Yahoo levels Miami

I agree to an extent with this. They could have set the mark, certainly.

The irony (yeah, yeah, I know, misuse of word): All three South Florida papers are now forced to devote resources to this story. They don't have a choice anymore.

 

Why would anyone leave Yahoo for the NYT?

 

That used to be a preposterous "what, are you kidding me? Of course!" question.

Now it's almost preposterous in the reverse.

 

The reason many big investigative projects in sports are handled by news writers isn't (entirely) because sports reporters couldn't handle them, in the minds of the bosses. It's also because sports are usually still going on while the investigations are being tackled. In other words, it's easier to justify the loss of Web hits and bylines in the print edition created by one local business reporter spending his or her time on the big sports investigation than it is to justify the lose of Web hits and bylines on the Miami football team.

Unless you can tell me that every beat the Herald is covering is a vital one that couldn't possibly be ignored -- and I would respond that the next round of layoffs will take care of that theory -- then why not swing for the fences and do something to remind readers and the world of your relevance?

 

If the Herald wasn't so embarrassingly absent on this story from the get-go, it never would have made it to this point. You'd think the Herald beat writer and sports editor, knowing this was the school of Uncle Luke, would have a highly tuned detector for all of this. This is more of an embarrassing blow to the Herald than it is to Miami. Also that Donna Shalala is a scheming, cheating dirty bird in a "who, little old me?" package.

 

Money.

 

The "lack of vision" angle seems to be the best fit here. For some reason (lack of vision?), the Herald doesn't seem to go after some of the stories it should go after. But you do get those daily practice reports.

Some of the best stories in Miami come from Miami New Times. And I always wonder why the Herald, which lives in the same city, never takes a sniff at those stories. Perhaps they require too much work.

 

Yes. You gotta swing for the fences. Sports journalism is not about bunting.

"Remind readers and the world of your relevance."
That should be a daily oath for the suits in the daily budget meeting.

 

OK, an interesting, positive thought. But ...

Do we think a couple of big stories a year are going to make readers forgive and forget on all the fundamentals daily newspapers in South Florida (or anywhere) are dropping the ball on because they don't have the people?

Also, remember this: The competitive aspect of South Florida newspapering is almost gone. All three papers are sharing stories and print facilities. I live in Broward and feel like I'm reading the Palm Beach Herald some days.

So do the Sun-Sentinel and Post get together and say, "Hey, Herald, you take the lead on this"?

Is a one-off Miami football investigation going to establish relevance in the readers' eyes when they can't find out about a murder that happened two blocks away, or get their high school teams covered?

That's the problem.

 

I think this has been mentioned a bit, but the overriding thought to me is: Yahoo has Robinson and Wetzel, and that is the #1 reason this story was done. I've become convinced over this thread (primarily by MileHigh) that the Herald could/should have done something. But I think it would have ended up as a smoke-but-not-fire story even if they had put their best effort forward. Yahoo had the resources, yes, but mostly it had two uniquely talented individuals at the front of the story.

To throw another sports analogy out there, it's like watching Lincecum strike out 10 guys with his power changeup and turning to Barry Zito and asking, "Why can't you just do that?"

 

You really think so? I can't say I know how much Yahooers are making, but I have the feeling they're doing quite well. They kept the reporting staff small.

 

I'm saying hypothetically IF the NYT outspent Yahoo. That's what I meant by making a run at those guys. Would any print publication, particularly a place like the Times or SI, be willing to pony up in 2011?

It's interesting that Yahoo has devoted so much to sports journalism. And almost none, that I can tell, to politics or government (or the environment or business or anything else).

Not criticizing. Just interesting that sports is where they clearly felt there was a void to be filled.