No women's bracket = sexist

[fossywriter8]

Walked into work tonight and the sports editor told me he'd been called sexist by a reader because we only printed the men's NCAA Division I basketball bracket and not the one for the women's NCAA Division I teams.
We only seem to get ANY kind of request for women's basketball coverage at this one particular time of year.
We're a daily in a small northwest Ohio city, with a circulation under 10,000.
We have AP coverage of Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State, but don't cover them ourselves.
We have one area grad playing for Indiana's women's team and get AP stories on them from time to time, but they didn't make the NCAA tournament.

 

[RickStain]

Was she hot?

 

[Starman]

"Thank you for your call. We will take your suggestion under consideration."

(Vigorous jacking off motion while talking on the phone.)

"Thank you."

CLICK.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Always pick the 6 seed.

 

[dixiehack]

One UConn and 63 UCants

 

[Batman]

We got a few complaints early in the season when we didn't include Mississippi State's women's games in the paper. I haven't fielded a single call or e-mail about not putting stories for the much more mediocre Ole Miss or Southern Miss teams in there.
Women's basketball is one of those sports that people get behind their team if they're winning.

 

[dixiehack]

We got a few complaints early in the season when we didn't include Mississippi State's women's games in the paper. I haven't fielded a single call or e-mail about not putting stories for the much more mediocre Ole Miss or Southern Miss teams in there.
Women's basketball is one of those sports that people get behind their team if they're winning.

For a Top 10 team, that's a valid ask.

 

[Batman]

For a Top 10 team, that's a valid ask.

Oh, I agree. They were just getting lost in the wash of the tail end of football season and by playing on the same days as our local high school teams. Same thing happens a lot with the men's teams. Since basketball has become the primary season and they got on a more regular Thursday-Sunday schedule when our local sports are much lighter, we've had AP or jury-rigged staff stories on just about every game.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

We don't print a Monday edition anymore, which kills a lot of things for us: NFL, NASCAR and PGA golf for starters. One other thing it kills is the publication of the bracket. But who cares when you can try to sell automotive and real estate on Saturday?

 

[Chef2]

"Thank you for your call. We will take your suggestion under consideration."

(Vigorous jacking off motion while talking on the phone.)

"Thank you."

CLICK.

"Am I being punkd?"

 

[Batman]

We don't print a Monday edition anymore, which kills a lot of things for us: NFL, NASCAR and PGA golf for starters. One other thing it kills is the publication of the bracket. But who cares when you can try to sell automotive and real estate on Saturday?

I would think you can still run that on Tuesday. Even Wednesday. People still want to see it.
What killed it for us was dumping AP photos and having access to an easy to grab version of it.

 

[LongTimeListener]

People still need the printed bracket?

 

[jr/shotglass]

People still need the printed bracket?

People who still read the print product = old people

Old people = people who don't own a PC

 

[LongTimeListener]

LOL. Yeah old people don't have computers. I will tell my 70-year-old mom that the next time we're FB messaging.

The printed bracket is a waste of space.

 

[PaperDoll]

People still need the printed bracket?

There wasn't some local organization willing to pay for an ad that went with the bracket(s)?

 

[CD Boogie]

Walked into work tonight and the sports editor told me he'd been called sexist by a reader because we only printed the men's NCAA Division I basketball bracket and not the one for the women's NCAA Division I teams.
We only seem to get ANY kind of request for women's basketball coverage at this one particular time of year.
We're a daily in a small northwest Ohio city, with a circulation under 10,000.
We have AP coverage of Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State, but don't cover them ourselves.
We have one area grad playing for Indiana's women's team and get AP stories on them from time to time, but they didn't make the NCAA tournament.

i hope he called the person stupid and told them to leave.

 

[The Big Ragu]

"Thank you for your call. We will take your suggestion under consideration."

Replying seriously.

Might as well just say "**** you." Being patronized by a jerkoff I took the time to call would personally make me want to cancel my subscription.

You are not going to placate her if she chalked it up to sexism. But she's still a reader -- at a time when readers are hard to come by. It merits at least an attempt to explain that space is limited, and you can only include the things that are of interest to the greatest number of people. And for better or worse there is a ton of interest in the men's tournament, not nearly as much in the women's. You can thank her for calling and tell her that if enough people do start expressing interest in the women's bracket, she can rest assured that you'll give it consideration.

 

[Batman]

LOL. Yeah old people don't have computers. I will tell my 70-year-old mom that the next time we're FB messaging.

The printed bracket is a waste of space.

I always liked having one to fill out as things went along. Tournament Monday used to be one of the days I made sure to pick up both a copy of USA Today (for the capsule breakdowns of each team, which guided my picks), and a copy of the local paper to get the full-size bracket. I guess that has become archaic now that brackets and picks are easily available online, but if you're going so far as to say it's a waste of space then it's probably on a long list with a lot of things we put in the paper on a daily basis.

 

[HanSenSE]

Anyone who's in a bracket pool is either filling it out online or getting a copy printed off an Internet source instead of a newspaper, no? It's got to run at 3-4 columns to be legible.

The women's bracket? I can see it in places where the women's game is very popular, but in the Podunk Fishwrap? Please. And person who is going to call claiming it's a Title IX issue? Don't.

 

[CD Boogie]

Anyone who's in a bracket pool is either filling it out online or getting a copy printed off an Internet source instead of a newspaper, no? It's got to run at 3-4 columns to be legible..

In other words, it's a great space-filler