Big Doings in Dallas

A couple of things ...

• It's worth noting that the DMN's rumored cuts to college coverage are in direct opposition to what The Oklahoman is doing — adding a sports staffer to head up college coverage for a premium Web site. Say what you will about The Oklahoman, but this seems to be the appropriate way to deal with the changing landscape.

• This situation could prove to be the litmus test for the new (and improved?) McClatchy Co. The company has a track record of pouring resources into papers in turf wars, and usually coming out on top. It will be interesting to see if that reputation holds in this scenario.

 

If it's so true and absolute, why don't you cite your source?

 

For those wondering why the DMN has so much OU coverage and an OU writer, I'll offer a bit of incite. There is a HUGE OU alumni base in Dallas. That's part of the reason why the Red River Rivalry really is on neutral territory. Sure, it's about halfway between Norman and Austin, but there are a lot of OU folk who live down there. Now, is that fan base enough to justify the postiion? Probably not, to be honest.

Now, as for the rest of it, this is kinda scary. I like what the Oklahoman is doing, adding to the staff to increase its Web presence, and I really wonder how that will work. I know OU fans will devour anything written about Sooner football, and OSU fans are the same way with basketball.

But here's what I'm wondering: We always hear that what newspaper readers want to read is local, local, local. So if the DMN is cutting back mainly on national beat writers and college stuff that they don't consider local, what's the big deal? Sure, cutting travel is bad, and if they trim into the local stuff (preps, the Texas Big 12 schools, Cowboys, Mavs, etc.), then they're asking for trouble. But if they can keep the local stuff good, does it truly hurt to scale back national stuff (NBA writer, MLB writer, national college, whatever). I can see them wanting a national NFL presence because not only are the Cowboys huge in Texas, but the NFL as a whole. But how does losing the other writers hurt them?

Is this really just the next step in the higher-ups pushing the all-local, all-the-time newspaper onto the reader? Not that I'm saying that's necessarily a good thing, but it seems like a progression.

 

I always think of the Tom Hanks movie "Big" in which the overgrown kid rises to power in the toy company because he actually plays with the toys to determine if they're any fun rather than relying on trying to figure out the next trend and basically making it more difficult than it needs to be. What we have are too many people in power in newspaper companies who don't like newspapers. And no matter how many surveys they read, they aren't qualified to create a product that will appeal to newspaper readers because they take no delight in playing with the toys themselves. And we have too many editors who are too gutless to call these people on their bullshit.

We start going strictly local and readers are going to say screw this. Yes, readers can get national and international news other places, but most people want one-stop shopping, which is why they shop at malls and superstores. We need to stop all this reinventing the wheel and start putting out better newspapers geared to people who like newspapers. I really hope McClatchy tries to kick the DMN's ass because maybe the rest of the industry will learn something from this.

I think the people running the DMN are forgetting that they beat the Times-Herald by being the more complete newspaper. The Times-Herald, at least before Singleton got his hands on it, was a really good read, a good-looking paper with better presses than the Morning News, and it won some Pulitzers. But the Morning News offered more, more, more, and the Times-Herald just couldn't compete.

 

Part of this argument that bothers me in this thread, and others, is the underlying concern of what this will cost in the award-winning business.

Who ... really ... cares.

Too many of us have gotten WAY too caught up in the APSEs and such. You're serving your readers, not filling your mantelpiece.

 

Hopefully Raleigh-Durham is a good indication of how McClatchy will respond. When Paxton came into Durham and made the cuts at the Herald-Sun the News & Observer really went after the Durham-Chapel Hill side of the market. Now the N&O is one of the few papers around with a growing circulation and the Herald-Sun took a huge hit.

The Herald-Sun is now making a big advertising effort trying to tell the people in Durham how much it cares about that community and how they will get all the local news from the H-S. Yeah right Paxton, if you cared so much about the community you wouldn't have axed staff on your first day in town. But now that it cost you circulation you're trying to act like the N&O is the big, bad corporate paper that doesn't care about Durham.

The difference between the situation in North Carolina and the one in Texas though is that McClatchy had the bigger paper to begin with and just sort of tightened the noose.

 

Well, what saddens me is seeing a once mighty and untouchable section shrinking down to near nothing. Has nothing to do with APSE or contests.

I just remember growing up and reading that section and having my jaw drop at all the incredible writing. It was something I aspired to, and dreamed of someday working for.

 

Ideally the awards recognize papers and journalists that serve the readers, but I know it isn't always that way in reality.

 

Heck, that place is still my dream job, even as a designer, or at least it was. I've recently started rethinking all of that.

 

The temptation to comment is strong ...

 

DO IT! COME ON, DO IT! GIVE IN DAMMIT!

 

Frank,

I've read study after survey after straw poll in our company that says that.

Now, I suppose it could be a conspiracy against giving travel budget to sports... but, gosh, that seems like a stretch.

Anyway, my response had zero to do with any document I have in front of me... just 20 years of being told/shown that in a variety of ways.