Hartford Courant ditches last pro beat....

Frank is right. It used to be a great section, and the people who run and work in that department deserve better.

The Courant has always done a great job covering UConn, and they have to because it's the one thing that unites all their readers. High school coverage can't do that. But from April to August there really isn't a daily feed of UConn news, and the Courant's Red Sox and Yankees coverage -- complete and informed and there every day -- was the glue that bound their readers (and the state) together until UConn football and basketball restarted.

When you take that away, people have no reason to look forward to reading you every day.

And when you don't give people a reason to get the paper, they won't.

 

Oh, it has two. They're coached by Jim and Geno.

 

What's the circ down to now? (Tho it's amazing that being where they are they've cut out all pro sports...)

 

These days? Ballpark?

175 weekdays
Quarter mil, Sundays


Those were derived from '07 numbers . . . have no doubt they're down.

 

I would like to know how many Yankee, Met, Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and Giants season ticket holders there are in Courant circulation area. These are affluent (and because of travel time) dedicated people with a high interest in the subject.
They're not just readers, they're probably advertisers.
I'll bet the Courant doesn't know the answer to my question anymore than I do.
An unpleasant decision based on a cold appraisal of data is one thing. Just cutting on a hunch of what customers will miss least is just stupidity.

 

They already cut what they thought customers would miss least.

Now, like everyone else, they're cutting into bone.

And everyone knows what happens when you do that.

You call the morgue.

 

From the latest report:

COURANT, HARTFORD (HARTFORD CO.) SUN DLY 234,514
COURANT, HARTFORD (HARTFORD CO.) SAT M DLY 146,082
COURANT, HARTFORD (HARTFORD CO.) AVG M (M-F) DLY 164,338

 

A staff of 10? I know of papers with under 50K circ who have bigger staffs. That's insane.

 

A sports section that is only local becomes less vital to readers. Particularly the way they tend to be done now, it looks amateurish and feels second rate. And that's unfortunately what the Courant has become. It has nothing to do with what readers want, it's what is cheap.

Newspapers are dying in part because they are shafting readers. By denying them information we teach them to look elsewhere and hasten our own demise.

 

Their Mets coverage ("my" team) has been horrible since I moved here.

 

just talked to a buddy who works there. the number is 22 total.

four editors, nine writers, nine on the desk. then they have four part-timers, so they can be added on at-will.

he said there used to be days when they'd have 22 people in there at one night. now that's the staff.

sad days indeed.

 

An editor for every 4.5 staffers? Wow.