Toughest beats in the big four (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL)

Scott is dead-on, I think, about Raleigh.
When I covered the team, for a small-market paper an hour east of Raleigh, I tried to make it to at least one practice a week. Potter was usually there, and Luke always was. It was definitely a odd experience to go into the room after practice and be one of three guys with a recorder. But it allowed for tons of one-on-ones, and more informal conversations with Laviolette.
It was a total 180 from the year before, during the playoffs. Then, you had every paper in the area (except, it seemed, mine) sending multiple guys to practice everyday. Then, it was almost impossible to get a one-on-one or even, sometimes, a question. That was helpful for a young reporter, though, because I stopped going for the usual suspects (Brind'Amour, Ward) and the guys with something to say and no one to listen (Kevyn Adams and, to a lesser extent, Bret Hedican and Chad LaRose).

 

My vote goes to the San Antonio Spurs, where an avid fan base doesn't want anything bad written about their boys and the team has gotten at least one writer in the not-too-distant past taken off the beat.

Not what you were expecting, eh?

 

Sprited: Can you expand a little? I would think covering a consistent winner would be a little easier.

 

The Patriots have the two Boston papers, Providence, Lowell, Worcester, Quincy and others.

 

Covered NFL, NBA and MLB and for what it's worth, I saw MLB beat writers from a pretty big market nearly come to blows. That's competition.

 

Hockey: Montreal over Toronto for two reasons:
1. Bilingual locker room. English-speaking reporters had better know French. The French-speaking writers always know English.
2. On game day, the Habs head coach doesn't talk to reporters until after the game. Some kind of a deal with the radio/TV rightholders. That puts something of a damper on the early notebook, unless you listen to the pregame show (good luck doing that on the road) or want to recycle day-old quotes.

 

agreed that in small markets where there may not be much of a media presence on a daily basis there will be opportunities to build strong reporter/subject relationships but i think it also makes it difficult when having to break news or write the tough pieces. when you're one of a small group covering the team there is sometimes a feeling on the part of players and management that you're part of the crew and it takes a strong personality to distance yourself from that. (i know reporters covering a big market nhl team were once asked by the gm why they were so negative given that they were all in this together.) in a place like toronto or montreal or new york the competitive nature of reporting is built into the equation. in a small market you are your own competition in many ways and that's a hard line to walk and probably beat reporters in those markets don't get enough credit for the challenges they face.

 

how many papers are there in the montreal area that cover the team? i thought it pretty much was the gazette and the french-language version of the gazette, and that's it.

 

Post, News, Newsday, Times, Journal News, Record and Star-Ledger are all trying to scoop each other. If one paper has a story that the others don't, the writers at those papers have to spend time playing catch up.

 

Last time I checked, there were two French-language papers in Montreal, but there's also Quebec City, plus a slew of media electronique. Or something like that. RDS is the rightholder for TV, but there's also SRC, TVA and the local French-languare radio, plus CJAD and the other English radios, as well as CBC and CFCF-TV.

 

Don't the Quebec papers cover the Nordiques?

 

Toronto has four dailies, three sports networks based in the city, two radio stations dedicated to all things Leafs, at least four local newscasts
So many requests, team responds accordingly - limited access, arrogant approach
Anything Leafs is front-page, which means even the smallest news demands main, column, sidebars, notes etc.
And yes, it goes 365 days a year. It's a soul-sucker