How much has your Sunday sports space shrunk?

Throughout the 1990s, I'd say our Sunday sports section averaged 16-18 pages pretty regularly.

Even as late as 2003-04, we had 14-16 pages more often than not.

Through the first half of 2008, the majority of our Sunday sports sections have been 8 pages, with the occasional 10-page section seemingly like bountiful space and 12-page sections being the holy grail.

 

Our standard for a 40k circulation has been 12 pages during busy season and 10 pages in the slower part of the year, like now. The difference is the web is now smaller and it seems the newshole has decreased in relation to the ads in the section. What's frustrating is those ads are often house ads for some half-assed promotion we're doing. I don't mind promotions. I do mind half-assed promotions.

 

about two years ago, we were at 15-16. Now, it's at 8-10 pages.

 

I don't mind house ads.

I do mind 1/4-page house ads that could just as easily relay the same information in 1/8 page.

 

We've got 12 pages for tomorrow's edition (four-page All-Area baseball/softball wrap).

In busy season, it's usually 8-10.

In the summer, it can drop to six. Not really complaining, since we're a 19K in a tri-county area with barely over 100,000 residents and no pro sports within 30 miles. When All-Star youth baseball makes the front on Sundays in the summer, I don't think filling page after page with AP does a lot of good. We haven't got many complaints in the summer.

 

In our 36K-plus shop, the Sunday standard had been 8 in football season, eventually dwindling to 6 in the summers.

In a reworking of the Sunday package that began in January, we're up to 10 ... and once down to 8 a couple of weeks ago.

For what we need to accomplish, I think 10 will be sufficient as we move forward.

The odd thing is that a secondary rethinking of the Monday paper's mission has been giving us the equivalent of 6-plus pages, which is a bit much outside of NFL season. We have done some creative management of the AP budget, plus we've brought some new local content into the mix.

 

32 tabloid pages. About the same as always. Will get up to 40 come football season.

 

At this time last year, we were going 10-12. Now we're doing six with the occasional eight though the back page goes to weather and a TV guide.

 

We're a 16K shop.

During the school year, we're 4-5 during the week and 8 on Sundays.
During the summer, we're 3-4 during the week and 6 on Sundays.

In the past, I think the summer pageload was the norm here year-round, but because of our influx of local copy, management allowed me to bump up the sports section during the school year.

 

The place I was at had as many as 12 pages, mostly open, when I started around 2000. Now, they're down to 8 pages, amounting to as little as 5 pages of newshole, even during the busiest time of the year.