Liam Hoden

[scawsby steve]

If anyone reads a tweet from Liam Hoden next week, promising something big, please do us all a favour and don't post it on here.

[Lifelong supporter]

That's a forlorn hope.
If Hoden tweets anything there will be more than a few falling over to post it on here.

[Colemans Left Hook]

certainly not beholden to him

please can we go back to the good old days when DFP totally ignored Football   

[steve@dcfd]

If anyone reads a tweet from Liam Hoden next week, promising something big, please do us all a favour and don't post it on here.

If that was the biggest announcement of the summer he’ll have not much to say. He hyped up a bit.

[Copps is Magic]

We had this problem a few years back remember. All the signings were getting out before they were announced. It led to all kinds of rumours circulating, and maybe even us losing out on one or two at the last minute. Then the club completely changed their policy and the first we knew about a signing was when it was announced. But it appears for these last two signings (the young lad and Copps) the club have given Liam pre-warning that that they are happening.

They should just go back to the old policy and not leak any info. For their own part, the club didn't hype this in any way. Didn't someone even post that everyone is on holiday now?

[German Rover]

There's a big difference between saying something's happened and we're about to announce it and someone telling the press we are trying to sign X for this much. The club appears to much better at this these days

[Copps is Magic]

I don't care what Liam Hoden does with his time, that's his prerogative. The club should be the first to announce a singing, it's quite simple. Not let a press guy know its happening over a week before it does. I highly doubt its anything to do with agents and money in the two cases we've just seen.

[pib]

If he's got any information he's always going to overhype it. I would imagine with everything being on Twitter now that local papers are struggling even more than they already were. You only have to look at the barrage of banner/pop-up ads on the Free Press (or any other local paper) website to see that they're desperate for all the traffic/sales they can get.

It's his job to overhype things so that they sell more papers and get more people on their website - his job probably depends on it so who can blame him! I think people need to learn to take it with a pinch of salt.

[drfchound]

But did his actions sell any extra copies of the paper.
I didn't buy one.
Did anyone else on here buy one.

[pib]

But did his actions sell any extra copies of the paper.
I didn't buy one.
Did anyone else on here buy one.

No. It made me click on their god awful website though.

[the vicar]

But did his actions sell any extra copies of the paper.
I didn't buy one.
Did anyone else on here buy one.

No. It made me click on their god awful website though.

you don't have to though do you, if you do it's then your fault not anyone elses

[pib]

But did his actions sell any extra copies of the paper.
I didn't buy one.
Did anyone else on here buy one.

No. It made me click on their god awful website though.

you don't have to though do you, if you do it's then your fault not anyone elses

You've mistaken me for someone who is complaining about it. The fact I clicked on their site doesn't bother me. The fact that it's crap is a separate issue I thought I'd just throw in there.

All I'm saying is that Hoden wants to generate paper sales and website clicks. If he sensationalises things a bit and it adds a few extra to either of the above, he's done his job.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Man in doing his job shocker....

[wesisback]

Is he paid to titillate through his personal Twitter? I stopped following the Free Press on any social media a long time ago and have just added Hoden to the pile this week.
It's that bad these days, I'm stunned its still going and this kind of pure dogger journalism isn't helping.

[Cantley Rover]

Just a question but where does Hoden get his information from? I am sure he is not making it up himself.

[wesisback]

Fair one. Didn't the club gut a few people out back in the day for leaking information?

[chrisd_123]

Just a question but where does Hoden get his information from? I am sure he is not making it up himself.

The club. He’ll know a hell of a lot about what’s going on at the club too. That’s just how it works with clubs and local press.

It works both ways. From a cynical point of view, they also keep Liam onside to keep him from writing any negativity about drfc.

It’s just PR. It’s not a leak as he’ll be under an embargo so any press/media organisation can found out in advance so long as they stick to the embargo.

Someone above also said that it should be the club who first breaks the news...it was. Liam just said their was going to be an announcement. Rovers were the first to announce the actual news.

Leaks and working with the media are two different things. In the past it has been people at the club telling their mates and starting Chinese whispers so when it doesn’t come off people are disapponted.

Nowadays this is more how all clubs work. Rovers getting good PR out of using local press to reach more people when teasing any announcements and in return the local press get exclusive interviews/content for their publication. Liam will only find out when things are 100% confirmed.

FWIW I don’t see the issue in what Liam has been tweeting. The striker signing he specifically said it was someone in the mold of Alfie Beestin. If fans took that as us signing Messi then more fool them. As for Copps, he said that there was some big news and fans would like it. He maybe thought we’d be a little more excited but nothing worse than clubs themselves have done in the past.

[karldew]

His tweet earlier;

Spending my Bank Holiday trying to come up with one single tweet that will spark a group of #drfc supporters into a frenzy. Struggling this week to maintain this reputation that's suddenly been foisted upon me. Sensationalism ain't easy

[RoversAlias]

Tongue rammed firmly in cheek.

[Bentley Bullet]

His tweet earlier;

Spending my Bank Holiday trying to come up with one single tweet that will spark a group of #drfc supporters into a frenzy. Struggling this week to maintain this reputation that's suddenly been foisted upon me. Sensationalism ain't easy

Especially when you get a reputation for it!

[Bentley Bullet]

Eeh journo humour. Us readers really don't know what we're missing!

[wesisback]

See Gerald Rather for his future. His product is awful and he's sniping at the fans that buy/read it and have criticised this situation for its awful output.
There's loads better ways that this could have been delivered and you'd think considering the Free Press is in that poor a state they can't even retain a Doncaster Office, they'd take any feedback coming instead of attempting to brush it off with an attempt at humour.

[DonnyOsmond]

He's only hyped up the Copps signing. The first one he played down loads, everyone else hyped that up. I guess also, he knew other clubs were making offers and shown interest so it is a big boost to him us being able to keep him. Where as we didn't know anything so expected him to stay and found it anti climactic when it was eventually announced.

[Jonathan]

I think both Liam and Paul do an excellent job both in the paper (which I buy every week) and on social media - I follow them both for Rovers news and without them we would’nt get very much of it at all. Fair play to Liam for keeping interest going through the close season. It’s part and parcel of the job really. If you read the likes of the BBC Football Gossip column, speculation is a massive part of the game now. At least what we get through Liam and Paul has a fair degree of credibility.

Imagine how disappointed we could get if we followed a big club and the papers printed stories every day about players we were never going to sign. The way people hang on every word on here they’d be baying for blood on discovering most of it is just hype.

Yeah the Free Press website is clunky and irritating. Same goes for many electronic publications. But I doubt the local sports desk have any control over the web hosting arrangements, or that they’re doing it just to annoy you.