports section and leaving that bit to savour later.

The look from the missus as the sound of rustling pages interrupts her enjoyment of Countryfile. The internet just doesnÂ’t do it. When IÂ’m reading a proper big paper I still have, God help me, the childlike belief that I am reading the truth.

I suppose many will see me as a dinosaur harking for a dead era and the fact that IÂ’m writing this online doesnÂ’t help my argument. How about the internet providing the instant and print providing the analysis?

The only thing to come out of it for me was that 6 months back they had that Patrick Barclay on. What a smug opinionated oink he is, but they were discussing all things Liverpool and Barclay said in time I think Rodgers could become the best Liverpool manager ever. I just hope they replay it to him when Rodgers proves he is one of the worst Liverpool managers ever.

I also note that relatively few Evertonians ever post comments on the Echo, and some who do openly criticize the EchoÂ’s piss poor EFC reportage.

Excellent article Chris, a cautionary tale indeed. Gone are the days when my two elder brothers (one a Blue, one a Red) would fight over the pink echo before I got sight of the crumpled rag. (Holy Cow, IÂ’m turning in to Bill K!)

The Echo is pretty much an irrelevance these days. Other big European football cities, particularly in Spain and Italy, have gone down the line of just printing papers about their clubs, and there seemingly appears to be sustainable demand for this.

If you still see The Echo, even online, youÂ’ll be well used to reading about desperadoes, dog bites and Kim Kardashian wannabes. Apparently this kind of story passes for news nowadays!

There is very little investigative effort put into local politics, development or anything that doesnÂ’t involve phony "celebrities", the Beatles or Hillsborough..

The paper's finished and the fools running it into the ground no doubt blame it all on the internet when itÂ’s their fault.

I wouldnÂ’t use it as toilet paper and the sooner it dies and is replaced by a real local newspaper, the better.