reporter's notebook Nearly ten years ago, the San Francisco Chronicle was set to run a big feature on the USA national team, a welcome bit of promotion ahead of a big match.
The day before publication, Michael Jordan retired. The feature was quickly spiked as every column inch filled with tidings of the basketball great.
Live by the feature story, die by the news cycle.
A decade later, many high school and college teams are taking a different approach. By compiling lineups, scoring, and even standings, they’re becoming able to deliver core data to newspapers, and thereby establishing their claim to routine coverage.
Every day and especially on weekends, sports departments are swamped with feature pitches, most of which are secondary to the writers’ established “beats” covering football, basketball, and baseball. But papers perpetually need to fill up their box score (“agate”) sections – which is why every major pro and college sport continues to provide extensive data services.
The minor sports that are most accurate and reliable in providing hard data are the ones that get the ink and graduate to news briefs, before moving on to bigger stories. It’s a proven technique for becoming part of the college and prep beat, and as a bonus, teams improve their web sites and communicate better with school publications, alumni, parents, etc.
Cal is a past master at this. This past weekend, Clemson and Tennessee demonstrated that two of the South’s leading teams are making headway.
Related:
Clemsonrugby.com: Clemson moves to 4-0 with a win over #7 Tennessee
Tennesseerugby.org: Volunteers fall to Clemson, suffer first loss
Normal people cannot do this! Being interesting yourself is hard enough. Pimping your tiny rugby scene to the local media is really tough. Especially, when the typical club rugger's idea of community service is to leave the community alone.
For several years I provided agate information for the NCRFU and learned several items that increased the chance of inclusion. Also, occasionally there were helpful comments by the person on the sports desk who answered the phone.
First, don't assume that the person who is handling the results cares about your sport. They are putting out a newspaper on the off shift and have only a nominal interest at best.
Timliness and accuracy. Complete results as early as possible is the rule. Have the information available on time every time. A track record of credibility, accuracy, and consistency creates the perception of reliability and intenseness of interest.
When the results are submitted submit the current league standings reflecting the results. Rugby is a competitive sport. Let people know how the competition is coming along.
Next week's schedule sometime's sneaks in but only if match locations and times are included. Otherwise, forget it. Writers have been known to turn up at matches if they know where it is ahead of time.
Send the information in a format that maximizes easy use by the newspaper. They don't like to type any more than you do.
Make sure you send the news directly to the point in the newspaper that uses it. Call occasionally (every two weeks)to make sure you are doing everything right to maximize your chances.
Collegiate, high school, club - is the default degree of importance. Agate items are used to drive newspaper sales.
Easy institutional and geographical identity drives the casual reader's interest. Who cares about the "Golden Gates" or "North County" raccoons?. If you can tie your club name in with a specific geographical location it authenticates the team as part of the local scene. The news that sells is local news.
Who gets the results? Anyone and everyone who might publish it. Every newspaper that is sold in the league area at a minimum. this includes those that may publish weekend results on Tuesday or Wednesday because of limited staff. Weekly as well as daily newspapers are important along with all collegiate newspapers for participating teams.
Always, I repeat always, include a series of contact telephone numbers and alternate e-mail addresses that provide 24 hour real person response in the event a newspaper person needs clarification, would like to point out a problem, or ask who is available for an interview. Do I hear personal cell phone # here?
Have stock action photo's (minimum 5x7) that can be e-mailed if the newspaper is interested. Provide the photo date, teams, and identity of the persons in the photos (left to right). Better yet, refer them to your media web site and a photo album of shots (change frequently). Have a club bio for each team ready to send and on the web site.
Have one designated person and one alternate to deal with the media. Here, familiarity does not breed contempt.
Treat each news publication as if it is the only one in the world. Don't have a long list of "CC's". Everyone likes to feel special, newspapers are no exception.
I getting tired of myself here but one last point. Try including a news release for each league a brief (<100 words)piece on a match next week that might be of broad interest (please say why its of interest). At best, it will be plagiarized. At worst, it will be ignored. Write from a perspective that will interest someone who knows nothing about the game but is looking for a reason to read the article and finish convinced it was worth the time. Remember, in the first two lines you must "hook" the reader's interest. The rest can be pure gold but with no hook it remains undiscovered.
After all of the above send $25/week to the referee's society welfare fund. Without their cooperation you are deader than last night's beer.
Posted by: Hutch Turner | 13 March 2006 at 18:34
great stuff Hutch! Haven't heard from you in ages! Yep Kurt, I'm tired of others (my local press) NOT doing it, so I challenged the Bee, and they finally said, "Hey, do a blog!"
Here's my first go: http://www.sacbee.com/prepsplus/story/438479.html
It'll have my photo uploaded next week, and be promoted on the cover of the Sports Page each week. Here in Sacramento, we'll combine this with a new "master website" that will link our entire community together. If somebody wants to get out and watch a bit of rugby, they'll be able to just go online and see what's what in a flash.
Posted by: Ray Schwartz | 18 October 2007 at 02:16