Don't go to Spokesman-Review if you're hoping to read about football...

[steveu]

Because S-R killed its fall football tab. As always, I'm sorry if it's a d_b, but I have mixed emotions about this one. S-R doesn't strike me as football territory, but I gotta wonder how people feel out there.

More info via Romenesko website.

 

[Lyman_Bostock]

I wonder how ad sales for this were going.

Our football tab, from what I've heard, is selling great guns. I've found tab viability is almost solely dependent on how motivated the advertising department is to sell it, regardless of economic realities.

Advertisers still believe in target marketing.

 

[friend of a friend]

Can we trade advertising departments?

 

[ServeItUp]

No kidding. I'm told our ad department can't sell the tab, which translates roughly to "we WON'T sell a football tab."

 

[D-Backs Hack]

This might have something to do with it:

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/45175/

 

[Football_Bat]

Looks like the war was lost, boys.

 

[Jersey_Guy]

Seriously, the war's lost because somebody killed the football tab?

Jeez, a little perspective's in order.

 

[steveu]

Guess it depends on the territory. Having never visited Spokane, I can't gauge the interest of HS/college football out there.

I know if you tried this in parts of Texas, you'd have a lynch mob ready to take away the editors and burn down the building.

 

[CentralIllinoisan]

Some people from the S-R wanna come do my tab?

 

[JayFarrar]

Actually, I know people who live in Dallas and they hate the new Morning News.
Cancelled their home subscriptions, read what they want online during the week and pick up the Sunday paper only if they are out and about.
So while it wasn't everyone, some people noticed and reacted.

 

[mike311gd]

When I worked in Pennsylvania, there were two things you did not dare mess with -- football and wrestling. Once you cut back coverage on one of them, you were ****ed.

Is football a huge deal out in Washington like it is in Pennsylvania and Texas?

 

[Angola!]

When I worked in Pennsylvania, there were two things you did not dare mess with -- football and wrestling. Once you cut back coverage on one of them, you were ****ed.

Is football a huge deal out in Washington like it is in Pennsylvania and Texas?

I don't know how big of a deal high school football is in Eastern Washington - though I am sure it is in the small towns - but Washington State University is not far away from Spokane and Eastern Washington University is really close as well. The Spokesman also covers the Idaho panhandle, where high school football is king.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

No kidding. I'm told our ad department can't sell the tab, which translates roughly to "we WON'T sell a football tab."

A sales staff that can't sell a football tab is a staff that is lazy.

 

[slappy4428]

No kidding. I'm told our ad department can't sell the tab, which translates roughly to "we WON'T sell a football tab."

A sales staff that can't sell a football tab is a staff that is lazy.

We haven't done a football tab in the nearly three years I've been here. Kind of a shame, really.

The readers don't miss it at all, do they?

 

[JayFarrar]

As a former publisher once said, "special sections are like crack to the whores who work in advertising. If they can't sell special sections, they shouldn't be in sales."
To be fair to the sales whores, it largely depends on what else they have going. Plus football tabs require more staff work than selling a newcomers guide or some other section that can be stuffed with wire copy.
Even if the sales are strong, paying the overtime for the writing and production can make any profit go away quickly.

 

[Angola!]

As a former publisher once said, "special sections are like crack to the whores who work in advertising. If they can't sell special sections, they shouldn't be in sales."
To be fair to the sales whores, it largely depends on what else they have going. Plus football tabs require more staff work than selling a newcomers guide or some other section that can be stuffed with wire copy.
Even if the sales are strong, paying the overtime for the writing and production can make any profit go away quickly.

Overtime? What is this strange word you are using? I have never been paid a penny of overtime in my 6 years in this business, I just get comped.

 

[JayFarrar]

Well some places obey federal and state laws, so they do pay overtime.
I bet you a paycheck -- gross, not net -- that if the hourly pre-press and press guys at your shop work overtime, they get paid for it.

 

[wickedwritah]

Well some places obey federal and state laws, so they do pay overtime.
I bet you a paycheck -- gross, not net -- that if the hourly pre-press and press guys at your shop work overtime, they get paid for it.

Yes, of course they do.

Which is funny. They'll ***** at the newsies for not making deadline and causing the press guys to run up the production budget, a lot of which is press guys' OT.

But if you said, "we didn't hit deadline because we were shortstaffed on Saturday because you only had three people in the office and didn't wanna pay overtime," you'd be looked at with three heads.

So don't pay OT for an extra copy editor and miss deadline, or pay OT for one copy editor, make deadline and pay no OT to the pressroom guys. Some places really are penny-wise and pound-foolish.

 

[Birdscribe]

Well some places obey federal and state laws, so they do pay overtime.
I bet you a paycheck -- gross, not net -- that if the hourly pre-press and press guys at your shop work overtime, they get paid for it.

Yes, of course they do.

Which is funny. They'll ***** at the newsies for not making deadline and causing the press guys to run up the production budget, a lot of which is press guys' OT.

But if you said, "we didn't hit deadline because we were shortstaffed on Saturday because you only had three people in the office and didn't wanna pay overtime," you'd be looked at with three heads.

So don't pay OT for an extra copy editor and miss deadline, or pay OT for one copy editor, make deadline and pay no OT to the pressroom guys. The vast majority of places really are penny-wise and pound-foolish.

Excellent points, Wicked.

But I had to fix this for you. ;D

Seriously, this was a paper I really wanted to work at when I got out of college. Their former SE, Jeff Jordan, was one of the absolute class acts in the business. One of the guys I worked with at my first FT shop grew up there, interned there and eventually worked there.

I'm not happy to see any decent-sized paper blow off a football tab. Sheer laziness on the part of the ad department, who should be able to sell this anywhere in these United States.

 

[MileHigh]

No kidding. I'm told our ad department can't sell the tab, which translates roughly to "we WON'T sell a football tab."

A sales staff that can't sell a football tab is a staff that is lazy.

We haven't done a football tab in the nearly three years I've been here. Kind of a shame, really.

It goes back about 10-12 years before that, too. Yes, a shame.