H&H WON'T PUT PARA TEAM ON FRONT COVER...

Nicnac

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Every week on the letters page, H&H publishes the top 5 subjects being discussed on this forum. I wonder whether they'll admit to this thread in next week's magazine...... :rolleyes:
 

hcm88

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I can sort of understand why its happened (but don't support the decision at all). Burghley is a massive thing for H&H and always is so there is always going to be a big feature in the magazine, eventing is probably the most popular discipline for H&H readers and hence they decided it would attract more interest. Obviously, this is far from the truth, as I am much more likely to pick a magazine up with a wonderful photo of our Gold medal Paralympians on the cover, than one of Andrew Nicholson jumping a jump (a photo that will have no relevance for non-eventing/Burghley followers).

I won't be boycotting the magazine as I do want to read about our para dressage team as I didn't manage to catch many of the tests this week (C4's coverage is appalling).
 

Xander

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Every week on the letters page, H&H publishes the top 5 subjects being discussed on this forum. I wonder whether they'll admit to this thread in next week's magazine...... :rolleyes:

Probably not as there won't be enough replies. Try posting in the thread in NL :)
 

Walrus

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Badly misjudged by H&H in my opinion. And what makes it worse is the attitude that they haven't made a mistake - surely the better response from a PR perspective would be to say it was "due to print deadlines and watch out for next week!" as opposed to declaring their own opinion correct and defending the decision to put AN as the main image on the cover.
 

Merrymoles

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Despite being in the thick of horse hunting I will forego my copy this week as it seems pretty shabby to me. I'm sure it's a great picture of Andrew N but who cares in this context.
 

hcm88

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Posted on H&H's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/horseandhound?ref=ts



Dear H&H readers

Thank you for your concerned comments arising from rumour/speculation about our cover this week. I'd urge people to look at the cover rather than criticise it blind - so here is tomorrow's front cover. It doesn't in any way overlook the achievements of our Paralympians - and we have once again used gold ink on the cover in celebration of their medals.

We obviously faced a dilemma with this week's cover. No-one can deny Burghley is a huge event - with 180,000 attendees this year against 150,000 in a usual year - owing in part to Badminton having been lost to the weather. The Paralympics are similarly immense. We didn't want to overlook either on our cover - and believe we have struck a good balance.

In the end, we decided to let our readers be our guide on what the primary image should be, and looked at the number of hits our online reports from each event had attracted from our substantial online readership. We are one of the few publications in Britain that invested in having reporters at both, filing updates for our website. The fact is, our Burghley stories received more than double the number of hits of our Paralympic ones.

Inside the magazine we have eight pages on our Paralympic medals, with the final reports from the remaining freestyle medals (which concluded after we went to press) being reported on next week. Is there any other title in Britain who has given close to that amount of page space to our Paralympic riders?

Please judge us on what we deliver tomorrow - not on rumour.

With kind regards, Lucy Higginson, Editor
 

LizzieJ

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Really bad call imo :mad: H&H was the only place we could get Burghley info but the Para dresage was followed on the london 2012 site and channel 4. AN should have been the inset pic imo - nothing like making it more elitist though - good one :mad:
 
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EstherYoung

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Posted on H&H's Facebook page:

In the end, we decided to let our readers be our guide on what the primary image should be, and looked at the number of hits our online reports from each event had attracted from our substantial online readership. We are one of the few publications in Britain that invested in having reporters at both, filing updates for our website. The fact is, our Burghley stories received more than double the number of hits of our Paralympic ones....

Inside the magazine we have eight pages on our Paralympic medals, with the final reports from the remaining freestyle medals (which concluded after we went to press) being reported on next week. Is there any other title in Britain who has given close to that amount of page space to our Paralympic riders?

Actually I've been reading the Telegraph online reports as they seem to have done pretty well in terms of in depth coverage - considering how little information there has been out there they've done pretty well. The H&H online reports haven't been so hot so I haven't been clicking on them. Don't judge too much on the clicks, H&H - H&H is pretty much the sole source of info on Burghley so it's the only place people can go, whereas if somewhere else is doing better online reports on the paras readers will go there instead. T'interweb is a fickle place.

I have bought the other olympic issues of H&H and would have bought a celebration para issue. As all the results weren't in maybe the way to do it would have been to have a newsflash on the cover/in the mag this week with the headline results so far and the full report with a celebration cover next week. The problem is that if they make a big thing of next week's cover now after this fuss it will look like they are trying too hard.
 

stencilface

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Eejits - regardless of interest in the magazine (which I disagree with them that Burghley has more hits for the reasons above that LizzieJ and EstherYoung pointed out) as the primary horse magazine in the UK, should they not also be leading opinion and not just following what readers want?

They should be the ones informing us of our great british riders, not the other way around. Would be interesting to see how many times Andrew Nicolson has been on the cover vs any Paralympic riders I think*

*This is not meant as an attack on AN.....
 

MerrySherryRider

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Agree. There was more indepth reporting on the Paralympians elsewhere, so the number of hits H&H got is not representative of public interest.

They missed out on a magazine cover that might have appealed to a larger section of the public with a picture of the once in a lifetime London paralympics.
Instead they chose the more exclusive and elitist in comparison, Burghley.
 

Daffodil

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Quick response from me as I have to go a meeting, but would like to see this thread at the top of the list, so am bumping it up there.

DISGRACEFUL ATTITUDE FROM THE POWERS THAT BE IN H&H.

OUR PARALYMPIANS DESERVE ALL THE PUBLICITY AND APPLAUSE THEY CAN GET AND THAT INCLUDES BEING ON THE FRONT COVER OF THIS COUNTRY'S PREMIER EQUESTRIAN MAGAZINE.

It was hardly a vintage Burghley so surely for once IT could be relegated.
 

diduck

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Just seen Mr p on the local news whinging that a judge was against him so why he didn't get gold...same old Lee of old

I think you should maybe look at the discrepancy in the scores that particular judge gave compared to the others before you make any accusations. I was at the event on Monday and was shocked at the discrepancy having seen all 15 riders perform and Lee Pearsons freestyle to music was certainly not the 10th 11th or 12th best as marked by Sarah Rodger. Three other judges marked him in 2nd position and the remaining judge placed him 5th overall. If the judge in question had not been so obviously out on a limb with the difference of opinion LP would without doubt have won the silver medal. This is a point of fact I believe and certainly not a whinge... as you put it. Please look at the attached link to the full breakdown of the scores given:

http://www.london2012.com/externalparamodules/EQ/pdf/EQX212101_C73DD.pdf
 

Booboos

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Posted on H&H's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/horseandhound?ref=ts



Dear H&H readers

Thank you for your concerned comments arising from rumour/speculation about our cover this week. I'd urge people to look at the cover rather than criticise it blind - so here is tomorrow's front cover. It doesn't in any way overlook the achievements of our Paralympians - and we have once again used gold ink on the cover in celebration of their medals.

We obviously faced a dilemma with this week's cover. No-one can deny Burghley is a huge event - with 180,000 attendees this year against 150,000 in a usual year - owing in part to Badminton having been lost to the weather. The Paralympics are similarly immense. We didn't want to overlook either on our cover - and believe we have struck a good balance.

In the end, we decided to let our readers be our guide on what the primary image should be, and looked at the number of hits our online reports from each event had attracted from our substantial online readership. We are one of the few publications in Britain that invested in having reporters at both, filing updates for our website. The fact is, our Burghley stories received more than double the number of hits of our Paralympic ones.

Inside the magazine we have eight pages on our Paralympic medals, with the final reports from the remaining freestyle medals (which concluded after we went to press) being reported on next week. Is there any other title in Britain who has given close to that amount of page space to our Paralympic riders?

Please judge us on what we deliver tomorrow - not on rumour.

With kind regards, Lucy Higginson, Editor

So to summarize the reply WE are in the wrong as we're judging the magazine before we have seen it...which would assume that the cover does feature the Paras prominently and not Burghley...but that's not right, so? DUH

H&H you seriously need to rethink the money you are spending on PR to rescue you from your editorial disasters (the hat thing and now the Paras).
 

Xander

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If you are all so disgusted by what H+H have done and you are boycotting he magazine then should you still be taking advantage of the free online forum???

H&H use this 'free' forum to generate stories, advertising revenue etc. So if we scratch their backs they'll ... erm ... oh.
 

OFG

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Disgusting of H&H and their reply to the issue is piss poor IMO.

Agree with what others have said, Burhley should have been an insert and a really good shot of our para riders with their medals should have been prominent.

This is GBs year to shine (and shining we are) and our premier equine magazine ops to show more support (on their cover) to a NZ rider.

:mad:

H&H - we are right (the customer is always right), you are wrong. Now go fix the error of your ways and give our Para riders the acknowledgement they deserve with a decent full front page image.
 
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