Miami Herald Super Bowl week

... no not another Darlington thread.

Did anyone down there catch the Flashback page to a past Miami Super Bowl that ran each day. Very, very sharp. Darlington overshadowed everything, but that concept was the best page in any of the three local papers all week.

 

I read the Herald all week and never delved into that feature. I thought they did some good things, and Dave Barry was a hoot. But all in all, I was underwhelmed.

 

No offense.... but you couldn't have "read" it all week and missed it.

 

I take the Herald here in Broward County, and I thought the daily package produced by the staff was terrific. In fact, over the top. I didn't read it all (how could you and still have a life?), but I looked at it all and read bits and pieces to satisfy my need.

Congrats to ASE Fred Gonzalez, who headed the Super Bowl project, and the entire staff.

For anyone to say they were 'underwhelmed' just boggles my mind. Compared to what, Brett? Two seperate Super Bowl packages a day instead of one? 30 pages instead of 20? As it was, and I repeat, it was too much to digest. And yes, Dave Barry's contributions were a must read, as was the news and notes features on page 2 that had nothing to do with the game but everything to do with the Super Bowl scene.

And, it was fun following the Flashbacks for 40 days leading up to the game. Reminded me of the time at the Ann Arbor News when we featured all 99 previous Michigan-Ohio State football games leading up to the 100th game (yep, we started in late August on a daily basis. LOL)

Great job, Herald.
And good job to the Palm Beach Post, also.
Didn't see a Sun-Sentinel.

 

The Herald was thorough and had all the bases covered. But the Chicago Tribune did the same thing..and better.

I didn't think Miami's themed centerpieces were particularly inspiring. They went off the 7 deadly sins motif. After a day or two, I tired of the concept.

I would have preferred enterprise tied to the game. Where were the takeouts on the players? Why didn't they tell their readers more about the personalities involved in the game, beyond what everyone else got at the mass media sessions?

Granted it was a slow week for news, but that made it even more important that some compelling enterprise pieces rounded out the coverage. And unless you were into the "Sins," then you were left wanting more.

 

The Herald did fine.

Fort Lauderdale did fine.

Palm Beach did fine.

My question is this: So the Herald didn't measure up to the Chicago Trib, huh? So what?? The Trib actually covers the Bears and probably could be counted on for better depth on that subject than the Herald. Also, doh, the Herald sells papers in Miami! Readers in Miami probably have 10 minutes each morning, if that, to skim the paper before heading out to battle I-95 traffic. They read Dave Barry (maybe), browse LeBatard (perhaps), and that's it! Maybe at lunch they skim some more.

Where in the hell did newspapers ever get the idea that saturation coverage is better? That readers have time to hack through a dozen or more pages on the same subject during a WORK WEEK! Papers got into this whole show-off mode years ago and it needs to stop. I'm not sure who it serves but it sure doesn't serve the reader.

The average reader spends, according to the last study I saw, less than 30 minutes a day TOTAL with its local newspaper. How are we, as an industry, meeting the challenge by answering that data with quantity?

Give me fewer stories, make them better written, and let me get on with my day. I don't mean to get off on a rant here, but common sense should dictate that a reader in Broward County or Dade doesn't need to be bombarded all week with stories about a game he/she has no hope of attending. Better to use your resources detailing what the Dolphins will do to get in that game rather than showing off for APSE.

(exhale)

I feel better now. Thank you.

Feel free to rip me at will.

 

papers in the host super bowl cities don't put on a show for their readers. they put on a show for the visiting media, apse and -- most of all -- the NFL. it's all about shouting to the league that, as far as super bowls go, y'all come back now, ya hear?

local readership has zero to do with it.

 

You're right.

It's the same concept anywhere, for any city covering any event.

 

I beg to differ.

The Super Bowl, or Final Four, or World Series, or U.S. Open, or the APSE convention, or any other big event gives the host city paper a chance to showcase excellent work for both its own readership as well as the out of town crowd.

That's why compelling enterprise is the way to go. Story after story on the Colts and Bears was not what the Miami Herald was going to hang its hat on, and rightfully so. But in-depth enterprise off some of the key figures in the game would have afforded the paper the opportunity to serve all of its readers, both the regulars and the visitors. And it would have been inherently more interesting and timely than the Seven Deadly Sins series.

 

Insiders here were not that excited about what we came up with.

A lot of people thought the inside, graphics-driven pages looked overdone and left you wondering, "Where's the beef?"

 

I've given this a lot of thought over the years. On the one hand, it's more than even I care to read, even if it's my favorite team. On the other hand, if you are in a competitive market where readers have a choice, you don't want to come up short. I think of it as like a Sunday brunch -- even at a skimpy one, there is going to be more than you possibly could eat, but still you are most likely going to frequent one where the food is good and there are a lot of choices.

This is why I still think ceding a lot of things to the Web is bad for business. I want a full-service newspaper, one that doesn't make me go eight other places on Net to find what I need. There may be only 10 stories a day that I'll read all the way through (aside from our section), but I want everything there in case I want it.

I read something many years ago in one of the journalism reviews that the L.A. Herald-Examiner was easier for readers to digest because it ran fewer (and shorter) stories than the L.A. Times. Now the Her-Ex had a lot more than that going for it, IMO -- it did some cool things with packaging and heds, and was sassier and more daring than the LAT, and it had an excellent sports section, and I had a mail subscription to it at one point because I thought it was one of the most interesting newspapers in the United States. But its digestability was obviously not much of a selling point, as the paper died. Most people preferred the bloated, cumbersome LAT even though some stories jumped four or five times inside. Even though the Her-Ex was often the more interesting read and covered all the basics OK. Readers just perceived the LAT as a better value, although probably only a mental patient would even be able to read everything in the Her-Ex, let alone the LAT.