Zip for Akron's Zips coverage

Guess the Akron Beacon Journal has surrendered. The paper didn't send a reporter to Western Michigan for the Zips' MAC game. The paper covered the game with an AP report. Here's how the game ended: http://thewizardofodds.blogspot.com/

 

ABJ, you just been punked.

Bush-league. Spend a little money, fer Christ's sake.

 

If Akron can't send a reporter to an Akron road game, may as well shutter the rag.

 

That's a shame. . . a paper of that size should be able to send a writer to a game in the next state over. We're not talking about flying to hawaii for a game, we're talking about michigan. From ohio. Should be money in the budget for that.

 

Maybe there's extenuating circumstances -- someone is sick/dead/fired/whatever and the domino effect someone leads to a road conference game being punted. Doesn't seem like that smart a move, but I've never been to Akron, much less worked there. I have Goodyear tires, so that counts for something, right? Or is that Toledo? My head hurts.

Can't be a money issue -- they could have made the trip with their Pluto funds.

 

An explanation why is needed first.

My old paper once had to rely on AP for an instate game because the writer was in an accident on his way to the game. Sometimes it's really not about saving $150.

 

Good point, Idaho. They are also traveling right now to Boston (Browns/Pats), New York (Indians/Yankees) and Boston (Indians Sox).

Not sure how that affects a trip that probably cost a tank of gas and a hotel room, but still.

 

If there are extenuating circumstances for why they didn't have a staff gamer, fine. But if something came up that prevented the beat guy from being there, how about a little hustle? Contract a stringer or, hell, even listen on the radio, get the SID to phone some quotes, do a "From Staff Reports" story. But AP? On your home-team's conference game? Which ended on a Cal-Stanford type play?

 

I wouldn't condemn the paper solely based on not covering a game in Kalamazoo. As others have pointed out, their resources are probably stretched with the Indians' run. Believe me, more people are interested in the Indians and Browns than Akron football.

That being said, the section is nowhere close to where it was in its heydey of the mid-1990s.

 

AP optional > SID or radio rewrite.

 

AP isn't filing optional stories on games between 2-3 MAC schools.

I think it's wrong to chose to not send a reporter there. I'll state that right up front.

But aside from it being the 'hometown' school, I also wonder what reader interest in the Zips is. I'm guessing the ranking in priority is Ohio State, Cleveland Browns, Cincy Bengals, and more before the Zips show up on the list. And that's just football. Throw in MLB playoffs, NBA stuff in the preseason, NHL openers, etc. and watch the Zips tumble down the list.

Depending on space availability, 8 inches might have been all the Zips were budgeted. Considering the ending, more space was warranted for sure.

I know if we've got 8 inches slotted for a game that seems very low in interest, we're not likely to send a reporter if staffing and priorities dictate we send that person elsewhere.

Without knowing the 'why' behind not having a reporter in that pressbox on that night, I'd say getting a stringer is the very least the ABJ should have done. Then again, I've hired stringers for what I thought were important games only to have that stringer decide the party at the Sigma Nu house was more important and not tell me about it.

 

I still think it was the wrong decision by ABJ, but you are right on a lot of those respects. After all, no one could possibly have predicted how the game ended.

There's something to be said, though, for not covering your hometown school.

Sometimes I wish Knight Ridder still existed. And that's saying something.