My Sunday newspaper column
Hurricane, schmurricane. The big news last week for some readers was in the Sports section.
Or, more accurately, was not in the Sports section.
"Why does Friday night high school football get so much ink and Friday night high school soccer get so little?" asked the mother of a Greensboro Day School soccer player.
A Virginia Tech fan e-mailed: "Can you please explain why the News & Record continues not to provide representative nor adequate coverage of Virginia Tech while both the High Point paper and the Journal in Winston-Salem do?"
I received others but these two hit the high points. (Actually I got a dozen or so from Hokie fans, but that seemed to be an orchestrated campaign.)
Talking sports with involved alums is akin to talking politics with party loyalists. It's less a discussion and more a version of "Crossfire." Neither side goes away convinced or satisfied, so bear with me. I want to explain.
Before we begin I must reveal my bona fides within the two questions the readers posed: First, both of my daughters have played high school sports, and I'm a regular at Friday night football games. Second, the managing editor, the sports editor, the assistant sports editor and I all attended colleges that are not part of the ACC.
We all like sports, many different sports and many different teams.
But that doesn't change this one hard, cold fact:
All sports aren't created equal.
The News & Record devotes the most coverage to the sports and the teams that more of our readers are interested in. In high school, football -- and, to a lesser extent, basketball -- draws crowds. The other sports, well, not so much.
During the fall, most of our staff's attention is directed to football. There are dozens of games on Friday nights, but the number of people and the amount of space we can devote to them is limited. We focus on the key games with full stories, and publish capsule summaries of the others.
Yet the Sports section covers a lot of ground with other sports, too. Led by our primary high school sportswriter, Kellie Dixon, we wrote about Mekia Valentine, a 6-foot-5 Dudley basketball player. The front of the Wednesday sports section featured large photos of tennis players from Greensboro Day and Page. Friday, the Ragsdale-Southeast Guilford soccer game took up one-third of the page.
Every Friday we publish a full page about high school sports called The Final Cut, which looks across all the sports and adds perspective to the games being played.
Every day we publish results from all games of the 25-plus high schools in our readership area. Readers who want to write their own versions of a game story or player profile can do that, too. Send it to us and we'll publish it online. Go here.
The biggest regret we have is that we can't feature more individual players. We know how newspaper stories get clipped and posted on refrigerators and placed in scrapbooks.
As for college football, our primary sports focus is on the "Big Four" ACC schools, N.C. A&T, Elon University and the other colleges and universities in Guilford County. We base that on reader interest, proximity to Guilford County and the size of our staff.
That doesn't mean we ignore news from other schools, but we may not play it prominently. News judgment enters in.
Last Sunday, we published articles about two ACC football games that matched top 25-ranked teams: Miami-Clemson and Florida State-Boston College. The other ACC games outside North Carolina were part of a roundup.
Likewise, we expect to publish a longer story on the Georgia Tech-Virginia game this morning because both teams are ranked, sports editor Joe Sirera said.
"On ACC games outside North Carolina and the Big Four, we're going to highlight the best matchups," he told me. "When ACC teams are playing The Citadel or Ohio U., they're going to be less prominently displayed because of the quality of the opponent."
We know that making those judgments sometimes disappoints fans. East Carolina, Appalachian State, South Carolina, Clemson, and, yes, Virginia Tech all have healthy fan bases here. Heck, it disappoints us, too.
Our request is that you measure our coverage of a team or a sport over the course of a season rather than on a single edition. Over time, coverage should even out.
Our promise is that we will provide news, perspective and insight into local teams, sports and players.
See you in the stands.
Comments (3)
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This is from an e-mail sent to me. I thought it worthy of inclusion here.
I read with interest your comments on the paper's sports coverage. For
what it's worth, here's my take. (I am a long time susbcriber by the way) 1. Please, no more stories about dodgeball, Mississippi River canoe trips,
outdoor basketball at A&T, etc. Real sports only. Put that in the life
section where it belongs.
2.High scholl coverage is good, but what about more focus on the Greensboro
kids? I know you have readers in Burlington, High Point, Asheboro,etc, but
those hometown papers give their kids tons of ink. Everything from your
selection of all star teams to game coverage to special features, Greensboro
kids share the spotlight with out of town kids who get plenty of press where
they live.
3.I totally agree with your assessment of Big Four Coverage. Do you think
NCSU or UNC get much ink in Blacksburg or Roanoke when they're not playing
Va. Tech? Sometime I think you go to far the other way. I don't care to
see one more picture or mention of Steve Spurrier at South Carolina. Give
us more Big Four coverage. I would like an article or profile everyday,
especially during football. I have to check the N & O in Raleigh daily,
online, to fulfill this need.
4. As for soccer, I think you're missing the boat a little here. Greensboro
teams regularly play for and win league and state titles. True, they don't
get the crowds, but most of those attending fit the stereotype that buy,
read, and advertise in the paper. Plus games are during the week, what else
can you cover locally? Thank-you for time and hard work. Greg Whitfield
Posted on September 26, 2005 8:39 AM
Interesting note, John. Thanks for sharing. I'll take a stab at responding:
We don't limit the definition of sports in Sports to prep, college and pro endeavors. Anything athletic, regardless of whether ESPN and Sports Illustrated care about it, we consider sports, and we try to touch on that, too. That said, traditional high school, college and pro sports (football, baseball, basketball, golf and auto racing) get the bulk of our daily coverage.
The flip side of the argument goes to point No. 4 in the e-mail. Lots of people seem not to consider soccer to be a quote-unquote real sport in the football-baseball-basketball sense.
Before I get blasted on that one, we do cover some -- not a lot, but some -- local prep and UNCG soccer. We run the ACC soccer boxes when we get them, and we try to get scores and pictures from the two big annual in-town youth soccer tourneys (Wrangler and adidas). I'm guessing that we're doing more soccer coverage now than we did 10 years ago. Is it enough? That depends on whether you like soccer or not.
Posted on September 26, 2005 12:12 PM
John, Keeping up with sports of all kinds is a hard job so I have to agree with you that it is a tough decision sometimes as to who will be covered. I think the way you guys are doing it by giving coverage according to the importance of the game(the rankings etc) is not a bad way of doing things.
Now, I read Mr. Whitfields input and I will agree with him on #1, leave that stuff to the life page or out completely.
On #2, I agree, local kids deserve the coverage and the others get coverage in the hometown paper.
On#3, Well, we have a big difference here. The big 4 in the ACC, most of the time watching most of those teams play is like watching paint dry, especially watching poor ole Duke. The only time these folks made the news in a winning way was when Mr. Whitfield's object of disdain, Steve Spurrier, was coach there. Maybe after he builds SC up to national standing he will come back to Duke , just to prove that it can be done.(make Duke a football powerhouse, as well as basketball) I still haven't figured what it is with folks and the disdain for Steve. Guess folks don't like winnners. Oh yea, I know, SC is not doing too well but then it's just the first year, give him a year or two and let's see where they stand in the ratings. VA Tech, is a whole lot more exciting than Wake, Duke, NCSU or UNC. If any other school belonged on Tobacco Road coverage,it would be Va. Tech.(yea, I did go to grad school there, so beat me up)
On #4. Well, soccor's has it's place and as for me it is on the page that goes in the bottom of the bird cage. It's another one of those games that is as exciting as watching grass grow or paint dry. I mentioned once before that most folks watch soccor orgo to the games, at least in Europe, is for the fan fights. Dangerous, but more exciting than the games.
Well, that's my 2 cents for what it's worth.
Posted on September 26, 2005 1:52 PM