The Portsmouth Daily Times drops the ball again

[Trojan_FB_Alum]

No shock here, but the PDT has done it again. I got up Saturday morning hoping to relive the game I watched the night before but to my chagrin the PORTSMOUTH Daily Times was unable to cover the PORTSMOUTH Trojans.

There was a nice article about West’s come from behind win over Fairland, Ironton’s victory over the Burg, and a few other snippets that were phoned in by local coaches, but nothing on the team from the town that the PDT gets its name from.

There was however a note on page B3 at the very end of an article that read “Any games not listed were not called in by their team’s coaching staff.”

Any games not listed? So are we to believe that Coach Triplet at West Coach Woodard at Burg and Coach Lutz at Ironton took time to have a member of their staff write up articles on their games and take pictures, to let members of the PDT staff have for Saturday morning?

What the note should have read was we will only take time to cover 2 games so if your team was not one of the 2 you better hope a coach called something in because we refuse to do any real reporting.

I understand us not getting coverage if we are 3 hours or more away, but they had a reporter at Ironton, which is 15 minutes from South Point. Why couldn’t he hit 2 games in one night? Also as a reporter isn’t it his job to get the story? Maybe he should try picking up the phone to get some info, call a coach, listen to the radio, or call the Ironton Tribune who did cover the game.

Each year the Mothers Club spends lots of time and effort to put together scrap books for all the seniors, its sad that these ladies have to go and find other communities papers because the hometown paper doesn’t want to cover the team that shares their name.

[trojan7]

This was posted in the other thread that might help......

Ok I too am very saddened by no write up or anything. BUT I do know this. Right now there are 2 sports writers. Normally 3 or 4 in the past. They had 1 cover the BIG game Ironton and Burg, while the other covered a local game which had some importance or seemed like a good matchup. All the other write-ups are from where the coaches call in and report stats and scores. No one at Portsmouth called and no one answered the phone call from PDT when they called to get the stats and scores. Plain and simple. So yes it is the PORTSMOUTH Daily Times but seriously guys cut them some slack they are trying there best to cover what they can with only two guys and on a very short budget. And for no one calling in and reporting or anything I am going to keep my own stats at games just in case something like this might happen again but I know they are planning to be cover or have someone at 7 or 8 of the last 9 weeks remaining. and I'll be at all of the games.

[biggdowgg]

looks like we have to start buying the Ironton tribune on saturday.


http://www.irontontribune.com/news/2009 ... uth-point/

[Archie]

Quit making excuses for the PDT. They should be covering the Trojans. Someone needs to be taken out to the woodshed BUT if no one on Portsmouth's staff cared to take the time to call the PDT maybe they need to take their place in the woodshed!

[ItownHosscat]

The Ironton Tribune has no Saturday paper.

[G&B from huddle]

Trojan 7 makes some very valid points about the 2 sports writers and actually I think one them is at college part time.
Now I know its the Portsmouth Daily Times and the Trojans are the team from Portsmouth High School. But the paper does have 10 other high schools in the county to cover.
And Trojan_FB_alum
Have you ever worked at a newspaper? Real reporting? They are reporting.
They have to meet deadline, they don't have time to hunt down coaches at 1 am when they are trying to get the paper to press on time.
And covering two games in one night is extremely difficult especially when they could and probably will end close to the same time. Now if they had a photographer that DIDN'T report the Burg vs. Ironton game I would submit they could run to South Point to snap a few shots.
So do their jobs for a few days and especially on a Friday night before you get on here and slam them.

[trojan7]

Quit making excuses for the PDT. They should be covering the Trojans. Someone needs to be taken out to the woodshed BUT if no one on Portsmouth's staff cared to take the time to call the PDT maybe they need to take their place in the woodshed!

I'm not making excuses I am explaining the reason why and how it happened.

[hornet8088]

no way home team should be left out dont always have to be a sports writer. a student at the high school would be better than nothing.

[bman]

^ Students from high school are a crap shoot, and there isn't time to watch them on a tight Friday night while trying to meet the deadline.

[Neutron Man]

Don't argue about something you guys dont understand!!

[bball fan123]

the PDT really needs to get things straightened out

[West_Sider]

Just a gut feeling. In my opinion, the PDT will not be around much longer. Things are changing and I expect in the near future that the PDT will close up shop. If you cant afford to cover sports the writing is on the wall. The era of the small town newspaper as we know it is a thing of the past.

[Footsteps Falco]

As an owner of a weekly newspaper I can tell you that the under budget/under staffed scenario is probably a likely one. The economy has taken a heavy toll on the newspaper industry. Businesses aren't advertising like they used to. Subscriptions are dwindling because consumers are saving instead of spending. The newspaper is probably one of the first things to get cut in a tight budget. Give the PDT some slack. Don't automatically assume they just aren't doing their job well. Most likely they're doing all they can manage.

[bball fan123]

I wouldn't make a judgment that they need to work on things if this was the first or second time they have slipped up. But is a continuous thing for the PDT

[rxburgfan]

saying the pdt "should" cover the trojans since it is the namesake of the town is crazy. the pdt is a county paper. if they want to solve this issue they should just solicit the help of a high school student from each school to give a quick note about the game. then the paper can send their sports people to a couple different games each week. it gives some experience to the high school students and gives coverage to the pdt. sorry to the trojan fans that think the pdt is their personal paper.

[West_Sider]

RXBURGFAN,

Hey, I could care less. But, I think any reasonably intellegent person can say that the PDT should cover the Portsmouth Trojans, even at the expense of another county school. If they only have two reporters and the scenerio is the one in which it was in week #1, then they should have covered Burg vs. Ironton and Portsmouth vs. South Point. I realize that omits the coverage in week #1 they did on Portsmouth West but fair is fair and the newspaper resides in Portsmouth. Cover the Trojans and the best game of the week if thats all the staff you have. There are exceptions, but this was the first game of the season. If other communities in scioto county do not like this, then recruit a newspaper for your community. I hear the newspaper business is just booming.

[rxburgfan]

i would like to compare the pdt distribution "in town" vs the county. the county does have a paper scioto voice and the sports coverage is great by comparison. covering only the trojans and one other will only further kill the paper. cover the games of the week. not that complicated.

[osubulldog]

trojan 7 "They had 1 cover the BIG game Ironton and Burg, while the other covered a local game which had some importance or seemed like a good matchup".

Maybe to the local kids every game is a big game. I dont want to hear about covering the Trojans I can watch thier own TNN Channel if I want to. The point I am trying to make is the PDT makes money out side the city limits too. I understand budget cuts and all that mess also. Sounds to me like this falls into P-Poor mangement. Sports(local), Obituary, and Local news, these are the topics of concern. Not the fight in the pits at a Nascar race or what reciever kicked an extra point. Local, Local, Local

No excuses, just results!!!!!!

[----]

If Portsmouth wants to see their name in the paper why can't someone (parent/student) volunteer to write it up? The PDT is understaffed and it makes more sense as a whole to stay around here Friday cover as many games as you can and then hope Clifford calls in the score so they can write it up.

Rather than point fingers someone should stand up and say "Ok, I'll call in the scores or take a couple pictures for our kids".

It's not that difficult of a concept.

[osubulldog]

We do not need to read about the same stuff we see on FOX, CNN, and ESPN all of the time. I beleive we need to cover more of the local youth events. I dont care if it is Football, Baseball, Golf, or the Debate Team. We should not depend on parents to cover the events. They are there to support the efforts and hard work of thier kids, not to be a reporter. Maybe if the PDT would put more local coverage in black and white, they would be able to make more green.