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E-mailing results

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Corky Ramirez up on 94th St., Nov 18, 2011.

  1. Tarheel316

    Tarheel316 Well-Known Member

    Yes, if they call you've got to take it. No question. That's better than getting nothing.
     
  2. JosephC.Myers

    JosephC.Myers Active Member

    E-mails are nice when it comes to some sports and it makes it easier to get it in the paper, but phone calls build more of a relationship with the coaches, I agree.
     
  3. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    I like the idea. As a desk person, it saves me time. Nothing worse than being in the middle of editing a story or doing a photo and having to stop and take 10 minutes to take dictation on a boxscore. It's not a bad idea to have a phone number handy in case you need additional info (did your freshman really score 45 and bank in a three-pointer at the buzzer for the win?). But most games are rather routine.

    The info I would like is team record, score, boxscore stuff and a graph or so about what made the game interesting or what was key in the win. That's the stuff I get over the phone. But with staff cutbacks and a lot of games starting late, I'd rather do it via email.

    The real plus comes in sports like swimming, track and wrestling where there is a LOT of agate. I stopped taking dictation on agate on that stuff a few years back. No reason someone else can't type it and I can copy, paste and format it.
     
  4. SixToe

    SixToe Well-Known Member

    Sure you can!

    When they don't, you just ignore them. Eventually, they ignore you. Then you cut staff as "the numbers fall." Implement a new strategy of having coaches send live updates at halftime and immediately with the final score. Details can go in later.

    When they don't, you just ignore them. Eventually, they ig...


    Bad idea, IMO. You're putting another step in their hands to control the information and make the media outlet look bad by not doing enough to get the results.

    "We were driving back late, didn't have time to stop and had no cell service. They wouldn't take a call and won't use any information a day later."

    If I was a high school AD or coach, I'd put everything on the school's website and not worry about anyone else. Sell ads, generate revenue and tell the local media to jump in the lake. Control the message. Not worry about having Assistant Jimmy have to email a template to a newspaper or call the television station to make the final 30 seconds of the broadcast.

    Sorry, but that's what I'd do.
     
  5. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    I like people doing my work for me too.
     
  6. ColdCat

    ColdCat Well-Known Member

    So after explaining to each swim coach why I wanted emailed results instead of faxes, the powerhouse team in the area opened their swim season tonight and the coach sent me the results via email

    . . . .in a PDF

    back to the drawing board
     
  7. KJIM

    KJIM Well-Known Member

    Did exactly what you asked, though.
     
  8. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    I know that collecting local college results is a lot easier because everything IS e-mailed. No SIDs I know deal with phone calls anymore.

    I think making it an expectation for high school coaches is a guarantee you won't get 100% cooperation. But the ones who do use e-mail are more efficient.

    Our writers generally don't take the phone calls anyway (I know that's not the case for smaller papers), so for us, the "connection" of coaches calling in is a nonfactor. It's just easier for a clerk to have an E-mail in front of them that they can put in at their own speed.
     
  9. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    Yes, you got the results you requested in a timely manner...you just have to sort through the pdf results and pull out the big moments. For us, we list multi-race winners or any close race that was pivotal in deciding the team dual.

    I'm all for the email reports, but you can't expect the assistant coach to swing by the office and file a story for you before he heads home ;)
     
  10. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    The question I have is how many high schools you cover. If you're at a metro daily with pro and college teams as the primary focus, which doesn't seem to be the case, this is a perfectly reasonable strategy. If preps are your bread and butter, you could really do more damage than good, particularly if your newspaper would only publish full agate for a handful of schools.

    If you're at a small paper, the best option would be to have your prep writers spend this season figuring out how each coach keeps stats. If they can send you a spreadsheet soon after the game is over, that's fantastic. If they would be sending you a cellphone photo of a hand-written scoresheet, you have no use for that. If they would have to wait until they got home two hours after the game and 30 minutes after deadline to send you the results, there's only a limited use for that online.

    A preps writer with working relationships with the coaches could explain the predicament, and I think you'd find that many of the coaches, particularly small-sports coaches and coaches of bad teams, are willing to help you. Some coaching staffs do it the old-fashioned way, though, and if you want their results, you may need to do it the old-fashioned way as well.

    Not many people will take kindly to calling the newspaper and having someone answer the phone only to say "Please e-mail the results; we don't take phone submissions anymore." That would inspire a lot of responses such as, "And you wonder why newspapers are going out of business."
     
  11. PaperDoll

    PaperDoll Well-Known Member

    We'll take highlights via phone from certain sports (soccer, hoops, baseball/softball, lacrosse), but not full box scores.

    The state has a website (affiliated with another media outlet <grrrrr>) where coaches are required to report at least the score of their games in order to qualify for the postseason. That's become part of the coach or scorekeeper's job.

    Results from that site can be e-mailed anywhere. My paper is willing to accept those e-mails, even though results from that site have been unreliable.

    It then becomes my job to type and verify the box scores. It's still faster than going through a swim or track meet over the phone.
     
  12. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    The biggest league in our area that has swimming went electronic with results a couple of years back. Takes me 15 minutes max to sort through the spreadsheets with a highligter and pull out the highlights.

    The flip side happened yesterday, when one of our teams was on the road in volleyball regionals. The coach usually sends us a stat sheet from Maxpreps, but, since they were so far out of town, we didn't get the stats by deadline.
     
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