Weekly preview stories

I did break it up game by game with little headers for each game.

 

We have nine schools in our area with a pretty good DII college in our town and we're fortunate enough to have a weekly 16-page tab devoted to football previews each week.

But the way we try to do it is a healthy feature for about 6 of our schools to go along with about a 10-inch preview and a capsule on every game. In our capsule we do the whole list that ICB provided, but instead of players to watch, we list starting lineups. For the teams that don't get a story of any kind on a particular week, we give them about an 8-inch keys to the game with little tidbits about each team, mixed with a coach quote or two.

I definitely agree that the capsules are far better than preview stories just because, like has been said already, people tend to prefer that quick-hitter basic information. It's a formula that has worked wonders for us.

 

Even hard core football fans aren't going to read a 54-inch epic.

These stories are almost useless sometime. Give some nuts and bolts about each game. What to look for in the other team is the most important, because that gives your readers information that they need, since they don't follow the opponent most likely.


Or an even better idea, which would make for a broader appeal. Do a main feature as the centerpiece of your preview page. Maybe a 10-inch game of the week story and then do capsules for the other games.

 

Please tell me you didn't actually throw a Helen Keller reference in there. Please.

 

I'm not from Fayetteville, never been there and don't know anyone there.

However, I thought this was a different way to approach Friday night previews: