AJC and Hartford Courant not covering Super Bowl

You mean like, they get to go to games for free?

 

So they're not staffing the Super Bowl. But I bet they have multiple people at the most overrated event in American sport, the Daytona 500. Silly.

 

I'll bet it ain't multiple by much...if at all...

 

This is not the way it works. Your columnists -- and to some extent your beat writers -- build a rapport with the readers, who love to agree or argue with their opinions/reporting. No journalist in his right mind believes Furman Bisher, say, was the best columnist/writer in America, but I'll guarantee you a large number of Atlantans believed he was. And if their paper came during Super Bowl week or the following Monday without his take, they would not have been happy.

 

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Hell, AP is at everything. So once you start that trend, where does it stop?

Actually, it's interesting to know that the big boys are dealing with the same issues that those of us at 50k and under shops have dealt with for years.

 

Go to the mall in Buckhead and ask 50 people to name as many AJC writers as they can. I'll be floored if even half a dozen can name more than three.

That's the difference between print and broadcast media. TV people (and even radio, to a lesser extent) are "personalities". Newspapers are all about content. The average Joe wouldn't know or care who wrote the game story or sidebar, whether it was AP or a local guy. The same might even extend to columnists, unless you're one of the few that has a real reputation, for better or worse.

I just don't think it matters to readers what the source is, as long as the coverage (volume) is there.

I wonder about the AJC and the SEC basketball. Did they just take the AP stuff or get a stringer or what?

 

Covering the game itself isn't particularly vital. It's never over before 10 p.m. in the East, and there isn't enough time to do postgame particularly well. The reason for an NFL town to cover the Super Bowl is to find the local team's people; to write color; to do enterprise about the business of the league; and to track down coaching and other personnel stuff relevant to the home team. If done properly, that justifies any deficiencies in reporting on the actual game.

 

If your local reporters and columnists cannot produce distinctive copy and stories worth reading at the Super Bowl, they can't do it at any event. So why have a sports section at all? Just AP and one copy editor to cut it to fit.
The idea is that your staff is by God the best option your readers have, and if they aren't at the event, then those readers are missing something. That's why they should BUY the paper. It's marketing 101. Brand identity.
The "AP can do it" idea is as pernicious and stupid as the outsourced copy desk. Bad enough that papers give their product away online. Worse, they seem intent on creating a product that isn't even worth being given away.

 

Great place. ;D

That's bizarre to me. Just about every Buffalo News reader I know could tell you the names of all the beat guys for the Bills and Sabres, plus every sports columnist in the building. (And have some not-so-nice things to say about almost everyone in the latter group. And remember in great detail how one of them lauded a recent Bills top-five pick who turned out to be a colossal bust.) They bitch at length about missing the "good old days," when Larry Felser was the SE and guys like Vic Carucci and Jim Kelley were covering beats. They mourn the loss of the Courier-Express, the BETTER sports section, which has now been gone for 26 years.

Are you saying it's not like this everywhere? Whoa.

 

Everyone on this board who is strunned by the AJC's decision is coming from the journalist's perspective. I'll bet no one in the general public in Atlanta gives a damn whether the AJC is in Tampa or not.

 

I disagree. I think more readers notice this stuff than we give them credit for. Makes it clear to the readers that the paper is no longer making an effort to put out a good product. I know the financial difficulties are a major issue, but as SamMills said earlier, I don't think that appeases the readers.