Curtis Sport Printers

A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF PROGRAMME PR o du cers C U RTIS SPORT

Curtis Sport are one of the biggest programme publishing companies in the UK and owner Stuart Curtis tells us what a week on the job is like and what the future holds for our treasured matchday publication.

Stuart said: “I was commercial manager at West Bromwich Albion for over 20 years so always had a keen interest in programmes so when I left in 2009, I decided to start up a publishing company.”

The company began with clubs including Aberdeen, Motherwell and Oldham Athletic and has since grew from there during the last decade.

Stuart explains how the company operates on a weekly basis. He said: “We have designers based in the office and editors from different clubs send down the articles and photos, which we then send back for a proof and we work on that treadmill routine every week.

“Mainly Monday-Wednesday are spent designing and putting it together, Thursday is the print day and Friday is the delivery day.

“The courier and pallet network are fairly good now so we can have them printed in northern England and have them shipped overnight for prices way cheaper than any printers can do in Scotland and it is quite a specialist thing.

“On average we are producing about 20- 25 programmes a week.”

Curtis has a plan in place for the company to grow even more with the new season not too far away.

They have aims and targets they want to get to in the future and are currently making progress in reaching those goals.

He said: “We go out to market each year around March by sending out a brochure to clubs across all the leagues in England and Scotland and do the same for rugby league, rugby union and speedway. “Then if clubs show an interest, we’ll meet them and give some designs for them, take it from there and try to sign them up for the season or longer. “We want to work with governing bodies. We work with European Rugby for their cup final programmes for the last 2 years. We’d like to work with the FA and SPFL. “We want more clubs and bigger clubs to work with us. Clubs come to us now looking for prices, but it’s taken us 11 years to get to that stage as there’s only 3 or 4 other major players competing with us now.”

“If we get another 2 or 3 clubs on board, we’ll bring in another designer, so each designer does 2-3 programmes each week.” Curtis believes the future of his business is certainly in safe hands, and that the industry itself will continue to flourish despite print media being in decline.

He added: “There’s a lot of scaremongering about online. Programmes have been around for over 100 years now and we’re very passionate about them. They are very touchy feely, you like the smell of a programme, get it and read through it and that doesn’t translate well to digital.

“If you’ve got an iPhone, you’re not really going to be able to get the full magazine feel having to scroll in with two fingers and I think it’s down to some lazy journalists at football clubs.

“If you go to a big game anywhere in the country, you can barely get a signal so you can’t download your programme.

“The main players are still selling 5000-7000 programmes per game, so they are here to stay.”

Those big clubs play an important role for the programme industry and Curtis doesn’t believe the shift to online poses as big a threat as people expect. He argues that the demand to buy a programme is a trait that fans will always continue to do as part of a routine.

He said: “On eBay if you type in football programmes there will be about half a million listings. There is always going to be a need for collecting programmes and completing sets.

“You look at Third Lanark, their programmes are highly sought after and there are rare programmes out there that people absolutely want.

“New media doesn’t bring a penny in. There’s so much that clubs are doing on social media now, but you can’t monetize that. It may get you retweets and followers but that doesn’t bring in money whereas a physical programme does.

“There’s still so many people who want to collect. That’s why we still see programme shops that are selling huge quantities because there are people who still want them.”

With programmes changing over the years, the designers have had to adapt to keep customers interested and try new things to get a new set of readers on board. Hearts have executed this well over the season.

Curtis said: “We have to engage with youngsters with our programmes by putting in quizzes, spot the ball or other junior content like at Hearts we give away 2 panini stickers in each home programme so there’s a collectability there. So, it’s up to us as publishers to be innovative and have creative ideas to make people want them.”

One club that Curtis Sport used to work with was Stevenage who sold approximately 400-500 programmes per game which would make then a profit of around £200 each match. It doesn’t seem much but with £25,000 available for advertisements that’s where the money comes from. However, The Boro have opted for a smaller online programme this season which Curtis describes as: “It doesn’t get many clicks and isn’t very inspiring.”

Despite the rise of social media over recent years, Curtis believes programmes can still rise and their future is not in doubt.

He said: “I think the decline we’ve suffered over the last 5 or so years has plateaued now and sales at some clubs are going up. If your team is doing well and the crowds go up, so do the sales so it’s not really rocket science.”

Clubs different initiatives still help to attract new readers in as well for special issues:

“Price isn’t a blocker. If a club has a £3 programme that’s 64 pages, say they do a special 100 pages for a fiver with a spine on it, if anything you sell more because of the collectability of the special one.”

With Curtis Sport growing year on year since it’s formation in 2009, owner Stuart Curtis keeps track of trends to keep his business fresh and attract new customers and ensure programmes have a bright future under their publishing industry.

COLIN PIKE - 50 YEARS OF COLLECTING

Missing only three Berwick Rangers programmes since World War II, Colin Pike has dedicated a huge amount of time and effort to the club he’s followed for 50 years.

His programme collection has branched out massively over the years, with his attic packed with what he’s kept since he began gathering programmes when he was at school.

He said: “I really don’t know how it started. There was no obvious thing. It must’ve been inside because my Dad didn’t do it or anything like that. It just spawned from me going to games when I was younger. “I was one of these guys that never crumpled it up and put it in my pocket. I always took something I could put it in that was substantial enough to save the programme.”

His favourite one comes from his true passion, Berwick Rangers.

He said: “I was of the belief for a number of years that Berwick had not produced home programmes prior to the last war. However, I unearthed one from September 1939 and that’s a stand-out one because I didn’t think it was in existence.

“I unearthed one from September 1939 and that’s a stand-out”

“Sadly, I haven’t come across any others from 1939 backwards but hopefully there are some somewhere.”

His collecting doesn’t end with the Wee Gers, though. His collection has spiralled into ‘absolute madness’, according to Pike as he buys and sells as a hobby and has come up with ideas that have stuck throughout the years.

He added: “I’ve chosen a team every year and taken a programme subscription. For example, one year of a full Ipswich Town set and I’ve done that every year for a random club.

“I started this in the 70’s so I’m getting up to 50 years’ worth of one club for each particular season.” Having such a large number of programmes means keeping them organised takes a bit of work, but Colin has a strategy in place so that everything is in order.

He said: “All my Berwick home and away ones and one club subscriptions are logged in files so I can go to them fairly easy, but I had to downsize because I had far too many.

“I keep mine in the loft and put up shelves. I keep them in ring bind folders inside plastic pockets with a piece of paper to keep them standing up properly.”

The passion for collecting has transformed into being involved with programmes at other clubs. He has produced and edited for Duns for three years, including when they played Manchester City Under 18’s in a pre-season friendly at the unveiling of their new ground.

Also, Pike has been involved doing the Berwick Rangers Reserves programme for a number of years and most recently, Tweedmouth Rangers in the East of Scotland League.

Throughout those years, programmes have been through change, especially with online sources like eBay and now online programmes, the latter not something Pike agrees with.

He said: “I’m totally against online programmes but we’re seeing some clubs publishing online editions and there’s a lot more of that down south rather than up here.

“I still think there’s a really vibrant market for programmes and I know a lot of people who want to buy and sell them like I do, and I don’t think that will ever go away.”

A club producing a programme can dictate where Colin spends his Saturday afternoon.

He said: “If I’m attending somewhere that I’ve never been before, I’ll get in contact with the club beforehand to ask if they do a programme and if they say no, I tend to go elsewhere.”

However, he is hopeful that paper programmes are here to stay, despite some clubs moving online, but uses Rhyl from Wales as an example of the demand programmes have. He said: “I spend a lot of time at my daughter’s in Wales and often go to Welsh Premier League games and Rhyl were online but have went back to a proper paper programme and hopefully demand will tell these clubs we are looking for them and we can always carry on with a real programme.”

“Even the bigger clubs are going to online stuff, but I hope that will pass and go into oblivion and sincerely hope there will always be a place for real programmes.”