DMN's football "section"

Didn't get a chance to post on this Thursday and I didn't find any mention of it.

The Dallas Morning News' college and high school football sections were in Thursday's edition. The college section _ Big 12, area colleges nationals, the whole schmere _ was 10 pages. The high school section (a tab; that's how they handle HS stuff) was 20 pages (10 broadsheet).

That's a 20-page preview section by a sports department that routinely published 80 to 100-page football sections in its heyday. The last two years, the DMN had 24-page college sections (3 of eight pages each).

The Cowboys-NFL section comes next week.

 

And the HS tab was zoned. That's a first too.

 

A lot of people talked shit about them, but the days of ridiculous excess were really fun. This is really sad, to me.

 

no it's not. they've been doing zoned hs tabs a few years

 

The DMN section is a reflection of the times in the business, especially for big city papers. It used to be a big deal -- particularly for advertising -- but with ad revenues down the way they are the days of 80 page sections are over in Big D.

Back in the day, the thought was people kept those sections for a good while. Now with the Internet, the information is dated the minute it hits the stands. This is a pragmatic approach to football starting up and more likely the future of the tab in big cities.

 

I look at it this way -- instead of everyone getting the big section, certain zones get information on the teams in their zone. We do it the same way here, but we also devote a few pages to a daily preview.

Zoned five or six ways, they're actually producing about 100-120 tab pages of content. Granted, I like the much thicker way things used to be done, but the HS Game Time sections are actually quite good.

 

I thought about this whole roster/schedule business when flipping through my local paper's special section(s).

I don't want to encourage downsizing in any way, for any paper, but I couldn't help agree with the above, that those two things weren't of much value anymore, even though they're SOP.

I guess I'd hope the sections could stay the same, but they could use the space for something else.

On the other hand, we might be underestimating the refrigerator material for a lot of fans/readers...

 

When I was there earlier this decade, the tab theme was "throwbacks." The page numbers were football jerseys, and I was in charge of finding pictures. Joe Montana was page 16, Walter Payton page 34, and so on.

The preview was 84 pages, I believe.

 

I'm pretty sure it's the first time the DMN has zoned its high school FB section and the first time they've tabbed it.

And they didn't zone the puny college section.

I understand it's a changing world/environment/business but Jeeeeeeezussss. The DMN used to be so damn good. It's like they've pissed on the fire and called in the dogs, the hunt's over.

 

I am holding in my hot little hands the high school and college sections from 2005 from the DMN.

High school (theme was Napoleon Dynamite, BTW): 22 broadsheet pages over two sections. Definitely zoned four ways, because the DMN got hammered on that at APSE judging.

College: 26 broadsheet pages over three sections (Big 12, national, and regional).

 

the napoleon dynamite theme was horrible. and i didn't think i was going crazy about this not being the first year of zoned high school preview. i remembered over the last few years being pissed that i al i got for high schools was basically east suburbs.

 

The downsizing of their tabs has to do with poor ad sales, little else. It's certainly not because the paper believes "people can't use this information" anymore.