Football tabs

From what I hear at my place, we've sold more ads than last year. Add that we're doing one super tab (NCAA D-I, NAIA D-II, 25 high schools) and printing fewer pages than last year's three separate tabs, we're supposed to turn a healthy profit this year on the project. Can't say how it compares to five or 10 years ago, and it would be hard to do so. The NAIA school only started the program last year and Boise was still growing. Different circumstances.

So, things could be worse, as far as tabs go.

 

People have disagreed or ignored Fredrick on this but one of the biggest problems leading to the decline/ultimate death of the print product is the quality of sales person remaining in newspapers/newspaper websites. I challenge each of you to go to your ad departments and look around at how many people are employed and check their backgrounds. They make so little money; the job is so bad that you pretty much have the dregs of the sales community working for newspapers. Harsh, but in the sales community it's the bottom of the barrel so to speak. Nobody EVER talks about the quality of salespeople they only talk about how NOBODY can sell ads in newspapers anymore! (not doing so well selling the great online either). Why no blame for sales people?

 

We eliminated one of our 'fringe' schools from our previews in recently because of a lack of ad sales in that community. Don't remember if it was that they couldn't or if they wouldn't sell ads there.

 

Seems unfair to the kids, no? Seems like that could cause some stress on the beat writer if the coach is a dick, too.

 

No. No, it does not.

 

Like I said, it's a fringe school at the very edge of our coverage area,and it's the smallest school we cover. And we don't have beat writers at the HS level.

 

Contrary to many of the posts I've read where the tabs have been reduced or eliminated, ours has gone the other extreme and has grown to a 112-page square tab (magazine) with 90 percent color and we're a small (11,000 circulation) rural paper. My "staff" is myself and one full-time assistant plus one part-timer and we handle 12 high schools plus one local college and include not only 50-inch previews, but also complete roster/facts boxes, team color photos, individual spotlight photos, senior group shots, bands and cheerleaders. It is easily our paper's single largest money-maker of the year as well. Don't get me wrong, it completely beats me up for three weeks of 11-hour days, 7-days a week since I do 75 percent of the writing, 100 percent of the editing and 100 percent of the layout/design, but it is a quality product. Two of the neighboring papers pale in comparison - one is a 40-page tab and the other is a 14-page broadsheet. We also produce 40-page winter (boys/girls basketball, wrestling and swimming) and spring (baseball, sofball, boys/girls track) full color tabs as well.

 

...and that's why I got out of the business. Jesus christ. 50-inch previews? 112 pages for 2.5 people to compile? Do you have a toilet installed in your office?

 

This isn't too surprising.

This is.

 

This sounds like journo-slave labor.

 

The tab must sell ads because local businesses are conditioned to buy ads. I can't see how 50-inch previews serves readers.

 

While it sounds like a lot of work, I think this is great.

Maybe it's overkill but in general, when you know your readers are genuinely interested in something, you give it them and keep on giving it to them like an all-you-can-eat buffet. If that formula works for ESPN it can work for small newspapers as well.

If you're in a football hotbed, I would bet there are plenty of readers who will read all 50 inches of that preview and still want more.