More MG News

That's freakin' unreal. MG is loony tunes.

 

What I said way, way back on this thread seems to be coming true for the smaller papers in the chain ... some of these places are just becoming bureaus, like Culpeper, Danville and Woodbridge. I honestly have no idea what the readership of the Potomac News is like in that area, and I grew up 10 minutes from Woodbridge. It can't be very good. The deadlines are hideous (9 p.m. most nights). I just think it's tough to try to sell a local paper in an area where a behemoth like the Washington Post exists, especially with nothing but feature content, since that's all you can get into a paper that hits the presses at 9.

We might be going to a point where the editorial content decisions for these papers are made by the two top CEC editors in Lynchburg, which is awful. It's not that they're not capable people. But how the heck does the CEC chief three hours south of town have any pulse of what matters in Woodbridge? Or Culpeper?

 

I've said it before, but Virginia is one of the worst places to have a regional copy desk. The state is just too diverse and far flung. Danville is nothing like the Northern Virginia suburbs and Bristol is nothing like Charlottesville.

From a sports standpoint, you've got places such as Bristol and Danville where NASCAR is huge, but in Charlottesville hardly anybody cares. The average person in the street in Danville probably can't tell you what an Ovechkin is, but you got to get the Caps game in the paper in Culpeper and Woodbridge. In Charlottesville and points north, people are Nats and O's fans. Go very far south of CVille and you'll find as many Braves fans as anything.

In Danville there are as many UNC and Duke fans as UVa and VT. In Culpeper the Hokies and Cavs are the big deal, but there's interest in Georgetown and George Mason hoops as well. Liberty is important to Lynchburg, but is just another FCS school to the rest of the state. Lacrosse is a huge deal in Charlottesville, Culpeper and NOVA, but there aren't any lacrosse teams in other large pockets of the state.

The only thing there's even close to universal interest among the Virginia community papers is the Redskins, but even with that there are a lot of Panthers fans in Southside Va.

They've already had at least two different people in charge of the sports desk at the CEC in Lynchburg. How's a new person supposed to come in from out of state and keep all that straight, particularly when they likely have never even been to most of those towns?

 

I worked for the Potomac News from 94 to 98, so I was there from when Lean Dean made it into a 7-day pub to Media General coming in. I will tell you it was appalling how the MG suits had no clue about Northern Virginia and circulation started dropping like a rock. Of course the Washington Post's Prince William Extra wasn't a big hit, either. In the late 90s, there were four daily papers covering PW -- Pot News, the Post, the PW Journal and the Journal-Messenger. Now it appears there really won't be anything.

It seems that PW is taylor-made for something like Patch.com.

 

I'd say the Hokies also have universal interest, or damn close to it. (Grumble grumble)

 

You're right.

What I was meaning was that if you are working the desk in Lynchburg you could put out an NFL page with the Redskins leading and that would be good for all the papers. But say you have three college basketball games one day -- VT vs. Miami, UNC vs. NC State and G. Mason vs. VCU. You can't just assume the Virginia Tech game is the right one to lead with. It likely would be in Bristol and Lynchburg, but in Danville it might be better to go with UNC-NC State. In Woodbridge/Manassas the Mason-VCU game might be the top story.

 

I remember covering Mason at U.Va. one time and the 'Hoos SI department, and a few of their beat writers, were a little stunned that GMU brought along some beat writers.

 

In Bristol, if Tennessee is playing, it more than likely would be the lead. There are still more Vols than Hokies in the Tri-Cities.

 

Along the lines of Media General's Virginia problems: As a McClatchy survivor, I'll be interested to keep tabs on the combined desk in NC. Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham have crossover interests in UNC and Duke hoops, plus UNC football. But nothing else. Redskins have as big or bigger following as the Panthers, and the Bobcats are a blip on the NBA horizon as far as Raleigh-Durham is concerned.

Meanwhile the Hurricanes don't stir any passion outside of Raleigh and could be a candidate for relocation as yet another small-market team trying to keep up with the big boys.

Will the combined desk be able to sort those differences? And then there's East Carolina, which has a big presence in Raleigh.

Those are the challenges, and I fear they won't be met in a one-size-fits-all sports section, which regrettably seems to be the wave of the future in many chains.

 

That raises an interesting question: are they putting out basically one section (with a few cosmetic changes) for all three papers? Or are they putting together three separate and distinct sections?

 

I find this fascinating as well. All good points and worth watching closely.

But then again, nobody at the top will care about the bitching of readers.

 

Mark, there is some page sharing ... especially with some of the inside wire pages and some of the agate packages.

The fronts are all distinct, with different people doing them most nights, though on Sundays and Mondays, the same person designs Lynchburg and Danville.