Monday's are crazy here at the Soccer Laduma offices. The first couple of hours are taken up with meetings to make sure everyone is on top of stuff.
Let me give you a sneak peak into how it all works. At 9am I sit with Peter (Du Toit) and we go over the edition that comes out on Wednesday. Make sure that as an editorial team we achieved what we set out to achieve for our readers. Make sure we use the remaining time before our Tuesday deadline to polish it up as much as possible and get in any last minute updates that are needed.
We then have a look at the edition that comes out the following week. Vuyani (Joni) makes sure that we are always two issues ahead. These interviews are sometimes unedited and in a very basic state most of the time - and so we collectively put down our thoughts on how to make them better.
After that meeting, I then sit with Vuyani and Gareth, our subeditor and we go over the two papers. I communicate any extras Peter wants in the paper and we all discuss what needs to be done for the day. Vuyani then makes sure he gets the message across to all our journos as well as the production guys and adds the 'Vuyani Magic' where needed.
At 11:30 we have our 'Editors Meeting' where all the various editors of the various platforms SLTV, Siyagobhoza, Social, Fan Park, Web, Paper and International sit down and discuss the week ahead. Games to look out for, events to look out for, campaigns to look out for. It's basically a team talk to make sure we are all on the same page. Once that is over it's all hands on deck to get the paper out and make sure every digital platform is humming.
I've probably left a few steps out here and there, but the reason I tell you this is that as you can see, every thing possible is done to ensure that the content you get has thought and love behind it. It's the reason we know you buy your ticket to the Soccer Laduma stadium every week. Each week we fill a stadium with upwards of 300 000 fans - You. It's attention to detail, attention to the right 'ticket price' that gets your support, and we thank you for it.
PSL stadiums on the other hand, they struggle to fill up on game day. And that is the on-going theme for the first problem we're addressing in South African soccer as the Soccer Laduma Supporters Club.
So we continue to ask you to put down the reasons you stay away from PSL games in the comments section below so that we can continue putting together a research document to address this concern.
Thanks and go into Monday with two feet up and studs showing!
Cheers
Clint
