2 HALV/ES

Over the last few years we have developed connections with a sizable network of influential football bloggers. When we decided to set up Rebel Alliance we thought it would be interesting to take online fan commentary back into the physical world.

 

Most of the more established bloggers we know started out wanting to be full time print journalists, 5 or 6 years later they enjoy editorial freedom, significant daily audiences and influence most sports journalists would kill for. We thought it would be great to take their writing into print and complement the attendant rituals of a North London derby game.

We wanted to give the bitter rivals from either ends of the Seven Sisters road a look over the garden fence. Read one way the paper was packed full of Arsenal news and articles; flip it over and it had everything a Spurs fan could want to read ahead of the game. Depending on your allegiance we felt this was the perfect warm up to a grudge match which was more significant last season than it had been for a while.

The ambition was to bring highly subjective and passionate fans with opposing views together in a single publication. It was fascinating to see the same players and topics written about from two wildly divergent perspectives. For the partisan it made for heart-warming stuff, for the objective reader it provided a humorous and detailed history lesson in enmity.

 

We collaborated with over twenty fan contributors, not only providing content but also promoting the paper online through their own channels. 

In truth, 2Halves reached fewer people - we were funding it ourselves and restricted the print run to 5000 copies distributed on the morning of the game - than a post from any one of our contributors. This didn't make it any less valuable. In fact, in some ways, this was what made it valuable. It wasn't about sharing news - print is poor at capturing breaking news compared to other digital channels - it was about a shared experience. What was so gratifying for us and for the contributors was seeing fans of both teams enjoying it over breakfast before the game in cafes and pubs up and down the Holloway road. It became a valuable and visible part of the day.