What in the world is going on in Cleveland???

Without being the EE and staring at a budget, I can't say I know what the right decision would be. But as a reader I'd be awfully disappointed if the major metro in my area hadn't sent staff to Beijing. The AP does a fine job of doing what the AP does, but there's no comparison to having your local paper's writers and columnists covering the Olympics. Not only is it a great opportunity to provide unique coverage, it just makes you paper seem like a big timer.

Like I said, I can't rip the P-D from my living room sofa, but from the outside it makes the paper look bad.

 

Certainly it would be logical for a major newspaper to send at least one writer to capture the local angles of the Olympics.

As for Cleveland, LeBron James, anyone? And there are undoubtedly many Olympians with ties to the Cleveland area, the Ohio State University, etc.

But even if you don't want to spend a dime on the Olympics, don't wait until the last minute to decide that. That wastes money that could be used to staff actual events instead of funding airline change fees and lost deposits for accommodations.

But Plain Dealer staff members already are used to seeing the EE roll her eyes and give a scornful look at anyone who protests the decision-making process.

 

PD should've send at least one to follow LeBron.

 

I guess there was more latitude for differences of opinion when no one was on the verge of losing a job and, if one approach didn't work, there was time and money to try the other. The stew of ideas, which often would lead to a brand new idea better than all the original ones, was a powerful lure to work in this business. Real creative process.

Now it's as if lots of bosses are blocking out, and even feeling threatened, by differing opinions. Scared to death, maybe, of messing up.

Funny thing is (not funny ha-ha), they keep making bad decisions anyway, all by themselves without getting to blame input from dumb staffers.

 

MMATT: I made that call before tickets etc. are purchased. If you've already paid, pretty dumb to back out. If you're going, you find as many local angles as possible and write away.
I don't know how many readers really care who is writing about the Olympics, IMO.

 

It's not like the various wire services are going to be ignoring the guy. What is the PD going to get that AP isn't? It's not like anyone from the PD is going to be going to dinner with LeBron, or out shopping with him, or bunking down in the hotel with him.

 

Dear DeskSlave: Sorry, you are wrong, which I know from personal experience. When Larry Bird was on the Dream Team, he talked a LOT more (and so did the other guys) to me, Mark Murphy, Peter May, and Bob Ryan, the home town reporters whose faces were at least familiar ones in what was a new experience. LeBron is looking at maybe 1000 reporters every time he speaks in public. You'd better believe the sight of a guy from home will reap rewards for said guy from home. That's only human nature.

 

Admittedly, this depends on the level of access. If LeBron were to do all his media in press conferences, there would be no advantage to being a "guy from home" because you wouldn't get him one-on-one anyway. If he were to give a better answer in that group setting just because he recognized the asker, then everyone scribbling in that audience would benefit out equally, including the wire services.

 

If it saves jobs it is a good decision.

 

I hate to say it, because I believe big hometown papers should staff things like the Olympics just on principle, but can't help it: I just really don't know how much newspaper readers care about staff coverage of an event like this.

Sure, it's big with certain demographics. And those people get their fixes from NBC, not the local paper.

Nobody -- zero -- in my local haunts is talking about the Olympics except in passing.

 

Any estimate on the cost to send a reporter to the Olympics in Beijing for two weeks? Maybe $10K?

 

One of our deputy SEs told me that when the original credentials forms came in 2 years ago, the IOC was estimating 20K per person.