Maybe GM should take a more active role in promoting the ladies game.

[palindromicbob]

With all the recent Solhiem excitement it's hard to ignore the ladies game. Even if you don't like it, it's hard to deny the fact that it has it's place within the world of golf.

Was going to comment yesterday how I was a little disappointed to see the Solhiem cup in 2nd place on that little news thingy on the top left of the forum. Below a male amateur event.

Now the European achievement has left the front page. After just 2 days. The amateurs remains.

Click on Tours & News and we get sections for the Male Majors, Ryder Cup team and even the Amateurs. It's hard to spot the Solhiem cup news until you click the Tour News tab.

With a casual glance the GM priority would seem to be as follows.

Gear and industry.
Men Professional.
Amateur (both male and female but primary focus on male).
Ladies Professional.

Given the fact that the ladies game has no where to go but up isn't about time the website reflected this more. I know the magazine has had a few features. We've got a few very active female members and who knows how many ladies are lurking in the background or looking over their partners shoulder. Shouldn't GM being doing it's best to address the balance and maybe help increase the number ladies on here and in the game. You never know. It could help introduce the next Charley Hull to the game.

 

[In_The_Rough]

Like it or not it is not where the revenue is at the moment. For those without Sky like myself I would struggle to name you more than 2 of the players involved in the tournament never mind who the captains were. GM is a business after all.

 

[palindromicbob]

Like it or not it is not where the revenue is at the moment. For those without Sky like myself I would struggle to name you more than 2 of the players involved in the tournament never mind who the captains were. GM is a business after all.

But it is where future revenue is. Just look at the amount of chat generated by the Solhiem. Hardly difficult to add a small section to the website to increase awareness.

 

[FairwayDodger]

Like it or not it is not where the revenue is at the moment. For those without Sky like myself I would struggle to name you more than 2 of the players involved in the tournament never mind who the captains were. GM is a business after all.

All businesses should be driven to grow. What better way than to develop new markets?

The balancing act would be to encourage mor female readers without alienating the current readership.

 

[In_The_Rough]

But it is where future revenue is. Just look at the amount of chat generated by the Solhiem. Hardly difficult to add a small section to the website to increase awareness.

Not sure about future revenue after a week or two the hype will have died down and it will all be forgotten about. Agree add a small section but as for much else forget it, I could not honestly name you 1 Women's tour event winner this season I honestly have not got a clue, do not follow it and never will. Fantastic Europe won I am really chuffed to bits for them but it just does not grab me to go and watch it or read about it.

 

[groundskeeperwilly]

Not specifically relating to GM here but I think it's a bit of a catch 22.

Ladies game needs investment/publicity to gain popularity and therefore increase revenues etc etc BUT while it remains less popular media are reluctant give publicity and companies less likely to invest as there is no publicity!!!

I watched the Solheim Cup and thought that the standard of play was good. Some of those girls have talent-particularly some of the younger girls like Charley Hull and Lexi Thompson who could/should appeal to young golfers aspiring to play the game.

I don't know what exactly will happen to kick start the increase of publicity/media coverage though.

 

[In_The_Rough]

All businesses should be driven to grow. What better way than to develop new markets?

The balancing act would be to encourage mor female readers without alienating the current readership.

Again is there a market there just because Europe won the Solheim cup on yank soil I am not sure there is and if I was GM Editor or one of their movers and shakers not sure I would want to focus much attention on it either.

 

[palindromicbob]

Again is there a market there just because Europe won the Solheim cup on yank soil I am not sure there is and if I was GM Editor or one of their movers and shakers not sure I would want to focus much attention on it either.

Well not sure about your club but there is a thriving female membership at mine and seems to be increasing. It's not even about focusing much attention it about at least giving it some. How much commercial benefit is there to the focus given to the elite amateur game?

Personally I've have watched a few LPGA and LET events when opportunity arises. Wouldn't mind some of my license fee going to it either, would be better than some of the tat the beeb currently seem to spend it on

On saying that the site does feature a few LET, LPGA event's they just get buried due to the higher schedules involved in the male game.

Thus I've created in a interesting dilema.

Increase awareness by increasing separation and therefore highlight inequality, or, keep the inclusive all tours in one place system and let it try and get there on it's own merits.

 

[In_The_Rough]

Well not sure about your club but there is a thriving female membership at mine and seems to be increasing. It's not even about focusing much attention it about at least giving it some. How much commercial benefit is there to the focus given to the elite amateur game?

Personally I've have watched a few LPGA and LET events when opportunity arises. Wouldn't mind some of my license fee going to it either, would be better than some of the tat the beeb currently seem to spend it on

Just under 700 Male members at the course I play at on top of that there is a thriving junior section nearing 100!! about 60-40 Boys to Girls if I remember correctly. However there is a total of just of 40 female members most of which you see once a week if your lucky. They even offered free membership to Women whose Husbands/Partners were members and there were hardly any takers so I think they have given up now and purely focus on developing junior golf. Agree the BBC does show a lot of tat which is why I rarely watch TV these days. Rent or download the odd TV series on DVD and that is about it. When I get my own place will probably not even bother with a TV if I am honest. With regards to women's golf on TV I watched 1 round of the women's open the other week and that was more than enough, awful coverage and the pace of play was horrific so thanks but no thanks. Had Sky for a few years until scrapping it a couple of years ago due to their ever increasing rip off charges and never watched 1 ladies event on that either so definite no go for me.

 

[TheClaw]

Is it GMs job to promote the ladies game? Give the masses what they want.

As for the news at the top, what sort of ratio of males/females read this forum?

And your list:
Gear and industry.
Men Professional.
Amateur (both male and female but primary focus on male).
Ladies Professional.

This is probably the right order in terms of what people who buys golf mags actually want!

 

[Robobum]

All businesses should be driven to grow. What better way than to develop new markets?

The balancing act would be to encourage mor female readers without alienating the current readership.

The most realistic and sensible post.

 

[patricks148]

Mmm, im not sure its GM Mags job to promo the womens game, are there not specialist Ladies Golf mags for that??

just look at it this way, there are 1000's of guys on this forum and a handfull of women. So is that catering to your market?

why would you start promoting to only a small % of golfers and not your core readers and target aud of your advertisers?

 

[Hacker Khan]

Isn't it GMs job to cover the game of golf? Why does it have to be split between mens and womes? Yes the majority of the coverage will be the mens professional game, but I find it slightly bizarre and kind of depressingly typical for golf that there seems to be an attitude of one or the other. And some don't really want to see much, if any coverage of women in a 'mens' golf magazine

Would I want to read a magazine that is full of articles on women golfers, probably not as they already exist. Would I want to read a magazine that covers the whole game of golf if that includes some features on up and coming female golfers, hell yes. Would I have rather read about a feature on the upcoming exciting players in the Solheim Cup in the lastest issue rather than the vast majority of articles in the issue, yes I would.

And call me a sexist pig, but golf mags seem to be the only ones that have not cottoned on to the fact that men (and of course some ladies) like looking at pictures of pretty ladies in magazines. Of course I am not saying put them in there just because they are eye candy, as that is sexist and demeaning. But given the choice of looking at Montys sagging features or Charlie Hull then I know which way I'd go. Just about every other paper or magazine does it.

We've had a women prime minister but have we ever had a woman on the front of a golf mag?

 

[virtuocity]

have we ever had a woman on the front of a golf mag?

Surely there must have been a women golfer on the front of GM at some point?!!!!!!

 

[Fish]

I think the answer to the OP's question is, no, why should they?

GM will have all the demographics available to them regarding their current subscribers both hard copy and on-line and also the membership of the forum, what they do then or should do is target that demographic accordingly in percentage terms. Yes they can feed in a extra editorial or feature to a wider audience at times when there is a specific ladies event or fantastic win like in the recent Solheim Cup but again, they will know what the hit rate was on those pages in the past and if it was worthwhile promoting and keep running with it.

If they had a ladies feature area in the magazine to promote ladies golf, could they increase the amount pages to justify it and if not, what pages would it take the place of and would it increase the readership (sales)?

If it increased the proportion of lady readers but at the expense of loosing critical advertising space and features more aimed at the greater readership, being men, would that cause the male readership to shrink, would that be good business, no.

Why isn't their a magazine called "Lady Golfer", would it be PC to have one, would it go against the equity that is being called upon to bridge the gaps between men and women, would it sell enough copies to support itself?

If their was a buoyant ladies market to aim at, I'm sure most of the current golf mags would be fighting for it, and their not, because whilst not wanting to alienate the ladies, its a business not a service.

Its the governing bodies role to promote everything and the magazines role to report on it.

I enjoy reading about some ladies and especially recently with Charley Hull and her background, but I think the GM have the balance right.

 

[bladeplayer]

This was discussed before and its all down to market share & percentages .. Im sure, no, actualy id have no doubt IPC will have researched the amount of lady specific (not sure if thats correct term) golf magazines on sale and how many are sold ..

They will have noticed volume sales & whether is urban or rural market etc.. In big business its as important to know what your rivals are doing as it is keeping track on your own business .. if the custom is there they will add more content to match that ..

In answer to Bobs question re GM taking a more active role in promoting the ladies game , i definitely would have no problem with their being more Ladies golf covered in the magazine , but if magazines that are aimed specificaly at women's golf have such a low market share , how many people interested in golf will then buy a main stream mag with a few pages aimed at Ladies golf ? so realy in the big picture would GM have that much of an effect , COULD it have that much of an effect ? i dont think so ..

Just my opinion tho

 

[FairwayDodger]

but if magazines that are aimed specificaly at women's golf have such a low market share , how many people interested in golf will then buy a main stream mag with a few pages aimed at Ladies golf ? so realy in the big picture would GM have that much of an effect , COULD it have that much of an effect ? i dont think so ..

Just my opinion tho

It could make a huge difference. Whenever this is discussed, the two magazines that get mentioned are "Lady Golfer" and "Women and Golf".

"Lady Golfer" is simply crap, sorry. I'm not going to buy it even though it purports to cover women's golf which I would love to be able to read more about. Some kind soul regularly leaves a copy in the locker room at the club so I often get to see it, it literally takes me about ten minutes to read it. Very poor, not a comparable product to GM.

Worse, I decided to follow them on twitter for a while. It became clear that it's just a bunch of lads that run it - their twitter feed is very male, very male-driven. I.e. much more chat on the men's game than women's.

"Women and Golf" have a much better (although not hugely active) twitter feed, I like it and would really like to see what the magazine is like. However I have NEVER seen a copy on sale ANYWHERE despite actively looking.

Another one I read after a suggestion from MikeH was "Golf International" which had a section devoted to the women's game. This really hit the spot for me - a good magazine with all round coverage of the men's game (which I am actually interested in as well) but with some features focussing on women. Unfortunately, the next issue I bought no longer had this coverage so I guess I was in the minority!

 

[Fish]

"Women and Golf" have a much better (although not hugely active) twitter feed, I like it and would really like to see what the magazine is like. However I have NEVER seen a copy on sale ANYWHERE despite actively looking.

I never knew their were actual women's golf magazines and have never seen any on display or even advertised! My reference to Lady Golfer was off the cuff, unless I have seen it mentioned somewhere and subconsciously it stayed somewhere in the back of the mind!

 

[dufferman]

I wonder how many of the GM readers would prefer to see a section on the female game rather than the club / amateur pages at the back of the magazine? I know I would. I'm much more interested in the Solheim cup than I am a small club somewhere a long way away from me celebrating their 100 year anniversary...

 

[bladeplayer]

I wonder how many of the GM readers would prefer to see a section on the female game rather than the club / amateur pages at the back of the magazine? I know I would. I'm much more interested in the Solheim cup than I am a small club somewhere a long way away from me celebrating their 100 year anniversary...

Then your going to have ah there's not enough Amateur or grass roots golf covered in magazines ..

But for the record i tend to agree with you .and i dont often read that part of the magazine