Should papers from non-World Series cities send reporters to cover the game(s)?

Noticed today that Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a nice feature on Royals manager Ned Yost - who once managed the Brewers - with a dateline of Kansas City, Mo.

Guessing that means Haudricourt will be covering the series (and along with Yost (and hitting coach Dale Sveum) there are a couple of ex-Brewers on these teams: Cain, Escobar & Ishikawa, so maybe there is an angle(s) there for him to cover.

But should papers be traveling and covering if their team isn't in it? I mean ,the JS is laying people off and here they are going to KC (and perhaps SF, I don't know). I don't know the cost of this, but if it goes 7 games have to imagine it is well into the thousands with plane far, hotels, car rental & food.

Again, at least there's a possible angle, but generally speaking, should papers cover this (and the Super Bowl for that matter), when there's so many outlets that will be doing the same (including national website and the local papers of the teams in the series)?

 

I think it's a waste of resources. Do Brewers fans really care about Yost having success elsewhere? Or ex-players? If they do, they shouldn't.

 

He could also be there for a Selig farewell piece. Makes the Milwaukee situation different. But yes, generally there is no point to sending a reporter with no local interest.

 

Could also argue do reporters with teams not in the NBA or Stanley Cup Finals belong at the games covering them.

 

I covered two World Series where my paper had three people there with no local angle. Same with the NBA. I think of the money spent flying across the country over and over again to cover very long playoffs and finals with no local interest whatsoever.

The Super Bowl is a little different because so many people are there that there is always a local angle.

It was one thing in the 1990s when papers seemed to be looking for ways to spend money. These days, there is no reason to cover these events unless there is a local angle.

 

Hadn't thought about Selig, but you are probably right. I guess this applies to non-Milwaukee papers then. Wonder if any are there covering it.

I get about the Super Bowl, but are people from City A going to read about teams from City B & City C in the City A paper? Or will they go to the City B & C papers or ESPN, CBS, etc.?

And, yes, NBA & NHL, too. I was keeping it in the moment.

 

The World Series is also an overall MLB convention, chock full of folks from all the other teams, players making endorsement appearances and agents. It's really the first winter meeting of the offseason for 28 teams, and thus if a local team figures to make a lot of offseason moves, as the Red Sox must, it's worthwhile to have a beat writer there.

 

It appears Haudricourt is staying for the games:

https://twitter.com/Haudricourt/status/524638273579147264/photo/1

 

I would also say that, even though MJS is going through issues, Haudricourt is knowledgeable enough about the game on a national level that he should have some sort of presence. These types are dwindling, but I'm thinking people like Paul Sullivan in Chicago (pre-Cubs), Nick Cafardo in Boston, etc.

 

Yeah, the bigger papers that still see themselves as national voices will still go, but there is no longer reason to use valuable resources to cover any major sporting event like this with no local angles for most majors and mid-majors. Heck, a lot of papers aren't traveling to select local team games and hiring stringers in this day and age.

 

Yeah, no one is disputing Tom's abilities or the abilities of any of the other national writers, but when layoffs and buyouts are looming, it would be interesting if any paper would ever say, "Well, rather than cut staff, we're going to stop covering shit we really have no need to be covering and people would be amazed how much money could be saved. I don't think that would be a long term solution, because more than likely they would cut travel and then cut staff too. I remember turning in my receipts from traveling during the NBA playoffs and that was just an obscene amount of money spent that didn't need to be.

I think I could walk into most major papers and cut $50K out of their travel budgets without eliminating anything that people actually care about. It would be harder at the smaller papers, because they already have done that.

I mean, I remember the days of papers sending 20+ writers to Super Bowls when the local team made it. I'm sure someone here knows, but didn't the Dallas Morning News do something like send the entire writing staff to one of the Super Bowls in the 1990s? I was on a coverage team one year that had so many people that we explored the possibility of chartering a jet to go to the Super Bowl. We ended up not doing it because a few people wanted to stay longer and others had to immediately fly to cover other events.