"We're looking at a senior marketing & media person" - Tom Piatak
25 July 2025
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Club chairman Tom Piatak joined the London Branch for an online Q&A session on Thursday night (mid-afternoon over in America) with a whole range of subjects covered during the one-hour event.
First out of the traps was a query about the club’s media output, and whether or not moves were afoot to appoint a senior media executive to oversee things going forward.
“That's a very timely question,” Tom said. “The answer to that is yes. We are actively in the process of addressing [the position of] a senior media/marketing representative right now.
“Actively, as in we’ve been involved with it for the last week-and-a-half. So yes, we are addressing that.
“As you do the review of the club, there are certain things that actually stand out very quickly and we have to address it, and we tried to do that immediately on the football side of the operations because we had to keep that going.
“But there're also some things on the commercial and administrative side that are being addressed, but they're not highlight items. They're things that do take a little time because of the change in process that’s required.
“But the answer to that question is yes, we are addressing a senior media and marketing person. There is a slight shift that we'll see. The position is basically head of marketing and media.”
“I view media as a channel, as one of the channels, and it's a very important channel to use to stay connected to the supporters in every way, shape, or form,” he added. “But people may not realise this, we haven’t had a marketing function in the club.
“And I think that's absolutely critical to tie those two together because when you're trying to get a message out, or you're trying to get news out, or things out there, that marketing piece really should be driving it with the media supporting it.
“So, it's being addressed right now, and there will probably be some announcements coming out shortly.”
A criticism with a number of fans has been that previously readily available content has now gone behind a pay wall, with the quality and quantity of the content falling short of the asking price.
“You know, there's two schools of thought there,” Tom explained. “CUTV basically does help fund the club and most of the information that's on CUTV is time-gated, so it does get released to the public.
“I guess when I look at CUTV right now, I think there's so much more we can be doing. There's so much more that can be available to the supporters or to subscribers, things like in-depth analysis and stuff that’s going on at the club.
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“I haven’t been absolutely enthralled with the content on CUTV, and the club realises that, and that's part of the thinking behind the head of marketing and media that's coming into play.
“But I think there is a balance, because CUTV does help fund the club, and there needs to be sources of revenue to help fund the club. However, some of it needs to be free and available as well.
“The overall message I would say there is the content on CUTV has to become much more robust, more where you want to come home and view it, or you want to be able to log on and view it, and there's sufficient material we can do that with from things that you would not have seen or would not know about with how the club operates.
“That’s the push. There will be a balance. It is mostly time-gated so CUTV will get to see it first, and then it'll get released to the rest. But it's an important part, it's a revenue stream for the club, and it's needed because long-term, the club needs to be financially sustainable.
“Our ultimate goal is to get the club to a point where it’s financially sustainable on its own without owners’ equity. And I think we can get there, so that's one aspect of it.
“That’s why there needs to be more robust content to make it more valuable and to have supporters say - I want to subscribe. I see the value that I'm getting. I see that the in-depth interviews and different things that we're not getting right now, and we've never had in the past, are now becoming available.
“So that ties into the marketing and the media changes that are going on now as well.”
And key to getting messages out there are the relationships the club has with its local media outlets.
“We recognise that,” he confirmed. “With the News & Star and the BBC, there is a balance. Both channels are valuable. Both channels are necessary.
“I don't have the knowledge of what it was like prior. It's my understanding that very rarely would there ever be an owner sitting there talking to the press or talking to supporters’ groups on a regular basis, as we try to make ourselves available.
“So, in terms of the transparency and availability of us, and saying we want to be able to connect and talk to supporters and we talk to the press, yes, we're trying to do that.
“I remember when I came in, the relationship with the press and the club at that time was not a healthy relationship and we've made a concerted effort to really try to open that up.
“It's not perfect by any means. I definitely recognise that. But we are working with those channels, with the press to basically say, how can we do this? We need each other. I think the press needs Carlisle United and we need the press as well. We’re working on that and have active initiatives going on with them to address that.
“Going back to what I was saying earlier, it’s hard to underestimate the value of the marketing function that the club did not have. We just did not have that. And to me, the media is a channel.
“It's a channel to get that message out. But the message has to come from the marketing group and the club as to what we're doing, what our initiatives are, what we're trying to hit, and all of that.
“Sometimes it's difficult when you just have a media department that maybe focuses on the football because that's what people want to hear. But they're not getting some of the broader messages that the club is trying to do.
“At the end of the day, yes, we want to move up and we want to get to League One and we want to be pushing for the Championship, and that's where we want to be in five years.
“But there's an awful lot of other things that are going on around the club that are supporting that, but it all sometimes take a back seat. And I think nailing that and getting the right individual for that position that understands how the marketing, the message and the channels come together, is important.
We want to get that information out with a healthy, good working relationship with the press. It's absolutely critical.
“So we're very, very focused on finding the right person with the right skill set, with the right experience in both areas that can do that, because we think it's absolutely required for the success, and for this to work from a communications standpoint.”
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You can watch this segment via our YouTube channel here:
