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Play for NCAA women's basketball championship game

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Mr. X, Apr 10, 2008.

  1. ZummoSports

    ZummoSports Member

    We ran a short two-column story on the front page with a small picture...no jump.
     
  2. steveu

    steveu Well-Known Member

    This is biased because I was in Florida, but Tampa and St. Pete of course played it up w/special sections.
     
  3. Bud_Bundy

    Bud_Bundy Well-Known Member

    Same for us
     
  4. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    Forgive me for this, but why? Just because an event comes to town with the NCAA logo on it doesn't mean you have to create a special section for it. The game got a 3.0 rating, or about double what ESPN has been getting for NBA <i> regular-season </i> games. Unless you're in an area that has a higher-than-average interest in women's basketball (i.e. Tennessee and Connecticut), why would you give this any sort of significant play? When was the last time someone entered a women's tournament pool?

    I dunno, maybe I'm being too hard, and maybe having this coverage adds some readership, and I can understand not having anything else, to an extent. But I can't imagine that most readers of most American sports sections wouldn't pick up a section with a women's title game centerpiece and roll their eyes.
     
  5. Mr. X

    Mr. X Active Member

    What do you think of the possibility that these special sections were generated

    a) -- by the advertising people who said, "We've got a major event coming to town that we could sell ads for a special section"; or

    b) -- by a sports editor thinking the paper could get an APSE Top 10 finish in the special sections category?
     
  6. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Where do you draw the line?

    If the 3.0 rating means there is not enough interest to warrant a special section, does that mean you do not do one if the NHL All-Star Game comes to your town (1.0 rating)? PGA Tour stop (5.5 rating)? MLB All-Star Game (8.1 rating)?
     
  7. Mystery_Meat

    Mystery_Meat Guest

    National ratings have jack all to do with local/regional interest, and if you have a major event that's going to bring thousands of people to the area, you'd do well to acknowledge it.
     
  8. BH33

    BH33 Member

    I agree with Mystery Meat. The general public may not care about women's basketball, and there may not have been anyone in Kansas City or Des Moines or Dallas that watched the game. But, even for the women's final four, you've got a lot of people coming into town to see that event. If you're the local paper and you can do something big, like a special section, chances are you're going to sell some papers to all those people coming into town.

    You see things like this all the time, whether on a larger or smaller basis. There's a town near where I live that hosts the state basketball final four every year. The paper is only about 30,000, but they write game stories on every game, even though most, if not all in some years, don't even involve teams they cover. They do it because there are people coming into town that'll see their paper and buy it for the coverage. My paper one year did a small special section because the town hosted the state girls golf tournament.

    As for coverage the night of the game this week, our paper - located out west - ran a short game story without photos on page 2.
     
  9. ditto
     
  10. -Scoop-

    -Scoop- Member

    It went on page 3 with a photo, running across four columns. With it being on a Tuesday, we actually had a lotta local stuff for the front.
     
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