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The concluding episode of a special two-part podcast documentary as When Saturday Comes reaches 400 issues. A look behind the scenes at the magazine, from complaining club chairmen and dubious takeover bids to the process of taking the magazine from planning to print. Plus, a delve into regular features such as Match of the Month and the letters pages, and insight into the magazine’s decision not to carry gambling advertisements. Contributors include WSC staff, writers Harry Pearson, Barney Ronay, Taylor Parkes, Al Needham and Cameron Carter, illustrator Tim Bradford and photographer Colin McPherson.
With clubs under increasing financial pressure to achieve promotion to the Premier League, the role of a betting sponsor in making the move happen is a sign of things to come
We’re inviting you to join the WSC Supporters’ Club
Print media in the UK is having a tough time. Recent closures include several long-established monthly magazines, scores of local newspapers and Kickaround, our own children’s football magazine. When Saturday Comes has a different business structure to many others but is subject to similar pressures.
When we launched in 1986, we did not expect this magazine to become a full-time business, let alone publish our 400th issue in June 2020. That we are still here is down to you, our loyal readers. We’ve had our close scrapes on the way but we like to think we’ve made a mark; from our promotion of the fanzine movement and coverage of the campaign against ID cards in the 1980s to our various trips to international tournaments in Africa and South America in the 1990s and, more recently, the launch of our competition for amateur writers. The many writers whose early work appeared in our pages include journalists and authors such as David Conn, Harry Pearson and Barney Ronay.
In 2019 our newsagent sales were in slight decline and like many businesses we were seriously affected by shop closures during the coronavirus pandemic. Advertising revenue has fallen (we’ve taken a five-figure hit from turning away all gambling-related ads) and production and distribution costs such as print and postage have increased. Our long-established online presence, including website and social media, has never brought in much money and we don’t want to regurgitate press releases from global brands in exchange for “access”.
The simple fact is that WSC as a print magazine is no longer self-sustaining. We have cut costs as much as possible, including closing our permanent office. We’d like to think we’d be missed if we weren’t here. So we need your help to continue.
We’re asking readers who can to contribute a little extra each month. In return we’ll give you access to bonus episodes of the WSC podcast, as well as extra gifts including exclusive merchandise.
Join the WSC Supporters’ Club on Patreon, through which you can help to support us from as little as £2 per month. We appreciate that many of you already subscribe to the magazine. However, in return for a little bit extra through Patreon donations you will have access to some exciting extra rewards, including bonus material from our highly regarded podcast.
What do members get?
TIER 5
£2 per month
• Early access to one 40-minute podcast per month
• An extra 40-minute podcast per month
• Save 20% on WSC Live tickets
TIER 4
£5 per month
Everything from the previous tier, plus:
• Extended editions of each podcast
• An exclusive WSC enamel pin badge
• Save 50% on WSC Live tickets
TIER 3
£10 per month
Everything from the previous tiers, plus:
• An exclusive WSC T-shirt (redeemable after three months of patronage at this level)
• Submit one question per month to the WSC team, which may be picked for discussion in the bonus minutes of a podcast
• Free, priority WSC Live tickets
TIER 2
£25 per month
Everything from the previous tiers, plus:
• A high-quality print of your choice from the WSC Photos site (redeemable after three months of patronage at this level)
• Your name featured during each podcast for which you are a patron at this level
• Free WSC Live tickets, guaranteed
TOP FLIGHT
£100 per month
Everything from the previous tiers, plus:
• Your name printed in a special panel in WSC magazine, for as long as you have patronage at this level
• The comfort of knowing that you are going a long way to helping us continue producing When Saturday Comes
All prices exclusive of UK VAT