Charlotte Observer coverage

ever thought about a preps-only publication?

 

All the time.....

Larry, you should check out the South Charlotte Sports Reporter---very impressive.

 

I must admit that the new section of the CO Wednesday paper, South Charlotte News, has included some good baseball stories. Corey with South Charlotte News stopped by East Meck to meet with our AD to get some human interest stories. He gave us a copy of the most recent edition and it talked about SW4A baseball, primarily Ardrey Kell, Providence, and East Meck. Last week it featured a story on Leighton and David Daniels. He encouraged EM to send him sports stories. Jay Edwards was at the Ardrey Kell game but it was rained out. Thanks for the coverage.

 

Langston, man oh man do you just want me and Braves to come work for you? Two hotdogs a day and we're there.

That's all it takes, two? Wow.

Ok to be specific, you did one video preseason poll this year and it was great, really was. Set a video poll a week as your goal next year, if you don't have time for that, just do several for the year (instead of just one), get a coach to do it with you like you did this year, that was good. You built us up this year with that video, but then oh that long dryspell.....

It was my intention to do a baseball poll every week starting the first week of the season, but I outpunted my coverage, so to speak. With me working preps by myself and basketball and wrestling in state championships and playoffs and spring sports previews needing to be done, I was spent. I always take a few weeks off after basketball season to recover. I couldn't do it all. I was worn out this year.

I think we can do videos, but we'll have to do a preseason poll and then maybe a regular season poll/video or two in March before I leave and pick up when I come back, usually just before or after Easter break.

Other thing, HS kids like to pick up the paper and see their names in the paper. It don't matter how you get their names in the paper, you have a boxscore section now, just get someone to put more effort in the boxscores. I realize the 100 schools you have, but you say you can do football because its all on one day (Friday),,,,, so if you can't cover baseball 5 days a week, pick 2 or just pick 1. Pick one day a week and let CO readers know that every Wednesday there will be good stories about several HS baseball games played the previous Tuesday. When people see it comes out every Wednesday like clockwork, your credibility will be there and I believe folks would be more understanding of the CO having other obligations.

We put lots of names in the paper. Every day, we take scores of tons of games and print them in paper and online. To try to cut down on some of the spelling errors you mention, we asked coaches all year in certain sports, including baseball, to input information directly into our system

Response was strong during football and hoops and tepid for baseball. It's a great system. Hopefully we can get it going next year. Our sister paper in Raleigh uses it. This is how cool it can be.

Now as for picking one day a week, that's hard because space varies from day to day. I can't ever be certain I'd have a full page or two (without an advertiser anchoring it) to do that. Plus all the big games move around on days and what about days when it rains? We're pretty much assured in football they'll play. We know pretty much in basketball they'll play. In baseball, Mother Nature plays a huge role. And when you have a blank page, it's an expensive expensive thing.

You say you did 30 some games this year, but slipping them in every now and then just don't work, nobody knows when to look for it. Another thing you may consider is each week highlight a different conference, go into more depth with a different conference each week.

I wouldn't say slipping them in is right word. We cover baseball like any other sport. Cover the big games when they come up and try to cover some other teams as they have good moments, especially early. It's funny, people say we always write about the same 2-3 teams. OK, this year, I did a whole lot of Garinger and West Meck and Harding and Olympic. I read the other thread and it's "why are they covering games that don't matter" or "why are they covering games that will be blowouts?"

Well that takes me back to covering the same 2-3 teams and they criticized us already for that. Darned if I do, right?

Hope this helps, honestly I appreciate your interest. Btw, Cliff Merhtons (sp?) was good last year, I can remember him posting on TBR and often asking questions about specific players/teams when doing his Sweet 16 polls. Where is Cliff nowadays?[/QUOTE]

I love the banter. I learn from it. Hopefully I can get some stories ideas from it. I've asked now several times and this thread is nearly four digits in views and NOT ONE STORY IDEA. Y'all want more baseball right? Gimme something good. Could turn around a big feature on Tuesday morning off someone who is still alive after Friday.

Cliff is no longer with us sadly. He did a wonderful job with baseball. This is my first year with baseball in a long time. I was doing it back when Gary Smith was at the Dence and the Panthers won the N.C. 4A championship in '95. That's still one of my favorite stories I've ever followed.

 

]I hope our members take advantage of this invitation.

Me, too.

What I'd like to see is for you to feature a Game of the Week that has a backstory. Let me give you an example: East Meck vs Hopewell

This is a very sexy story because it features two rival conferences. But this game features ex- EM Coach Chet Greeson facing his former players in what is their biggest game in their lives. Then you have Hopewell, one of the most talented teams in the state, having to play, not only between the lines, but against the emotions of the coaches and former players. This is a game that you can feel the intensity when you park your car. There are games like this every week in Charlotte. They offer stories of interest that goes beyond just the game.

Game of the week is hard because a lot of times you don't really have one, but when a big game like that is coming up, with enough notice (say 48 hours), I can turn around something. I'm adding a note about the Hopewell thing in tomorrow's notebook, though, thanks to you guys.

The second item is something you like as well. Human interest stories...I love them! But quite frankly, I spent a lot of time trying to get the story told about Will Dicus, but to no avail. It simply was one of the best stories ever! Does that mean I will stop pushing for stories....nope....but no one likes to feel dejected or rejected when offering them.

Yeah, that Discus thing made me mad. I wanted to get there to do it but couldn't carve out the time. I should've just put stuff down and gone. I love stories like that because they bring people together. My heart goes out to his family. I have two young sons and just couldn't imagine.

Please find me another story like that, of any type, that pulls at heartstrings.

If you all want to see the CO, as you call it, do some MAJOR baseball stories, that's the easiest way.

 

Love to, but you've been there. It's about advertising, though, if we took it outside "The Observer" the ads could go cheaper. We have, however, launched some new weekly local coverage sections that have lots of small town coverage.
Here's south Charlotte.

Here's South Charlotte II
\
Here's Lake Norman

Here's Cabarrus County

We also produce a plethora of Neighbors sections that have lots of community-style news, including sports. Click here

 

Just realized

that the South Charlotte News thing you are talking about is the new weekly section(s) we're producing. The reporter is Corey Inscoe.

Hey that's us, too.

 

Speaking of Smitty he is doing well at New Bern--livin' the life. His team is in the playoffs, also.

 

Story Ideas

Langston

You asked for specific story ideas:

- First, the Ty Linton piece was great today.

- The baseball coach at Myers Park, John Spencer, was actually laid off for a brief period last year in the cut backs. They found a way to save him and brought him back. How about a story discussing how much he has meant to the program and the kids there? This is a great way to bring out the added value that high school athletics and quality coaches provide to a high school education.

- A story on the East Meck baseball revival. The work on the field the parents did at East made it one of the best in the area - a real field of dreams. The program has made great strides in the toughest conference in the state while going through coaching changes and turnover in primary players - how have they been able to pull this off? I am guessing there are more than a few unsung heroes involved there...

- Charlotte Country Day is always playing in the shadow of Charlotte Christian (the 800 pound gorilla in private school play). They have very quietly had an outstanding year this year. Did you know they are 18-8 this year? Two of those losses were close games against much bigger SW4A public schools (Providence beat them 4-1 and Myers Park beat them 11-8, both competitive games.) I bet most people have not heard this story...there must be a story behind their success.

This enough?? Haha
Seriously, thanks for all that you are able to do - kids like to see their names in the paper. Mom and Dad might even buy extra copies to send to relatives - helps your circulation and thus your ad revenue.

Do the Wednesday Baseball/Softball Weekly Roundup next year and watch sales spike on Wednesday next year....