Today I read as no doubt some of you did that the Reach media group are to make 450 people redundant nationwide. Having made further enquiries outside the city it appears that the hull daily mail has suffered from this action with a decision made to cease reporting on hull FC and KR’s from the end of the year and to in effect stop reporting club specific Rugby League with no coverage in the paper or on line from the start of next year. .

In a sport that is desperate to increase its media exposure and widen its supporter base this is a real blow to the game in general and to us in Hull in particular, we complain about it of course we do but for me in general the reporting has always given an insight that no one else can give us.

wondering if it was true I spoke to Dan Tomlinson today and he admitted that this is in fact what is happening from the start of 2024. I hope that both clubs will lobby the Reach Group about the decreasing amount of exposure and whilst there is always Gwilym and the club site it appears that the only real challenging media medium we have in times of strife is to disappear.

I have been an avid reader of the publication and particularly the now lost green sports mail since about the age of 10, Dick Tingle and Co have always served us well over the years and I remember what an important part it took siding with the fans during the torrid boardroom strife of the mid 70's and the latter days of the David Lloyd era.

This is an example of why the fans need strong representation and I hope that the Clubs, FC Voices and the Vice Presidents will at least challenge this action on our behalf, but I fear there is little we can do as big media organisations rarely bow to public opinion and the dye is now cast.

However if anyone has any ideas about what we could do to support Dan (who I believe has done an excellent job and could in my opinion be one of the casualties, despite the fact as I was told last week, the volume of hits have increased significantly since he took over) and even more importantly protect the main independent source of information rumour etc that we have please suggest it.

personally it is a very sad day for me, it will be a big loss and what's more the only real source of the advanced 'heads up' on signings and sometimes news that the club would prefer us not to hear, (but news all the same that as stakeholders we have a right to know), is to stop.

Gutted to hear that. Hope Dan hasn't lost his job. He seems a good bloke, always approachable.

I subscribe to John Davidsons patreon, wonder if he could set something similar up? Bring back the UTC podcast too.

It’s a sad and sorry state and disappointing to hear the likes of the rugby will no longer be reported particularly in a City with 2 SL teams.
Think the decision reflects the poor management of the Reach Group in general when you look at the number of poor articles in the HDM.
Just another example like the BBC were they think you can serve local communities on a national basis.
Sad times for all.

Its a real shame but publishers like Reach are just abject, rehashing information from social media or somewhere else as clickbait. I don't mind consuming ads for properly researched or sourced stories and I think there is a need for it. At the moment I rely on twitter and the clubs own sources.

Joe Appleyard has confirmed he's lost his job. It's absolute bollox that a local paper won't be covering 2 top flight sports teams.

Hope both Dan and Joe manage to get something sorted

Sincerely hope that both clubs can come together and provide a solution, Dan and Joe's work are a significant aspect of following the game for both sides of the river, particularly in Dan's case who has proved to be a link between the club and its fans.

Awful news for the city and both reporters, especially as rugby is well supported in the city, could the club employ Dan as an independent reporter possibly? pass on match reports etc to the press

Gutted for both Dan and Joe and hope they can both find employment elsewhere.

Be good if Dan can bring Up the cream podcast and fanzine back.

let them axe tedious football instead.

gutted,i realy am.i look forward to reading the rugby on hull live up here in edinburgh.

Sign of the times , I recon the HDM's circulation will be a fraction of what it use to be , Plus it's news is second fiddle to other forms of media platforms now .

Will there be any coverage of the club? What about from a non-club specific reporter such as Matthew Shaw who works for Reach.

What about Hull City - will they still have a club reporter at Hull Live?

The club should take advantage of this and start to redevelop the FC live part of the website so that it becomes the first port of call for all fans
The club should employ Dan to build it into a daily news FC centre outside of the twitter crap with meaningful and interesting pod casts with fans,players and staff including the Womens and wheelchair players
An extra 500 paying fans for FC live would likely cover the salary plus its a chance to actually make the club money from the website if its marketed correctly and takes off

I think that's what will happen, everything will go through Matt Shaw now. Seems like a load of work for 1 man

Could this affect clubs IMG score with the news outlet diminishing some what ? I guess Reach will be behind a number of regional news sources .

Interesting point. They own many other national and regional titles including The Huddersfield Examiner and Manchester Evening News.

absolutely spot on for me!!! Of course it will.Its reducing greatly the message spread of our game.

It's almost gratifying to know for the first time ever my initial post on here has been transcribed completely on the Rovers 'secret' message board.

I CAN DIE A HAPPY MAN !!





As on here however, they are as worried about it as many of us are, at least.... on the whole. Some say on there, as some FC fans are saying on here, that they never read the mail web site anyway, it's an out of date medium and it won't be missed but who are they kidding??? That's B*llocks!!

Fact is that as an independent news source looking for scoops, sensationalism and internal revelations from our clubs to survive as soon as a rumour breaks they are straight to it. That's so important to all of us!! Indeed as with the guys across the river, who hasn't been been excited, interested, intrigued, worried and even scared at times by what they have revealed in advance and indeed, how often have they been wrong. Not that often, I would hazard a guess, in fact, since Dan and Joe have been writing for it at least??? Very rarely!!

If the Mail coverage disappears as it undoubtably will, we will have to be satisfied with yesterday's news cribbed from social media, from Gwilym and Co. on Humberside or the sanitised rumour controlled version we get from both the Clubs.

Some can write this news outlet off as irrelevant, outmoded and 'yesterday's news' but for me and it appears several more folks at both sides of the river, its a massive blow to the openness and honesty about our clubs that we need as the stakeholders and indeed (although some would deny it is the case) the lifeblood of both our beloved teams.

I’m sorry for those that’ll miss it, but there clearly aren’t enough of them. I’m no free market fundamentalist, but Reach is a commercial entity.

Times change - the Rovers board on here used to get a fair few posts. Now it’s a good day if it gets a spammer-scammer selling dodgy passports. This board is still active… but not like when Paul M, Kosh, Jake the Peg et al. were here as well.

People were no doubt sad when the music halls closed - perhaps you were one of them? Just joshing.


Something new will come along… and then that’ll get old and be replaced in turn.

I’m already prepping for Rovers and Hull becoming Ultimate (frisbee) clubs when the brain injuries thing gets too much to stomach.

There’s a melancholy to seeing a venerable institution fade away - but it (the HDM) has been a shell of what it once was for a while.

It’ll have no direct impact on IMG scores. The indirect impact… it’ll be real, but the focus is on new media for reasons that go beyond just ease of measurement.

One of my favourite ever Xmas presents was an annual subscription to the green Sports Mail paid by my mum every year and sent to me after I left the UK in1966. It lasted right up to when she died in the 90's and took about 10 days to arrive but I read it from cover to cover in both South Africa and Aus.
In my youth I played Union, League and Soccer in Hull and also for a couple of years sent a report of Union Saturday matches I played in to the HDM where it was posted in Tuesday's edition.

Loved the Sports Mail as a kid and from the age of about 8 used to get it for my dad from a Newsagent in Marfleet who received delivery around 6 pm.

I think its worrying that with the decline of local radio and now newspaper that there won't be anyone asking critical questions of the clubs. They will most likely be reprinting whatever press releases the club wants.

All 3 clubs in Hull have had their low spells and owners that have needed questioning in the past. For example at some point soon id have expected a good journalist to be asking Pearson 'when exactly is this stadium lease meeting?' now we'll just have to wait for whatever the club tell us.

As for RL overall im very worried, the game is skint and media coverage is dwindling. If we dont find another serious TV rights bidder to push SKY to give more money then the game will go part time.

Well times might be changing for some but not enough to stop the owners and the Chief Exec's of both clubs being concerned enough to pursue the decision with the Reach group.

looks like today is the last day for some reporters, Appleyard tweeted it was his last story earlier.

Dan Tomlinson not mentioned in the list of redundancies from James Smailes. Wonder if he's kept his job

I'm sure he already confirmed on Twitter he had been made redundant. Unless there has been a change of plans and he's now been kept on

Edit: just checked his twitter. He said "On Wednesday, I found out I am one of 450 Reach PLC roles at risk of redundancy from Jan 15."
So first of all it sounds like it wasn't a definite as he was only "at risk of" and it wouldn't be in effect until mid January anyway. Appleyard made his last post on Hull Live today so he has definitely now gone. Seems like Dan still has at least a month longer.

Gwilym Lloyd leaving RH at Christmas too?