RaceCafe..#1...Tipsters Thread.... Share Your Fancies For Fun...Lets See Who The Best Tipsters Here Are.
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The Informant finished?

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Anyone know the circulation figure?

The Informant would far better be suited as a review publication rather than a preview publication. Less pressure with deadlines and material that can be archived by the customer.

Racing form publications have little future as printed material and with the advent of tablet type computers as book readers this is where the general public will migrate to.

The Racing board knows this so why is is wasting so much money on forlorn causes?

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Surely this is counterproductive. Is it the Racing Board's intention to hinder racing publications providing information to the betting public? Crazy crazy crazy. Surely it should be freely available to any and everyone, and delivered with a kiss.

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Anyone know the circulation figure?

The Informant would far better be suited as a review publication rather than a preview publication. Less pressure with deadlines and material that can be archived by the customer.

Racing form publications have little future as printed material and with the advent of tablet type computers as book readers this is where the general public will migrate to.

The Racing board knows this so why is is wasting so much money on forlorn causes?

I don't think racing form publications will ever be replaced by tablet style computers, I think there will always be a place for them. I think the Informants main problem is in their distribution. It's so dam hard to try and get a copy of it, there don't seem to be many places you can buy it at all, and those that do sell it, don't always get it delivered to them! I tried 3 different places last week to get a copy, with no luck! I think the Informant is great and shows much better and more detialed form than the best bets, which is normally full of errors anyway. It would be a real shame if the Informant folded, as I think it's the best form guide there is, and I'd much rather have a form guide I can roll up and put in my back pocket at the races than carry round an iPad or something. I hope it lasts and I hope they can do something about their distribution.

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The NZ Racing Board has always believed that

The Informant and Turf Digest/Best Bets are complementary publications, catering to

different readers with different requirements.

The NZ Racing Board has a responsibility to ensure it spends judiciously, in the best

interests of the racing industry,

The NZ Racing Board

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NZRB are as good a publishers as Alice in Wonderland would be in a coal mine!! Bloody pathetic, publishers they're not and as heads of industry publishing is not their place. They have shot themselves through the goolies and sunk another racing shop window. Keep it up chaps the Titanic has nothing on you. Shame you have to cause the elimination of a necessary industry lifeline.

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keep the chin up,found the informant killed any competition,but when the rb purchased the turf/bb,couldnt favem in my wildest dreams why.just goes to show how the money at the rb which isnt theres,just so freely spent on deadbeat aquisitions ,just hightens the incompetency there,and if a publication comes out similar to the informant,just shows those at the rb just followers and not leaders.

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Very disappointing. The Informant has an excellent form guide and is an essential read.

In comparison, the Best Bets/Turf Digest is a woeful publication - often only one line of form, and no overseas fields - it is a joke. I have only purchased it once in the last 2 years and they missed 12 horses on the Premier Day at Hastings!

This is a very poor decision by the NZRB.

Wouldn't we have been better served to have Informant twice a week?

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Don't worry Alan Jackson will fix it.

Remember he is the answer to all the industries ills.....calling Alan.....Alan....make an impression Alan, do what the nutters and opticians society said you could/would/should do.

you got any evidence that he can fix it? It does need fixing, mind you.

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Sorry

I have nothing constructive to say

I'm so bloody gutted ....and angry.

The Informant for me is/was? an essential,informative and entertaining read on form/opinion/story/breeding matters. The ONLY publication we have. Best Bets became a boring, non-inclusive, one-time-essential. Is that the reason?

*My husband won't let me out on a Friday night now. He's lost his BIBLE reading and I'm it for entertainment. (He can't and won't use a computer!)

Stuff NZRB.

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This is just another example of the nzrb being out of touch with what the racing public want. The Informant is an excellent publication with the added advantage of it being delivered to your door. The information in the best bets & turf digest can be printed off the TAB website where as the Informant has unique articles and trackwork to help punters with their selections as well as its appeal to the wider industry which may tempt them to have a bet as well.

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I, for one, will not miss it one iota. To be honest I have not even opened one in at least a year, maybe longer? The last time I remember opening one was when it was in the larger format. How long since it was made smaller?

I could not even be bothered having a look-see when visiting Gary's TAB in Lower Hutt, and he had told me that it doesn't always arrive when it was supposed to

Of course some will miss it, but it won't take long to get over it. Most of the information is available on the internet anyways

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...the Informant has unique articles and trackwork to help punters with their selections as well as its appeal to the wider industry which may tempt them to have a bet as well.

So why is the circulation so shyte then? If it was better, and if it had the "appeal to the wider industry" why is it about to be kapput?!

As I said earlier there are obviously those that enjoy it and will definitely miss it, but they, and you droughty, seem to be in the vast minority. Comes down to basic business sense I suppose

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Seems that NZRB and the publishers of The Informant are involved in brinkmanship. Both sides are likely to damage their interests, and the industry's.

How many subscribers to The Informant will renew subscriptions when Wrigley tells them the next issue might be the last?

How many people consider it fair for NZRB to pay newspapers $millions to print race fields, yet to charge The Informant for race fields?

I stopped buying Best Bets when I subscribed to The Informant. If The Informant folds, I will not go back to Best Bets. I'll access fields on the TAB and/or NZ Racing websites, as I do now for meetings not covered by The Informant.

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So why is the circulation so shyte then? If it was better, and if it had the "appeal to the wider industry" why is it about to be kapput?!

As I said earlier there are obviously those that enjoy it and will definitely miss it, but they, and you droughty, seem to be in the vast minority. Comes down to basic business sense I suppose

Spoken like a true NZRB lackey.

Is it bonus time?

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And what the f**k is that supposed to mean?

I am NOT an NZRB lackey and I would have absolutely no idea as to whether it is bonus time or not

Why the hell would I know that?

What exactly did I say that makes you think I am an NZRB lackey?

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I didnt realise that the NZRB had funded the Informant to the tune of $900,000 in past 3 years + free race fields and form.

If they cannot survive on that support, then sorry - bye bye.

Where has all the money gone?

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Does anyone know if the NZRB supplies the form for NZ meetings for any Australian publication?

If we want to increase our turnover and there are comingled pools - is there an opportunity for the Informant, in these days of electronic print transfer , to be published in Aussie too?

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I didnt realise that the NZRB had funded the Informant to the tune of $900,000 in past 3 years + free race fields and form.

If they cannot survive on that support, then sorry - bye bye.

Where has all the money gone?

The "funding" you describe was for advertising in the publication. Each page for advertising has a value, as does the content contained within the ad. So the money paid to the Informant by the RB was for advertising space, not a cheque without performance requirements attached to it. If the marketing wasn't working through it, they would not have continued to support it for so long. Perhaps it is the message in the ads, who knows?

What does come into question for me is whether the RB actually know what marketing is?

Figure this out...........they pay the Informant for every page of advertising and presumeably had received the desired response.....they pay the Herald $900k per annum to put the race form as an insert in the Friday paper. The Herald circulates well at 265,000 copies, potential readership of 500,000. Stats tell us, according to the RB, that 8% of the population are interested in gambling. That translates to a potential interested readership of 40,000. That equates to a cost of $22.50 per head of potential readership.

The Informant circulates to the nation, potential 4 million, say 50% that can read, that's 2 million, 8% of the 2 million potential bettors equates to 160,000 people. Say $250,000 p a of advertising, that equates to $0.56 per head.

It is a long bow to say the Informant has that readership and I am not saying that 160,000 people read the Informant but you need numbers to work out the representative value. The same formula and comparisons are used.

$900,000 to insert in The Herald, in a scattergun approach or $250,000 to advertise in The Informant which has a dedicatedand intersted purchaser and reader!!!!!!

There is only one winner in that race, and by a wider margin than Sunline's second Cox Plate.

Just ask yourself if the RB staff know anything about marketing? The answer is plain to see.

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Well put John.

This raises a whole lot of fundamental questions of how the NZRB operates.

Lets look at Microsoft.

Now Microsoft is a whole lot bigger than the NZRB and have on board some of the best computer brains out there. They see a need for a product so what do they do?

They advertise a competition for developers to come up with the most creative concept and product. They realize that even they can't beat the collective wisdom and flair of the mass population.

Now compare this with NZRB. Their attitude is 1. Anything we do is top secret. 2. We will hire the people we think can develop anything.

3. We are not interested in anything individuals can do after all we are paid massive salaries so we have to come up with the ideas ourselves.

The whole future of equine wagering rests with the internet. So your figures John based on the printed media pale in comparison to the potential on the Internet.

NZ Racing biggest payday came when they cashed in Radio Pacific shares (full marks to the person who originally got the Board to invest).

NZ Racing can have another bonanza by coming up with a killer application for the Internet accepted worldwide. Sadly this opportunity is being minimized by the actions of the current board.

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I never studied 'Marketing', lol - believing it to be a waste of my time and regarding anyone with a 'Degree in Marketing' as someone to be kept well out of any payroll I might fund...

And when you see how various marketing plans pan out, I always praise myself for being so wise, heh heh...

Newspaper circulations are falling. Why - unless you're flogging cars or real estate or are advertising jobs - would you even bother advertising there?

Mainstream television ratings are falling too - hence the mad rush by TVNZ to 'reconsider' its stance on Paul Henry once a couple of its biggie advertisers hinted they might pull their plugs.

The future is all computers and the Internet...

What possible benefit is there, using figures quoting above, of spending $900,000 pa on just one newspaper to cater to whatever fraction of the 160,000 folk actively interested in racing read that newspaper?

I can only just see a rationale for the NZSE bothering, each day, to run a full-page facts and figures ad on how each stock/commodity/currency fared in the previous 24 hours, lol. Given that trading is now virtually a 24/7 operation, any/possibly all of the figures quoted have long since been superceded, right? Online figures are virtually instantly updated...

Some of the Australian racing form sites online are brilliant...

Use those once or twice - and they're easily printable - and you only ever bother to read the freebie Friday ads in our major newspapers to find out which of your fave horses is running the next day...

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..we note that the FridayFLASH..had about 9,000 readership.,

we read the Informant..retained about 3,000.

..and here's the Real reason that Tipped-the-Balance..in eventuation...as to why it's come to play Out the way it has.

BeCAUSE..as in the CAUSE!, . .beCause we've had NO leadership...with leaders that actually DEMAND accountability and a true delivery on CONTRACT!, . .the repeated ACT of letting Gordon'n'Gouch, just deliver the FLASH, whenever It felt like It!,

..it was left up to ME! . .to try and obTAIN this bloody accountability and proper SERVICE on our behalves.

Dozens and DOZENS of times...i ended up in Toll calls...trying to insist getting delivery up to a standard minimally!

Drivers didn't give a Shet...and told Dairy owner / Outlet owners NOTHING on their clientel's behalf.

Mike BROWN!, the corporate coward., Didn't even have th'balls to 'take-over' where i kept having vigilantly, ...left things@ with these jokes G'n'G.

...the Bossman there souinded like an exGangman of some description., he tried his standover Bigboy crapp on me...but he'd not encounted someone Like me before...so it 'bounced'.

...i had his begrudging respects after a few calls., i Tried to keep that momentumn Up...but the Toll cost was too much., let alone the temerities of mike Brown !!

..i posted Dozens and dozens of times Here...but collectively, you all decided to let 'the Cat keep playing with the pissed off 'Mouse'...and be amused by my stancings....instead of getting in beHIND me !!

SO!

. .with the Circulation problem being the main cause of 'unviability'., and It's main reason was the Failure to DELIVER the product/service...on Time!

This had it's perpetuations on the back of the INDUSTRY minions Letting this occur !! . . .by Not standing by ME in lieu of Mike BROWN being a 'girlboy'.

...you've Let a wee company of delivery truck Wankers / Dreamers!...let this Outcome all be Visited upon you all.

...it was the 3,000 'Only' numbers of circulation-use...that Allowed the POLITIC to occur between the two Currently...that've 'dropped-the-Ball' !!

HAD the leadership had any INTEGRITY...let alone penises and Testicles, and Had the Cafe' readership not been so shallow and 'tory'....by supporting me instead of just 'giggling' like Girls,

. . .Then, 'things' would be Very much different toDAY...... . . . . .

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