1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

National columns from local writers

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by ripthejacker, Feb 24, 2007.

  1. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    The first time you write anything with "strong commentary on local issues," a battalion of downtown businessmen, soccer mommies or podunk politicians go marching in to Mr. Publisher's office, and you get sat down for a Come To Jesus Meeting.
     
  2. ripthejacker

    ripthejacker New Member

    I think it does only apply to writers with little or no experience at small papers, particularly ones where there are no professional or big-time sports. Hey, if you don't have experience with what you're writing about, why should I listen to you?
    I don't know how many big dailies would hire a columnist who doesn't have experience one way or another with the NBA, but for the sake of argument, let's say there are. That columnist should go to a few games, and if he can't, his big-paper connections should have people he can talk to who are connected with the issue. After you do a little leg work, then you are qualified to give your opinion. Writers get away with laziness covered up by clever lines or number crunching. Give the readers something they can't get themselves. Give them an informed, connected point of view.
    Or you can give them junk so you can meet your byline quota for the month.
     
  3. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

    Wrong.

    There's only so much you can say about "local sports" (read "preps and Little League") and 90% of the time, it's not column-worthy. People in Podunk want to see a "local take" on Big State U., MLB, the NFL, &c.

    And if you'd ever bothered to ask them, you'd already know that.
     
  4. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

    Local papers actually do have room to do a big national/world report. And they should. Unfortunately, too many smalltown newspaper publishers are convinced that people actually read "tripe like that" and therefore decide there's no reason for their paper to pay attention to the world at large.

    And most of "the neighborhoods" in the communities we're talking about don't generate anything worth writing about.

    What the hell's happened to you, dooley? Did somebody suddenly promote you to publisher somewhere in the CNHI empire? Because all of a sudden you've turned into the part of the newspaper establishment that I consider to be part of the problem with newspapers in general.

    That's for damn sure. One thing the kind of papers we're talking about don't run is "strong commentary on local issues" because the people on the business side are held hostage by their ad revenue, Rotary Club membership and 20-plus percent profit margins. [/beenthroughonetoomanyofthosemeetings]
     
  5. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    Newspapers' standards for expertise are usually lax, especially in the opinion and entertainment sections. Restaurant reviews especially can be a joke. A guy who was doing it at one 200K where I once worked was a total pig who I wouldn't trust to direct me to the nearest vending machine let alone a decent restaurant. I don't know if you've ever worked on a large paper, but I can tell you there are sports writers at some of them who don't really understand the sport they are covering, at least initially. I turned down an NHL beat in the early 1980s because I had never seen a game and had no interest in hockey, something that didn't seem to bother the SE who offered it to me. It is a rare sports columnist who has regularly covered more than one pro sport as a beat writer, and because those beats have turned into year-round jobs, they seldom fill in on other sports. I think you are giving far too much credit to big-city writers for expertise.

    As for the small-time guys, I've certainly met a lot of newspaper people, especially on desks, who have managed to become quite informed and opinionated about a sport by virtue of watching and reading. I do not imagine that our average reader is quite as obsessive as these poor bastards who devote far too much of their lives to the intense study of one sports league, thus the perspective of our demented deskers still could prove enlightening to most fans. I noticed during the NCAA Tournament last year that The New York Times had a deskman doing analytical preview capsules. He hadn't covered a game all season, but I knew him at a previous stop and if I were filling out a bracket, I'd give his analysis heavy weight compared against beat writers because I know he follows the whole thing, not one team or one league. So I would not automatically dismiss the opinion of someone a bit removed from the subject -- skeptical, maybe, but the column needs to be judged on its own merits.
     
  6. Bob_Jelloneck

    Bob_Jelloneck Member

    In case you're wondering, my editorial hand-puppet, Mattie DiRiYoyo, has issued an ironclad edict throughout our big happy family: No national columns by local writers. None. Ever.

    SE's are under standing orders that if it ever happens, they're fired on the spot (making this No. 376,939th out of 292,389,202 items on the official "if this ever happens, you're fired on the spot" list issued to all my lovely staffers -- at least it did before this morning's update, which added 8,374 items to the list. Sunday's usually a slow day).

    There are 6th grade volleyball box scores to type up.

    That's why our papers are THE SOURCE for the massive audience which lives and dies on junior high school volleyball boxscores. ;) While circulation at most newspapers is stagnant, ours is moving like a rocket. ;D
     
  7. scribe21

    scribe21 Member

    MIX, MIX, MIX it up. Don't be so local that someone will buy another product to get regional and national opinions and sports news?????? If I have an opinion on an issue, be it local or national, I am going to voice my opinion on it. ... We wonder why newspapers are a dying breed? My, my my.
     
  8. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    Sorry, you're not trying hard enough, then.
     
  9. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

    For crying out loud ... What the hell happened that turned you into a twit? Would you please dial up the devil and get your soul back?

    Most readers, especially in small towns, would prefer to see their local writers write about things that interest them. And that includes national issues more often than not. If you'd ever bothered to ask them, you'd already know that.
     
  10. HeinekenMan

    HeinekenMan Active Member

    I read the first page of the thread. Lots of great comments. I remember facing this same issue. I mixed the infrequent national column with local stuff. There truly is no right or wrong way to tackle this. I wrote columns about national topics that I thought were refreshing and unique. I also wrote absolute crap about national topics. The fact is that your readers just want something fresh and interesting. Go with your gut.
     
  11. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    Not agreeing with you = twit? Interesting integrity of debate style, tho I think debate rules deduct points for ad hominem arguments. I worked at a 40,000 that had lots of great local columns. Space is just at too much of a premium to try to be a smaller-market version of a national paper. If one can't make one's community interesting to one's readers, one is not trying.
     
  12. Mooninite

    Mooninite Member

    Interesting thread and a lot of good points made on both sides. Our three-man crew small-town daily crew rotates and one of us writes a column each week. Looking back at the archives over the last year and a half there have been maybe 5 national columns between us. Most of those dealt with regional pro franchises that have a large fan base in the area. Overall most have local content and are well-read and well-received.

    I think the key is moderation and it depends on the small-town writer. Are they good enough to put together a column that grabs readers daily, weekly, monthly? As a ready I can find national analysis from dozens of places on the web...but I can give my opinion local sports issues that matter to our readers and that's something they can't get anywhere else.

    On a side note, I hate those mugs that are on top of our columns. It gives every butcher, baker and candlestickmaker in town that recognizes me from my mug free reign to complain about everything from ad rates to their newspaper delivery woes. Uggghh.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page