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Wash Post: With Readers, Sports Pages Can't Win

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Flying Headbutt, Oct 14, 2007.

  1. fishwrapper

    fishwrapper Active Member

    Ok. Your point is made.
    But, (there it is)...
    Having a result in the paper and having 18-25 inch gamers are too different animals. And confusing the two leads to false interpretations of reader needs.
    Trimming a gamer back to 15 inches isn't going to illicit reader response. Supplementing that gamer with a stronger notebook gives the reader the result and unique content not available anywhere but the pages of the paper or part of the coverage on the website.
    And since when is missing late scores or West Coast scores a new issue? The problem is exacerbated because those results are readily available elsewhere and spotlights a newspaper's handicap of an expensive and antiquated delivery paradigm.
    Hence Ms. Howell having to explain the shortcomings of one of the great journalistic institutions.
     
  2. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    Who cares about Bush speechwriters and known plagiarists when I can't get my box scores about the late game?

    In all seriousness, many readers have demonstrated that they couldn't care less about the issues they should be concerned about (everything from the war in Iraq to the way their local school board goes about its business) and are more up in arms about last night's game. That's one of the things Howell's right on the mark about, and it's a sad state of affairs in our society.
     
  3. fishwrapper

    fishwrapper Active Member

    I disagree.
    Our democracy is representative -- for a reason. Finding fault in reader interest isn't the answer.
    A reader has a certain expectation of information included in a newspaper. A newspaper should be utilitarian. The balance between utilitarian levels and journalistic ambition is the daily battle. But again, this is not a new phenomenon.
     
  4. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    As a kid we got the late results from the radio in the morning. Which wasn't "on demand" like the Internet, and admittedly that does make a big difference -- but still, neither readers nor newspapers chose to blow off results and highlights in newspapers just because a faster medium, a less antiquated delivery system, existed.

    I think we agree that newspapers have to deliver not only what readers can get anywhere else but what they can't. The problem as I see it are newspaper executives who know very little about sports fans deciding that eliminating the basics would be no more harmful than dumping the stocks listings. I think there is a fundamental lack of understanding on their part. Sports fans are not interested only in whether their team's stock rose or fell or even why; it is not merely basic information or understanding they seek. Rather, there is an emotional connection to their team that makes reliving what they'd just seen with their own eyes a necessary part of the experience. A newspaper that eliminates game coverage or squeezes what happened in the games into some sans serif, formatted, agate-like box is one that leaves this very basic and nearly universal sports-fan need unsatisfied.
     
  5. Dan Rydell

    Dan Rydell Guest

    I'll say it again: Now that the newsroom cuts are deep into the bone, it's only a matter of time before a lot of sports coverage comes off the wires. And I mean for the local teams.

    Let's say you're in San Francisco. Giants go on the road? For 81 games a year? Hell, AP's there. Use that copy. Home fans won't know the difference. Readers are dumb.

    Some (many?) of the major papers already have stopped sending photogs to road games. Use whatever AP sends. Whatever the wire has is just fine. Just make it fit the layout.

    Pretty soon we won't need our local columnists anymore, either. Grab Litke from wherever he's writing, and maybe there's a Plaschke or Wilbon column that works. Saving money, boss!

    Hey, it's only sports. Readers won't care a bit..........Right?

    And Corporate Daddy and the stockholders will love us.
     
  6. fishwrapper

    fishwrapper Active Member

    I agree. Almost wholeheartedly.
    Yet, the two or three paragraphs in a roundup of regurgitated statistical information available even to untrained eyes in a boxscore or summary leaves nearly every sports fan unsatisfied. The only discernable accomplishment is expending an entire editorial column best used elsewhere.
     
  7. That's a tabloid headline begging to be published.
     

  8. Yikes.
    Down goes Howell, Down goes Howell...
     
  9. Twoback

    Twoback Active Member

    So, according to the ombudsman, there is a problem.
    Yeah, we knew that.
    You got any solutions? Any criticism?
    If that's the best she can do, maybe her job should be cut and added to the WaPo's sports department.
     
  10. Pete Incaviglia

    Pete Incaviglia Active Member

    Ombudsman:

    1. a person who investigates and attempts to resolve complaints and problems, as between employees and an employer or between students and a university.

    Where's the attempt to resolve complaints and problems in that column?
     
  11. fishwrapper

    fishwrapper Active Member

    That's a literal definition. Literally, it is also an official or governmental post.
    Of course, that's not what were talking about here.
    An ombud has devolved -- at least in my experience -- into some kind of toothless liaison. Unfortunately, he/she is usually a highly respected journalist put in a tough spot.
     
  12. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    Didn't the Sacramento Bee do this last year or two years ago?

    And, yeah, getting a complete product has always been a problem, especially back East. But the Rockies ended at 12:45 a.m. Friday and the Metro edition went without the result and we chased it when the game ended. And, yes, we got e-mails complaining about it.

    But I suspect Cleveland and Boston held their papers Saturday night until that game got over, too. Depends where you are and how flexible places are.
     
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