Preps Under Attack

[wicked]

Another problem is recirculation. Whoever reads a East High gamer in all likelihood isn't sticking around to read the West High gamer, or the South High gamer, etc. They're probably going straight off the site afterward.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

The era of page views has not been kind to prep coverage. The real issue is unless you're in a market where one or two high schools dominate the coverage, the interest is way too fragmented. People care about high schools, but only their high school. The MMQB approach can help a little, but at the end of the day, I think many folks (myself included) overestimated how much people cared. The only time there is wide interest in a prep story (at least where I'm located) is when there's a really incredible human interest story or if there's a really high-level recruit involved.

So except in certain locations, I don't expect prep coverage to exist much longer.

I agree with so much of this.

You can have 10 broadsheet pages of high school coverage, but will still hear cries of "you don't cover high schools!" if you aren't covering the exact game/team that mommy and daddy care about.

How much money are you willing to throw at it to make it profitable and keep everybody happy?

 

[Screwball]

If done correctly, it can make a ton of money and really drive subscriptions, even in pro-heavy towns.

What evidence is there for this assertion? I'd love for you to be right but, if prep coverage really did make money and drive subscriptions, it wouldn't be getting cut, right?

 

[lcjjdnh]

The two papers I read pretty regularly for preps are the Star Ledger and The (Bergen) Record, sometimes the Morris Cty Record and if someone I work with has the Trentonian I'll read it. IMHO, the preps coverage at the Ledger has plummeted. It used to be pretty extensive. Of course there are way less people working there. They tried to cover the entire state of NJ, which is pretty impossible, but up until the mid 00s I'd say they did a very good job of covering most of North and Central NJ. IMHO, the coverage at The Record may have slipped a little, but it's still very good. Guess they have just enough people and the area they cover is basically a couple counties. They are very populated counties, but the area is not that large.

Bergen Record has a bunch of weekly sister papers, I think, which I would guess help.

 

[Fredrick]

They don't care because the decision-makers aren't from the local area and don't give a damn about the local area, and make sure the local "handlers" see that point. I haven't read a paper in a year that doesn't suck nowadays in terms of what they are in preps and what they were. I am completely befuddled how "handlers" with any forking common sense think that is the way to a profit. An old saying "They won't care unless they see that you care" comes to mind here.

Exactly right. Exactly. What has happened is the owners at headquarters have ordered cuts in the newsroom. The local editors don't/can't exempt sports. The suits at headquarters say, you need to cut basically 3 bodies to make this round of cuts work. You have 2 prep writers. One for sure gets axed, probably both. Why? Somebody's got to go and the local decision makers realize the suits in the main office will agree whole heartedly that the preps beat is not needed. Why?? Because the main office suits are not journalists. They have no idea that cutting preps is one of the reasons circulation has dropped dropped dropped. ALONG WITH HORRIBLE sales people, the dregs of the sales business and horrible delivery and rude circulation people. See, for years even when newspapers were successful, the newsroom always got crapped on while the important people, the ad sales people, circ delivery people were off limits to criticism/firings. As a result you have a bunch of competent out of work newsroom people (ones who gladly work 70 and get paid for 40) and are left with managers and HORRIBLE sales people. I mean if you were in sales would you want to work for a newspaper? Trust Fredrick on this.

 

[Fredrick]

What evidence is there for this assertion? I'd love for you to be right but, if prep coverage really did make money and drive subscriptions, it wouldn't be getting cut, right?

Do you know the kind of people making the decisions nowadays?

 

[Fredrick]

Prep sports has the same problem as intensive local news coverage — to do it well requires time and resource$ that most daily papers don't (or won't) have available.

At best, prep coverage even at smaller daily papers will be reduced to shared social media or emailed box scores. Earlier deadlines and papers laid out at remote locations will eliminate covering games, and the lack of reporters at games cuts down on good feature story ideas.

It's a shame, because high school sports still matter in small towns and isolated media markets. Even sports like swimming, wrestling and track have tons of great stories to tell if you take the time to watch and talk with the athletes and coaches.

Excellent post. Excellent.
The suits yawn however. They're too busy trying to sell the property -- one of the only ways to get the CEO his/her bonus. Sell the current building. Cut staff.

 

[DanOregon]

On the bright side - you're not costing anybody's kid a scholarship.

 

[MeanGreenATO]

What evidence is there for this assertion? I'd love for you to be right but, if prep coverage really did make money and drive subscriptions, it wouldn't be getting cut, right?

Without giving away too much info, high schools sold more subscriptions than any other part of the sports sections.

 

[ICanRowCanoe?]

I agree with so much of this.

You can have 10 broadsheet pages of high school coverage, but will still hear cries of "you don't cover high schools!" if you aren't covering the exact game/team that mommy and daddy care about.

How much money are you willing to throw at it to make it profitable and keep everybody happy?

This is my feeling as well. I am sports editor of my hometown paper. Even I take only a passing interest in high school stuff around here, and our page view measurements show that readers feel the same way. We're home to a major Division I university, and every tidbit we do them gets a ton of views. Hard for me to fault the suits for deciding that's where our resources should go.

That said, I do think it sucks for kids not to have the experience we had of cutting out our pictures and mentions. I wonder how many kids even have scrapbooks anymore.

 

[cjericho]

Bergen Record has a bunch of weekly sister papers, I think, which I would guess help.

maybe, but the articles in those weekly papers are rarely featured in the Record. wrote a couple articles for one of those weeklies way back. still know someone at one of them, could check, but pretty sure they're kind of on their own. way back it was a good place to start and move up to the Record or the Herald. don't think that happens too much anymore. in Sussex Cty, the North Jersey Herald seems to feature articles every once in a while from their weeklies. but rarely see it in the Record. don't get the Record every day so maybe it's days when I don't buy it.I think the staff at the Record just hasn't been slashed as much as the Ledger. plus they cover a smaller more populated area. couple decades ago the Ledger tried to cover the whole state, pretty impossible for any paper. they didn't cover too much south Jersey, but just for example, on Sunday they would have agate for at least 30 maybe 40 wrestling matches/basketball games, now it's rarely over 10.

 

[ChickenDinner]

Someone here should start a publication that focuses just on preps. Report back when you have to shut it down in a few months.