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“Redundant” football writer takes website nationwide

From UK Press Gazette
A football correspondent who launched his own local football website after losing his job on a regional paper is planning to franchise his site to other journalists.

Rick Waghorn, who has continued to cover Norwich City on RickWaghorn.co.uk after being made redundant from the Norwich Evening News, intends to make his solo-publishing model available to other football correspondents.

The site, which Waghorn runs with a former Evening News ad sales executive, will be rebranded on July 1 as MyFootballWriter.com/Norwich.

Football correspondents in other areas will be able obtain a franchise.

“There are about 40 or 50 regional newspaper football writers who have covered clubs for years and have strong personal brands,” he said.

“If you go through all the provincial clubs in the country, they’ve all got one of me at their local morning or evening paper.”

Waghorn claims that the combined effect of ever-earlier print deadlines on evening newspapers and his use of mobile phone alerts has allowed him to compete effectively with his former employers.

Less than a year after launch, the two-man operation has achieved £3,000 a month in revenues, he says, primarily through advertising from local businesses.

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