Charlotte Observer coverage

Advertising dollars...and the big sports love to advertise.

 

Understand the advertising dollars are bigger and why the Panthers are top billing in the CO,,, but this boils down to being a springtime question. Afterall the CO does well covering both HS football/basketball, we all agree on that. So the issue is all the other spring sports and lack of staff. Yet smalltown papers have the very same spring sports, small (or smaller) staffs, and yet they still manage to put HS baseball games on their front pages. What is the difference?

 

My fault. I didn't express myself clearly. I was referring to baseball in season and comparing its popularity with football and basketball to the sports it competes against for coverage. I guess you are referring to s****r as the sport that competes for revenue. Sorry, I can't even spell that word.





Football is KING!!!! No argument there.

Baseball will never be the TV king again. The Fast Food culture cannot sit at home for 3-4 hours on a summer night to watch a game. Kids are out of school!!! They want to play! However, according to information provided to The Biz of Baseball by the league, gross revenues were $6.6 billion for 2009, a record figure for MLB. By comparision, the news that MLB saw record revenues for 2009 falls on the heels of the National Basketball Association reporting that it was $400 million in the red last season. Revenues for the NFL were $7.6 billion for the 2008-09 season. The NHL topped $2.6 billion in revenues for the 2008-09 season.

The actual numbers of the College World Seies reported by ESPN is this: ESPN, which has televised baseball’s College World Series for all 30 years of the network’s existence, reports that the 11-day session that just ended in Omaha was the most-viewed and highest-rated in its history.
The network averaged a 1.5 rating, representing 1.45 million households and 1.928 million viewers. That’s a 36 percent rise in rating from last year (1.1).
The three-game championship series, helped by an extraordinarily light Major League Baseball schedule, got a 2.1 rating, the highest since the CWS changed to its best-of-3 format in 2003. The rating number was 24 percent higher than last year (1.7).

My point about that is it is increasing while being shown on a cable network. Just think if it was hyped like NCAA March to Madness and shown on national TV. I bet the numbers would be consistent to this: The entire NCAA Basketball tournament averaged a 6.6 overnight rating.

Don't get me wrong; I love the NCAA basketball playoffs, but the product has changed and it continues to enjoy the fruits of the past years' success (if I have to watch one more Bird vs Magic highlight, I would have been sick.) Apparently, the success of college basketball has not transcended to success in the NBA. One may wonder if the overall dismal lack of success in the NBA may filter back to college if some changes aren't made soon--like the one and done college kid.










That's an interesting topic. Football certainly has the highest revenue and also the largest expense. It will be interesting to watch if CMS is forced to go to "pay to play." In my opinion, basketball is the cash cow.



and at many schools it is. Most athletes and all sports have gone year round. Baseball starts in January and ends in November. December is used for workouts and camps.

and some of the baseball boosters lead their school in revenue. If Hal Bagwell wants new baseball lights at a cost of $100 grand, all he has to do is ask. If Olympics needs an upgrade to their football field---tough (saw that example tonight on TV.)

HS baseball is a different game than 8-10 years ago. It has lost some of its purity as well. Forget the full scholarship/half scholarships argument. Most baseball players make up the difference with academic and pell grants. The parents sacrifice their families all summer and fall folowing their son all over the country to watch him play....and love every dime spent for the memories and helping their child with opportunities.

The negative aspect to HS baseball is the perception of the sport becoming "elite", much like golf. The perception is you have to be rich to play or you are left behind.




Except for a rare few, coaches are the worst to ask for human interest stories. Many are so tunnel visioned on other things.

The funny things is...and not to plug his paper...but South Charlotte Reporter always has great human interest stories posted...nearly every week. He doesn't get them from the coaches.

Anyway, I'm always glad to see you back here posting--even if it takes this kind of topic to bring you back. You have always done a fantastic for Prep sports and you've always been a standup guy.[/quote]

Langston:

My quandry is more about why I open the paper to see what's going on in HS baseball and I'm seeing recruiting articles for HS football and HS basketball? If "revenue" is the issue, then why not just report on what's currently going on rather than reporting on sports that aren't "in-season."

 

re-post

I don't think my question was clear mixed in with Braves' post so I am posting here again:

Langston:

My quandry is more about why I open the paper to see what's going on in HS baseball and I'm seeing recruiting articles for HS football and HS basketball? If "revenue" is the issue, then why not just report on what's currently going on rather than reporting on sports that aren't "in-season."

 

"We covered the Southwestern 4A baseball championship this week that involved Ardrey Kell and Providence. Maybe because it's recent? We've also covered Garinger, West Meck, Charlotte Catholic, North Meck, Hopewell, Lake Norman, Harding, Olympic, East Meck and others this season.

I made a conscious effort to try to spread coverage around this year.

 

This kind of topic is not what's needed. I had just forgotten about the board. I read several boards all the time. Coaches are bad sources for stories? Perhaps but it's one I tap. I've asked here now, too. We'll see what comes of that.

Haven't seen the South Charlotte Reporter, but I'm glad you all enjoy that. Any publication that positively promotes the prep kids is cool by me.

 

Great feedback...you've been missed

 

Here's my question, with all the growth, cutbacks and lack of interest in baseball,,, the CO manages to look more like a smalltown paper during football and basketball season,,, yet certain other local smalltown papers still manage to do well during baseball season also (ref to Salisbury Post or Shelby Star). Can you see why folks have a question about why they don't get the same coverage from the CO? And please don't respond with the regional big city vs. smalltown answer, because there's Panther fans in Salisbury and Shelby also. People can get pro sports news anywhere online nowadays, that dog just don't hunt no more with the popularity of the internet.

I would like to here your comment or opinion on how these smalltown papers do it? Thanks.[/QUOTE]

The Salisbury Post and Shelby Star do not have the amount of things to cover that we do, and while everyone's staff has been cut, their primary mission is local sports, so for local sports they have four or five times the staff that we do (full time) and probably three times the space.

They also have fewer schools. So they are repeating coverage of schools and athletes more often. What I've always noticed is that no matter how much you cover a certain sport, until you write about that person's school, he or she don't think you do enough. You should see my emails everyday. "You all haven't written one word about softball." So you reply showing you've written 22 softball stories since March, and the reply comes back, "Well, you don't write about North Meck softball."

Oh.

Next point about us looking small town during football and hoops season. Football is played on one day and it's the sport with the most interest. We devote more space and resources to it. I think basketball is close to football in most aspects but it's played in 3 days per week. If you add up our basketball coverage over those three days, it's equal or greater than our football. We cannot devote the same amount of space for three days as we do for one.

With football there's no competition on Friday nights. In winter, basketball is the only game on Fridays and most Wednesdays. Wrestling and swimming get some attention obviously.

But with baseball in spring, it's no longer the clear leader. I have ADs telling me all the time that baseball is losing money or barely breaking even and they make more on volleyball, for instance. That wouldn't necessarily change my perception on how to cover it.

In spring, there is boys and girls lacrosse, girls soccer, boys tennis, boys golf, boys and girls track, softball. These sports all play on the same days primarily. There's no one day where it's just primarily baseball, as is the case with football and hoops.

Trying to present coverage that covers all those things for as many schools as we try to touch is difficult at best.

Can I see why folks have a question about why they don't get the same coverage from the CO? I guess so, but we've given baseball a lot of coverage this spring. I was shocked to read the other thread. It's like we have only covered one game. We must've covered 30.

And please don't respond with the regional big city vs. smalltown answer, because there's Panther fans in Salisbury and Shelby also. People can get pro sports news anywhere online nowadays, that dog just don't hunt no more with the popularity of the internet.

I won't, kind of.

There are Panthers fans in Salisbury and Shelby. Those papers cannot possibly cover NASCAR and pro football and pro baseball the way we do. If I'm living in those towns, that's why I would be coming to the Charlotte Observer. We can't out-Salisbury Salisbury on coverage of the local hoop team. We can shine a brighter light on them, kind of what Sports Illustrated does. That's what I see our role is, moving forward, with our regional prep coverage.

As I've said before, I think Salisbury has, for papers of a certain size, the best prep coverage in the Carolinas. I don't think any large paper (90K plus) can match us for prep coverage. I'd love to have two guys working with me right now. We could kick major butt if we had space. Perhaps the solution is to take everything, or most everything online.

I hate that actually because I talk to so many people who don't read the internet, don't have the internet or can't afford the internet, who depend on the paper. I'm caught in the middle. I grew up reading the paper, but I also am the technology writer here. I'm all into the iPad and Road Runner turbo and all that jazz.

And yes, people can get pro sports news anywhere, but the dog definitely still hunts when it comes to coverage of your local pro teams. No one anywhere will cover it, and ACC sports, like what we do. That's where the bread is buttered. And we have to devote time and resources among staff to it.

 

It's difficult to get on the front page of the Charlotte Observer, a lot moreso for me than if I was writing for one of our regional papers. At Shelby or Hickory or fill in the blank, the local high schools are the big news. Here Steve Smith is or Larry Brown is. We may have a UNC story from Raleigh that is. Or a Duke or N.C. State story.

And the smalltown papers have more staff devoted to preps and small colleges because of that. We don't.

I'm glad you think we do OK in fall and winter. I think we do so in spring, too. I guess I'm not seeing this huge lack of spring coverage. What are we not doing that you would like to see? Help me there.

This week, we covered baseball on the front page in Tuesday's paper and baseball on the front page in Wednesday's paper. Today, we had coverage of a girls soccer match from the playoffs. Tomorrow, we'll have a huge baseball feature story and coverage of a local softball tournament championship and a huge notebook with all the spring sports playoff pairings.

Saturday, a huge package of playoff coverage, including baseball. Ditto, Sunday.

What are we missing?

 

Why do you see recruiting stories? That's news and there are TONS of people who follow it. Our online hits are only partial indicators but good ones, of what our readership likes to digest. For high schools, football and basketball stories are hit four or fives times as much as anything else.

Recruiting stories also bring a college audience, too, which can drive numbers higher. These days online ads are sold based on impressions, so these numbers, across all things we cover, are important.

What schools make on games, their revenue, does not really factor into what we cover. I pretty much make the decisions on our prep coverage and have done so for years, thanks to the trust given to me by my supervisors. With so many sports, you have to spread out the coverage. Charlotte has a devoted soccer community, a rabid lacrosse community and small pockets of big softball interest, and a very strong track community. We can't ignore them. Spring is their time, too.

It's interesting, about the "in season" thing. Today our No. 1 ranked sports story is UNC hoop coach Roy Williams talking about injuries. Also interesting, do you all notice much college baseball coverage, on a regular basis, from many papers? How does that match up with coverage of college football or basketball?