Football tab vs. broadsheet

We're doing it this year. No choice, really. We don't have a prep or college section this year, and it's the best way to get expanded preview coverage in the paper. Plus, it gives us two-plus weeks worth of centerpieces in the heart of August.

 

We still run a tab, but one advantage of broadsheet is that it doesn't get lost in the paper like a tab can do. If you insert tab in paper with a lot of ad inserts, it can get lost, even if you tease it on the front to alert readers it's in there.

 

Wondering if papers that have gone to narrow widths in the 44-inch web era wouldn't be better off converting their traditional tabs to broadsheet.

When that narrow width turned 90 degrees and because the height of your tab page there's not a lot of potential for creative presentation except for the doubletruck that your ad director swears he needs to reserve for the local car dealer.

 

Your paper has car ads? Impressive.

We have a broadsheet, 24 pages. We did a really good section my first year (we doubled our stories, made other improvements) and saw a 9 percent increase in ads the following year. I look forward to seeing what we do in Year No. 3. One benefit with our section is we run business card ads pretty cheap and they surround the team's schedule on each page. Our second year, we also had a more developed theme than the first year, so I'm hoping -- naive, I know -- because our section has improved tremendously each year that advertisers will want to be a part of this section.