RLW to wind up by Round 5

[Cumberland Throw]

We will all go buy it this week now

 

[Foreign Legion]

Rugby League World is pretty good.

 

[DiegoNT]

Literally just had this convo with my old man. He came around at half time during the ad for the Matty johns show.
Old man:'Do you think that there's to many rugby league shows'
Me: you know there's a 24 hour league channel now?
Old man: it's to much. It might be a bad thing, they might overload people to much with league and turn people off
Me: you can never have to much of league
Old man: I don't know about that. You've got to think it spells trouble for rugby league week

 

[PARRA_FAN]

What a shame. I don't buy it every week but every now and then I see good articles of current players, past players giving their opinions, news from around the world, including the bush, and also interviews with past players, some great players, some past characters of the game, and players that were either one hit wonders or famous for the wrong reasons.

Ok it stopped having team lists and was released on a Monday but I still found of the stuff interesting.

Big League on the other was another mag I used to buy every week, that's right used to. For the first time since my childhood days I didn't get the first edition of Big League 2017.

Last year I sort of didn't buy it every week, and I only bought it for the NRL, NSW Cup, QLD Cup team listings, but other stuff wasn't great to read. They seem to have gotten worse when it comes to listing players injured and incorrect players names and wrong scorelines. Its like they didn't care but enough about Big League.

I love hearing about stories about Rugby League, and want to know whats happening around the World in Rugby League. I know a lot of that stuff is on social media and online media, but I still like to pick up a mag and read it on the bus or whenever I'm flying.

After hearing about this, I'm going to buy the last copies of RLW. I still have the 40 year edition and the 25 year book, I'll cherish those.

 

[Pedge1971]

I still have a lot of my old mags and have purchased many 70's and 80's copies off ebay.

If someone handed me a random copy of RLW, from say 1977, I'd probably read it front to back. I would skim through a modern day edition in about 30 seconds.

RLW will always live on. Those 70's and 80's mags are RL gold.

Yep as a kid growing up in the country it was your access to footy on the pre internet and cable tv days. Back then you could not watch anything other than ABCs match of the day on Saturday.

I loved that old mag but it is a victim of Murdoch, social media and the www. Shame, but here we are with the Rothfields of the world....

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

It’s understood the NRL has no plans to continue publishing the magazine, but wanted to buy the publication to take control of the Immortals concept.

The Immortals was launched by Rugby League Week in the 1980s and the magazine has resisted repeated attempt to relinquish ownership.

Its sad the mag is gone (my favourite when i was a kid), but im glad the ARLC have saved the Immortals concept and taken control of it....

Personally, i have always hated that we have Immortal and a HoF competing, each take away from the legitimacy of the other. Id like to see them take the Immortals brand (its so unique and well known) and place it over the HoF concept (ALL of our great players, not just 8....).

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Also, the ARLC should use the rights they hold to the RLW Player Of the Year polls and make that the new Official Award.

The "every player gets a score out of 10" is way better than the DallyMs "3, 2, 1 point" system AND the RLW poll has been going since the 70s.

If News is willing to sell, buy the DallyMs and use the name. It would easily be better known between the 2.

Mr Greenberg said the move to acquire the Immortals follows the NRL securing the rights to the Dally M Awards.

http://www.nrl.com/nrl-to-acquire-immortals-rights/tabid/10874/newsid/104454/default.aspx

Ok, scratch that last bit. I didnt realise the ARLC already had the DallyMs.

I definitely still the RLW is the better poll and the better system. Now that they have both, they should take the best bits of each and blend the two/

 

[Nuke]

I'm personally saddened that Rugby League Week is closing down.
As a massive League fan in WA, RLW has been the only League magazine that you can buy in almost every newsagency in WA and any others I've been to in other states too. Big League, on the other hand, is only on sale in states that have an NRL team.

I have a Big League subscription, which admittedly I was going to let expire in a few weeks due to a number of reasons. IE:
* Never getting them until after the relevant weekend (sometimes up to the Thursday in fact)
* Usually 3-4 times a year it never arriving at all, and
* With RLW being so readily available, the main thing Big League had going for it was the teamlists ... which were out of date by the time I got to see them.
Add to that the cost of getting Big Leagues AND RLW's every week for someone who works in a low-paid industry and who has a mortgage and bills to pay, and it was Big League that was going to be my sacrifice.

The whole 'getting here too late (if at all)' thing really annoys the brown out of me, so I may still let Big League go, but with RLW's demise, it will be a bit more harder a decision to make.

I've been reading RLW since I was a kid, and have been buying RLWs from Perth newsagencies since I started earning money. I'm now 36, so it's been a big part of my weekly routine for pretty much my whole life.

RIP RLW.

 

[TheFrog]

With the NRL having purchased RLW solely in order to obtain the rights to The Immortals concept, and Greenburg having stated that the Immortals would soon be rejigged, the only question to be asked is will there be one new immortal (Thurston) or two (Thurston and Smith). No-one else would appear to have a chance.

 

[TeamSatan]

Print is dead.

Hundreds in the industry being laid off right now.

Times change.

With print at least journalists had to be accountable for their articles.

Wilson and the drunk killed that integrity years back.

Now anyone can start a website with zero credibility and the new age are to stupid to care.

Life goes on.

 

[Tronald Crump]

Its a shame but to be honest I haven't bought the mag in years. Not as good as it use to be.

 

[DC_fan]

I started buying it in 1974, continuing to do so to the mid 90's. Like most magazines RLW struggled to find a position in today's digital age.

I wonder how much longer Big League will last.

 

[Cumberland Throw]

Are they having the online ipad version still ?

 

[Canard]

Anyone remember when it rebranded as League Week for a time and a smaller magazine sized format? I think it was in the 90s/00s and lasted for a year or two?

It was how I discovered this site, as it used to include posts from this site and Rleague.com in the game wrap ups.

What a different world the internet was then. Now it would be 'Lol@Souffs" "Farrah is a Merkin" etc

 

[Parra]

Bought the mag religiously as a kid in the 80's and up until Super League. Have purchased about 5 copies since.
Times have changed.

Yep. Those Kangaroo Specials were great as well.