WTF? Tennessean not covering the SEC tournaments

Will they be able to afford to cover it then? Gas might shoot back up to $4 a gallon and if that happens they'll have to make some tough decisions about driving a few miles down the street!

 

Does

Does anyone seriously think the Tennessean will follow 10 teams on the road in the NCAAs with FTs after cutting back on the SEC Tournament? More likely they'll wait until the regionals and see if anybody is left standing. But it's the subregionals (or what we used to call the first two rounds) that give the NCAAs its pageantry, its Cinderellas, its best storylines.

The NCAA used to prevent newspapers from skipping early rounds and jumping on the bandwagon later. They need to stand firm now. You want AP in the first two rounds? Fine. That's what you get all tournament. Stay the hell home and watch on TV. Or at least show some semblance of pride and hire a stringer.

 

No, by then they'll be back to the well-known Gannett pitch of going into the stands and getting the gamer from the fans' perspective, while making damn sure you mainstream everything.

 

What he said.

This is totally idiotic. You're basically daring people to never read your paper again. If you're a sports fan in Tennessee and you open up the sports page or the web site, and all you see is generic wire copy, why would you ever bother going back, especially when you could have read that same generic wire copy on ESPN.com 5 minutes after the game was over?

So you got to a competing newspaper, read its unique content and that's that. Unless you have some overwhelmingly good columnist or something, I don't see why anybody would bother reading your AP section.

 

Yes. That's what we need. The NCAA acting like bigger assholes than they already are. Let's have them charge $100 a day for wireless too, that'll show us!

 

The issue I see here is that too many of those in this business are tired of being told to cut back and save money - only to never see that money reinvested in making the product better. Sure, maybe layoffs get pushed back, but it still happens. Right now, management acts like the shop will have to close the doors if we spend money to travel for anything, while the truth is management has no idea what else to do other than tell us to do more with less and less.

There would likely be fewer frustrations if newspaper companies, notably Gannett, woke up and lowered its projected profit margins and pretended to give a damn about its workers. Quit planning for 18 percent profit and then say the company is losing money when profits come back at 15 percent. Their expectations on profit margin are too high.

As for telling people to "calm down": this industry is rotting before our eyes because of scare tactics, poor mismanagement and illogical profit expectations. That said, I have no problem if someone shares their frustration on a message board. It's healthier than keeping it all bottled up inside.

Otherwise, if you don't want to read some has to say, go somewhere else.

 

Glen,

We've gone beyond scare tactics. When companies are filing for bankruptcy and when stock is worthless, I'm sorry, but there's validity in the claim that they're hurting. This isn't 2006, when the cutting could rightfully be blamed on greed and profit margins.

Yes, it might be their debt service that's the main catalyst for the crunch, which really has nothing to do with the product or employees at all, but ultimately, it doesn't matter what the catalyst is, reality is reality.

If a company owes $1 billion balloon payment (for argument's sake), the money saved is going to pay the debt, it isn't going to be invested in new computers and shit.

I think it sucks gargantuan balls, but it's a harsh, depressing reality.

 

Wishful thinking that the Tennessean will even be around in 12 months.

 

Not connected to The Tennessean and my paper (KySportsWriter works with me) isn't even close in size, but this is the first time since the late 1980s that my paper won't be staffing the SEC men's hoops tourney, either.

My paper covers both Kentucky and Louisville and we've only covered the Cards once in the conference tournament (when the C-USA was at Freedom Hall in Louisville) while we've covered Kentucky in the SEC every year. Readers don't seem to notice or don't care to voice their opinions.

If Louisville or Kentucky (doubtful) end up in Dayton for the first two rounds of the NCAA, we'll be there. If not, we're not staffing an NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 1980s.

I don't think the Tennessean is the first one to make a "don't staff the conference tourney" decision, although it is probably the first major paper to make said decision.

Is anyone for sure the Tennessean has NOT made other arrangements (excluding AP gamers) for coverage from the tournament?
Another Gannett paper (kind of like Louisville using the Indy Star for IU coverage)?
Maybe a local stringer?

They're not the first to have to make this type of coverage cutback.
They won't be the last, unfortunately.

 

What? Are you saying the writers are complaining because they can't hang out with other scribes?

Let's say there is a Tennessee game in the tournament. The AP will run 20 inches. If Tennessee happens to lose most of the story will be on the other team.
It will be horrible coverage.

But yes a good sports writer could make it work (even though it's disgraceful how he'd have to do it)...
-- Watch game on TV and/or listen on radio.
-- Get coach/player comments off the horrible post game show and disgracefully use them, having to give credit in the story to the fact coach said it on the post game show.
-- Worse yet, call coach after the game and/or demand media relations director hand the phone to some players in the locker room.
To cover a game in the way I mentioned is disgraceful.
Hobnobbing with writers? I defy you to tell me how AP is going to cover the game for the Tennessean, especially if somebody gets hurt or there is a fight in the game.
AP is good, but it does not thoroughly cover both sides of games. It covers the winning team.

 

Frederick, let's call it what it is. AP will cover anything major happening at the game. The guys who will be there are competent. They just won't have the local angle. The tournament is a good chance for guys to get together. Obviously there will be a few missing from this year's gathering.

 

i would think they're holding off and planning to cover the NCAA tournament.
surely that's the case. if not...damn.