Randy Savage's death: Sports section?

I looked through our paper last Saturday, and I don't think we ran it anywhere. If I weren't up north covering state track, I certainly would've pushed to at least run it somewhere...wherever it fit.

 

The argument, for me, isn't about snobbery as much as precedent. Putting Macho Man's death in the sports section after years of ignoring pro wrestling might confuse wrestling fans into believing they can expect coverage like it. In addition, we have a sizable base of high school wrestling fans that might worry about that exact same trend.

In the rare times we've been asked about it, we've always held firm: Pro wrestling is not a sport, and any coverage of it will be featured in the entertainment section. And while we've never had a regular wrestling column, that section has done a good job of previewing events in the area and getting things such as Savage's death into the paper. I believe they even had Owen Hart's death played large across the top of the section -- a rare chance for entertainment to get newsy.

With all of that said, I do not see how readers of my newspaper, or many other newspapers would expect to find Randy Savage's obit in the sports section. We had two paragraphs on the deaths of Robin Roberts and Bobby Thompson (though more on Bob Feller and Harmon Killebrew, as bigger stars). We don't have the space for someone whose path to fame was acting like an athlete. Should Kevin Costner's death go in the sports section?

Macho Man's death ran in brief on Page 2A, with a refer to the second page of the entertainment section. The entertainment section put a cutout of Savage with its flag, to refer to its coverage. People could find the story if they looked, even just a little.

I didn't make these decisions, but I agree with them completely.

 

+1,000,000. Cater to your audience, not some trumped-up sense of what constitutes sports, what news is most fitting for which section, etc. Sports stories go on A1 all the time, and I know we'd all revolt against a ME who insisted sports stays in the sports section.

The real debate in the Savage obit placement isn't whether or not it belongs in sports (it does), but where in your section would you place it?

 

Vers, I don't agree, obviously, but I really appreciate a sensible, logical explanation of the other point of view.

 

It's not a major decision, but there's a right answer and a wrong answer. If you are going to put things that aren't sports in the sports section, you've chosen the wrong answer.

 

Wrong answer.