Best Current Sports Sections

Which large metro newspapers CURRENTLY still produce the best sports sections in the country even amidst the recession / state of the industry?

 

Outing alert!!! Gator_Hawks is Mizzou.

 

This is actually a pretty good question. With the way staffs are dying, I'm curious what paper has really stepped up and which one's have fallen off.

 

Denver Post is solid.

 

That's actually probably a pretty solid answer. It might be one of the only places that has a staff similar to what it did before the mass layoffs and buyouts happened around the country.

My vote would probably be for the Washington Post though.

 

I agree. It's like the demise of the Rocky actually encouraged the Post to step up and take charge.

Dallas is still good, although nowhere near what it was like in SportsDay's heyday. Fort Worth is good, too, although I think McClatchy's cutting has hurt the S-T a bit.

I keep seeing a story about Chicago Trib beefing up its sports section beginning Monday, but I can't find a prototype page to see it. Trib's still good, too, although the Sun Times does a great job covering sports (especially with the Bears Extra wraparounds).

 

my measuring stick would be the unexpected. the thing i like about the post is that you'll still get great take-outs, ambitious features, that have nothing to do with the daily coverage of the major teams -- the meat and potatoes necessary for paper catering to the local market. that shows me ambition, not just survival, and i'll happily plunk down a buck a day to pay for it...

 

I'm biased since it's the only paper I actually SEE every day, but I love the WaPo. Great coverage on the pro teams, above average coverage of the local colleges and pretty good coverage on the high schools. And they do plenty of super-informative breakout things that don't take forever to read, yet enough long features to have a good balance.

 

If I'm not mistaken, I think a lot of Denver's prep coverage is online only. I don't recall Denver ever doing a wraparound for high school football (and for good reason, since before earlier this year the Post never did a Saturday edition)...

I agree about WaPo. Philadelphia's pretty good too, especially when you get to the fall and there's so much stuff going on.

 

I don't think The Denver Post has ever had a full-time preps writer.

I think they have a preps editor and that's it.

 

Though like most papers, it's gotten much skinnier in recent years, I still think the Star Tribune does a terrific job.

One example: the day Brett Favre came out of retirement (just to clarify, I'm talking 2009) the ST had a six-or eight-page section the following day dedicated solely to Favre coverage. And it wasn't just two articles and a ton of agate, ads and photos. If memory serves, I believe there were eight articles, including a couple columns, combined with excellent photos and breakout boxes/timelines. I thought that was outstanding given the news didn't break until around 10 a.m. Granted, I'm sure some of the copy already had been written, but nonetheless a dynamite product on short notice.

And they do a solid job with wraparounds/inserts for the Twins and Vikings.

Perhaps the Strib sticks out because of the putrid Pioneer Press. One day recently, the gas station was all out of the ST, so I grabbed a Pioneer Press. It was a Sunday, and it must have been some kind of early run or out-state edition, but the Press had no local content and the sports cover (in black and white) consisted of a huge duck hunting package (no really, duck hunting). The rest, in a six-page section, was wire copy, including a hard-hitting, full-page story on past Kansas City icons staying in Kansas City.