With the 2019/20 football season now under way I thought it was time to provide an update on the relaunch of an A Touch Far Vetched fanzine.
It’s been three years since the paper publication was stopped, a number of factors leading me to reluctantly finish the fanzine and confine myself to Swans commentary through this website and the social media channels only.
That decision was always taken with a heavy heart and it’s eaten away at me ever since…especially with the Swans going through such turbulent times on and off the pitch ever since.
A couple of years ago I sought to bring ATFV back but as an online only publication – but the effort stalled and was eventually abandoned. Again, with a heavy heart.
And so this summer I renewed efforts to resurrect “my baby” and it’s been common knowledge that I’ve been working on a new version and hoped to launch in time for the first home game.
Nothing’s ever simple though and a significant recruitment issue has led to a delay.
One of the crucial elements of producing these things is someone that can take the raw content and turn it into a fully designed finished product. Alas this is way above my ability and the person originally recruited to do this had to drop out of the project due to personal reasons.
After conducting a fruitless search for a replacement I finally got a lifeline through Accent – providers of this website and creators of the rebranded ATFV logos.
The revised plan now is to build each online issue into this website, creating the content in living, breathing HTML (!) as opposed to a static .pdf version. The idea will be to fully monetise this and create an income stream through the advertising opportunities and this will allow me to pay for the significant amount of work involved in designing each issue and have money for our charitable exploits.
We are still experimenting with formats at the moment and working out how to put an issue together (creating one like this will have to be approached very differently than simply plotting out a 28 page booklet) but we are aiming to be ready to go live in time for the home game against Preston on the 17th August.
All our content is being written to be relevant for the start of the season, so if we miss that date it will lead to a further delay as new content will be required to keep it relevant.
Along with the whole of the newly assembled ATFV Team I will do my very best to pull this off and produce a new Swans fanzine to entertain and represent the Jack Army. More than ever our club needs protecting and I want to once again add a proper ATFV publication voice to the efforts of others such as SoS and the Supporters Trust.
We’ll get there. A huge amount of work has gone in from me and others and we are all determined to take the last step and get something new and beautiful created. We’re nearly there too so please be patient but also please support us when we do go live…the more readers, the more views, the more power I have to bring in advertising and make a difference in our local community.
The new ATFV Online is sat on the rocket pad awaiting launch…let’s hope there’s no problem in Houston, Landore or anywhere else!
