AJ-C puts out 4-page sports section; no more box scores

"Going online" is all fine and dandy, if you have a computer with Internet access nearby. Once I walk into my workplace, and for eight hours thereafter, I don't. And I guarantee I'm not alone.

 

I could be wrong, but I'd guess the number of fantasy leaguers checking the daily paper for player stats is way low. I used to do that in the mid-90s. Now? It's all live scoring and updated stats on league sites. Not saying this is good (after all, it pushes more readers to find their info. online), but just thought it a relevant point.

 

I think you can learn more about a game in a small-type box score than you can from a story that takes three times the space.
ESPN has done some great stuff in recaps with a simple graf: It was over when:
I also like checking out the scoring grafs they do with basketball games where you can tell exactly when the game turned.
I know editors have to do what they have to do - but I also wonder what the point is anymore. Newspapers used to give readers a meal, now they give them just a taste.

 

You can learn more about a game, but people don't always want to learn the details, they want a story told to them.

 

The AJC is not folding . As far as agate is concerned, I believe you will see it return on Sunday. Friday and Saturday aren't too heavy circulation-wise. Cutting out the agate is a cost-cutting measure that other papers are looking at and probably will follow.

 

I know where I am at is only a 25-30k paper, but this has been the case for us for a year now. It's actually become more refined in the last three months.

We have a three page section daily, with six pages on Sunday.

We have the sports front with a local centerpiece and staff produced column everyday. Add in one or two national or regional pro stories courtesy of a staffer, who heads into Boston, or the AP. We also have a new refer/quick hit set up across the bottom of the page that can be adjusted for two different size ads. In that are Web teases for our blogs, multimedia content or additional staff produced content (side bars/columns/gamers), high school refers to our third page, TV and radio highlights for the day and contact info for department.

Our second page is the agate/catchall page. It includes national and regional briefs, America's line, transactions, golf scores, major tennis results, NASCAR lineups and results, a college scoreboard, league standings packaged with brief graphs on each completed game for each league (boxes only for New England teams), Tank McNamara cartoon and a trivia question.

Our third page is the high school/jump page.
We run highlights from the days games, box scores for all the sports we do them for, and some upcoming schedule.
This is also the jump for the centerpiece, as well as for the other cover story that may or may not jump. The columns don't jump, and if it's an AP gamer from Boston it normally won't jump.

With staff cut down over the last few years, we have decided to take the leap and get ahead of the curve. Our staff is focusing more on producing content, than we are on producing pages. This new setup allows us to have one person on layout every night and frees up more time for all of us to write more. We have pushed ourselves further away from the game story than ever before and into the waiting arms of enterprise, analysis and multimedia.

We have had no complaints about less game coverage. Even during football season, when we ran football wrapups and referred to complete game stories on-line. We had more hits on the Web site than ever before. People seemed to embrace the new style.

The biggest complaint we have had was when we took the TV listings off the second page and ran them out front. Two people called complaining they like them better in the spot they always saw them.

Anyways, I figured I would offer up what we at a 25-30k daily have done. I know we aren't the AJC, but this is something that's being done across the country already. It's time to face reality.

 

You're probably right, fellow Midwesterner. As we prepare to tighten our section from 5ish pages (weather takes up most of the back page) to 3-4ish pages (we'll still have that damn weather stuff), my guess is the baseball box score page will go. Especially in the spring, when there's prep sports galore.

As others have noted, I (and many readers) will miss the box scores greatly. Those readers who really miss them will head on over to MLB.com from their home or office computers and skim through a magazine instead of a newspaper at breakfast.

 

Newspapers are going to die. It's all online.

I keep hearing that, and yet, I don't know that it's the case. Most newspapers will do whatever it takes to keep the print product afloat, because their revenues are about 90-10, or higher, in favor of newspapers. Until people can figure out a way to make good money off the 'net -- and it's a tough buck these days, have you seen CPM rates? They are beyond bad -- newspapers aren't going to give up the printed page.

 

Devoted print readers aren't thrilled when horse racing agate is removed, even though that information is also available online and in specialty publications.

 

Why should we celebrate giving people the excuse to want to get your information elsewhere?

It's a sign that we're losing the battle AND the war.

 

i've been preaching that shit for years: don't give 'em a reason to pick up another paper or go online.

nobody listens anymore, and it's probably time to find another line of work.