RIP: Agate in LAT sports pages

I remain on the side of agate and its ability to allow us NOT to run stories on some "lesser" events. Cover it with copy ... or cover it with agate.

Again, what works for an LA Times doesn't necessarily work for the Outpost Daily Tattler. Heaven help the small-town sports editor who does away with local agate.

But I understand a lot of people only think about metros. They're only a slice of what's out there.

 

The first paper I worked at had two full pages of agate almost every day, and that's not counting Sundays when we would run full pages of team stats for the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB. At one point, we stopped running them and people went batshit crazy. I think that experiment lasted all of two weeks.

 

About as many as wait for it to read anything else in it that's not already online. Box score. Game story. Column. Standings. All are available hours before the paper hits the driveway.


When I read the paper, it's not because I NEED TO KNOW whether X beat Y or how many rebounds someone had. It's a leisurely exercise in the hopes that something will grab my attention. I have zero interest in searching out a box score online. But if one happens to be in a paper I happen to be reading . . . I might very well look at it. In the course of my reading, I may wonder, "Who's favored in the UNC-N.C. State game?", or "How is Nadal doing since his return?" or "Are there any good hoops games on tonight?"

In less than 15 seconds, all of those questions would be (or should be) answered. None of them were things I was dying to know (or even thought about) the night before.

 

Between the CIF LA City Section and Southern Section, its about 640 schools. Take out a few from Inyo, Mono and SLO counties in the Southern Section, and your are looking at 600 schools.

 

This is why so many smaller daily papers try to find high school or juco kids to compile it (and why there are tons of errors in it).

Agree with shotglass ... I can see large metro papers slowly phasing out sports agate, but smaller dailies will have agate pages as long as they still have a sports section.

 

Dan, they think less is better. We know otherwise.

 

It really should be a clear distinction. Cuts were going to be made on the sports pages (among others) at the LAT.

What would you rather cut, as far as content? Features, gamers and photos or agate? I think the decision is pretty easy, especially on a message board of sports journalists.

 

We're sports journalists who are saddled with the task of deciding what, and how much, of everything gets in. In some cases, agate is the best use of your space on lesser events.

If you're having to choose one or the other, for instance, I can see the argument that the space allocated for an NBA boxscore is better use than a sketchy paragraph in a roundup.

 

I gotta believe OC Register is looking at this in a good light. That paper's expanded its sports coverage at the moment LAT is dropping back.