No newspapers means no worries for coaches and teams

I don't buy it entirely. Yes, there are fewer newspapers covering those teams, but are there fewer media outlets covering them? Doubtful. Look at all the college and pro beat writers sites like ESPN.com and Yahoo have hired away from newspapers. They're all still out there covering these things, and now they have more resources, in terms of time and money, to really go digging for the big stories.

 

Oooh, I've got goosebumps, just being reminded why I got into this business in the first place and why I devote long hours away from home and family to it.

I think all the sports at pro and major college levels smell the blood in the water re: newspapers. Their own Web sites, the national Web sites, sports radio and TV wag the dog now. We are more of a nuisance to them than anything, because they know the ticket-buying fans aren't newspaper readers the way they once were.

 

Dead right. They've got their own Web sites now for them to release their own "news." Fans don't know the difference. In fact, they prefer it because it doesn't include anything "negative."
I have beat writer friends who say their local fan message boards have cheered layoffs and the demise of the local paper because they think it's too "negative" on their heroes.

 

Maybe this is the case at the pro and major college level, but I'd bet most prep coaches and smaller college coaches realize it's a negative.

 

The ones who will lament the loss of the local newspaper are the ones who looked to that paper as an outlet to publicize their team to the entire community.

You have to look for that team's website, or visit a high school sports/local sports website that has done a story on that particular team.

With the paper, you read the sports section and come across a story about it or its results on the agate page.

My gut feeling is that quite a few coaches won't mind a bit if/when the paper goes away; it will be one less thing for them to deal with and something out of their control they no longer have to deal with.

 

With the explosion of fan boards, most of time it seems like player arrests and drunken antics show up on the Web before hitting the papers.

Here, when a player at State U is arrested, it winds up on the message boards within an hour of the player being booked.

 

Agreed. College and pro coaches may bitch and moan about beat writers, but at the lower level, preps (where I spend the majority of my time), they like having the coverage and often compliment my paper's coverage. As part-time coaches, they simply don't have the time to write game stories or whatever on their own. They usually struggle to even call in scores, which sucks, though.

 

Also very true. Many beat writers have anonymous message board handles and are tipped off when fans post things, too.

 

I don't think all colleges should be lumped into this. The smaller Division I schools still use newspapers to help spur walk-up ticket sales. A good beat writer can bring up stories that stir interest and remind people about a game and why they want to be there.

At the larger schools, there is such a large fan base, it doesn't seem to have the same effect. But at the lower Division I schools, I think the newspaper still has an effect. Unfortunately, it won't much longer because this business is on life support.

Ten years from now, most of us will be in new careers. Twent years from now, newspapers will be Mom and Pop run rags.

 

If you're talking about print-only editions, perhaps. If you're talking about newspapers as news sources via Internet or whatever medium is available, then no way.

 

Not as much as we would rejoice over the reverse possibility.

 

Let's be real clear about this. A newspaper is not the Internet. A newspaper is something that is printed, is hand-held and read. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Newspapers are dying and soon to be dead. They are trying to make a transition to the Internet as their place for delivering their product but you know as well as I do the "newspaper" is not where people will seek their news a couple of decades from now.

I believe the term Gannett coined for its Internet operations is called "Information Gathering Centers" ... nowhere in it did it say its online product was a newspaper.

We are arguing apples and oranges, symantics here. Bottom line is, we're dead. Journalism isn't dead but newspapers are.