Sports Biz Journal on shrinking sports sections/team coverage

But writing that Coach Jockstrap should be playing Point Guad B over Point Guard A is not reporting. It's one person's opinion. Someone, frankly, who really cannot make that statement with any more validity than a die-hard fan on a blog could.

UNLESS UNLESS UNLESS the writer can get other players on the record to say Coach Jockstrap is playing the wrong player. And that almost never happens.

Our NBA writer has mentioned things to his editor that have never made the paper. When questioned about it, he said, "That would destroy my access and sources."

Let that sink in. We need access and sources to give us information that doesn't make the paper for fear of losing access and sources.

 

Superbly put, Frank - as usual.

If you don't think readers notice this, you're kidding yourself. And if you don't think that makes your section better, you're in serious need of Journalism 101.

At a former stop, our publisher and editor wanted to bring in an SE who wanted to give our paper more of a regional presence. So the SE covered a Division I school about 40 miles away from the office for games and maybe a notebook or preview a week, the married staffer with a high-school aged son covered the Division II school in the county. I got the ACC.

We heard all sorts of comments, many of them positive. People noticed when I got to go to Duke-North Carolina men's basketball. They saw our SE go to a bowl game - on his own dime because barely four months in, the publisher got cheap and tried to reverse course. Coverage of the nearby Division II didn't suffer at all.

When it stopped, the quality of the section nosedived. So did morale. Mark2010 has a great future in management with that attitude.

I know that market ... and they don't realize that Jenna Fryer does standout work. But in this region, people would still complain if daily publications rolled out daily eight-page sections on NASCAR. Not kidding.

Then again, Fryer is actually willing to take NASCAR to task. That doesn't sit well with fans who think NASCAR is infallible ... and from my experience, no organization has fans who are more snowed over than NASCAR's.

 

I think the readers/sports fans do notice as corners are cut, even in small ways.

Case in point: My father-in-law, riding out his subscription to the Chicago Tribune, asked me recently why, after running game stories, sidebars and usually a feature on both the White Sox and Cubs on preceding pages, the Trib had Sox and Cubs briefs in its AL and NL roundups on the baseball box score page.

Of course, it's because that page is used by numerous Tribune papers (Orlando, Los Angeles, etc.). And the Sox and Cubs box scores are buried randomly among the others, as opposed to being put at the top of the NL and AL boxes.

A little thing, but it gets noticed -- one small grain of sand in a huge dune of reasons why someone might not reach for the paper each morning. It adds up.

 

I do agree readers notice stuff like this. When we stopped running baseball box scores, many voiced their thoughts.

But it's my opinion that they don't necessarily care for who writes what stories and they couldn't care less whose byline is on whatever story.

 

Maybe not. But maybe they did, or maybe they said WTF, when they read in the LA Times a lead from the Chicago Tribune that waxed rhapsodic about the AL winning home-field advantage in the World Series and the possibility that Obama might throw out another first pitch at a Cubs-White Sox World Series.

Great angle for Chicago. Terrible for LA. AP would have been a better fit.

 

This is the same point we've tried to impress upon our management, without success. They want us to use sister papers coverage on events so we don't have to travel. But the stories we get are written from the other team's viewpoint. When we point this out, management says, "Can't you just rewrite the lead?"

Sure. And the body of the story, and get quotes from the team we cover. When we're done with that, we're got an entirely new story. Doesn't even merit a byline any more.

 

That's my point, Tony. Readers read the story and if the content is good, they could care less who did the writing. Columns might be the exception, but even then you're talking major metros and places over 100,000.

I understand where Frank is coming from as well, but economic times have changed. Is the difference in readership --- or, more importantly, advertising --- going to cover the expense of keeping an extra staffer on board and sending them to wherever? Most of the time, I doubt it.

Just out of curiosity, how many papers travel with the PGA Tour week to week? Or NASCAR? Or the IndyCar series? I mean, it's one thing when the circuit comes to your town, then it makes sense to do features and major coverage. But to devote a guy to covering the tour year-round all across North America and beyond? You'd need a pretty big budget AND a pretty big newshole.

 

Maybe this is where there will be a bigger market for stringers.

Last place I worked pretty much cut out all travel. Didn't even travel to a state semifinal softball game. Just did an extended phone interview and wrote maybe 12 inches. Did staff the championship game and was fortunate to get two state champions on the same field, same day, different classifications.

 

Just an amazing piece, and quite an indictment of our industry and what it's doing to us and our readers.

My favorite line:

There was a harmonic convergence to Cuban’s purchase of a team called the Mavericks — sort of like if Blackbeard owned the Pirates or Trotsky had a stake in the Reds.

That's solid.

I'd forward this to our bean counters if I thought they'd care.

 

I am a podunk sports editor who covers mostly preps. Our presence is noticed at events, and folks really like when I come to cover an event. There is nothing for a paper like a local face that is familiar to the community. The suits really don't realize this. When we don't have faces out in the community and do more and more of our 'reporting' by phone, it really takes away from the product, making us not look engaged in the community. It's more dry and doesn't get the personal and emotional angles.
I could not imagine not covering a state level competition. Even though the pay, hours and appreciation from the boss sucks at my paper, I am still fortunate to be able and travel to cover our teams - be nice to get a bit more than a quarter a mile. We also staff home football games at a Div. 1 university about 40 miles away.

 

Of course many pro teams are so savvy about the burgeoning media empire on their web sites that they're shedding online staff to hire green newbies.

 

That's the difference. You're talking about community events that people actually attend or read about, not something 3,000 miles away that people watch on TV like it's a movie.

I've always thought that presence at local events was of paramount importance. I simply made the argument that a well-written feature gets more mileage than a typical mid-season game story.