Zip for Akron's Zips coverage

[SockPuppet]

Guess the Akron Beacon Journal has surrendered. The paper didn't send a reporter to Western Michigan for the Zips' MAC game. The paper covered the game with an AP report. Here's how the game ended: http://thewizardofodds.blogspot.com/

 

[steveu]

ABJ, you just been punked.

Bush-league. Spend a little money, fer Christ's sake.

 

[dooley_womack1]

If Akron can't send a reporter to an Akron road game, may as well shutter the rag.

 

[In Cold Blood]

That's a shame. . . a paper of that size should be able to send a writer to a game in the next state over. We're not talking about flying to hawaii for a game, we're talking about michigan. From ohio. Should be money in the budget for that.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Maybe there's extenuating circumstances -- someone is sick/dead/fired/whatever and the domino effect someone leads to a road conference game being punted. Doesn't seem like that smart a move, but I've never been to Akron, much less worked there. I have Goodyear tires, so that counts for something, right? Or is that Toledo? My head hurts.

Can't be a money issue -- they could have made the trip with their Pluto funds.

 

[Idaho]

An explanation why is needed first.

My old paper once had to rely on AP for an instate game because the writer was in an accident on his way to the game. Sometimes it's really not about saving $150.

 

[JoelHammond]

Good point, Idaho. They are also traveling right now to Boston (Browns/Pats), New York (Indians/Yankees) and Boston (Indians Sox).

Not sure how that affects a trip that probably cost a tank of gas and a hotel room, but still.

 

[SockPuppet]

If there are extenuating circumstances for why they didn't have a staff gamer, fine. But if something came up that prevented the beat guy from being there, how about a little hustle? Contract a stringer or, hell, even listen on the radio, get the SID to phone some quotes, do a "From Staff Reports" story. But AP? On your home-team's conference game? Which ended on a Cal-Stanford type play?

 

[BigSleeper]

I wouldn't condemn the paper solely based on not covering a game in Kalamazoo. As others have pointed out, their resources are probably stretched with the Indians' run. Believe me, more people are interested in the Indians and Browns than Akron football.

That being said, the section is nowhere close to where it was in its heydey of the mid-1990s.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

If there are extenuating circumstances for why they didn't have a staff gamer, fine. But if something came up that prevented the beat guy from being there, how about a little hustle? Contract a stringer or, hell, even listen on the radio, get the SID to phone some quotes, do a "From Staff Reports" story. But AP? On your home-team's conference game? Which ended on a Cal-Stanford type play?

AP optional > SID or radio rewrite.

 

[Idaho]

AP isn't filing optional stories on games between 2-3 MAC schools.

I think it's wrong to chose to not send a reporter there. I'll state that right up front.

But aside from it being the 'hometown' school, I also wonder what reader interest in the Zips is. I'm guessing the ranking in priority is Ohio State, Cleveland Browns, Cincy Bengals, and more before the Zips show up on the list. And that's just football. Throw in MLB playoffs, NBA stuff in the preseason, NHL openers, etc. and watch the Zips tumble down the list.

Depending on space availability, 8 inches might have been all the Zips were budgeted. Considering the ending, more space was warranted for sure.

I know if we've got 8 inches slotted for a game that seems very low in interest, we're not likely to send a reporter if staffing and priorities dictate we send that person elsewhere.

Without knowing the 'why' behind not having a reporter in that pressbox on that night, I'd say getting a stringer is the very least the ABJ should have done. Then again, I've hired stringers for what I thought were important games only to have that stringer decide the party at the Sigma Nu house was more important and not tell me about it.

 

[steveu]

I still think it was the wrong decision by ABJ, but you are right on a lot of those respects. After all, no one could possibly have predicted how the game ended.

There's something to be said, though, for not covering your hometown school.

Sometimes I wish Knight Ridder still existed. And that's saying something.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

AP isn't filing optional stories on games between 2-3 MAC schools.

I think it's wrong to chose to not send a reporter there. I'll state that right up front.

But aside from it being the 'hometown' school, I also wonder what reader interest in the Zips is. I'm guessing the ranking in priority is Ohio State, Cleveland Browns, Cincy Bengals, and more before the Zips show up on the list. And that's just football. Throw in MLB playoffs, NBA stuff in the preseason, NHL openers, etc. and watch the Zips tumble down the list.

Depending on space availability, 8 inches might have been all the Zips were budgeted. Considering the ending, more space was warranted for sure.

I know if we've got 8 inches slotted for a game that seems very low in interest, we're not likely to send a reporter if staffing and priorities dictate we send that person elsewhere.

Without knowing the 'why' behind not having a reporter in that pressbox on that night, I'd say getting a stringer is the very least the ABJ should have done. Then again, I've hired stringers for what I thought were important games only to have that stringer decide the party at the Sigma Nu house was more important and not tell me about it.

AP wouldn't do more than first lede for its Ohio-Michigan papers? I thought all I-As got optionals.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

And FWIW, the ABJ's beat writer did a notebook for Monday, so if something happened to him to miss the game, it wasn't long-term serious.

 

[Angola!]

AP isn't filing optional stories on games between 2-3 MAC schools.

I think it's wrong to chose to not send a reporter there. I'll state that right up front.

But aside from it being the 'hometown' school, I also wonder what reader interest in the Zips is. I'm guessing the ranking in priority is Ohio State, Cleveland Browns, Cincy Bengals, and more before the Zips show up on the list. And that's just football. Throw in MLB playoffs, NBA stuff in the preseason, NHL openers, etc. and watch the Zips tumble down the list.

Depending on space availability, 8 inches might have been all the Zips were budgeted. Considering the ending, more space was warranted for sure.

I know if we've got 8 inches slotted for a game that seems very low in interest, we're not likely to send a reporter if staffing and priorities dictate we send that person elsewhere.

Without knowing the 'why' behind not having a reporter in that pressbox on that night, I'd say getting a stringer is the very least the ABJ should have done. Then again, I've hired stringers for what I thought were important games only to have that stringer decide the party at the Sigma Nu house was more important and not tell me about it.

AP wouldn't do more than first lede for its Ohio-Michigan papers? I thought all I-As got optionals.

Only ranked and major teams get optionals.

 

[Idaho]

I rarely see optionals from I-A schools that aren't ranked. We have three I-A schools in my state, none are ranked and I can not recall seeing an optional story for any of them this season except when playing a top-25 opponent.

Then again, we cover those schools home and away (well, we don't go to Hawaii with the dog school when the game won't be over until 1:30 a.m.) and scanning the wire isn't something we do for those games. So maybe I'm talking out of my butt.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I remember there was an uproar a few years back when some small school upset Kansas and didn't have a single writer at the game. I also remember something similar several years ago when Penn State went into Rupp Arena and beat a top five Kentucky team, but no PSU writers were there...

Sometimes you make a decision that winds up being the wrong one. Sometimes something happens that the readers don't know about.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I rarely see optionals from I-A schools that aren't ranked. We have three I-A schools in my state, none are ranked and I can not recall seeing an optional story for any of them this season except when playing a top-25 opponent.

Then again, we cover those schools home and away (well, we don't go to Hawaii with the dog school when the game won't be over until 1:30 a.m.) and scanning the wire isn't something we do for those games. So maybe I'm talking out of my butt.

I think AP is only required to do optionals for Top 25 teams. I remember the local AP guy celebrating when the local college fell out of the Top 25 because he essentially didn't have to cover them anymore...

 

[Ohiowriter]

ABJ covers Browns with beat writer/columnist/photo on road and goes to all road Indians, Cavs and Ohio State games. As for their Akron/Kent State coverage, they rarely go out of state. Didn't used to be that way, but it is now.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

288 miles separates Kalamazoo from Akron. So you're talking two tanks of gas and a night in the K-Zoo Holiday Inn, maybe with a trip to Outback thrown in for good measure. Seems like a managable affair. But what's done is done.