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The sacred MLB boxes

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by HejiraHenry, May 20, 2011.

  1. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

  2. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    We run every single box score. Every last one.
    On the web page.

    We're multi-platform daily journalists now, gang. Not newspaper people. Still not sure we've figured out the best way to use both but we'll keep trying and maybe get it right.
     
  3. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    The puzzling thing in that survey, to me, is the 9 sports editors who say they have willingly cut their own local copy in order to continue running major league boxes. That seems unwise on several levels, not the least of which is discounting the value of stuff produced by their own local staffs.
     
  4. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    We'd get crushed.

    And I'd probably make one of the calls.

    This goes beyond the information imparted by these. It has to do with picking up your newspaper and having it feel a little bit like it did in 2000, 1990, 1980, etc.
     
  5. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    You say "nostalgia," I say "vinyl records." They still exist, but the masses have no interest in buying them.
     
  6. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    I'm a dinosaur.

    I like looking at four box scores, the day's pitching matchups and the standings . . . only having to move my eyes a couple of millimeters.

    On the web it's 14 clicks to accomplish all that.
     
  7. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    Yes. I'll be a dinosaur on that, too. I'm not giving up everything I grew up with.
     
  8. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    We've had the discussion both at my current shop (about 20K) and a previous shop where I did a lot more sports on a "universal desk" (a 40K -- and falling fast -- daily).

    Both places decided to stick with box scores, because they're popular with older readers. And that's the overwhelming majority of our customers.

    Does that mean prep gamers, photos and agate gets cut back somewhat? Yes, but not just because of baseball/space constraints. Also because of staff cutbacks.

    These decisions suck ... there's no right answer.
     
  9. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    Looking at the Big Picture, the MLB box score debate is a microcosm of the main problem for print newspapers:

    There's a hardcore, loyal group of readers who are 50-plus and expect as much in print as we can give them.

    And there's a hardcore, unreachable group of readers who are under 40 and have no time or desire for the print edition in its current format.

    So how do you continue to provide what 90 percent of your current customers want, while also trying to tweak the product to attract people who you hope will someday be your future 50-plus readers? And how do you do this with ever-dwindling staff and resources?

    Again, I haven't heard any good answers to this problem. We're still trying to find one.
     
  10. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    Other than not running the previous day's late boxes, etc., we continue to run all boxes we can. We've even started using the expanded boxes, since the digital AP feed cannot code the traditonal boxes correctly and there are several a night that randomly don't appear in our queue.

    When we're in a space crunch, national stuff goes out the door first. In that sense, its important for us to maintain a viable scoreboard page.
     
  11. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    Every news paper already has a page dedicated to those who expect to see all their baseball boxes, stock listings and comics in the newspaper each day.

    It's called the obit page.

    Targeting those, um, readers, isn't a business plan, it's a suicide pact.
     
  12. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    Last summer,when we were on AP Limited, we had just the state baseball boxes. No complaints. But, when NFLstarted, and all we had were the Niners, Raiders and Chargers, people complained. Say what you want about the growing online culture and only old folks wanting to see them, but I'm convinced readers of all ages like having them in one place.

    Cutting back local? After spring all-county, outside of the odd kidball tourney, all-star games, boxing/MMA at the casino and racing at the fairgrounds, we're counting the days until high school camps open!
     
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