Local Content vs. National Content

Our tabloid cover is probably national 75% of the time over the past few months, and same for our Page 3 top play. Can't really say why.

It does seem like, in summer, there's something "major" going on in some sport every week.

 

You're in a city but don't have any major sports teams. City people don't give a shit about high school sports or minor league sports like they do about major sports.

In general the Internet and cable TV have done well to bring premier sports to average Joes. Hyper local makes no sense in the sports world. (When I say "hyperlocal" I don't mean Penn State.)

Division II college soccer isn't worth staffing for even the smallest news organizations.

 

What do you define as a really small town?

 

Top-level D2 college programs do attract interest. We have one of the best programs in our own backyard. Do we staff all games? No, but if it's a matchup of nationally-ranked teams we try to get to it.

Otherwise, I'd say a mix of local/national works best. You'd be surprised how much interest Little League draws around here, and I'm in a city with close to 200,000 people.

 

Little League is very popular so long as you name every kid who plays. Or you could run that AP story on the Lions and attract 85% of your sports readership efficiently.

 

Higher ups want all local fronts. I used to worry about it because I generally agree with Versatile, and from a news judgement standpoint it seems like you ignore pros and major stories at your own peril. But that's what we're told and we do what we're told. After a few years it feels normal.

The one thing I'd say is those AP stories are available in so many places, so quickly, now that they may not really attract anyone. Readers have already seen it elsewhere when they get the paper.

 

Quite right. And we only do LL during the summer months at state-tournament time, as a small part of the sports section. We've had a big push for "local local local" in the last year at our shop, so we devote a lot of space to local and a lot to state/national.

 

Proven false. People who subscribe to newspapers may know what the score was or even have watched the game, but they rarely have read the gamer.

 

There are a lot more national stories than just gamers. I agree that gamers don't get the audience they once did, unless something really unusual took place. But there are plenty of good features, enterprise stories and even columns that are good reads.

Another thing that can be a good idea is to localize a national story. A few years back, a high school football coach was acquitted in a trial over the death of a player who died at practice from heat-related illness. One of our reporters did a nice piece on what local schools were doing about heat in summer practices and reaction to the verdict.

 

That heat story is like the groundhog of high school football season. Once you do it -- and you will do it -- you know it's not long before the season is upon you.
I've taken a dozen different angles on it over the years, and I'm open to suggestions on anything new. I think my favorite one was always the unorthodox methods coaches used. One had an iron tub filled with ice water they'd dump overheated players into. Another served watermelon after practice to help with hydration.

 

I covered a week one high school game once where they put a kiddie pool on the track behind each bench and filled them with ice water. During August practice, it's always a fun story to call the athletic trainers and see if they'll let you do a 'ride along' one day. Always amazing to see how much Gatorade they went through that day.

 

When I say local, I probably did consider PSU football, inasmuch as it's our staffers. Consider them national, and it's probably been 90% national fronts.

Division II ... we have some at least one high-level DII football program in the area. Doesn't pay to staff them. The campus isn't buying print, and the players' hometown base is too spread out for it to have an impact that way.