Tree, forest, etc: APSE gets excited, writes strongly worded letter to NCAA

"the NCAA has made significant changes to coverage of the upcoming NCAA men’s basketball tournament without seeking our input. Additionally, our members are
reporting unduly restrictive credentialing conditions on their use of social media that inhibit their publishing rights and detrimentally affect the public’s interest in access to
timely information."

Oh, this is all so very important.

http://www.shermanreport.com/dear-mark-emmert-why-wont-ncaa-meet-with-sports-editors-news-organizations/

http://apsportseditors.org/uncategorized/apse-requests-dialog-with-ncaa-on-issues-impacting-coverage-of-college-sports/

Boo-freaking-hoo. No one cares about the hardships you incur while covering the Final Four.

 

Re: Tree, forest, etchttp.: APSE gets excited, writes strongly worded letter to NCAA

The seating at the Final Four might not be the best issue to put forward, but being shut out of live reporting and decreasing access to players and coaches is a pretty big deal, no?

 

Re: Tree, forest, etchttp.: APSE gets excited, writes strongly worded letter to NCAA

Seconded.

 

Re: Tree, forest, etchttp.: APSE gets excited, writes strongly worded letter to NCAA

Yes, those are big deals.

The NCAA can't stop "live reporting" via social media. It won't happen. If a guy on Press Row 4 isn't doing it, a couple of hundred people in the stands above him are. The NCAA or colleges can continue to be f'ing dicks about threatening to pull credentials, like the PGA recently did, but it's bullshit.

 

Re: Tree, forest, etchttp.: APSE gets excited, writes strongly worded letter to NCAA

The APSE isn't going to get much sympathy on the seating issue.

What is the NCAA trying to prevent from the "social media" standpoint? Live blogging? Tweeting game updates?

The letter from the APSE talks more about the social media restrictions, which I'm assuming are the much bigger issue... That Sherman Report story makes it sound like seating is the bigger issue, which may only be because it's easier to explain...

 

Re: Tree, forest, etchttp.: APSE gets excited, writes strongly worded letter to NCAA

Authoritative? How so?

 

Re: Tree, forest, etchttp.: APSE gets excited, writes strongly worded letter to NCAA

If there was not a single reporter at the NCAA Tourney other than CBS and ESPN, overall coverage would not suffer to the extent that news consumers would notice or care beyond the duration of their favorite team's own run.

 

Re: Tree, forest, etchttp.: APSE gets excited, writes strongly worded letter to NCAA

The difference is, CBS and ESPN pay for their access...

 

I seriously had this thought the other day, which I know seems extreme in its time, but would make for a good thought experiment:

Should newspapers even cover games any more?

Sure, relationships with the front office and so forth would suffer at first. But there weren't a pack of Silicon Valley reporters chatting up Steve Jobs every day, right? And, somehow, people broke Apple news. Will we look back in 30 years and consider it bizarre that dozens of reporters used to cover every major sporting event, even though it was on HDTV and covered extensively by the team Web site?

 

I know a paper that does limited game coverage and just won a few APSE awards.

Relying on traditional game coverage (yesterday's news) in the Internet/cable age is one of the big reasons newspapers are in the shape they're in.

I think access is important, but not so you can use it to consistently regurgitate information that everyone heard the day before.

 

They have tried to prevent live blogging.

 

Yeah, fuck local banks. All you need is three big ones based out of New York.