What's the play?

[DanOregon]

Might be an interesting thread on a day like today - and others.

Figure North Carolina might have it the roughest choosing between Junior and Simpson winning the Open.

Outside of that area and South Florida what do you do?

Lead with the Open, NBA secondary, Junior on the front (size depending on local NASCAR interest)? and perhaps one or two other local stories? The CWS?

 

[Cubbiebum]

I'm sure NC will have Junior with NBA highlighter and golf at bottom of front.

Everywhere else should have NBA with golf highlighted and Junior put somewhere. Outside of big NASCAR areas, Junior really isn't must front page. If there is room, go for it due to the headline likely drawing eyes easily. Otherwise, let basketball and U.S. Open dominate.

In San Diego the lead should be LT though.

 

[93Devil]

Only one decided a championship.

 

[ondeadline]

Simpson went to high school in Raleigh, so the big picture on A1 of the News & Observer is Simpson. The Charlotte Observer's big A1 picture, however, is Earnhardt.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

I'm sure NC will have Junior with NBA highlighter and golf at bottom of front.

Everywhere else should have NBA with golf highlighted and Junior put somewhere. Outside of big NASCAR areas, Junior really isn't must front page. If there is room, go for it due to the headline likely drawing eyes easily. Otherwise, let basketball and U.S. Open dominate.

In San Diego the lead should be LT though.

I love the bold part, as if there's some blanket philosophy that should apply to every single paper in the country, no matter where they are, what their readers' interests are and what else may be going on in their back yard.

 

[SoCalDude]

I'm sure NC will have Junior with NBA highlighter and golf at bottom of front.

Everywhere else should have NBA with golf highlighted and Junior put somewhere. Outside of big NASCAR areas, Junior really isn't must front page. If there is room, go for it due to the headline likely drawing eyes easily. Otherwise, let basketball and U.S. Open dominate.

In San Diego the lead should be LT though.

I love the bold part, as if there's some blanket philosophy that should apply to every single paper in the country, no matter where they are, what their readers' interests are and what else may be going on in their back yard.

I didn't work last night and haven't seen today's paper yet, but I would be shocked if golf wasn't the centerpiece, followed by MLB then NBA with some refer to NASCAR.

 

[BillyT]

Only one decided a championship.

But what do people want to read?

In North Carolina, they want to read about Junior.

Our local 30K in upstate New York, Junior one column upper right, Simpson photo, story, scorebox, U.S. Open column.

NBA stripped across six columns at the bottom, photo, story and scores/schedule.

Teaser box included seven lines on Stony Book being eliminated.

No local, the paper has been hit hard by cuts.

Open MLB page inside.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

Only one decided a championship.

Right.

But Dale ending a four-year win drought was pretty big, and NASCAR is pretty big around these parts. And with the race coming to NKY here in two weeks, it got a bit bigger on our scale.

 

[Cubbiebum]

I'm sure NC will have Junior with NBA highlighter and golf at bottom of front.

Everywhere else should have NBA with golf highlighted and Junior put somewhere. Outside of big NASCAR areas, Junior really isn't must front page. If there is room, go for it due to the headline likely drawing eyes easily. Otherwise, let basketball and U.S. Open dominate.

In San Diego the lead should be LT though.

I love the bold part, as if there's some blanket philosophy that should apply to every single paper in the country, no matter where they are, what their readers' interests are and what else may be going on in their back yard.

It's called generalization.

 

[Mark2010]

Pioneer League baseball season starts tonight and the hometown nine is at home, so that's a big deal on a slow day.

If you are referring to Sunday night for Monday AM, US Open almost HAS to be main unless you have something else local of huge importance. We still have at least two more NBA games.

I understand this is a regional bias thing, but many places where I worked NASCAR (unless it's Daytona or someone getting killed) and college baseball rarely crack the section front.

 

[RustyHampton]

Junior was our CP, with golf stripped and NBA down the side.
What you West Coasters aren't factoring in is deadlines. Junior was over early. Golf and basketball were both deadline situations for us because of our ridiculously early deadlines.
NASCAR is pretty big with a lot of our readers.

 

[Mark2010]

Just curious? If the car race had been won by someone else, would that have changed your decision.

For example, I'm centerpiecing US Open regardless of who wins, or even if they go to a Monday playoff. Some other tournament? It depends. A Tiger Woods win at Bay Hill is bigger than Hunter Mahan's win the following week in Houston.

I remember in 2008 (my last day at said paper before layoffs), I had the US Open going to a playoff and the Lakers beating Boston to stay alive in the NBA Finals. I had to wait out each. I went with a duel lead/top and the headline "NOT OVER YET". Honestly, it's stuff like that that was about the only thing I miss from my copy desk days.

 

[Cubbiebum]

Just curious? If the car race had been won by someone else, would that have changed your decision.

For example, I'm centerpiecing US Open regardless of who wins, or even if they go to a Monday playoff. Some other tournament? It depends. A Tiger Woods win at Bay Hill is bigger than Hunter Mahan's win the following week in Houston.

I remember in 2008 (my last day at said paper before layoffs), I had the US Open going to a playoff and the Lakers beating Boston to stay alive in the NBA Finals. I had to wait out each. I went with a duel lead/top and the headline "NOT OVER YET". Honestly, it's stuff like that that was about the only thing I miss from my copy desk days.

To answer your question, of course. It's the same as if Tiger won the U.S. Open it's the lead for everybody most likely. The biggest name winning always makes it a bigger story.

 

[Stitch]

In a lot of markets, plenty of readers don't give a crap about golf or NASCAR.

 

[BillyT]

Just curious? If the car race had been won by someone else, would that have changed your decision.

For example, I'm centerpiecing US Open regardless of who wins, or even if they go to a Monday playoff. Some other tournament? It depends. A Tiger Woods win at Bay Hill is bigger than Hunter Mahan's win the following week in Houston.

I remember in 2008 (my last day at said paper before layoffs), I had the US Open going to a playoff and the Lakers beating Boston to stay alive in the NBA Finals. I had to wait out each. I went with a duel lead/top and the headline "NOT OVER YET". Honestly, it's stuff like that that was about the only thing I miss from my copy desk days.

Mark: I think Junior was the key to the importance of the NASCAR race.

I think if it's not him (or a local driver), the deadline might be less of an issue. You have a great story with Junior winning.

 

[lone star scribe]

Simpson went to high school in Raleigh, so the big picture on A1 of the News & Observer is Simpson. The Charlotte Observer's big A1 picture, however, is Earnhardt.

Interesting, because Simpson, who attended Wake Forest, now lives in Charlotte.

 

[Mark2010]

Just curious? If the car race had been won by someone else, would that have changed your decision.

For example, I'm centerpiecing US Open regardless of who wins, or even if they go to a Monday playoff. Some other tournament? It depends. A Tiger Woods win at Bay Hill is bigger than Hunter Mahan's win the following week in Houston.

I remember in 2008 (my last day at said paper before layoffs), I had the US Open going to a playoff and the Lakers beating Boston to stay alive in the NBA Finals. I had to wait out each. I went with a duel lead/top and the headline "NOT OVER YET". Honestly, it's stuff like that that was about the only thing I miss from my copy desk days.

Mark: I think Junior was the key to the importance of the NASCAR race.

I think if it's not him (or a local driver), the deadline might be less of an issue. You have a great story with Junior winning.

Fair enough, although I never understood the fascination with him. Hell, Jimmy Johnson won five straight Sprint Cup titles.

My thought on the US Open is simply it's one of the 2-3 biggest events of the year in that sport. It would be like playing up the Daytona 500 regardless of who won.

I also understand the mentality is different in different places. Some places that are close to a MLB team or one of the two teams in the NBA Finals, maybe that's the bigger story. Just assuming we're talking about some mid-size place with no geographical biases and nothing local. I worked a lot of Sundays over the years and I'd say 75-80 percent of the time we didn't have any local copy. Getting a photog to shoot anything local on a Sunday was a non-starter. So I either had a feature in the can with art shot earlier or had to go something national.

 

[imjustagirl]

Just curious? If the car race had been won by someone else, would that have changed your decision.

For example, I'm centerpiecing US Open regardless of who wins, or even if they go to a Monday playoff. Some other tournament? It depends. A Tiger Woods win at Bay Hill is bigger than Hunter Mahan's win the following week in Houston.

I remember in 2008 (my last day at said paper before layoffs), I had the US Open going to a playoff and the Lakers beating Boston to stay alive in the NBA Finals. I had to wait out each. I went with a duel lead/top and the headline "NOT OVER YET". Honestly, it's stuff like that that was about the only thing I miss from my copy desk days.

Mark: I think Junior was the key to the importance of the NASCAR race.

I think if it's not him (or a local driver), the deadline might be less of an issue. You have a great story with Junior winning.

Fair enough, although I never understood the fascination with him.

Doesn't matter if you get it. All that matters is there's a fascination, he's the like 20,000-time Most Popular Driver, and him breaking a four-year winless streak and everyone saying after the race he could be the favorite for the title is a big story in one of the four-five major sports.

 

[HejiraHenry]

Junior was our CP, with golf stripped and NBA down the side.
What you West Coasters aren't factoring in is deadlines. Junior was over early. Golf and basketball were both deadline situations for us because of our ridiculously early deadlines.
NASCAR is pretty big with a lot of our readers.

We were in similar boat as Rusty, but we're limited to three stories and one jump. I was starting to kick the subject around with my desk guy when we noticed there were 12 laps left in the race and Junior was leading. That was a no-brainer for no-jump centerpiece play.

I wanted one of the night events as the stripped lead, and so U.S. Open went there. No jump, but teased to a sidebar inside.

There was a SEC-themed thumbsucker I'd hung onto that we jumped out of the "short hole" on the right side.

NBA teased inside. We'll elevate that to the front on Thursday night if there's potential of the series ending at that point.

 

[RustyHampton]

Junior winning made it an easy CP for us -- when coupled with the deadline issue.
Our first-edition deadline is so bad that there was a chance if the basketball game went OT it wouldn't even be over by deadline. (and then waiting for an AP gamer? Anyone else have that issue?) That has knocked the NBA out of our CP hole every night. The 8 p.m. central games? Forgetaboutit. Not even over before deadline. ... Now, if Tiger had been in contention, we might have re-thought the CP for Monday, but when Tiger blew a gasket early, then Junior got in the lead, it was an easy call for us.