Preps on your web site

[taz]

Just looking for some ideas about how we can improve prep coverage on our web site. Are there any newspaper web sites that you think do a great job with high schools, and is there anything you're doing differently this year to give preps a better presence on the web?

 

[Jerseykid1982]

Fort Worth Star Telegram does a great job with its site. I think it's the best by far. But they also have a whole bunh of people dedicated to it.

 

[tx_spts]

Dallas Morning News has a section called 'My High Schoo' with schedules, stats, stories, rosters for each school and there is a high school blog that stays pretty busy.

 

[MU_was_not_so_hard]

If you're looking for a paper a bit smaller than Dallas or Fort Worth, you can take a look at how the Greenville, SC paper does theirs. They've got all the schools grouped and it's pretty easy to find what you're looking for.
I wonder about how often they update the non-football sports. It looks like they are going to try, though, by the template they have set up.

 

[Shifty Squid]

www.ajc.com/highschool

 

[Bob Slydell]

This season, we've started doing our predictions for games online only and teasing to them in the paper.

Alos, we don't publish Saturday, but all our Friday games are posted onlne Saturday morning. Kind of our own little online sports section.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

In addition to posting our preseason tab and weekley tab on the web, our company gave all the sports depaertment cell phones.
When we staff a game we are required to call in with quarterly updates so they keep a running score on the website.

 

[shotglass]

Likewise, I constantly update an area-wide scoreboard on our high school blog on Friday nights. As soon as a game begins to be taken on the phone, somebody gets me the final score, and I update the list.

 

[SEWnSO]

I've seen some medium to smaller papers link larger preps coverage to sites like Rivals or a state association equivalent.

 

[Angola!]

The El Paso Times has a pretty good one and they are connected to MaxPreps, so they have a pretty good stat package on-line.

 

[Beach_Bum]

My shop does a live scoreboard, a postgame podcast, a video preview of the game of the week, team home pages, message boards, video highlights and a high school blog.

 

[Angola!]

My shop does a live scoreboard, a postgame podcast, a video preview of the game of the week, team home pages, message boards, video highlights and a high school blog.

Two questions:
1. What kind of circulation is your shop?
2. How much time does it take to do all that and how many people are involved.

 

[Beach_Bum]

My shop does a live scoreboard, a postgame podcast, a video preview of the game of the week, team home pages, message boards, video highlights and a high school blog.

Two questions:
1. What kind of circulation is your shop?
2. How much time does it take to do all that and how many people are involved.

1)large division ...
2) preps staff does most of it. One online person updates the scoreboard, 2-3 clerks take the calls and feed scores to online. 2 preps reporters do the podcast after they finish their stories. Separate online staff does the production for the video preview, with one of the writers sitting in as analyst. Reporters do the blogs. Schools themselves do the team pages, with one online person monitoring. It's up to them whether they do it or not. About 100 schools, six counties. Five full-time reporters and one editor dedicated to preps.

 

[Bamadog]

Jackson Clarion-Ledger
Rosters, schedules, scores and box scores dating back three or four years. A great resource.
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SPORTS0101&sport=Football

No, I don't work there.

 

[Moland Spring]

This is the most comprehenisve I've seen, with stories, blogs, slideshows, podcasts, and stats for games involving more than 100 high schools:

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=SPORTS02

(Oh, and the Clarion-Ledger's is excellent, too)

Disclaimer: I also don't work for either place.

 

[Crimson Tide]

www.treasurevalleysports.com is good stuff from the Boise area

 

[BillySixty]

I think the key to improving any coverage on the Web is to start slowly and not be discouraged by low Web numbers.

This fall, we started simple with a score list of Friday night games. When someone was done with their story, we'd throw it up there as well. We'd put roundups on there when finished. It took about six weeks to build up steam, but now that we are in the playoffs people are really checking it out.

I'm toying with the idea of adding exclusive online features, like community bloggers, etc. I think the good thing about the Web is that you can throw something out there without worrying about if it "wasting space."

 

[Bud_Bundy]

We also put scores up quarter-by-quarter, or oftener if our people call us. Last week the scoreboard was No. 2 for hits on the site that night.

We also have a prep blog that's a combined blog and message board. Of all the blogs set up here, it's getting about 85 percent of the traffic.

 

[HejiraHenry]

This season, we've started doing our predictions for games online only and teasing to them in the paper.

I really like this idea ... sounds like you're doing some good stuff.

 

[taz]

Bump.

More and more, it seems like I'm seeing job postings specifically targeted for online/preps, such as:

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=737737

Has anyone else noticed this trend, and is it happening where you're at?