What's your Olympic coverage plan?

You really, really need to stop calling people names and acting like you know what my readers want.

You don't have a clue. Have you ever worked in Texas?

 

I love how some people think results are secondary these days. Serious misconception. It is still a NEWSpaper. Results matter. We're not a section full of feature stories.

And before you go knocking "small-timers," you'd better understand: a) that is not a negative; and, b) there are a lot more of those than metros. And don't try to tell me I didn't understand what you meant there. I understood just fine.

 

Psst, your condescending attitude is showing.

And, yes, my readers would rather read a boilerplate story about State U's freshman reporting than anything coming from Beijing. It could be the best story ever written, it could shame the greatest writers to ever sit down at a keyboard, typewriter or pick up a pen, we could praise it for the greatest example of journalism in history ... but if it's not about State U then the vast majority of my readers will brush it aside.

 

fixed

 

you - and others - are completely missing the point, but are certainly proving my first post about xenophobia

 

Localism aside, there's the time difference to consider. Most Beijing events will go on after deadline and before delivery, especially for morning papers.
Play up the live prime-time stuff in the paper, run a summary of the rest in the paper, but make sure your readers can get the AP coverage on your website. Then you serve Olympics fans more efficiently than you can in print.
And there's plenty of room in the paper for the daily football practice story.

 

How about you try telling us your point again, but this time without the prickish attitude and schoolboy insults?

 

Don't even need to hear the point again. He's dealing from the viewpoint of a mid- to large daily, where some of what he's saying may be valid.

But he wouldn't last two months at a 20,000 daily in high school football country if he didn't change his thinking. First great read he runs about a Tasmanian gymnast ... it'd be all over.

 

Show me one post I've made that was xenophobic...I'll wait.

Are you back, yet?

Asking you if you've ever lived in Texas wasn't xenophobic...I wanted to see if you had any type of handle on the importance of high school football in my area. Sure, everyone has heard about it, but nobody can grasp it until they've lived here and covered it.

You're on here making blanket statements about what readers want, which is probably the most ridiculous thing anyone could ever say. Guess what, big shot? Readers in different markets, different states and different cities want different coverage.

I happen to live in a coverage area where high school football trumps EVERYTHING. People want local news in their local newspaper. We'll run some AP stuff, sure...just like every other day. But, it will not override the start of football season. If the Olympics started two weeks ago when nothing but Dixie baseball was happening, it would have been played bigger, but it didn't, so it's not.

There's a magazine called Dave Campbell's Texas Football...roughly half college/half high school. Well, if you don't get that magazine the first week it hits newsstands here, you're going to be waiting until stores send in their re-order forms.

So, before you go around calling people xenophobes with small market minds, you should probably understand that not everything works everywhere. Blanket statements and blanket coverage kill newspapers, not giving people want they want.

 

fine.
this thread began as a question about people's Olympic plans
the majority of early posters essentially said: who gives a fuck? - MY readers want football

well, I guess I've encountered that kind of attitude one too many times and it galls me particularly on a board where so many prominent writers, editors (see Lynn Hoppes thread), journalists are ripped to shit

my reference to small-timers had nothing to do with the paper size. it had everything to do with the editor's thinking

journalists should strive to tell stories their readers might not know. doing the annual tab on the local BCS team ain't journalism - it's McDonald's

so yeah, I get prickish when I'm told I'm an idiot because I don't know YOUR market

It's not about markets

this isn't about covering the Olympics -

it's about a lack of imagination, curiousity, etc that dominates sports departments - as long as we've got our main, side, notes and god help us if we don't get a practice picture

 

And it's just that. You sniff off something like a "practice picture" as if editors from Boston to Rancho Cucamonga should be vilified for running one.

Different places. Different realities.

 

It's EXACTLY about markets.

Olympics coverage will play huge in some markets, and rightfully so. It won't be played in others, and rightfully so.

You're right, though, good storytelling is of utmost importance. There's not a chance I'll ever argue that. Nor, will I argue about trying new things. But, my storytelling will involve local football teams, not an archer.