Prep Football Sections

[BH33]

Outside of Texas, does anyone do prep football preview sections anymore?

 

[RickStain]

Outside of Texas, does anyone do prep football preview sections anymore?

We did one at my old shop in Illinois, and we do a "Fall sports" preview section where I am now, which is 80% football.

We're actually already starting work on it, which makes me very happy.

 

[spud]

We do. Ours was 30 pages last year. I'd imagine it'll be closer to 20 this year.

 

[CarltonBanks]

32-64 pages here in Ohio

 

[JNEWFIFTY]

somewhere around 80-90 for us

 

[2underpar]

ours was 48 pages last year, down six pages from the year before. Likely will stay the same this year.

 

[SCEditor]

We do a 24-page broadsheet for a 16K daily. Our advertising was up 14 percent from my first year to second year here. I have no idea what it'll be like for the third year.

 

[HejiraHenry]

Outside of Texas, does anyone do prep football preview sections anymore?

Of course. We have done a combined high school/college tab in recent years that has ranged from 56 to 72 pages.

This year, there's some talk of breaking them up with a total page count in the 72-76 range.

 

[Bubbler]

We've tried to revive ours, but no one wants to buy ads to support it. Oh wait! Maybe our ad department sucks!

 

[JakeandElwood]

48 page fall preview that has football and pres on the other fall sports.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

We've tried to revive ours, but no one wants to buy ads to support it. Oh wait! Maybe our ad department sucks!

Yea, if an ad department can't sell a football tab, they just ain't trying.

I could walk down any main street in any town (especially the smaller towns) and sell enough ads to make it work.

Sounds like your ad department was just like my last one, do as little work as possible.

 

[BigJim5190]

I'm actually going to crib some notes for ours in a week or so. Never too early.

Which reminds me, will there be another tab trade set up this season? Tremendously happy with the turnout on here last year.

 

[I Digress]

yeah, fairly small market in florida.... something like 10 pages of h.s. (but there are three different versions), then sections for college and pros.

 

[sportshack06]

I could walk down any main street in any town (especially the smaller towns) and sell enough ads to make it work.
[/quote]

Don't suggest that, or you will be doing it....

 

[highlander]

I'm in Texas and we did a 36-pager (tabloid style) for one school, football only.

 

[Football_Bat]

I'm expecting an 8-page cut in our tab from what it was last fall. That's going to suck because we'll have to cut some schools out for the first time and the towns that buy all the ads will have even more pages in comparison with the others. I'm forwarding every frigging phone call to our ad manager.

 

[Taylee]

Last year, ours covered 86 teams and was more than 100 tab pages.

 

[albert77]

Our football preview section last year was a 64-page tab, about half devoted to preps. Won't be surprised if it's down a few pages this year.

 

[Mark2010]

We've tried to revive ours, but no one wants to buy ads to support it. Oh wait! Maybe our ad department sucks!

That's been the case at the last couple of places I've been as well. Just hard to justify doing one if they can't make money on it (which is beyond me, because, as one person said, it seems like the easiest thing in the world to sell).

I can't imagine an 80-90 page tab. How many schools are you talking about and what are you doing on them? Sounds like a freakin nightmare to produce.

 

[Dave Caldwell]

I know these sections are pretty much obsolete the day they are printed (if not before), but has there been much thought about selling these sections as a stand-alone product for a couple of weeks after they are inserted into the paper? It seems as if people might be interested in buying them for, say, $1 (or whatever).