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First the BCS screws Texas Christian...now it's costing me readers

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by flexmaster33, Jan 12, 2011.

  1. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    So on the eve of the BCS national title game, I wrote a piece describing how the BCS system is a fraud, and that I wouldn't be watching the game Monday night.

    Figured I'd get some responses to it since I'm here in Oregon and everyone has been frothing at the bit for over a month. And sure enough I did.

    The best was the first one on my machine...a lady screaming that she didn't need my negativity and that columns like these were spoiling the positive feelings that the almighty Ducks had brought to our state. Oh and yes, she was canceling her subscription.

    The very next message on the phone, is a lady who knows a starter on the Oregon team and she said my piece was "absolutely right on...it expressed her feelings about the system perfectly." She was a Boise State fan, but would be rooting for the Ducks because she knew the local boy on the roster.
     
  2. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    The BCS spared TCU an ass-whipping, for which it should be grateful.

    Your reader will be back within 30 days for the grocery ads and obits.
     
  3. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    The damn dog bit me, and all I was doing it was taunting it!
     
  4. Shaggy

    Shaggy Guest

    I wonder what percentage of people who say they will cancel their subscription actually do. I bet it's somewhere between 1 and 2 percent.
     
  5. printdust

    printdust New Member

    Only on the east and west coasts do you still hear TCU called Texas Christian. It's closer to Texas School for Above Average Football and also the Well to Do on a level just below SMU than it is Christian (yeah, I know it's operated by the Disciples of Christ denomination, but....you don't get the feeling you've stepped onto Baylor's campus when you're there on Friday nights.
     
  6. JPsT

    JPsT Member

    Haven't been to Baylor lately I see.
     
  7. Brad Guire

    Brad Guire Member

    You bite the hand that feeds you ... what do you expect? You're not wrong for writing it, but really, what did you expect?
     
  8. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    You're a sports columnist at a paper in Oregon. You didn't watch the Ducks play in the BCS National Championship game.

    Something's not adding up. If one of my paper's sports columnists chose to simply ignore the biggest sporting event of the last 30 years for our state, I'd be pretty pissed off.
     
  9. Flip Wilson

    Flip Wilson Well-Known Member

    My dad cancels his subscription to the local daily and the big-city daily he also gets every couple of years or so. Price goes up, they piss him off about something else, whatever, he cancels and always re-ups a few weeks later. It's really kind of funny, except the part where he tells me the story about why he canceled oh, two or 19 times.
     
  10. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    Flex isn't a columnist.
     
  11. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    Kill 'em with kindness.
    My go-to trick when I got that line was to say, "Sir/Ma'am, I'm sorry to hear that. Let me transfer you to circulation ****"

    NO, WAIT!

    "Well, if you want to cancel, that's how you go about it. I hate to lose you as a reader but I respect your opinion and you've made up your mind so let me transfer you."

    NO, WAIT!

    I did transfer a few but most just want to vent. I could listen to a lot of venting until the cursing started. Then I'd transfer or hang up.
     
  12. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    If you've ever seen some of the plays -- e.g., A Tuna Christmas, Tuna Does Vegas, etc. -- they have a lot of fun at SMU's expense. One line I recall is, "We rich folks don't send our kids to reform school. We send them to SMU."
     
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