Denver Post seeks Olympics-coverage sponsors

It's heartbreaking covering the Olympics has come to this for the Denver Post...

 

If they follow the Dallas Morning News model of the last 20 years, the local perennial Olympic reporter will be stuck in at home providing #HOTTAEKS.

 

I feel for Mark, but man, if there was ever an Olympics to watch from the couch...

 

Is the greater Gazette empire sending anyone?

I’m not sure any newspaper from Colorado will be there if not, and if no one comes through for the Post.

I know the Post had 3 in 2018 (Columnist, reporter, photog) and I think 4 in 2014.

I understood when you started to see the reporter/columnist teams from non-snow sport papers stop going but geez, as you said, this isn’t Midwest City Daily deciding not to go.

 

That’s for damn sure. It was going to be a bad place to cover the Olympics even under normal circumstances, given the distances and everything.

I’m sure covering it now wouldn’t be all bad, but the utter lack of any chance to see fans or people or the country or the food would take away a lot of the appeal, IMO.

 

I know Julie Jag at the Salt Lake Tribune covered Tokyo from the couch, not sure what her plans are for Beijing. SLC is expected to make a bid in the future and so many of the facilities from 2002 are still in use.

 

I can't speak to this particular situation, but...

At many chains, the parent company gets the credentials, but each reporter's home paper has to foot the bill. That's a massive bill.

I know a reporter who wrote a grant proposal to go to the Olympics, or maybe the World Cup, to study international relations. I know others who have cobbled together multiple freelance opportunities from many different outlets who will pay to have the localized coverage without dealing with the full transportation, room and board for three weeks.

There's probably also the overall analytics together. Does Olympics coverage move the clickbait needle the same way as the Broncos do?

It seems like most Olympic sports are very niche, and the niche fans know where to find live streams and knowledgeable coverage from niche sites.

If it can be done remotely and still plausibly live, will the average readers know the difference? Most don't know one reporter's byline from another. (See also: the number of mentions in "Dear Dimwit" of complaints about AP or some other wire service.)

It's not a fair comparison, but that seems to be how some sports editors think. Will Olympics coverage bring in enough advertising and/or new subscribers to warrant the bill? What can that money be used for that will?

 

(Typing on my phone. Please forgive typos.)

That’s correct. I did the booking for us that year and got sticker shock on lodging with our three folks sharing a unit in one of the cheaper areas.

I hope Mark gets to go. He always finds some good, unique stories when he’s out there that tend to blow up online. (The halfpipe skier from the US who qualified for another country by doing no tricks and never falling, as an example.) And there are so many Colorado athletes, you want to tell their stories. At the same time, the overall audience return isn’t what it used to be, and watching the Olympics has become more and more of a challenge every two years as streaming popularity grows while NBC still thinks we’re in 1992 waiting each night to huddle around the TV to enjoy three hours of coverage. Even the limited live coverage NBC does provide reaches the Mountain time zone on a one-hour delay. And the event curation on the app is horrible. Perhaps that creates a bigger argument to go: Be the source for olympics info for your readers. At the same time (and maybe I’m just the old man yelling at the clouds here), I know my interest in the Olympics has waned considerably since I was in college, mainly as a direct result of NBC’s coverage approach, and I can’t help but think I’m in the majority here. If your audience is starting to evaporate, do you still spend $20,000+ to send two people when access isn’t going to be great and China has the entire thing in a bubble you can’t leave unless you want to be quarantined in a hotel room for a month? Corporate sponsorship there is probably needed.

(Enter stats about how 2021 was the most watched Olympics ever or something here to shut me up.)

 

I noticed from Tokyo print coverage a huge drop-off in uniquely reported athlete stories from reporters on the ground. It just wasn't possible with the access and no fans (so no family/friends for extra color). Beijing will be similar. If I'm a bean counter at any publication, I'd look into if whatever coverage the company got from being in Tokyo made it worth the cost. Plus, AP goes all out at the Olympics. They'll be on just about any story except super localized ones on non-medal-winning athletes.