What's your Olympic coverage plan?

[Overrated]

You really, really need to stop calling people names and acting like you know what my readers want.

You don't have a clue. Have you ever worked in Texas?

 

[shotglass]

I love how some people think results are secondary these days. Serious misconception. It is still a NEWSpaper. Results matter. We're not a section full of feature stories.

And before you go knocking "small-timers," you'd better understand: a) that is not a negative; and, b) there are a lot more of those than metros. And don't try to tell me I didn't understand what you meant there. I understood just fine.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I know the "polished" journalists among us don't like to hear it, but the Olympics have wildly varying levels of interest among the sports.

The basketball teams, the track & field ... they're going to have great general interest, and we'd be crazy not to give them good play.

But for every marquee sport, there are three secondary sports that simply don't generate a buzz (unless you have a local athlete involved). Archery. Fencing. Field hockey. Badminton. And (ducking) BMX and mountain biking. I even have serious doubts about the interest in swimming, outside of the Phelps and Torres stories. In fact, I have serious doubts about the interest in the Phelps and Torres stories.

The latest news from Podunk High's football practice WILL draw more reader interest than those.

As far as it being the "once-in-every-four-years" moment for that sport? Don't care. It's still a secondary sport, and the two weeks of the Olympiad doesn't change that.

go back and read a few of my previous posts
Nowhere did I suggest someone NOT cover the blessed football practices
I just said the editors and reporters should consider expanding theirs - and their readers - horizons and present some of the great stories that come out of any Olympics
Instead, everyone's talking about results - no one cares who wins ping pong.
I don't disagree, but it's the stories and the great reads that should be offered to readers
Instead, everyone thinks their readers don't care - I've heard that for years - and this in an industry which is one of the worst at truly identifying what its customers want

All the editors are insisting they KNOW their market. Bull****. There's no research to back it up.
they ASSUME this is what their readers want, and I know its based on experience etc., but you really think your readers will protest about a well-written story in the paper because its not about football?

so many small-timers

Psst, your condescending attitude is showing.

And, yes, my readers would rather read a boilerplate story about State U's freshman reporting than anything coming from Beijing. It could be the best story ever written, it could shame the greatest writers to ever sit down at a keyboard, typewriter or pick up a pen, we could praise it for the greatest example of journalism in history ... but if it's not about State U then the vast majority of my readers will brush it aside.

 

[Overrated]

And, yes, my readers would rather read a boilerplate story about State U's freshman reporting than anything coming from Beijing. It could be the best story ever written, it could shame the greatest writers to ever sit down at a keyboard, typewriter or pick up a pen, we could praise it for the greatest example of journalism in history ... but if it's not about State U then the vast majority of my readers will brush it aside...and want to know why the **** there is minimal coverage of State U's reporting period.

fixed

 

[EE94]

You really, really need to stop calling people names and acting like you know what my readers want.

You don't have a clue. Have you ever worked in Texas?

you - and others - are completely missing the point, but are certainly proving my first post about xenophobia

 

[Clerk Typist]

Localism aside, there's the time difference to consider. Most Beijing events will go on after deadline and before delivery, especially for morning papers.
Play up the live prime-time stuff in the paper, run a summary of the rest in the paper, but make sure your readers can get the AP coverage on your website. Then you serve Olympics fans more efficiently than you can in print.
And there's plenty of room in the paper for the daily football practice story.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

You really, really need to stop calling people names and acting like you know what my readers want.

You don't have a clue. Have you ever worked in Texas?

you - and others - are completely missing the point, but are certainly proving my first post about xenophobia

How about you try telling us your point again, but this time without the prickish attitude and schoolboy insults?

 

[shotglass]

Don't even need to hear the point again. He's dealing from the viewpoint of a mid- to large daily, where some of what he's saying may be valid.

But he wouldn't last two months at a 20,000 daily in high school football country if he didn't change his thinking. First great read he runs about a Tasmanian gymnast ... it'd be all over.

 

[Overrated]

You really, really need to stop calling people names and acting like you know what my readers want.

You don't have a clue. Have you ever worked in Texas?

you - and others - are completely missing the point, but are certainly proving my first post about xenophobia

Show me one post I've made that was xenophobic...I'll wait.

Are you back, yet?

Asking you if you've ever lived in Texas wasn't xenophobic...I wanted to see if you had any type of handle on the importance of high school football in my area. Sure, everyone has heard about it, but nobody can grasp it until they've lived here and covered it.

You're on here making blanket statements about what readers want, which is probably the most ridiculous thing anyone could ever say. Guess what, big shot? Readers in different markets, different states and different cities want different coverage.

I happen to live in a coverage area where high school football trumps EVERYTHING. People want local news in their local newspaper. We'll run some AP stuff, sure...just like every other day. But, it will not override the start of football season. If the Olympics started two weeks ago when nothing but Dixie baseball was happening, it would have been played bigger, but it didn't, so it's not.

There's a magazine called Dave Campbell's Texas Football...roughly half college/half high school. Well, if you don't get that magazine the first week it hits newsstands here, you're going to be waiting until stores send in their re-order forms.

So, before you go around calling people xenophobes with small market minds, you should probably understand that not everything works everywhere. Blanket statements and blanket coverage kill newspapers, not giving people want they want.

 

[EE94]

You really, really need to stop calling people names and acting like you know what my readers want.

You don't have a clue. Have you ever worked in Texas?

you - and others - are completely missing the point, but are certainly proving my first post about xenophobia

How about you try telling us your point again, but this time without the prickish attitude and schoolboy insults?

fine.
this thread began as a question about people's Olympic plans
the majority of early posters essentially said: who gives a ****? - MY readers want football

well, I guess I've encountered that kind of attitude one too many times and it galls me particularly on a board where so many prominent writers, editors (see Lynn Hoppes thread), journalists are ripped to ****

my reference to small-timers had nothing to do with the paper size. it had everything to do with the editor's thinking

journalists should strive to tell stories their readers might not know. doing the annual tab on the local BCS team ain't journalism - it's McDonald's

so yeah, I get prickish when I'm told I'm an idiot because I don't know YOUR market

It's not about markets

this isn't about covering the Olympics -

it's about a lack of imagination, curiousity, etc that dominates sports departments - as long as we've got our main, side, notes and god help us if we don't get a practice picture

 

[shotglass]

And it's just that. You sniff off something like a "practice picture" as if editors from Boston to Rancho Cucamonga should be vilified for running one.

Different places. Different realities.

 

[Overrated]

It's not about markets

It's EXACTLY about markets.

Olympics coverage will play huge in some markets, and rightfully so. It won't be played in others, and rightfully so.

You're right, though, good storytelling is of utmost importance. There's not a chance I'll ever argue that. Nor, will I argue about trying new things. But, my storytelling will involve local football teams, not an archer.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

A roundup story every day, and updates on the athletes with local ties who are competing.

It's college FB time. The Olympics don't hold a candle to that for our readers' interests, especially Olympics that are more than half a day ahead of our publication schedule.

That's a pretty xenophobic approach
I don't suggest you devote pages and pages to the Olympics, but the Olympics are a fairly significant sporting event and do attract a wider audience - including more females.
People also are attracted by the nationalism the Games tend to inspire
You might want to consider that before you salivate over the daily musings of a monosyllabic tailback or some such

Trading in xenophobia for racism, are we?

I made no mention of race, pal. Unlike you, race didn't even occur to me

Gee, Mr. Tolerance, did you notice the example you cited. Monosyllabic tailbacks. Want to venture a guess as to what race produces the large majority of running backs at the pro, college and high school (outside heavily-white states) level?

Get the plank out of your own eye before you start bugging about the splinter in someone else's.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

You really, really need to stop calling people names and acting like you know what my readers want.

You don't have a clue. Have you ever worked in Texas?

you - and others - are completely missing the point, but are certainly proving my first post about xenophobia

How about you try telling us your point again, but this time without the prickish attitude and schoolboy insults?

fine.
this thread began as a question about people's Olympic plans
the majority of early posters essentially said: who gives a ****? - MY readers want football

well, I guess I've encountered that kind of attitude one too many times and it galls me particularly on a board where so many prominent writers, editors (see Lynn Hoppes thread), journalists are ripped to ****

my reference to small-timers had nothing to do with the paper size. it had everything to do with the editor's thinking

journalists should strive to tell stories their readers might not know. doing the annual tab on the local BCS team ain't journalism - it's McDonald's

so yeah, I get prickish when I'm told I'm an idiot because I don't know YOUR market

It's not about markets

this isn't about covering the Olympics -

it's about a lack of imagination, curiousity, etc that dominates sports departments - as long as we've got our main, side, notes and god help us if we don't get a practice picture

Are you a sports editor or ASE?

I ask because I had almost the exact same opinion when I wasn't one. I'd roll my eyes when the boss would slap another State U practice story or high school feature on the front when I thought there were more compelling national stories.

Then I moved into this chair. Reader feedback quickly changed my mind.

 

[albert77]

We're a 20K daily in the Deep South with a D-1 program in town and a pro team in training camp just up the road. I can tell you flat-out, the Olympics will take a definite back seat to football – high school, college and pro – at our paper.

We'll have a daily roundup and run selected agate on the Olympics. The sports that people here have some interest in: track, basketball, swimming and gymnastics, we'll give some extra play to. We'll probably run an occasional column (if space permits), and perhaps a truly compelling feature (again, if space permits).

But we just don't have the newshole on a consistent basis or the reader interest to go hog-wild over the Olympics at the expense of the preseason football coverage our readers demand. And no amount of lecturing about what we "should be" giving our readers is going to change that.

 

[Rhody31]

We're chain of weeklies. We have a local swimming two events. My paper doesn't have AP, so we only have file are our former photog took, and it is terrible.
So we're pretty screwed - but I will, for the life of me, find a way to get at least two stories out of it and it will run huge.
That said, anyone in Beijing covering swim wants to make some cash, please PM me. Be forewarned - we're cheap.

 

[Some Guy]

Nowhere did I suggest someone NOT cover the blessed football practices
I just said the editors and reporters should consider expanding theirs - and their readers - horizons and present some of the great stories that come out of any Olympics.

I'm pretty sure this is what everyone on this thread is suggesting also. Cover football, present those "great" Olympics stories as warranted. Football, more often than not for a lot of papers, will just take precedence in terms of presentation.

It sounds like we all agree. So I'm not sure what all the commotion is about.

 

[shotglass]

Tone, sparrow. The commotion is about tone.

 

[Some Guy]

Tone, sparrow. The commotion is about tone.

I know that. I'm just not sure why the dude's getting his panties in a wad when we're all basically saying the same thing, apparently.