Beat writers on the road

Which is the kind of totally excessive waste that helped the industry reach its current state.

 

At my first paper, the newsies would send a reporter to do fan stories when a local team was in a playoff (be it football, basketball or baseball). And to be quite honest, every story was the same. "Yay, our heroes are playing in the big game and their fans love them!"

Well, to be blunt, who gives half a fuck about those stories? What does the reader learn? That Team X's fans love Team X? Stop the presses, that's breaking news!

 

Because everyone wanted to go? ... ;D

Sometimes, the reasoning for coverage is not necessarily because a story would "newsy," or turn out to give someone any new information they just have to have. Sometimes, it is done simply because it is "the place to be" and what people are interested in/will look at/read/want to be up on and involved in that day. It's projected interactivity at its most basic -- what people will click on/read/talk about, etc., even if, journalistically speaking, it adds nothing in particular to a paper's coverage.

It is the same reasoning used for most celebrity coverage these days: As the name event of the day, it is, for better or worse, what people want. Period.

Now, what that says about them is another matter entirely. But, that's the reason for such coverage.

 

We're in a spot where we're picking and choosing right now ... with my beat, the in-town DI women's team is just about a cinch to go to the NCAAs every year, and we try to cover that. The in-town men's team has a shot at it, so we're being a little more prudent with our budget.

The men's team has a road game 4-plus hours away on signing day next week. It's one regular-season game stuck in the middle of a five-game homestand. I told my ME I'm not going unless they can swing a hotel, he said we couldn't and that he understood my position completely. So we're not doing that trip.

Two weeks later, though, I'll go a bit further away for a trip that's two games in three days because a) I can get more bang for the buck out of it (at least four days worth of stories), and b) I've got a friend's place I can crash at so we don't have to blow money on hotel rooms. That trip will end up being cheaper than the one-game trip because of how much the mileage and hotel would cost.

The coach on my beat is somewhat curious how this all works, and wonders why I'm not there all the time. I explain that I'd love to be at every game, but reality is reality right now. I want to have money in the budget for the more important stuff -- i.e., conference tournament, NCAAs.

 

I've been good about saving my place money looking for the cheapest airfare to cover the DI, including saving them upwards of $600 on the last bowl trip by not renting a car, paying for meals, etc.

The road trips in the 09 season are fairly reasonable in terms of cost, at first I thought it was a cinch to get cut, but now I don't see a cutback, it wouldn't stun me if at the last second they scrapped it though because that's how they are.

I'm a one man band with the team though we are able to get a stringer to sometimes write with me for the earlier deadlines if need be.

Aside from that we don't do much travel the rest of the year outside of the usual expenses for guys to cover HS games. But we'll see.

 

I skipped my first trip -- a game four states away for a team 12 games under .500 -- this week. I covered it off an internet feed (a good one, not always the case), live stats and did a phone interview with the coach after the presser.

I hate to say it, because much of what a good beat writer does is done by pure observation and just being there, but I'll bet our readers didn't notice that much of a difference.

Of course I was lucky in that nothing drastic (an injury, etc.) happened and my dog-ass team lost. Had a starter blown a knee out, or if there had been some internal squabble behind the scenes, the coverage would suffer for it.

It should never be the default option to NOT travel, but in certain circumstances, such as mine, I can understand it.

 

you went on a road trip and paid for your own meals?

why?

 

FWIW, BuffNews writer John Vogl is making that West Coast swing with the Sabres.

 

I had to cut costs as well. They bitched about everything else including flight and hotel stay, so I had to help them out as much as I could. And plus with the hospitality in the hotel it didn't cost much for me. Same boat.

 

Hey Bubs, did you stick in the attribution of the quote that Coach Jones or whomever ``said in a telephone interview after the game'' or did you just rely on the lack of dateline as the universal symbol for not covering the road game?

I'm totally fine with skipping the trip, but covering off a Web feed with a postgame phoner needs to be made transparent to readers. Otherwise, a stringer that the paper hires -- and briefs in advance, so he knows what the issues are when he hits the pregame locker room -- is a preferable way to go.

 

christ.

 

I'm sorry, but that's like one reporter for every 1.6667 players on the roster. Throw in coaches and maybe you get one reporter for every 2. Even if you add the water boys, its one for every three. What on earth did you write about? Or, I should say, what on earth did you NOT write about.

And, where in heavens name did you find enough space to put it all in? Hell, some papers I've worked at, the entire Sunday PAPER, adds and all, was less than that. I'd hate to be the poor copy desk grunt that week.