The lack of press/media coverage has been an interest of mine for quiet a while, I put it down to the percieved image of league as a predominantly working class game. That is true to a point but we must in my opinion push on with the game in the Universities & the Southern conference it makes no diference if it is not a high standard as it gets trhe game known to a larger audiance, The RFL should do its bit by promoting the game to younger kids & thier mothers as this is the way to attract people into grounds & to watch on TV. It will be a long slow prosses but will work in the end. just look at the effort Union has put in to raising its crowds in the last ten years. It will be hard to shake off the working class image, it is somthing we should be proud of but realise that there is no money in advertising to lower wage earners what the advertising people want is middle income & high earners to pitch there products at. We should also build up the game in the North by ensuring no clash with live TV , my sugestion is all non TV games played Sunday afternoons.

Time for the RFL to think BIG and splash the cash, get a TOP PR Guru in and a TOP Press Officer to really push the game in the media, on TV and push the magic weekend, Challenge Cup and SL GF like never before. Also the RFL needs to really push the National Leagues. Max Clifford????

you cant use football as an example here as most successfull footie teams(man utd,liverpool etc) dont like their stars playing for the national side for the abuse they get and in case they get injured.club football is more important to the fans of big clubs.when clubs spend fortunes on players in almost any sport,the national side invariably takes a back seat in the eyes of most fans(and their clubs for that matter regardless of what they officially say)
for me id say if you want more coverage in the national press get yourselves organised and try and get as many fans as possible to write to their fave papers to complain about lack of coverage and petition for more.
you know what they say "he who shouts loudest" and all that.
im pretty sure the daily national i read has had 4 nations coverage every day this week.

I didn't use football for that very reason, football is a special case, like a previous post indicated RL is not in competition with football, we are however in competition with the second/third/fourth tier team sports such as Union, Cricket, Athletics, Cycling, Hockey etc etc, in all cases the clubs are only ever in support to the national team, to the point that in cricket players playing 'club' (county) level are contracted directly to the national side... can you imagine a situation in RL where teams didnt own the contract of thier star players and could only rely on them playing 10 times a year or less due to international fixtures!

In terms of British sports, football aside, RL is the only club-centric team sport I can think of.

No national newspaper now has a full time Rugby League writer.
They are London based and do see us as a "northern game".
The main reason though is newspaper's circulation is dropping like a stone due to the internet and 24/7 news coverage on sky and bbc news24. As has been said they have made massive redundencies over these past few years and until their circulation improves, if ever, things will continue that way.

The one bright light appearing is the BBC sports being re-located to Salford Media City. The RFL are moving their media dept to Salford because of this.
With the Reds new stadium not being too from complettion (1-2 years) this could give RL a massive boost on BBC Sport.
To me the RFL should pay for a corporate box in the new ground at Salford to entertain guests from the BBC and other media. This could be a massive boost for RL if the RFL get it right.