AJC and Hartford Courant not covering Super Bowl

I suspect those days are dying fast. I imagine that, this year, many papers made hotel and travel reservations months in advance when things were pretty much business as usual. Bet next year will have even fewer.

I suspect the suits are demanding an answer to "What can you give us that AP or other wire services can't?" Honestly, unless your city has a team in the game, I don't see how sending a reporter is going to sell more papers or more advertising. Most readers couldn't even tell you whose byline was on a certain story.

AJC is owned by the same company that owns the Palm Beach Post, so perhaps they are taking their stuff.

I would really be interested in seeing which places staff the game, and comparing that with past years.

 

I would like to see the total bill --- travel, hotels, meals, phone lines/wireless, etc. --- for a major metro sending three people to the Super Bowl.

And what do you get for these thousands of dollars? Anything that is actually going to sell papers or advertising?

I understand the logic that it's a big event --- like the presidential inauguration --- that deserves to be covered. Hell, that was a big reason WHY I got into the business. But it seems like more and more in this generation, the bottom line is... well, the bottom line.

 

If they had sent only one, I would not have blinked twice, but for a paper this size not to send a single person is insane. I don't care what team you cover, something newsworthy about that team happens at the Super Bowl. It's not all about the game itself.

I understand cutting costs and I agree that there really has never been a good reason to send as many as some places have. I think we had a similar debate on this board when the Chicago Sun-Times only sent five to cover the Bears in the Super Bowl. I remember several years back, one paper, I think, the DMN, brought the entire sports staff to the site to cover the game. I'd be curious how many people from the AZ Republic are there. I'm guessing it seems low, but they'll have access to all of the USA Today copy as well as writers from the other Gannett papers who are there.

I covered the Tampa-Oakland game several years back and my seat was by a bunch of AJC writers and I swear they had at least five at the game.

They shouldn't send five, but they should send at least one. Unimaginable.

 

Neither.

The correct answer is National Signing Day.

 

No one is disputing that the University of Georgia is the top beat at the AJC. But the Falcons are an up-and-coming team with one of the top rookie quarterbacks to come out in some time and the current coach of the year. I would think there is enough interest in the league to justify sending at least one person.

 

KY, it's not just the game to cover. An NFL writer keeps his finger on the pulse of the league because everyone involved in the league is there -- GMs, agents, coaches -- and he's working all of those angles trying to figure out which coaches and players are going where. I've known writers from other sports who attend the championship of their leagues, not necessarily to cover the games themselves but to be where the heavy hitters are in case news breaks.

That is why this decision, notwithstanding the cost, is inexplicable.

 

Exactly. It's also sometimes the last time you get access to your coach until the combine and some of the top players for months.

 

The Super Bowl is the country's largest sports event. Ergo, the sports section of an NFL city should have a reporter present, unless it wants to announce to all readers that the news comes a very poor second to stockholders' dividends.
Cut the freakin' publisher's salary in half. That'll save the case for several Super Bowl trips.
Once again, I stress I am speaking as a customer here, not an employee. As a customer, this makes me lean towards getting along without my AJC, were I an Atlanta resident.
I understand the sentiment that prompts the "whatever it takes to save jobs" idea expressed here. But eliminating staff coverage of events does not save jobs. It does not help a paper turn around. It is a poor business decision.
If papers are doomed, they ought to at least try to die with their boots on.

 

I'm guessing here, but I would bet serious cash that the only papers in a NFL city who are not in Tampa are the AJC and the Green Bay paper.

 

one thing about tampa ... as of a week ago, you could still get a hotel within 15 minutes of downtown for this week in the $120 - $130 per night ballpark. still can. not motel 6 level but lower-end marriott type of properties (springhill or courtyard) in st. pete or out in clearwater.

 

And if you live in Atlanta, you could drive there.

What a joke.

 

There have to be at least a few UGA, Ga Tech, or Atlanta-area HS kids in this game.