TTT31. Summer 2023

on the list of officials. Even the ETTA annual report failed to record the details of this editorial coup. It merely
stated that the magazine “for many years had been losing support.”
In his first editorial, Yates mentioned the changes without going into a lot of detail. He referred to a “budget
squeeze” and that the magazine, now relaunched as Table Tennis News, was now an “ETTA publication.”
Subscribers could be excused for missing the fact that their magazine had a new editor, but they couldn’t fail
to see the other changes. The size, unchanged since 1949, increased from 18cm x 24cm (smaller than the old
quarto size) to 29cm x 44cm - something approaching a broadsheet. The newspaper format, clearly an
economy measure, meant that the earlier colour enhanced front cover was dropped, and the number of pages
reduced from 28 to 10. George’s editorial included a veiled threat that the magazine had only just been
rescued from extinction: “The ETTA have provided a ground floor from what could well have been a ruin.”
Going Up
If the ETTA established the ground floor, it was George Yates who was the driving force enabling the magazine
to reach the top. It was a superb achievement, and once momentum had been gained, the development was
steady, hardly faltering.
The progress during the first two years was very moderate. This was a period of consolidation, although the
ETTA reported an increase in sales during the first year. This success was celebrated with a splash of colour,
but limited to the title. A year later, in October 1968, the broadsheet format was dropped. Table Tennis News
settled on a page size (22.5cm x 29.5cm) that would remain almost unaltered for the rest of its life.
The pace of change speeded up. Yates was gaining confidence. After another year, the page count had
increased from 20 to 24, there were more photos, and a much-improved front cover with more colour and a
bolder title.
A few months later, there was another step forward to improve the magazine’s impact. All body copy was
removed from the front cover leaving a single photo with a headline caption. Below the photo was a colour
banner giving a taster of one of the major news items inside. This became the standard for a long period, other
than the replacement of the news taster with advertising.
Table Tennis News November 1968 and May 1970
These design improvements were very visible to readers, but they were just a small part of Yates’ achievement.
A less obvious, but equally important skill he developed, was to consolidate the different aspects of his table
Table Tennis Times 31: Summer 2023
7