SportsShooter.com - Devils Advocate about major sports coverage

	San Marcos \| CA \| United States \| Posted: 4:44 PM on 04.11.09
	->> They send them to stay current with the prestige of being in the "know". If your reading a local paper and they simply use AP or wire pics then the reader can't be too impressed with your paper. Now if their reading and notice a staff photographer well then that's a totally different story and the reader thinks "Wow, they sent a staff photographer... must be important! Budget be damned.

Mike Brice, Photographer

	Toledo \| OH \| USA \| Posted: 5:45 PM on 04.11.09
	->> Nick, Check the circulation numbers. Not too many readers are saying, "Wow, they sent a staff photographer." Heck not too many readers left at all.

Jeff Stanton, Photographer

Princeton | IN | USA | Posted: 8:47 PM on 04.11.09

->> If it's a major sporting event, people watch it on TV. Why rehash it in the next day's paper when it's 12 hours old?

We cover the local teams, the teams that cannot be seen on TV. If the team isn't from around here, it's secondary, maybe even third or fourth down the priority list. We have no wire service photos. If we need them, say like for the Presidential inauguration, we buy them ala carte from AP.

Michael Johnson, Photographer, Photo Editor

Geneseo | NY | USA | Posted: 8:49 PM on 04.11.09

->> OK here's an example of why papers are failing. The "no glory in covering local sport" comment is wrong. I work at a small paper who doesn't bother with pro sports.
Our focus is the local high school and youth sport scene. Our circulation is higher then ever why our sister paper a Daily has decreasing numbers and they focus on Pro Sports.
While I feel that papers that are in or near a pro sports team or event should cover that event I don't think papers should go out of their way just to cover pro events.

Jeremy Harmon, Photo Editor, Photographer

Salt Lake City | UT | USA | Posted: 10:16 PM on 04.11.09

->> Some of this conversation has been a little "apples and oranges" if you ask me.

If you are in a small area, prep sports is going to be a big deal. If you are in a larger area, especially one with a pro sports team, that's a whole different discussion.

This is anecdotal because I don't have all the numbers in front of me, but a video we did last year on the prep boys soccer championship game (people really like soccer here) got roughly the same amount of views as a video on the Jazz losing a regular season game. So, anecdotally, I get as much traffic from a Jazz loss as I do from a prep championship game. If the Jazz win, the traffic will easily triple. Then factor in the NBA playoffs, and watch out. Going by the numbers, people here are more interested in the Jazz, even when they lose, then they are in prep sports. Does that mean we ignore prep coverage. No. But if I'm making assignments and have a prep basketball game on the same night as a Jazz game, I skip the prep game.

Newspapers aren't failing because of the amount of attention given to pro or prep sports. Newspapers are failing because they are losing advertising revenue. And that has little to do with circulation numbers. Your circulation may be up, but does that actually translate into ad sales? More importantly, does that translate into classifieds sales?

Smaller papers have been somewhat insulated against what is happening because a lot of their advertisers are local businesses that either couldn't afford, or don't need, to advertise with bigger papers. Local media is the only option for these folks to advertise.

Craigslist, and what it has done to classifieds sales, is a bigger culprit in the demise of newspapers than the amount/lack of prep sports coverage.

Nick Morris, Photographer

San Marcos | CA | United States | Posted: 1:12 AM on 04.12.09

->> Here in San Diego we have the Padres and the Chargers and the North County Times still has some of the best coverage for local sports. We can't cover every game but we do an incredible job trying. They dig deep into the stringer pool every Friday night during football and the same for baseball. NCT doesn't cover County sports just North County. It's still a pretty big area to have to cover. With that said they still send staffers to major events. Heck every year I get to cover Spring Training in Peoria (it helps that I own a second home 3 blocks from the complex)

Michael Fischer, Photographer

Spencer | Ia | USA | Posted: 2:53 AM on 04.12.09

->> Tip O'Neal, the former Speaker of the House, once said "all poitics is local". Stanley is right - they can get the AP coverage from a multitude of sources - for FREE. They don't need you for that. So why devote the resources? Great question, Stanley.

What they can't get from the AP or any of the other wire services is local news. The average Dad may be a NFL fan, but what do you think when it's his kid, or his nephew or the kid next door playing for the local football team?

Jeremy, I have no doubt that people follow the Jazz (heck, I'm in Iowa and I LOVE the Jazz) but what happens when the NBA season is over in Utah? Where do the hits on the website come from then? What happens when the Jazz have a bad season?

I hear the argument all the time that the internet(ie Craigslist et al) is the enemy. As a marketer, my question is simply this: How do you make the enemy your partner? The obvious solution is not to give it away for free, but that's the simple answer.

The problem here is simple: Newspapers have too much debt and too little imagination. I had a conversation with the publisher of the little daily I shoot for last week. I asked her why, since she went to using the post office to deliver the paper ( and pissed her customer based off since it gets to her customer's home after breakfast is over and everyone has gone to work) she doesn't email the newspaper to the customer's home who has a subscription? Her response "Hey, I like that idea".

People, the internet is nothing more than a modern, fast as lighting delivery system. NO PRINTING PRESS NEEDED.

What is needed are more resources - not less. The constant cutting in staff reductions was a classic accounting move - cut overhead- that made the problem worse with each cut.

If you doubt me, let me ask a simple question: How have the cuts worked? If the beancounters were right, things would be better. Has the bloodletting subsided?

People buy quality and they buy value. Note the word BUY. You have to charge for it. Marketers talk in terms of competitive advantages. That's a nice way of saying giving your customer what they will pay for that they can't get somewhere else. You use the internet to do it. You charge the customer for it, and if you are in a large metro area, you develop the resources ( reporters and photographers) who can make it happen on a neighborhood level. It's ALL ABOUT LOCAL.

The customer can get the NFL and the NBA lots of places including the your local paper. What they can't get somewhere else is the local news. It can feature their kids, cousins, nephews and the kid next door. That may not be as cool as the NFL coverage, but, it could make more money - if the geniuses at corporate are willing to devote the resources to make it happen.

I won't hold my breath. But I'll bet that as major dallies fold and cut back, what replaces them are small,local internet organizations that can deliver the news to a local area via the net. Instant delivery.

No disrespect to anyone who covers pro sports.( I did the NFL for a long time) Major metro markets could and probably should cover them.I just believe the answer is to customize the coverage for the reader and give them what they want. The internet is the perfect way to do it. But it will take time and resources to do it. Local has to be part of the answer - it's just so obvious. Tip O'Neal was right.

Michael Fischer, Photographer

	Spencer \| Ia \| USA \| Posted: 8:56 AM on 04.12.09
	->> Mr. Cantor correctly reminds me it's actually Tip O'Neill . I shouldn't be posting at 3AM...

David Harpe, Photographer

Louisville | KY | USA | Posted: 10:02 AM on 04.12.09

->> There is no single cause that has led to the decline of newspaper revenues. If there was it would be far easier to correct.

But one thing is certain: the idea of people getting their news from big wads of paper thrown onto their porch every morning is a thing of the past. Just as home-delivered milk is all but finished in most parts of the country, so it will be for newspapers. The next generation just doesn't want to get their news that way.

The medium IS the message. When you eliminate the big wad of paper as the daily finish line, EVERYTHING about the newsgathering operation HAS to change. Whether the new finish line is online, video or whatever, it's not a newspaper. Everything involved in production has to change - tools, workflow, revenue, audience. It's all completely different.

It is unfortunate, but few organizations are capable of making such radical transitions in an effective manner. PEOPLE can change. Organizations...not so much.

Newspapers today are going through a hybrid period where they are trying to service an old dying medium and a new up-and-coming medium with fewer people but the same core organizational structure. The people in the trenches are doing their absolute best to make this work. They're learning how to edit video, write shorter stories for the web, etc. But because the structure surrounding them is defective, their efforts are an exercise in futility.

Newspapers are trying to service two mediums with fewer people. If you are going to do two things at the same time you need more people - not less. You can't make doughnuts, bread and cottage cheese all at the same plant with fewer people than you used to just make doughnuts. Splitting your resources does nothing but accelerate the eventual failure of the business.

Newspapers as organizations will die. They have to. They are as functionally obsolete as hand-set type. This does not mean journalism is dead, or visual storytelling or anything else. All of these skills have a place in the future, just not with a newspaper organization.

Joe Cavaretta, Photographer

Ft Lauderdale | FL | USA | Posted: 11:30 AM on 04.12.09

->> devils advocate part II: why is photo always the first to get cut? Newspapers who no longer will staff out of town football games for the home team still think its important to send 2 columnists and 2 reporters to the super bowl, for instance, even when their team is not in the game. And most of these people end up watching the game on a TV in a tent in the parking lot. O, but we can get photos from the wires. Go figure!

Chuck Liddy, Photographer

	Durham \| NC \| USA \| Posted: 12:29 PM on 04.12.09
	->> Joe, you are so right. I watched three reporters (none from my paper) at the NCAA Boston Regional watch both Sweet 16 games in the media area at a television set. They NEVER went out to the floor. I just have to wonder whether their editors had any idea they were paying their people to watch the game on the television....which they could have done from home.

Kevin Seale, Photographer

	Crawfordsville \| IN \| United States \| Posted: 1:44 PM on 04.12.09
	->> Joe, is it possible it's because there aren't 2,000 stories written and available within an hour of the game ending like there are images? Chuck, that is a depressing situation. Given the continuous stream of news regarding the death of newspapers, it is really sad that they don't feel the need to do everything they can to make the most of the opportunity to cover such a big event.

Tom Knier, Photographer

	Lancaster \| PA \| USA \| Posted: 2:28 PM on 04.12.09
	->> Chuck, that's how the Super Bowl is, too. A lot of the writers never enter the building until it's time to do interviews after the game, including many big-name national writers. It's sad. They're stuck in a tent with a bunch of TV's all around.

Sean McCoy, Photographer, Photo Editor

	St. Thomas \| VI \| US Virgin Islands \| Posted: 3:40 PM on 04.12.09
	->> This is an excellent point. For years I have stressed local coverage at our paper. Most people who care about a national sporting event watched it live the night before when not one single local high school game was even on the radio. If we have it, we lead sports with local coverage.

Francis Specker, Photographer

Riverside | CA | USA | Posted: 5:57 PM on 04.12.09

->> If newspapers are going to survive on the web, the biggest issue is not coverage, but selling ads.

If you can sell more ads covering the pro team then the local team, your coverage will reflect that. The number of hits is not going to be the only metric in selling ads. Advertisers want click throughs and if their ad is relevant to the story, they may get the desired result.

So if your advertiser is a website that sells pro tickets, then maybe pro coverage is warranted. But if your ad is a local business that has ties to a high school geographic area, that may be more effective.

National news websites can sell national ads, a localized newspaper maybe better off selling local ads which may require more local coverage. This biz model is the same as before.

The problem with mid-size papers is that they try to do both, cover the pro teams and the local teams. They might have to make the choice on coverage on what generates ad revenue, something they would never do in the past, but are faced with now.

Kevin M. Cox, Photographer, Assistant

	Galveston & Houston \| TX \| US \| Posted: 2:36 AM on 04.13.09
	->> Here is a recent story that seems to be on topic: Baseball Writers Brace for the End http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123906424665995337.html

David Minton, Student/Intern, Photographer

Humble | TX | USA | Posted: 6:24 AM on 04.13.09

->> I don't think that the "Friday Night Lights" concept can be applied to as many places as people would like to think. Even here in the rest of Texas, as rabid as people are about high school sports, they are positively psychotic about pro sports. Midland/Odessa I think are a special example because they are so far from any pro sports teams or even D1 college teams, that there isn't the same kind of identity with a pro/big college team that exists in other places. And as a result of the extreme obstacles that need to be overcome out there just to put on a football game (the travel expenses alone for the teams in that football district are about half of the respective school's athletics budgets and the longest distance between schools is 311 miles), there is more community involvement and sense of pride about it all. Spend over a million dollars a season just in gas to get the team to the other town and yeah you're gonna be proud of yourselves.

People are proud of their local high school teams, and want to read about them and see the photos, but they culturally identify with pro teams. Other than parents, or really loyal booster club members, you don't see a whole lot of people walking around with their local high school team's hats on. They wear the NFL/MLB/NBA/NHL stuff. Major city dailies in places with pro teams cover them since they are the paper of record, but it just makes sense for a smaller paper in that immediate region to cover them too. Folks that live far enough away that they can't go to a game, but still follow teams want that information, but also want their local news too. Those people associate themselves with the pro team because ties them to that bigger region and that regional identity and culture. By the mid-size paper having that coverage, especially their own staff-generated coverage, it gives the local readers a way to feel connected to that larger identity, especially in places so far out from town that going to a game is simply out of the question.

I think...

Stanley Leary, Photographer

Roswell | GA | USA | Posted: 7:06 AM on 04.13.09

->> I would like to try restating this another way.

If major markets newspapers didn't cover the major sports teams their readers would still get images and coverage.

If they choose rather to send their photographers to things not presently getting covered in their area, then their audience would be getting more coverage.

If budgets are so tight, why are so many defending showing up to pro sports. Isn't this similar to the CEOs of the car companies showing up in private jets to talk to congress? Things have to change if this is a real crisis. Don't they?

David Harpe, Photographer

Louisville | KY | USA | Posted: 7:39 AM on 04.13.09

->> Covering high school sports in a major way is a simple game of numbers.

In our area on any given Friday night during football season you might have a dozen decent teams playing games. Let's imagine that you peel off three staffers to shoot three of the games.

So which ones do you pick? Quick logic says go with the three most popular ones, but chances are TV is going to be at all three of those. So do you cover the ones TV covers, or do you cover different ones?

No matter which ones you cover - you have three High School football games, each with an audience of a few hundred people for a mid-season game. So with three full-time people working two or three hours each, you have a potential audience of MAYBE a thousand people, tops. Most of the people interested in those games were probably AT the game, so unless something really interesting happens are they really going to want to see pictures of them?

Even if every single person at each of the games visits the web site and view 20 pictures in a gallery, you're talking about 20,000 page views. At a 2% click thru rate (on average), that's 200 click-thrus. Even if you charged a dollar a click on your ads (a VERY high amount), you've only made $200 - not nearly enough to cover the cost of covering the three games. And that's with generous numbers and a popular sport like football. Pick some of the not-so-popular local sports in the region and they only get worse.

On the print side, you cover three high school games and you've eaten up most of a page, which means something else going on that day gets left out. Do you leave out the photos of the wreck that happened at the Busch series race? How about an NFL story? Almost any national sport that you put into that slot will have more than 1,000 people interested in it, and national stories are "free" to use (included in the wire service fee the paper already pays).

So if you're really trying to serve the most people with fewer resources and make the most money for the least cost, the national coverage wins on most days. Rivalry days of course are different. But for general mid-season coverage, national wins.

Can you do it with "citizen journalists" providing all the content? The wicked thing about high school sports is they all happen close to print deadline. Most CJs are not going to be able to transmit anything except an iPhone picture before the game is over...and even then they're not going to rush home and transmit their stuff without getting paid. Then there's the question of whether it's good enough to use for print, etc. Someone at the paper has to be there to ride herd on all of that, and you can't really count on reader content for the print edition. So you might be able to have a lame photo gallery of non-professional shots six to twelve hours after the game. CJs are not the answer.

Philosophically you should cover these games instead of national. Financially it's very difficult to make the numbers work.

G.J. McCarthy, Photographer

Dallas | TX | Lower 48 | Posted: 10:22 AM on 04.13.09

->> KC Dave pretty much sums up what I think is the thinking here in Dallas.

We have hundreds of high schools -- some with top-ranked state and national teams in multiple sports -- but from what we're told via consultants and such (or so I'm told), people aren't really talking about those prep teams while they wait for the office coffee pot to finish brewing Monday morning.

They want to debate whether or not Shaq is really coming to Dallas (god I hope not); or talk about how much of a mistake it is to put C.J. Wilson into any game (six runs in one inning?? FML); or speculate who Romo might be schtupping these days ...

You don't have to go any farther than our last RIF to find out that, apparently, prep sports doesn't seem to matter as much as maybe it used to. We lost 13 in sports, several of them desk folks an beat writers who mostly or completely dealt with high school sports. During a meeting with our brass, we were told decisions made in the RIF were based on what the readers wanted. Apparently they'd rather see columnists flown around the country to shit Dallas doesn't even have a body in.

... if it ain't broke ...

Which leads me to my next thought ...

"I believe the audience research supports what I am saying. Most newspapers including the AJC here in Atlanta, get more folks looking at the high school sports consistently than the pro teams or even major college teams."

Don't mind me for asking, but can you offer actual data, numbers or info to support that, Stanley? Not saying the statement is untrue -- I'd just like to see some facts behind that, since it's contrary to what our own people tell us ... at least here in The D. Guess that's the journalist in me ... always wanting to see the numbers.

Last thought -- truth is, folks, nobody knows where things are headed in this wacky biz. From the NYT on down to the Baraboo News Republic ... it's anybody's guess at this point.

The ship is steering itself and most of us can do little else besides keep baling water off the deck while trying to remember where we stashed those life jackets. And hey, are those more icebergs ahead?? Son-of-a ...

A fan of the maritime metaphor,

- g -

Jeremy Harmon, Photo Editor, Photographer

Salt Lake City | UT | USA | Posted: 11:22 AM on 04.13.09

->> "I believe the audience research supports what I am saying."

That may be true in your case, but everybody has a different audience. Just like G.J. was saying.

Salt Lake City is one of the few cities left in the country that still has two competing dailies. Our audience is significantly different from our competitors audience.

Somebody asked what we cover in sports when the Jazz aren't playing. We've got 4 D1 schools in the state. Two of them, Utah and BYU, are like religions to people. The football, basketball and gymnastics programs at these schools are particularly popular. We have Real Salt Lake which is growing in popularity year after year. We have a world class motor sports park. After the Olympics were here in 2002, we were left with some of the best winter sports facilities in the world and have a variety of world cup events are held here. We have three minor league baseball teams. The list goes on and on.

Chuck Liddy, Photographer

Durham | NC | USA | Posted: 11:40 AM on 04.13.09

->> Dave's logic on coverage of high school stuff hits the nail on the head. Here in the Triangle, we have three major Division I colleges, a couple of minor Div I colleges and several Division II schools, a pro hockey team and two minor league baseball teams. I'm probably leaving something out but the point is a high school football game might get 500 page views, that's a "might". Our college football games usually get 200,000. Those are real figures. It might sound like it makes sense to throw your resources into high schools but there is just no "bang for the buck" there. Whether it is online or on the page the economics just don't justify that line of thought.

Mike Brice, Photographer

	Toledo \| OH \| USA \| Posted: 11:59 AM on 04.13.09
	->> I guess keep doing what you are doing. Sounds like it is working.

Scott Strazzante, Photographer

Chicago | IL | USA | Posted: 12:03 PM on 04.13.09

->> I am at Wrigley Field right now sending rain photos from before the Cubs' home opener. I am one of two photographers shooting today's game. We also had a photographer out here at 7am this morning making feature photos.
Our website all ready has a Cubs' photo as our web centerpiece.
Is there one wire photo available right now from the Cubs' pre-game.let alone the 20 that our editors want?
I don't think the wires provide enough photos for our appetite.
But when it comes down to it, I think the Tribune wants something different and hopefully better than what the wires provide.
As for revenue generation, of course it would be cheaper to use wires for all pro sports but I doubt that will happen anytime soon at the Chicago Tribune.

David Minton, Student/Intern, Photographer

Humble | TX | USA | Posted: 5:03 AM on 04.14.09

->> This whole thing made me think of some other questions. I hope that any wire shooters or other people in the know will chime in.

At say, an NFL/MLB/NBA game, the various wire shooters are shooting the game. How much attention is paid to each team? Is the wire's coverage going to be an even mix of images for both teams and aimed at a national marketplace, or more focused on the home team? Or is it the other way around and focus a lot of attention on the away team, based on the idea that the local media for the home team will send its own people and not rely heavily on wire photos? How many special photo requests are you filling for member papers covering the away team? How much of this workload is for smaller papers in that team's market, assuming that the larger papers will send their own shooters? Are there photo requests from local member papers covering the home team who can't afford to send their own photographers? How many of those are there if any?

I'd really like to know some of this stuff, just out of curiosity .

Jeremy Harmon, Photo Editor, Photographer

	Salt Lake City \| UT \| USA \| Posted: 11:45 PM on 04.17.09
	->> FWIW, Tonight Chris Detrick has sent me 61 photos of Utah's gymnastics team from the NCAA women's championships. Right now there is one photo of a Utah gymnast from today on the ap exchange.

Stanley Leary, Photographer

	Roswell \| GA \| USA \| Posted: 9:08 AM on 04.18.09
	->> Jeremy: And how many would the paper use?

Tom Ewart, Photographer

Bentonville | AR | USA | Posted: 10:37 AM on 04.18.09

->> You know what the real problem isn't about what sells, it's more the attitude that it's not my problem--that's someone else's job. In todays media market the managing editors (and photo editors, for that matter) work for someone and their main goal is to meet some budget, they have been desensitized as to having responsibility for people's livelyhood. They are just doing a job. Making cuts to staff and blaming it on it's just the budget is like saying I had to do it because it's "just business" The only thing that is being done is it's too easy just to lop off someone than make overall adjustments. I am fairly certain that no publisher or managing editor had taken a pay cut do to this economic slow down--but soon they will find that they will not have competent staff on which to produce a product and they will go under. This whole situation goes back to the initial AP contract where the work of freelance photographers was devalued and there were very few staff photographers at publication who spoke out about the situation, it wasn't there problem, it didn't affect them... we'll it seems to have effected everyone now. I think that the editorial market hasn't done a very good job of controling their own product and giving it away because the competition did isn't a good business model. It's kind of like retailers trying to compete with Wal-Mart on price, that's not a good way to compete. Instead you should compete on proving a better product with more service. Those photo labs/camera store that are surviving out there are doing it because they offer either better service, more knowledgeable staff, or a better product. And with newspapers giving it away on-line and not providing the value by being better than other offerings are going by the wayside because the scope of competition is greater with so many sources available on-line, so now you are not just competing with one or two other sources, but hundreds of thousands other options for through the internet. Heck the AP should just jump out there and become it's own stand alone news source, these day's it really doesn't need the members papers to move it's product-it could collect the revenue from the consumer directly and post it on-line and sell it's own ads. It's kind of like those companies who sold ice when people had real ice boxes an no refrigeration, none of them made to transition to produce refrigerators as the times changed, and they went out of business. With all that said I still feel there is a market for printed media like newspaper and magazines, it just that they are trying to compete in an area where the really haven't set down and figured out a business model, they are trying to run willy nilly into the electronic age. Like when newspapers slashed photo budgets because they no longer needed film or darkrooms, but didn't figure on increased digital storage, faster computer, and increased breakage of more sensitive digital cameras. The attitude that we have the content, lets just push is out there without reguard that it will take away from the printed version that we are selling (ie revenue producing activity) and it will also cost us more time, equipment, sorftware, etc. to re-format and provide that content for free.

Jeff Stanton, Photographer

Princeton | IN | USA | Posted: 10:56 AM on 04.18.09

->> I know what Tom is saying is true with a lot of companies. I really have to offer kudos to my publisher who fortunately for us, came up on the news side. We lost a staffer who left for another job and our publisher decided not to replace her, although he kept the job in the budget.

He has tried every trick in the book to cut expenses without cutting people. He has cut, but not laid off anyone. Another local manufacturer, Toyota, has done the same thing. They have combined shifts, reduced hours, but nobody has been laid off. They even have people doing community service projects here in the county to keep their employees receiving a paycheck. There is a lot to be said for a company who extends their arm to help instead of chopping off the arms of its workers.

Jeremy Harmon, Photo Editor, Photographer

	Salt Lake City \| UT \| USA \| Posted: 5:05 PM on 04.18.09
	->> We ran 6 in the paper and 25 online.

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