Posting game stories

My paper just started a new preps site and has decided to publish all the game stories, regardless of sport, as soon as they're edited. I'm against this, with the thought that they should be posted so they show up in the morning, not that same night. Am I wrong?

Thoughts?

 

I think it's fine. If you are talking preps, you are really providing something that the public can't get anywhere else. It's not like they are going to stop reading the paper because once a week they can see the prep football gamers the night before.

The only thing I wouldn't post are prep-related news stories if there is a competing paper.

 

It's just another move to marginalize the newspaper.

Unless you have some kind of immense sway over the decision, you'll have to live with it.

When anyone can figure out how to put the Internet on a refrigerator door or send a copy to Grandma, who doesn't have a computer, let me know.

 

It's called a printer. You go to 'print this story' then send it along.

Is that really that hard?

 

Naaa, it's not that hard. It's just not the same.

If a gamer is posted before it appears in the print issue, what's the point of having the print issue?

I will be glad when a newspaper finally gives up the ghost, quits printing on dead trees and goes totally online, so we can see the reaction. It won't be a joyous celebration.

 

I think it's good, though it all depends on what your paper does for other sports. If the paper posts online stories for State U or the local pro team every night after games and readers are used it, then why not preps? I know some systems can be set up to post stories on the paper's Web site after it's slotted, so most of the next day's stories are already on the site by the time the paper goes to bed. That way the Web person just has to rearrange and design things. If I was a HS fan or HS player and I knew the site would be updated, I'd start checking it every night at 11 or midnight, especially on Friday and Saturdays.

 

I imagine the stories don't get posted until after 10:30, if not later, right? Well most people aren't going to be sitting home on a Friday or Saturday night reading prep stories ... so you have nothing to worry about. No one is going to stop reading the paper because they can get prep stories that night before, that is just absurd.

We should no longer consider ourselves newspapers but news organizations that's means the printed product isn't the only thing that matters ... that web site you aren't so thrilled with matters, a lot, and will continue to matter more in the future.

 

People are turning to the Internet more and more for current information. That includes more immediate results of preps games.

I would recommend going along with the plan and teasing the Web stuff in the print edition. I'd also use the Web to tease people into the print edition.

There are things the Web is good for that print can't compete with: Immediacy of information, access to stories, etc. There are things that print is good for that the Web can never replace: You can't put the Internet on Grandma's refrigerator and you can have more in depth information in your print edition.

You can embrace the wave of the future and still appeal to your past.

 

I see absolutely nothing absurd with that theory. That's what the online people try to tell us: "That's just absurd." They are protecting their turf.

I don't know many people with the time or inclination to pick up the paper and read something they saw online eight hours before.

Look, I can follow the party line. And I can follow directions. But nobody can make me like it.

 

this seems backward

 

It does seem backwards, but I can see some logic in this. I know I'd rather read a longer feature in a paper because you can hold it, there are photos, graphics and white space. I'll take a good centerpiece with a nice jump or a doubletruck any day over scrolling down on a screen for a mile, or having to click through 5 pages to finish a story.

 

Not to mention the photos and design elements that go along with the print product.

Our local D-1 team played at 11:30 a.m. today. All of our copy from that game was online by 7 p.m., along with photo galleries. But our paper's single-copy sales will continue to be robust tomorrow morning -- even as our internet numbers rocket skyward at a much-higher pace. Why? Because there are a lot of U. of Podunk fans outside our circulation borders who can't read our print product.

For the prepsters, we do scores and a short highlight on Friday night for each game online. Then put the full stories up the next morning. I would think that, if we weren't throwing fresh stories at pages at midnight instead of earlier in the day like colleges, we would go ahead and post them.

Wave of the future. Embrace it.

rb