Gatehouse and the Super Bowl

[Moderator1]

Maybe it is just me, I found this tidbit sent via The Pipeline interesting:

Gatehouse Media, which has five dailies in Massachusetts (Brockton, Quincy, Framingham, Taunton, Fall River), is not sending a single person from the company to the Super Bowl. The first three papers all have beat writers on the team, while the other two participate in the company's sharing agreement, although the papers with their own writers also use the content from the other two. For the entire Super Bowl week, those publications will be using the AP.

Incidentally, the company sent at least three writers to every round of the Red Sox' playoff run, starting in the ALDS. Just goes to show you the continued, ridiculous cutbacks in our industry.



Me again - if you cover the Pats, don't you need to go? Is there anything bigger for your readers?

 

[wickedwritah]

They're not sending Farley, McHugh or Flynn?

Christ.

Also factor in that Norwich, Conn., a GateHouse paper, uses the GHNS coverage.

And there still are pockets of Giants fans in New England, especially in some Connecticut spots that would be served by Norwich.

They're absolutely screwing over their readers.

 

[Damaramu]

Well.....my company is owned by Gatehouse. I thought Morris and CNHI were bad but I learned an all new form of tightness from Gatehouse.

They told my boss that I don't need to travel to road games with our main beat. They think just listening to it on the radio and writing a story is sufficient.

 

[slappy4428]

good. They can cover jv basketball....


Seriously, how stupid is that -- although I once had an ME that did that with our now-folded paper and Michigan basketball when they won the national title.

 

[wickedwritah]

They told my boss that I don't need to travel to road games with our main beat. They think just listening to it on the radio and writing a story is sufficient.

We used to do that with the college paper, cuz we were broke.

 

[wickedwritah]

Circulations of GateHouse papers affected by this short-sighted move (I used M-F numbers, since not all of these papers publish weekend editions):

-- DAILY NEWS, MILFORD (WORCESTER CO.) AVG M (M-F) DLY 8,349
-- DAILY NEWS TRANSCRIPT, DEDHAM (NORFOLK CO.) AVG M (M-F) DLY 3,808
-- DAILY NEWS TRIBUNE, WALTHAM (MIDDLESEX CO.) AVG M (M-F) DLY 4,684
-- ENTERPRISE, BROCKTON (PLYMOUTH CO.) AVG E (M-F) DLY 30,553
-- GAZETTE, TAUNTON (BRISTOL CO.) M (M-SAT) DLY 9,270
-- HERALD NEWS, FALL RIVER (BRISTOL CO.) M (M-SAT) DLY 19,226
-- METROWEST DAILY NEWS, FRAMINGHAM (MIDDLESEX CO.) AVG M (M-F) DLY 22,492
-- PATRIOT LEDGER, QUINCY (NORFOLK CO.) AVG E (M-F) DLY 51,506
-- BULLETIN, NORWICH (NEW LONDON CO.) AVG M (M-F) DLY 22,643

Basically you are telling more than 170,000 readers -- and very few double buys in that group -- to ignore your product for a week.

Smart move!

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Disgraceful and stupid. Cut to the chase Gatehouse. Eliminate editorial. Have moms and dads send in the high school scores, reprint public documents, and take ads.

 

[JBHawkEye]

You could send a couple of writers to do all of the coverage for every paper, and the ad sales you could generate from the coverage would more than pay for their trip.

This is a historic situation that even the casual reader is interested in reading about.

Unbelievably short-sighted, but Gatehouse is well-known for its stupid decisions.

 

[SockPuppet]

My post from the "LA Times editor O'Shea fired" thread:
"Presidential elections? Aw, screw it, we'll just use wires.''

"Patriots in the Super Bowl?" Aw screw it, we'll just use wires.''

 

[sporting_guista]

This is repulsive. Wasn't Farley the pool reporter the last time the Pats went to the Super Bowl? For whatever that's worth, at least it's an indication of a senior writer on your staff covering the biggest sports story of the year and maybe the best team in NFL history? What a joke Gatehouse is. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the sports guys at each of those dailies called in sick Super Bowl Sunday, because you know they're going to have to "listen to it on radio" and write some kind of analysis/column thing.

 

[Stone Cane]

horrifying

 

[thegrifter]

I also heard there's some major shake-ups going on over there on the senior management level. Even so, to do something as ridiculous as this borders on the insane.

 

[VJ]

Did the Gatehouse beat guys travel with the Patriots on the road during the season?

 

[sporting_guista]

Did the Gatehouse beat guys travel with the Patriots on the road during the season?

I don't think so, but they have traveled in the past to playoffs/Super Bowl

 

[Read and weep]

First off, I hate to ever side with a cut-rate company like Gatehouse, but....
looking at the circs of those papers and (I know I shouldn't generalize) knowing the kind of staffs normally at papers that size, is the AP copy or other wire copy going to be a big step down in quality? Sad to say, but I doubt it.

 

[wickedwritah]

The papers are in a major metropolitan area (except for Norwich). They attract quality staff, since many people are there for reasons that go beyond the circ figures.

 

[hockeybeat]

Remarkably short-sighted and stupid.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

There comes a point where you wonder if failure isn't the actual game plan. I've never met a business person who really believed that offering lousier product for the same money would make money. That is how the newspaper industry business plan. I know bosses are aggravating, but they're not that stupid. It may be that free market capitalism and journalism are simply incompatible,

 

[Mediator]

Sometimes editors can make the checkbooks understand why you send the beat writer. Find someone from the area going to the game, explain that none of his or her neighbors are going to be able to read stories with that POV. Pitch specific stories with a local angle, anything to show exactly what your readers will gain from focused writing.

I know it isn't always that simple, but there is still time if your credentials are in order.

As someone who really believes in this business, I have to hope that there is still time to show the suits that there is more to be gained by improving the paper.

 

[Read and weep]

Look, I' not trying to offend anyone or any paper, but are you telling me that the writers at the 19,000/day Fall River Herald News are better than the NFL beat writers for the AP? I doubt it. The readers will not notice whether the local writer or the AP is writing the stories. They will, however, notice when local stories go unwritten because the guy is in Arizona covering the Super Bowl for a week and not back in Fall River covering the local high school. Can't imagine those papers have big enough staffs to accommodate someone going off for a week.