Does any paper still publish an old-time full agate page daily in a digital form?

[maumann]

This thread actually inspired me to try something. I basically built an agate page on our website using Sports-Reference.com embeds that are automatically updated and added an area college/pro scoreboard. We're going to try to set up a QR code on Page 2 of our sports section so print readers, if they want to, can get standings that aren't two days old. Also: They can actually get local standings since what we're able to offer are national and don't have even ACC included. This isn't perfect, and isn't the most beautiful page, but it's worth running a pilot after the great feedback we've gotten about QR codes in our Sunday paper referring folks to digital-only content.

I just wish I could get box scores in here and automate that. Maybe once I'm done learning Python I can write a script. For now, they're in the e-edition.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/article257170462.html

So will those tables automatically update or will you have to manually refresh?

EDIT: And yes, you answered that in the second sentence. I'll be interested to see how that works. Good luck!

 

[ChadFelter]

Why waste time creating an agate page when people can just go to ESPN.com or any number of websites and get that same info in a much more user-friendly form?

 

[I Should Coco]

Why waste time creating an agate page when people can just go to ESPN.com or any number of websites and get that same info in a much more user-friendly form?

Don't forget that the unofficial motto of print newspapers is "Just One Call."

 

[sgreenwell]

Why waste time creating an agate page when people can just go to ESPN.com or any number of websites and get that same info in a much more user-friendly form?

Why bother creating a sports vertical to crush newspapers if you're just going to sell to one?

... wait shirt wrong thread.

 

[Driftwood]

In the 15 years I did the agate page, I never monkeyed around with any standings or averages or slipped in names, etc.
I can't believe I never did that. It's totally something I'd do. I guess it just never occurred to me.

I think my biggest slip in was writing a caption about a darn on a creek and I snuck in "... this dammed creek..."

 

[ChadFelter]

Don't forget that the unofficial motto of print newspapers is "Just One Call."

No wonder print is dead

 

[MNgremlin]

We still ran agate pages when I was first hired in 2014. Then a month later our press deadline was pushed up 60-90 minutes earlier depending on the night and sports-only pages were slashed in half, so it was the first thing to go.

 

[matt_garth]

 

[I Should Coco]

That's not much of an "agate page," but I guess it's more than nothing, which is what the NYT will have going forward.

As papers switch to limited days of print — with many having fully laid-out e-edition pages on the other days — I think the agate pages will quickly be gone. Print deadlines for the on-paper editions that remain will be earlier, so few box scores and certainly no updated standings will be available for an agate page. And if papers are "training" older readers to check out an e-edition on their computer, tablet or phone when there's no print edition, they would be able to find everything that used to be on an agate page on the same device (in theory).

 

[jr/shotglass]

Agate was a fun side hustle for me for 30-some years. At its pinnacle we might do 2 1/2 to 3 pages in a Sunday section.

I did the scripts, generally stripped all the manual justification on wire agate and replaced it with tab-stopping. I taught an old dog new tricks when we transitioned to pagination, hand-held the agate guy (and former sports editor) through Agate 101. I created planning systems which made the aggregation of local boxes and standings something that could be done in minutes near deadline. And when the pages began to lose priority and was passed along to phoners, I created a "curriculum" so they could turn out pages efficiently and cleanly. I'd have 20-year-old kids paginating two pages within a week.

And when my boss gave me the rare night off the sports slot to actually play the agate game, I always considered it a treat. I loved toying with the minutiae, making a perfect agate section that night.

I fully realize it was never about me. But the loss of the morning box scores, the loss of local agate ... it is not a positive advancement. I will never agree with that.

 

[Scout]

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is where I'm finding my national box scores.

 

[wicked]

Hey @Matt Stephens, how'd the agate experiment go?