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Weeklies and sports

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by ChrisMaza, Aug 11, 2011.

  1. Voodoo Chile

    Voodoo Chile Member

    I work at a weekly in an area where the local prep teams are not covered by any daily, and we received a vocal outcry when we tried some of the things that have been mentioned above. When we didn't do full on gamers about the previous week's games, I got not just a few, but dozens of calls to complain. It's been done that way here for 50-plus years and people resisted so much so that we went back to doing the old way.
    And whenever I do write a feature on a prep athlete, all I get are the jealous calls about why I didn't profile someone else instead.
     
  2. SFIND

    SFIND Well-Known Member

    For a look at what a string of weeklies has done to have a lot of success at sports, I suggest This Week Sports: http://www.thisweeksports.com/live/content/thisweeksports/index.html. They are a string of weeklies around the Columbus, Ohio area that inhabit the suburbs. There's a different newspaper for each suburb, with local focus. The company has went together on the above website and has their sports coverage from all papers here. Having a good website like this linked to the paper could also serve as a way for immediate news coverage.

    I work a weekly as a youngling in the business, and I've tried to get my publishers to go a route more similar to this. However, my paper is owned by a couple of evangelical ministers, and they're only concerned with producing something that is half-ass readable (and sometimes, what gets printed in other sections isn't even that).

    As far as our sports section, we do a mix of gamers and news with features and previews. It works for our area, but here in Ohio, prep sports is beyond huge, and people will eat up almost anything on prep sports (especially if the paper's free).
     
  3. Illino

    Illino Member

    As far as team photos go, where I come from, running a team photo is an extra 10-15 papers sold. I don't use them as lead photos, but they are great on jump space.

    As for the "bush" type photos. That is true, but you also have to consider the type of equipment being used. Sometimes you just have to use someone swinging because blur was in a lot of photos because your paper's camera isn't the greatest.
     
  4. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    It's worth the investment to get a solid camera.

    This has been a good thread, heading into fall season I've looked at what we do and am making some tweaks here and there.
     
  5. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    Another thought for weeklies: Has anyone tried the USA Today-style cover story approach, where you have one very long, 30- to 40-inch feature each issue? I think that would be great for a weekly's sports or news section; you could rotate it between reporters and give them a chance to get great clips while also providing readers with a big story and increasing shelf life dramatically.
     
  6. ChrisMaza

    ChrisMaza Member

    Agreed. This has been a great conversation. Hopefully more people will take something out of this than just me. Some great ideas flying around. Thanks for all the input everyone.
     
  7. Illino

    Illino Member

    Mine typically isn't that long, but I run a 500-600 word feature on a senior athlete every week as the main story (barring state appearances or other big-time records).
     
  8. dixiehack

    dixiehack Well-Known Member

    A lot depends on when and how often your paper comes out. I started at a 3x weekly which had a "Sunday" edition that actually hit the street midday Sat. Damn right we had Friday night gamers. We also had the benefit of a Friday paper, which let me do a predictions column. People loved to rag me when I picked against Podunk and missed, but it got noticed.
     
  9. BillyT

    BillyT Active Member

    I know it's been mentioned before, but I think a huge factor in deciding your approach is to evaluate what other sources people have for stories about sports, especially high school stuff.

    The two schools that our papers cover are really lower second-level, upper third-level in terms of coverage from the local 25,000 daily and may get a brief and summary in the state capitol daily. (A lot hinges on stars/success). Other than that, very little gets reported, so we do tend to summarize last week's events along with looking forward to this week's.
     
  10. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    I went to this approach about 6 months ago, and I think it's working great.
    Long feature to carry the page...also a sidebar with a bunch of short tidbits, then you can just fill in with whatever gamers/previews you have time for.
     
  11. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    Curious how people would approach a twice-weekly that is the town's lone local news source (other than the paper's website). Many readers expect it to act like a daily and have everything, especially live events from the night before. Others want features. Many look for it to be a bulletin board o' briefs and announcements of upcoming events.

    To me, twice-weekly is quite a different dynamic. Not daily. Not weekly.

    City of 30,000.
    Division III college. 6A high school.
    Nearby 4A.
    Four 3As in area.
    Two smaller schools just outside the county where some local kids attend and star.
    A 6A and D3 close by in the county, in leagues with the locals, but covered by a paper that doesn't cover yours. Lots of recreation and club sports. Adult amateur leagues. Kids leagues.

    Two-man staff.

    Go.
     
  12. baddecision

    baddecision Active Member

    Forward, not backward. Live results on line as hours permit. Paper is for features, advances, opinion, unexpected stories, good photos. Web is for agate, gamers, listings. As many as hours permit -- if hours don't permit enough, get better and faster. It can be done. Make the most of technology (make your systems work for you, so you don't work for your system). Be creative and yet consistent. Use the freedom to get better.

    To the person above who says team pix sell 15 papers: A very well-crafted story / photo / section -- the result of working smarter and figuring out ways to succeed -- will sell dozens more papers every single edition, eventually. If not, then it's really not that good, or we're baying at the moon here entirely. Even then, there is the added benefit of pushing yourself to move your ass up the ladder to a higher paying job, until your fuckface boss decides he can save a nickel by throwing you into the fuckin' poorhouse when you're too old to switch careers. But still, it's the journey, amiright people?
     
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