I am the programme editor at a Step 5 club, or, as the commentators like to say, the 9th tier of English football. We produce a printed programme: our print run was about 30 at the start of the season, but as we're having a successful one the print run has crept up to 45 and we're still selling out.
Why do we do it? It would be so much easier and cheaper to just have an online offering, and if we did I'd be able to do some really cool things with layout, content and interactivity, as well as have more relaxed deadlines. It's tempting.
This is my routine for a Saturday game: using the last programme as a template I do us a cover. It might be a player portrait, an action shot taken by one of the many talented local photographers who are happy to give their stuff for free. There's the stats stuff, which I try to leave as late as I can, a bunch of local paper and social media snippets, and the regular manager and chairman columns. It takes an amazing amount of time considering how much is pure boilerplate. Visiting clubs often send you a bunch of history filler that you struggle to edit down, and you're tempted to insert lies just to check who's reading this stuff; "in the 1921-22 season we were relegated to the South Brighton League, which was odd because we're from Yorkshire". They are also liable, in lieu of anything resembling a team sheet, to send you a list of all 40 of their registered players, implicitly inviting you to "pick the bones out of that lot".
I print at home. The printer belongs to the club, and I can claim back from the chairman for consumables (I hope!). I have to be conscious that the more big fields of colour (dark winter skies!) I print, the more expensive it all gets. It's nice to have a higher grade of paper for the cover, but that costs more. I acquired a ream of green A4 from a contact who probably nicked it from work and that gives a nice look to the fixtures/ results/ tables pages, but if I had paid for it that's another cost. To save money we have bought cheaper print cartridges, which would be great if you didn't have to take them out every 10 pages to wipe off excess ink from the nozzles. This whole thing's probably using up a whole working day of my time. I just finished folding and stapling for tonight's game and I'm going crosseyed. This, after all, is time I could have been spending on the sofa watching Diana Rigg in The Avengers.
So why do it? Because people like printed programmes. Older supporters like them because they're "not very good with computers" - non-league football attracts quite a few older supporters who once maybe travelled to watch West Ham or whoever, but who can't manage it these days. Groundhoppers like them: it's a kind of certificate of attendance. Ordinary people like them: it's something to hold in their hand. Recently, helping out on gate duty I was really gratified at the number of people buying programmes, and by the number of people, especially visiting supporters, telling me how much they appreciate them.
If we sell 45 programmes at a pound each, well I'm no good at maths but I can do THAT... deduct the costs above, and we're maybe making a few bob. If some kind soul sponsors the programme, why thank you, and of course we have a few advertisers, but they're mostly doing it because they're someone's mate or out of pity, and thank you to them too. Not to blow my own trumpet, but if the club has a retired person who can prioritise its interests over Mrs Peel on BritBox then a printed programme sort-of works.
