Introduction and Narrative: My Football Writer started when Rick Waghorn read a piece in MediaGuardian on his 40th birthday (16/01/06) quoting Clay Shirky. Shirky drew an analogy between journalism and the music industry; people still want to listen to good music, just not on CDs. By the same token, people still want to read good writing, just not on a traditional newspaper. Ergo, this should be a golden age for both musicians and journalists alike. At the same time, Waghorn’s newspaper employer was cutting a third of the sports desk where he and his wife worked. The layoff compensation was used to build the first version of MyFootballWriter.com, a generic hub of soccer news in the United Kingdom.

Main Goal of MyFootballWriter: To take a print press off a journalist’s back and Google out of local advertisers’ loop, by putting locally-sourced and respected sports reports in the palm of everyone’s hand, whilst at the same time giving local advertisers the chance to put their brand in front of their neighborhood audience. The advertising and editorial product then becomes both a league and nation-wide network offering further opportunities for syndication fees for all our fresh, organically grown quotes and copy; all of which is equally applicable to any sport out of any town or city.

Notable Achievements: “Still being here 14 months later and taking my first proper wage packet out of the business.” Since launching, Waghorn has been invited to attend a POLIS seminar at the LSE on the future of online journalism and has been described as ‘a threat’ by the head of BBC Online, according to Charlie Beckett from POLIS. So far Waghorn remains optimistic - he has even received advertising queries from his former employer. Today MyFootballwriter.com uses no Google advertising and is looking to expand its network to Ipswich and Colchester. Waghorn’s former employer, the Evening News, Norwich, is even advertising on the site, promoting its GoingOut supplement.

A Surprising Realization: How a journalist’s traditional contact book can yield all manner of fruit in terms of potential investors, advertisers, legal advice, etc. Waghorn has also found:

1. The benefits of blogging - or rather responding on blogs
2. The confusion among local advertisers as to just what do with their internet ad dollars; where do they go next to get the most bucks for their click - or most clicks for their bucks - if its not to a fading newspaper?
3. The ease with which traditional reporting practices switch to the web
4. The freedom of having no print press deadlines to worry about
5. The fun it is to work from home
6. The way that for the punters it makes their lives so much easier - ie I bring their football news to them; they don’t have to look for me…

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