More Spurrier-Morris drama

Yep. He needs to go 3-9 for a couple of seasons. Would do the ego worlds of good.

 

True and it's becoming more and more prevalent I'd bet with the downsizing of newspaper staffs.
There are so few reporters and copy editors around now that the fanboys and fangirls in the ad departments and publishers offices who outnumber the true journalists on the staff think things like banning a columnist for writing about the team if it angers the beloved coach is a good idea. And they see nothing wrong with having a fan wear a SC hat to games while covering the team.
Usually even if a publisher is a fanboy and really likes the head coach and athletic director, the publisher has the stones to tell the coach/AD to lay off if they want to mess with newspaper policy. Newspaper higher ups tend to have big egos as well. Apparently if this is all true, in this one case at The State that wasn't the case.

 

There is also the line of thinking that if you're at a paper in a college town, the better the local college does, the better the paper will do. I'm sure there is a lot of truth to that.

 

Just because I was curious, I looked at the State's website. They have a digital replica of the paper available and I didn't do a complete audit, but the paper didn't have a single ad from the University.

The bulk of the ads were local car dealerships, grocery stores, national ads and Dillards.

That paper does have a fan magazine and I'm sure that would be impacted but I've always thought in South Carolina is that for every Gamecock fan who is pissed off, you have a Clemson fan who is happy the other school is being taken to task.

 

Not limited to big Division I powerhouses, either. I experienced this indirectly at a small shop I worked at as it related to our local NAIA powerhouse. See no evil, speak no evil, print no evil. The coach, athletes and entire program could do no wrong and even the suggestion of a less-than-favorable approach to any story was frowned upon.

But, hey, we did a hell of a job of covering the parade through downtown and the coach receiving the key to the city. Civic pride, baby!

 

Didn't see it, but they had a subscribers-only, 80-page USC football special section the day of the opener. Ads obviously had to be a huge part of that.