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

Agate is easier to read in the newspaper and people like it better. Online, if you want to skim box scores you have to click on 15 different links. And, then it's hard to compare. In the paper, all of it is laid out so you can read it while sitting on the can.

God forbid a newspaper did this to baseball box scores anywhere in the Northeast I don't care if your a 5000 circ. People will scream if no baseball box scores.

I hate to say it, but people like the agate page and why get rid of a thing that your readers like?

 

The whacking of employees left and right all over the country indicates that newspapers are not transitioning to the Internet, they are cutting to the bone to try to survive as newspapers. And maybe it's not without wisdom. After all, the CW is that Craigslist gutted papers' classified advertising. Well, newspapers won't get that back when they go to the Net. And they will lose the grocery-store circular revenue. And they will lose even more car advertising to cars.com, which will inevitably be a more attractive, widespread marketplace to car buyers. And whatever advertising "papers" can get will be negated by Adblock. And our stories will get cut and pasted and circulated all over the world at no proportionate financial gain for use. And once they go all Net, they will be on the playing field of the enemy and for the most part will not know the terrain nearly as well. Will we try to match the snark of blogs, and cashier the cachet of sober, general straightforwardness, the grownup aspect?

How can papers possibly win as an online-only product?

 

All true, dooley.

That said, what are newspapers trying to do to thrive as newspapers? You can cut to the bone all you want in an effort to survive. But eventually, there's nothing left to cut. What then?

 

The quick answer is to can all the online people and put the equivalent staffing back into the paper product, and restore whatever circulation range and beats you can. My first tagline kind of reflects what papers are doing right now, and for the most part, they're doing neither of the half-measures well. With the economy and the Icahn-esque takeover artists ravaging newspapers, and iPhones and such increasing ease of e-operation by the second, it's hard to say what should realistically be done.

 

Best of both worlds---keep the agate AND save space---just print the final scores. Literally, just the scores. More challenging than Soduko

 

Problem is, the arrogantsia of the newside really believes they can eliminate sports.

Dudes, you need to call the paper's major advertisers and tell them that you will not buy their products because they are supporting this journalistic Jonestown.

Only way to possibly stem the tide is by getting the advertisers to squawk.

 

+1
and
+100

 

It brings back the age-old debate of boxscores vs. roundups. Having worked plenty of copy desk, I DO know that roundups are easier to trim when space gets even tighter. As to which provides more/better information, I don't know.

Major League Baseball is about the worst. Not only has the sport disgraced itself to the point where I absolutely refuse to watch or read about it, the darn boxes and standings take up nearly 3/4 of page. If you add in any copy (roundups, notes, stories, etc.), it's a full page. If I only 3-4 pages total, I don't want to sacrifice that high of a percentage to baseball every single day.

 

I know how hard it is to put out a four-page section at a paper with a circulation of 25,000. I can't imagine a major metro even attempting it. Yikes.

 

That's what is so sad. At least at our shop the 10 a.m. management fucks do not care about logic. It's all about online. They have no clue what goes on in sports. They are totally engrossed by Gannett type surveys and all these Web first types who have effectively made a living preaching web first to managing editors and publishers.
It truly is a losing cause only because management fucks won't listen to anybody but themselves and their consultants and their web first coaches and their citizen journalist backers. Nobody listens to sports types at all. No way.

 

In that case, why don't they cease printing and become just another web site, doing the same thing 1000 others are doing.

Just decide what you want to be and try to excel at that.