RLW: From bad to worse

[DeeGan]

RLW: From bad to worse

I have either had a RLW brought for me (as a young lad mum and dad got it weekly for me - as much for the cool posters than anything :lol or I have purchased the weekly mag for nearly 20 odd years (although last season I didn't bother with each edition) ... I have to say, it is a mere shadow of it's former self.

The "good old days" where it was in black and white choc loaded with great articles from some great journalists are long gone.

I picked up today's edition and it's just a load of crap to be blunt. Half baked articles, garbage from "experts" like Mark Geyer who gets it right perhaps twice a year and the rest is pretty much rubbish.

Big League is ok, though not much better. There is an opportunity there for a really good weekly publication to be released for the paying rugby league fanatics out there it has to be said.

 

[Mr Saab]

Stopped buying that in 2004. Only buy it now when its the GF edition. Mark Geyer has no clue....the guy put Inglis as 7th in his all time top 30 list.
Julia Gillard has more of an idea than him.

 

[raiders fan forever]

stopped buying the RLW but i still get Big League each week i still enjoy the Big League

 

[DeeGan]

Stopped buying that in 2004. Only buy it now when its the GF edition. Mark Geyer has no clue....the guy put Inglis as 7th in his all time top 30 list.
Julia Gillard has more of an idea than him.

If only I woke up in 2004 ... hell ... it might be enough to get me in to a Titans game or two ;-) (yes, I am having a shot at my team's general admission prices - a fugging joke).

 

[petetheileet]

Big League has Hot Dragons cheergirls in it = Better!

 

[dontmakemeangry]

would love to know the circulation numbers of both BL and RLW, surely someone on this`site should know exactly how many they are selling each week, say compared to 5-10 years ago?
Would be very interested to see the volume each mag puts out.

 

[nqboy]

Posted a few weeks ago how pleased I was with the lift in quality of the first issue of the year from the dross it has been for many years. 2nd one wasn't too bad, then they really fell away again. I'm not bothering again.

I concur with you sentiments Deegan. MG is short for Macho Garbage, Reg the Flight Steward's appeal was fleeting and is long gone and the rest is painfully short on quality. I enjoy the Legends interview and sometimes The Mole but there's precious little else to enjoy.

 

[Callan Pk]

Stopped buying BL 3 years back.
Stopped buying RLW 15 years ago.
Everything and more is on the winterwet

 

[Nightward]

I've worked in news agencies in the Brisbane CBD and in the westerns suburbs. IME, Rugby League Week sells pretty quickly; we go through our allocation each week, and our agency gets 20+ copies. Given that I have to return a lot of Wheels, Zoo, FHM and whatever even though we get less of those than RLW (and, admittedly, four stores is hardly a great place to stack an anecdote on) I'd be surprised if RLW sold fewer copies than Big League.

RLW has the advantage of being cheap and coming out earlier in the week, when people are still a little more cashed up. Big League has better articles and production value (and comes out after the Judiciary) but being out later and costing more are probably its weak points.

And here we go. A bit of Googling later, this site gives RLW circulation figures of 576, 000 per month, whilst this says BL sells ~25,000 per week.

Ouch.

 

[Nuke]

I agree that a lot of the stuff in RLW in particular is a Rugby League equivalent of womens magazines - tabloid stuff. I still buy it and enjoy it though, but moreso for the proper articles than said tabloid stuff.

I don't think you can fairly compare BigLeague and RLW's circulation numbers against eachother, as RLW can be bought anywhere in the country (I live in WA and have always been able to buy it at local newsagents) and BigLeague is sold only in NRL states. That said, I (and I believe a few people I know) have a subscription to BigLeague, so I get it every week during the footy season too.

It would be interesting, however, to compare their circulation numbers today to that of, say, 10 or 15 years ago.

 

[willvillain]

I've worked in news agencies in the Brisbane CBD and in the westerns suburbs. IME, Rugby League Week sells pretty quickly; we go through our allocation each week, and our agency gets 20+ copies. Given that I have to return a lot of Wheels, Zoo, FHM and whatever even thogh we get less of those than RLW and four stores is hardly a great place to stack an anecdote on, I'd be surprised if RLW sold fewer copies than Big League.

RLW has the advantage of being cheap and coming out earlier in the week, when people are still a little more chased up. Big League has better articles and production value (and comes out after the Judiciary) but being out later and costing more are probably its weak points.

And here we go. A bit of Googling later, this site gives RLW circulation figures of 576, 000 per month, whilst this says BL sells ~25,000 per week.

Ouch.

What?

The second article you linked to is bagging off RLW and saying it is the one that struggles to sell 25k a week, not BL as you've stated. And the first link (the one which has figures supplied by RLW's publisher) says that on it's best ever week it had a circulation of 22k.

I'm not sure on which magazine is better. I buy both and think the offer different things. RLW can tend to go a bit of a tabloid angle and has no dramas bagging teams/players, which BL seems to try to avoid, but they both have a place in the market.

Also, I'm pretty sure BL is cheaper than RLW - isn't RLW 5.50?, whereas BL is 5 bucks.

 

[Nightward]

News agencies get some really bizarre stuff; it depends on what your bosses think you'll sell and what's lying around at the depot.

I mean, we get imported Croatian crossword puzzle books.

Odds are that BL is available but they all get early returned because the manager thinks they can't or won't sell, or they only produce enough to cover percieved demand, or...

The second article you linked to is bagging off RLW and saying it is the one that struggles to sell 25k a week, not BL as you've stated. And the first link (the one which has figures supplied by RLW's publisher) says that on it's best ever week it had a circulation of 22k.

Durr. Me can rad gud.

Sorry, wrong link and inattention. With a bit of a scratch around, I found this which puts the sales at about 1:2 for Big League/RLW.

Last issue of BL I dealt with was the season preview, which IIRC was $7.95 or something. Regular issue is indeed cheaper at $4.95.

Still, being that day earlier and MOREBIGGER than its competitor must make it more popular.

I guess.

 

[Desert Qlder]

I begged the newsie in Alice to supply BL but he continually refused, so I had to get used to the other rag.

 

[Patorick]

It's fair enough they have to have ads, but the 2 page spreads for football boots were a bit much...

 

[TheInsider]

RLW boasts they have a huge 'readership' which is a different statistic to circulation... By their bullsh*t figures aparently 12 people read each bought copy of RLW... Considering mags like womans weekly etc boast only 4-5 readers per issue it is an absolute laughing stock... thats where the 500,000 plus crap comes from...

its been nothing but gibber for years... back in the 80's and early 90s it was sensational... but super league war and pay tv (previous to pay tv the match reports were one of the only places to read about all games) and internet explosion killed its relevance...

In regards to Big League it has been far superior in the last few years although a changing of the gaurd at the mag has seemingly weakened it... It lost Neil Cadigan and the better writers like Peter Badel, Ben Blaschke and Ben Everill seem to have left to do better things??? I think they write for the papers now???

They have the better product with the teams and stats, cheergirls and even that kids mag in it... hopefully the new writers and editor can get some inspiring content to give it a chance... but they need some credibility in it... as i said - Neil Cadigan especially - and those three writers had really created the impression they knew the game better than most... But I have no idea who the current crop are.. .hopefully we all will soon.

 

[HevyDevy]

I've worked in news agencies in the Brisbane CBD and in the westerns suburbs. IME, Rugby League Week sells pretty quickly; we go through our allocation each week, and our agency gets 20+ copies. Given that I have to return a lot of Wheels, Zoo, FHM and whatever even though we get less of those than RLW (and, admittedly, four stores is hardly a great place to stack an anecdote on) I'd be surprised if RLW sold fewer copies than Big League.

RLW has the advantage of being cheap and coming out earlier in the week, when people are still a little more cashed up. Big League has better articles and production value (and comes out after the Judiciary) but being out later and costing more are probably its weak points.

And here we go. A bit of Googling later, this site gives RLW circulation figures of 576, 000 per month, whilst this says BL sells ~25,000 per week.

Ouch.

576,000 per month

:lol:

Not even close

 

[Nightward]

Don't look at me, man. Lies, damn lies, and statistics.