September: Four weeks of hell

I wish we could cut some of the local stuff. Once you get down to the minor sports at a small college, not too many people care. I doubt many people care about cross country or tennis either.

 

Sounds like you're headed the right way. Make a plan for every week, taking into account national as well, set priorities and stick with it.

 

I used to think that way 15 years ago, but not any more. There are a lot more people who actually read the paper that care about cross country results and rec league results than the U.S. Open or the NBA. We don't actually cover that stuff, but if someone calls it in, we'll run it. Most folks who give a hoot about the U.S. Open or the NBA (or whatever) have already got the info by the time the paper comes out. The local stuff only we provide.

I don't buy into the whole "hyper local" movement where you run stupid crap just to be running it, but we balance it pretty well. We prioritize national stuff for our market. Something on Thursday's NFL opener will run and NASCAR will always go. When it comes time to get in MLB, we start with the Braves, filter through the rest of the NL East, the NL and if any room is left we try to get in some AL starting with the Yankees and go from there.

I guess in short, if I've got a choice to fill a four-inch hole with a local cross country meet, volleyball match or even a JV whatever and a capsule on the Mariners/Twins game, the local goes first. I think yesterday was the first time since it started that we had a word on the U.S. Open just because I had an extra page.

 

We have a staff of three full-timers and a freelancer to cover eight high schools, a JUCO, a DII university and three minor league pro sports teams. And STILL we struggle to cover everything adequately, so I can't imagine how y'all are doing it. But we basically do get as much local in as we can, and the only national we prioritize is state college football and the in-state pro teams. That's it, although we do make exceptions for the US Open, NBA Finals, et cetera.

And you'd be surprised at how many people couldn't care less about the local crap and still want national, even though we know damn well the local crap is the reason we're relatively relevant.

 

I received my first 'Why don't we cover youth football, they work just as hard as the high school kids do,' call of the season from a mom.
September 9, what took her so long?

 

The local stuff (including cross country and volleyball call-ins) takes first priority both here and my last stop. After that, Chiefs and Royals. Then, any of the big national stuff. If we run short on space, we run a teaser to check our website for whatever had to be cut.

I wouldn't say we're under the "hyper-local" handicap, but our school programs come first.

 

Mom: "But they work so hard."
Me: "Yeah, so do washing machines."
Click.

OK, not really. But I can dream.

 

Mom: "They only have two more home games left and they get upset when they see the bigger kids in the paper and not them."
Me: "You mean there's a whole generation of people under the age of 40 who read the paper? Ma'am, I can't trust anything you've said because of that."

 

Blumpkin County High School's freshman football team was 8-0 heading into its season finale back in 2007. We got hounded so much that two of us (one for game story; one for a column and photos) went out to cover the game.

We had a huge banner reading "UNDEFEATED" ready for B2, which was to be dedicated to the little guys. Well, they lost -- 55-12.

The banner was changed to "DEFEATED." Never heard from that group of parents again.

 

I get the "Our JV/freshman/Jr. high team is having a great season" call or e-mail at least once every season. If they want to submit a press release, I'll publish it, but I always tell them once I start writing about one of those teams, the bar for what qualifies as a "great season" will keep getting lower and lower and eventually I'm going to have to write about all of them

 

Your points are dead-on. It does open the door to having to cover everything. The sports staff held those freshman football parents off before a few of them placed a call to our drunken-ass managing editor, who was thrilled to pimp me and my SE at the time out for that kind of stuff.

FYI -- That ME is no longer in the industry. And for some very good reasons.

 

Do teasers for Web content even work?