Letting SIDs cover their own schools

Hi all, first post under a new name (posting under my old one and with this subject would out myself and probably lead to my firing).

My Gannett-owned shop has recently starting using the SIDs at area colleges to "cover" their own schools' sports. Not doing re-writing of school-issued press releases even, but telling the school, "If you want certain things covered, things like game-day advances for the football team, you do it."

So twice a week, the sports information office submits 500-word publication-ready stories that run unedited, with photos, and they run with the "School Athletics Communication" byline. The beat writer handles things like football and men's basketball games and features.

This is a shop that has gone from 5 full-timers, 2 clerks and a healthy freelance budget to 1 full-timer who is still a full-time college student, no clerks and no freelance budget. So I get it's kind of out of necessity, but it feels slimy and like a pretty sizeable ethical lapse, and not a big leap from having a city PIO cover city council meetings, for example.

I have never heard of an arrangement like this before. Wondering how widespread this is, and if I'm getting worked up over nothing. There's quite the debate in the newsroom over how appropriate this is.

 

If it matters to readers, they'll stop reading. I'm guessing it won't, and they won't (at least not to a greater degree than they have already.)

 

The Hartford Courant, last I knew, was running Hartford Wolf Pack (AHL) recaps with the team byline right on it. I wanted to barf with fury, but I doubt anyone else did.

 

I'm surprised the schools do it. They'd be better off just putting the stories on their own website. Frankly that's the future anyway. They really don't need the newspaper and should figure that out soon. It's a very bad arrangement. The school shouldn't be providing copy like that to the newspaper.

 

It's free publicity that the school (SID) controls. It would be foolish NOT to do it if offered.

 

Seems like a fine arrangement. When the star QB gets popped for a late-night DUI, tell the SID you need 500 words and a headshot.

 

Also give us a next-day column on how this impacts the program moving forward.

 

I disagree Speed. Not in this day and age. The school needs to publicize the fact the newspaper isn't covering it anymore and you can get all the news you want/need from the university website. Who needs the dying fishwrap? Not a school (if it's smart). It can put the same copy on its own website.

 

Yeah, it's slimy and it's inappropriate. At the same time, newspapers are dying so they're going to do whatever they must to survive. There are no such things as journalistic principles or ethical standards any more. It's everyone for themselves, and the only thing that matters or ever did matter in the first place is the almighty dollar.

When newspapers dominated, they could act as if they were "better" than other businesses by projecting an image of being the public's watchdog. Now that newspapers no longer have that financial independence and the power that goes with it, they've been reduced to nothing more than the shitty tabloids that once dominated the grocery store checkout line. Anything to make a dollar.

 

Oh, here we go again.

 

Like Doc Holliday noted, newspapers are looking for revenue in every direction.

I assume the newspaper's perspective is that having coverage from SIDs is better than nothing. I lean toward disagreement. Publishing something that looks like truth, but is actually public relations, diminishes the value of the real journalism in that newspaper. As a reader, I would rather see an ad in that space than a press release.

The online subscription model has worked to a degree, but I think partnerships and branded content are the future of journalism advertising. I saw last night that Klay Thompson is now an endorser of the Bay Area News Group, which covers the Warriors. It will be interesting to see how that outlet, which recently lost Marcus Thompson and Tim Kawakami to The Athletic, covers Thompson.

 

There are some fans out there that will never read a newspaper. There are also fans out there that don’t/can’t/won’t use the internet to get their information. I’m assuming it’s not much extra effort for the SID department, so you’d be foolish to not use the free advertising space.