By Jason McKeown
It has been a while since we spoke, valued reader, and so I wanted to say hello, to wish you a Happy New Year, and to provide an update on the short and long-term future of Width of a Post.
I have not written article for the site in almost a month due to other commitments. I spent Christmas in the States visiting family, meaning I missed all the holiday period games. I have also been flat out editing my upcoming book, which is now almost completed and will go into design later this month, in order to be ready for launch in March. You can pre-order a copy now for only £20 (including P+P), the book is non-profit with proceeds going to the Burns Unit.
Whilst I have been busying myself, Katie Whyatt has been managing the site and I want to publically thank her for doing so, especially for her excellent interview with Phil Parkinson. There is no doubt Katie is a rising star, and her talents will one day take her way beyond writing for WOAP.
But whilst we do still have her, I am pleased to confirm Katie has been promoted to co-editor of the site. She is taking on a few more tasks, namely working with other WOAP writers on The Verdict series. She adds so much value to the site, and I’m excited that this will continue to be the case.
The short-term future of Width of a Post…
Last May I announced that WOAP was taking a step back, primarily due to me taking time off from running it to write the book. With this now all but complete, I am pleased to be able to say that WOAP is going back towards full tilt again, and the number of articles we produce will start to increase over the second half of the season.
In addition to the return of the Verdict, we are also bringing back Match Previews (starting tomorrow) and the Midweek Player Focus. We are hoping to squeeze in an interview or two over the coming months, as well as continuing to report on every game.
In Duncan Hamilton’s terrific book about Brian Clough – Provided You Don’t Kiss Me – the former local football reporter on Nottingham Forest spends the opening chapter bemoaning the challenge of writing about the same team week in week out, given it becomes difficult to find new things to say over the course of the season. Working on WOAP for nearly five years, I can definitely relate to that. However, with my focus having been largely on book writing over the first half of this season, I’m excited that there is a lot to say and write about this campaign, the players (look out for two articles on Devante Cole over the next week) and manager, which I will look forward to doing over the coming weeks and months.
I am very fortunate, also, to have such a great writing team who volunteer their time and effort, and WOAP will continue to showcase them too. It’s funny, but before I started WOAP I probably knew less than 10 people who supported Bradford City, now I know so many people. We are a little community on WOAP, and will continue to shout from our soapbox.
In the summer, I plan to give the site a four-six week break so I can concentrate on watching Euro 2016 (come on Wales!) and then we will be back for the 2016/17 season.
The long-term future of Width of a Post…
Beyond then, the site will definitely start to change. Producing WOAP has been amazing experience, but I am ready to do other things and to truly take a full and permanent step back. I’m committed to doing WOAP in its current guise until the end of 2016, and hopefully until the end of 2016/17, but that will then be that.
The initial thoughts are to keep WOAP open post next season, so myself and other writers can produce articles as and when we have the urge. But we will keep updates infrequent, and certainly won’t be writing about every game.
I’m getting older, I have a kid and other responsibilities, and there comes a point where I just want to be a regular Bradford City supporter at weekends, and to write about the club in a more leisurely and different way.
All of which is for another day. For now we are fully back, and I hope you enjoy our efforts for the next 12-18 months.
Categories: News
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Great news 🙂
Becoming a “regular supporter” does have its benefits Jason.
As you know I terminated my involvement with `Friends of Bradford City` in November 2014, and now apart from a bit of assistance given to Mike with `City Gent` and some current work at attempting to right the wrongs of the Guardian/Martin Fletcher/Independent shenanigans surrounding the fire disaster and the call for a needless new enquiry (Which is ongoing and developing as we speak) I just go to games.
I really enjoy getting down to VP on matchday much later than before, and maybe enjoying a pint or two on North Parade with my son. Something unheard of when we were involved with FoBC.
Its also nice to be slightly divorced from all the internal politics of the club, and also able to concentrate on other things outside football.
Go for it Jason, you only have a young family once!!!
Good and bad news, love this site
Congratulations Jason on the quality output which you and others have continued to deliver through WOAP. Since the last change of approach (children, book, career, getting a life etc), there has still been a constant flow of interesting articles. Among many other highlights, I enjoyed the strange intervention of Roger Owen and his attack on Katie (#weirdo). I’m sure many fans change the importance they attach to BCAFC in their lives from time to time. Family brought other priorities for me. I used to walk out of wedding receptions to get to City matches. My honeymoon involved a City away match. But now I can take or leave even watching, although the 12-15 era has inspired to me to get to a good few games. Looking forward to the remaining shelf life of the site, which will be sorely missed. And I hope you squeezed one of my photos into your book, although I am no Tom Gadd.
Great news for the immediate future – worry in the long term for the future of this terrific site.