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"You don't support us ..."

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by MightyMouse, Jun 11, 2011.

  1. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    To be clear, when you say semi-pro football, you're talking about a much lower scale than, say, the Arena Football League, right?

    I don't think it's appropriate to tell them you won't cover them, or to not cover those teams. I would choose spot features and occasional game coverage that reads more like feature stories.

    By doing that, you're providing human interest stories and alerting readers to these teams' existence, which I do believe is part of public service journalism, but not putting an incredible onus on our staff. Write one or two of these a month on each team, and you're good.

    You could even send a photographer for some wild art. Heaven knows summertime sports sections could use a few more decent photographs.
     
  2. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    Did you cover the league's demise? Thus prompting the "You only cover us when something bad happens!" complaints?
     
  3. MightyMouse

    MightyMouse Member

    Their games are at 7:30, and we have 9 p.m. deadlines, so, no, we are not going to cover any of their games -- ever.

    We have a Legion league of 16 teams, which draws far more interest than any of the baseball teams or the football team. We have fastpitch softball leagues, which, along with the Legion, are comprised of all-local players.

    We have a summer basketball league, sanctioned by the NCAA, which brings in some pretty good college talent from around the state.

    I'm not ignoring this football team and the wooden bat college teams, but they are not high on my list of priorities. I'm doing a feature story on the football league and one on the college baseball leagues.

    And, Inky, one of the baseball guys already is planning on failure. He called me yesterday, and said they probably wouldn't make it, and it was going to be our fault.

    My point was less about what else we are doing and more about the thought that somehow we are a PR firm for these teams, which we are not.

    EDIT: And, yes, there are four of us who have to squeeze in the bulk of our vacation weeks into about 2 1/2 months.
     
  4. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    OK, well your initial post made it sound like this one baseball league and this one semi-pro football team were the main attractions this time of year. I can get on board with what you're prioritizing, though.
     
  5. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    Gotta love it when editors promise your weekend hours away...luckily I haven't had that since my first shop.
     
  6. Tarheel316

    Tarheel316 Well-Known Member

    That's an issue I have to fight all the time. My editor, who never has to work nights, weekends or holidays, doesn't have any problem making those kind of assignments. We had to cover the finals of a tennis tournament two years ago. There were three spectators, including our reporter.
     
  7. apeman33

    apeman33 Well-Known Member

    Strangely enough, there was a men's fast-pitch softball league here when I first took this job. It had been around since at least the mid-60's. And the previous editor covered them as if they were the high school teams, so I was expected to do the same.

    But the players in the league got older and no younger players stepped in to replace them. So pretty soon this became a league of 35-year-old catchers, 45-year-old third basemen and 50-year-old pitchers. People stopped showing up and I got wiser and told them to fill out forms and I'd put them in when I had space.

    They've tried to revive the league on and off over the years. I covered the opening night of one revival a few years ago. But the teams either had seniors or kids just out of high school. I don't think anyone between the ages of 22 and 40 were on any team (And they were teams of either all young-uns or all 40-plus).

    I've been told that 500 people showed up to games in the 60s. By the end, I don't think they could even get the players' wives and girlfriends to show up.
     
  8. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    It happened more than once at my first two shops. There were times, however, where I told them that I was unavailable due to previous plans, some real, some not so real. They didn't like it much, although I had a pretty good excuse with the first shop.

    They weren't paying me overtime, so I told them that since I wasn't getting paid, I would decide if it was newsworthy enough for me to take my personal time and cover it. I had a couple of tiffs with them over that. One was a mom who wanted me to cover her kid's Eagle Scout ceremony. I didn't want to do it, but publisher overruled me and had me do a feature on the kid (which is fair enough for a small town weekly) AND go to the fucking ceremony (Whee! Little Johnny saluted a flag!). On a Sunday evening, around 6 p.m. So I went, shot a few pics, stayed about 15 minutes and left. Publisher and editor still weren't pleased. But I told them "You're getting what you pay for. You aren't paying me anything for that day."

    The second shop did pay OT, so then, I'd tell them it would cost them if they wanted me to devote hours upon hours to adult baseball. THey didn't like paying the OT, and sometimes, if I was a few hours over, I wouldn't bother claiming it. But if it was something sucky, like an adult baseball doubleheader on a Sunday for multiple hours, you bet, I was claiming it.
     
  9. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Yeah, the league I covered was the same way. It had a pretty solid history and it was actually pretty well organized, and the guy who sent me the weekly stats was first-rate. There were, if I remember right, six teams from five towns (one town had two of them). All the players were from the towns, so it had a bit of a "Your best vs. Our Best" vibe. And the championship day was pretty cool. They had a nice barbecue, plenty of beer, and it was actually a fun day.

    But outside of that, yuck. I'd go to some games for some photos, and there would be hardly anyone there. And it was the same, like your league. You had some kids just out of high school, and some old-timers. My boss, who was in his 50s, was probably thinking of those old-time town ball days when he wanted me to cover it. He just was surprised when I told him no one was showing up to the games with civic pride.

    I never got the full story of how the league flopped. Everyone would tell me, "You wouldn't believe it, but I can't tell you." So I just had a generic "League collapses, president confirms, won't say why." story.
     
  10. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    Dick,

    I agree. This is what I mean when I tell people that just because something happens to be local does not necessarily mean a large percentage of the readership gives a darn. There are local golf tournaments, swim meets, running and biking events every week. We have a weekly dedicated community sports for those type of things and every once in a while we'll staff/shoot one. If we did it every week, readers would lose interest in a hurryt.
     
  11. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    Back to the original point..... no, it's not the paper's job to "support" any particular team, school or league. You serve your readers and try to meet their interests. That's not to say everyone is interested in the same thing, but you can gauge what people follow and what they don't.

    Frankly, when it comes to this semi-pro and participatory sports, I've found well-done features will go a LOT further than a dozen routine game stories.
     
  12. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    @ Baron...

    Writers should never be expected to give up their personal hours to cover an event for the paper...if you're not getting paid, you're not going. If it's still demanded unpaid, it's not a shop worth staying at...do what you need to do in the short-term and get those resumes flying out the door.

    Another option if you have the backbone to do it.

    Use a portion of your paid 40 hours to cover Sunday's Eagle Scout ceremony, then skip the Friday night football game that week. When the publisher comes to your desk, explain that your hours were taken up during the Eagle Scout story. OK, maybe not that drastic, but skip out on a Thursday night soccer match or something (even if it's a big one) and supply the same explanation when complaints roll in.

    Editors/Publishers need to see there are ways to cover stories without pouring a million hours into it. I'm shocked that you were required to do a feature AND go to the event...unacceptable.

    At my shop, and we're not huge (10K) that item would be a brief...on the school's page, no less.
     
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