This month, we kick off a new feature in the APSE newsletter, a roundtable that will ask editors from various circulation categories how they are dealing with an issue that impacts the way they do their jobs.
In the inaugural edition, we explore how resources, newshole and the challenge of the 24-7 news cycle have impacted coverage of pro, college and high school football this fall.
The question posed to Boston Globe Sports Editor Joe Sullivan, Des Moines Register Executive Sports Editor Bryce Miller and Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer Sports Editor Todd M. Adams: What is the biggest change you’ve made to your football coverage this season and has it had the biggest impact from a personnel, space or online standpoint?
Sullivan
We're using as many bodies as possible for the Patriots this season because we feel we need to be the best source for Patriots news in print and on the web.
We've organized our blogging so it's consistent week-to-week. We have a dedicated blogger at the game who is also capable of filming post-game video when needed. That person handles the in-game blog starting approximately two hours before kickoff. This blogger will also post after the game. This has freed our other writers to concentrate on reporting in the locker room and writing their print stories.
This paid immediate dividends after the Patriots first game when Randy Moss popped off about his contract. We had video of his press conference and we used as much as is allowed but our blogger was able to post the full transcript of his press conference.
Besides the in-game blog, we have separate posts for any significant events during the game (such as a serious injury). We have another writer compose a 600-word gamer that will be posted as soon as possible after the game ends. We will add quotes into that story as soon as we can.
Eventually, that story fades away and is replaced by the longer, more in-depth game story.
We feel this organized us to have evolving Patriots coverage over a period of 20 hours.
Miller
The biggest change in print actually happened last year/season, when we had to give up our popular "All-Iowa Football" section that brought together preps, colleges and pros in the same place. The section used position-by-position pages to compare the top quarterbacks from the state — whether it was a player from a small school, or Kyle Orton of the Broncos. The section also had a "99 Great Games" page that picked the top game — regardless of level — for each of Iowa's 99 counties that season.
That section ended purely because of space/newshole reasons.
We have steadily grown online duties for our football reporters, though. At Big Ten and Big 12 games, our reporters live chat, blog and Tweet before they ever crafting a traditional print story. So they have four layers of content production each game – which certainly impacts their time to work the press box to mine for news, build sourcing, etc.
They also host chats during the week: You can "talk Hawkeyes" or "talk Cyclones" around mid-day on DesMoinesRegister.com every day.
Our columnist, Sean Keeler, hosts "The Keeler Show" in our video production studio. We do one each week for Iowa and Iowa State.
And two reporters handling preps during football season — John Naughton and Rob Gray — appear on the "High School Insider Report" video, a new project being shot and polished by our local NBC affiliate. Those are posted online each week, but WHO-TV also uses clips in newscasts.
Those are just highlights. There has been, and will be, more.
So the trade-offs related to online ramp-up is the biggest impact on our staff.
Adams
The biggest change we’ve made is that we no longer do a preseason football special section for high schools or colleges. In fact, we don't do any special sections any more.
We’ve instead done 31 days of football in our regular section, beginning on Aug. 1 and continuing through the rest of the month. During that time, we do full previews for each of our core high schools (13 teams, plus an area preview for the other 41 we cover) and colleges (Duke, UNC, Wake Forest, East Carolina, Fayetteville State, Methodist University, Campbell University and UNC-Pembroke). That includes a feature for the sports cover and a full-page alternative preview inside.
The change was made to save newshole, and it does that. It also gives our reporters a little bit less summer to enjoy, but it eliminates the natural scheduling craziness that always happens in the week before a special section is printed.
Upon further review, it also allows us to give a little more coverage of each individual team than we had in our special sections, although the information is spread over an entire month. Some people do miss having a special section to lug around with them all season.
Got a suggestion for a future Roundtable question? Email Gerry Ahern at gahern@yahoo-inc.com.
