Okay people, so a good number of correspondents by email, tweeters and people I see face to face have been asking… how close are we getting to the 1,000 necessary advance subscribers for next season?

As I write, and I haven’t had time to tot up the additional ones that have come in over the weekend, we have between 650 and 700 paid up readers. Final decision will be made on the Easter Bank Holiday Monday (2nd April), the day when issue 271 – the final one this season – goes to press.

So what are we going to do between now and then to get the extra 300 odd? As well as our own efforts, we’ve had great support from both Arseblog and Arsenal Fan TV to get the message out, but now, it’s down to us.

So the next two days sees yours truly email something in the region of 10,000 plus email addresses we have collated over the years, and then sit back and see what the response is. I need to get cracking on that as in terms of bulk emailing, I need to be a bit clever to get around the gmail restrictions on sending out these things – and there is a chance that if you have already subscribed by online bank transfer or cheque you will also get this email – in which case apologies and please ignore it. Anyhow, I’ll simply reproduce the text of the email below and if you wish to commit – even better. It’s over to you good people – if enough of you want it, The Gooner will survive beyond the end of this season!

Here’s the email which you could well be getting over the next 48 hours…

Subject: Urgent– Save The Gooner Fanzine (deadline end of March)

Dear Arsenal Fan,

We are sending this email to you because we have your address from:
1. an email to The Gooner,
2. a payment to The Gooner at some point in recent years,
3. you have completed the annual online Gooner survey or
4. you have been cc’d on an Arsenal related email that we have also received.
Many apologies for filling your inbox if you are not interested, but this is a needs must situation as we try to raise enough subscribers to continue The Gooner fanzine in print form after the end of the current season.

Additionally, it is possible that you are one of the 650-700 people who have already committed to The Gooner next season by paying in advance for a subscription. If so, many apologies. We have tried to filter out those who have subscribed, but there will doubtless be a few that slipped through the net, given the number of addresses this is being sent to. This is more likely if you have paid by cheque or online bank transfer.

So, what’s this all about? In brief, The Gooner fanzine – an independent unofficial magazine written by Arsenal supporters for Arsenal supporters has been publishing since 1987 and to survive, we need to change the model of how we sell the fanzine to make it viable. This means producing a 64 page magazine six times next season and securing 1,000 advance postal subscribers in the UK and abroad to do so. Previously, we could survive on sales made outside Arsenal matches home and away, but that is no longer the case for a number of reasons, not least falling attendances, the huge variety of kick off days and times meaning the matchday routine is a thing of the past for many and more fans getting their football opinion online. Wet and cold weather hasn’t helped much this season either!

However, there is a hardcore audience for The Gooner, and we hope it is big enough to allow us to continue. If you have not seen the fanzine for a while, you can download a pdf of an issue from earlier this season by clicking on this link.

If you like what you see please consider subscribing for £30 (or £42 if outside the UK) to receive six issues (with an extra 16 pages each) next season. To put this into your Arsenal-spending context, £30 would not buy you the cheapest adult priced lower tier seat to watch Arsenal play the likes of Stoke or other ‘Grade B’ opposition in the Premier League, and we are confident you will get more value for your money over the course of a season than you often will in 90 minutes.

There are a number of ways to subscribe (NB – If we do not make our target of 1,000 by Easter Sunday (April 1st) and decide not to continue, everyone who has paid £30 will be refunded in full by the end of May).

1. With a credit or debit card through the shop section of our online store at our http://www.onlinegooner.com website.
UK orders – click here.
Orders outside UK – click here.
And there are other options on the subscriptions page that include receiving this season’s issues as well. Those can all be seen here.

2. By post – Send a cheque for £30 (£42 for addresses outside of the UK) for a 2018/19 season subscription made payable to ‘The Gooner’ to this address -
The Gooner
12 Buxton Court
Hanbury Drive
London
E11 1GB
(You may wish to - download this Save The Gooner! pdf form and return it in your envelope of you wish to pay by cheque). NB – To save admin costs, we will only cash cheques if we do reach our target to continue next season. If we do not, we will simply destroy any cheques to save on postage costs.

3. Via online bank transfer, making a payment of £30 (or £42 for addresses outside of the UK) to –
Account name: The Gooner
Sort Code: 20-76-90
Account Number: 03004112
Use the reference 1819 followed by your surname. Very important - please follow up the payment with an email to [email protected] stating your name and address, and the reference that you used for payment (e.g. 1819Smith). Otherwise, we will not be able to match the payment to you. (If you require Iban and Bic codes for an international payment, please email us at [email protected].

4. You can also simply make a direct PayPal payment to the email address [email protected] for £30 (or £42 if outside UK). If doing this, please make your payment a 'friends and family' / personal gift payment – this helps keep our costs down. If you have the time to confirm you have paid this way with an email to [email protected], even better, although we will see the payment on the PayPal account with your address details.

Finally, whether we survive as a printed fanzine or not, we may in the future email you about special projects. If you do not wish to receive such emails, please unsubscribe by replying to this email with the word ‘Unsubscribe’ in the subject line and we will remove your address from our list.