Big Doings in Dallas

Where I live, the news radio ratings continue to lead the market. I don't know how it is everywhere else because I'm not in radio and don't follow it closely.

 

I'd be surprised if daytime news radio is on the verge of death. There are still tons of people in offices or cubicles whose only option is listening to the radio.

 

I'm a Gannett-head. Sports gets too much respect here. There are managerial mistakes made at my paper, that's a theme everywhere, but ignoring sports is not one of them.

 

Bubbler - Great points.  Our sports department experimented with blogging during our "big" season last year, and while it wasn't half bad, it certainly didn't touch offerings from the local newspaper, which is really, really solid.

We fared better when we stuck to the facts-- i.e. straight reporting-- as opposed to offering up opinions.  Columnists we are not.

TV probably has slightly less to worry about than newspapers at the moment simply because we are so lean.

 

I assure you, if you're using the business models of the DMN and The National as barometers for the death of newspapering, you're barking up the wrong tree. Not only are both extreme, extreme examples, but both went over the deep end, costs-wise, and eventually paid for it.

 

That's debatable, considering Jacques Taylor has owned that beat for years. And what are the other nine?

 

Couple of points on the "sports drives circulation" issue:

1) Who are we kidding? At many large metro papers, sports ranks behind the comics and nearly every other section (I think we're still ahead of business) in terms of readership percentage. What distinguishes sports is the loyalty and passion of its readers. In other words, there aren't as many of 'em but they sure are noisy.

2) Oil just hit $75 a barrel today. That means higher airline prices, higher circulation costs (gotta pay the gas for those delivery trucks), and so on. Travel budgets almost certainly will take a hit across the board because the bosses will have to make the bottom line work no matter what. My guess is that those who haven't learned to speak HTML and the related languages yet had better learn soon.

 

Bart Hubbuch used to own that beat. There are a lot of fans/readers who don't like Taylor, and some of the players haven't been crazy about him (i.e., the barely literate anti-Taylor homophobic letter that was believed to be posted by Roy Williams in the Cowboy locker room in 2002). Of course, the latter means he must be doing a pretty good job. But readers personally disliking you, that's kind of a problem.

 

one of the things i think newspaper industry doomsayers ignore is that although a major change will inevitably hit the newspaper industry, the actual news industry isn't going anywhere. people still want news. they still want their favorite teams covered and they want that coverage to be by people who have credentials, not bloggers who write thoughtful, analytical stuff but have never spoken to a professional athlete or coach. it'll just have to happen in a different way. and now that we know people can make money online, there's no reason to think reporters are going the way of dinosaurs.

 

I'd bet that every big-time beat writer is disliked by several readers. A lot of people are jealous of our jobs (unaware of the itty-bitty paychecks) and think they could do it better than us. I don't think anybody can argue that Jacques owns the Cowboys beat right now, whether they like him or not.

 

I second this notion and if the S-T beat writers are so good, why hasn't anyone mentioned their names?