PORTSMOUTH DAILY TIMES coverage

[madpolecat]

Having been on both two sides of this issue (coach and journalist) I have to respond with a resounding

WHAH!
WHAH!
WHAH!

If the product is inferior, don't buy it; let your dollars talk.

Nobody owes any of these kids who play ball a darned bit of "coverage." Any kid who plays HS football or anything other HS sport for the glory of being seen in the paper or on Gridiron Glory is playing for the wrong reasons, folks.

Maybe kids should play sports to stay fit and active, or God forbid, FOR FUN!!!

Wonder why Americans and rural people are so fat? It's because this "entitled to be covered" mentality teaches kids that you play for something besides the sheer joy of it; they expect to get something from the world for playing.

No wonder most of these kids won't even play recreational sports after high school. They were never taught to play for FUN!!!

[Buffalo65]

ANY "newspaper" owes its readers and its communities to report not only national news but the local news...ALL of it and not pick and choose what or who it wants to write about. This is a small community with not a whole lot of excitement and people want to read about local activities and events. I don't think this is really about the kids reading about themselves but rather families being proud of their kids or grandkids, or neighbors reading about the kid down the street they've known for years or maybe someone who has left but still subscribes to keep up with their alma mater. Yeah, we can all cancel our subscription but why is it too much to ask for them to DO THEIR JOB?

[madpolecat]

I love how people in small towns think that a newspaper "owes" them something. The newspaper is a business which makes a product.

BTW, who owns the PDT? Is it somebody who lives in Scioto County or the "Greater Portsmouth area?"

Newspapers are not a community service, at least not anymore. If you don't like them, don't buy them.

[Bleeding Red]

I love how people in small towns think that a newspaper "owes" them something. The newspaper is a business which makes a product.

BTW, who owns the PDT? Is it somebody who lives in Scioto County or the "Greater Portsmouth area?"

Newspapers are not a community service, at least not anymore. If you don't like them, don't buy them.

I own a business, and I wouldnt for long if MY business didnt suit the needs of MY customers. If I wanted to do everything MY way and not let MY customers wants/needs have any effect on what I did, I would not be in business for long.

That is the fact of me selling something and having someone to buy it.


If they dont want to take heed of their customers needs, I HOPE THEY GO BROKE. Cause it isnt too darn hard to do!

No people dont have to buy it. But the PDT is too stupid to realize when they arent selling, then families dont have income and people go without.

GEEZ. Where did you get your business degree from?

[madpolecat]

You call it "sticking up for them" because you see the PDT as your enemy in this. Fair enough.

I am just pointing out the reality of the situation.

Northwestern University sponsors the READERSHIP INSTITUTE which studies the behavior of newspaper readers.

Read through their findings as much as you want, and NOWHERE will you see it stated that the way to save your newspaper and increase steady readership significantly is by covering high school -- or any kind of -- sports.

Fact of life, dude.

In general, -- and in business practices you have to play the odds -- those who would cancel their subscriptions because of high school sports coverage are not the people to worry about. Heck, how many of the people who cry about coverage commit to subscribing anyway?

Those who whine about HS sports coverage an overblown sense of their numbers relative to the total number of newspaper subscribers.

http://www.readership.org/default.asp

[Bleeding Red]

Read all the study you want.

The only study that I can tell you about is this:

For 2 weeks I hurried to get my hands on the Saturday morning PDT to read about the high school football games that I didnt make it to and even the one I did make it to.

2 weeks in a row there was brutal coverage, lack of coverage, 5th grade grammar and even spots in the articles where they refered one school by the name of another 3 times.

So I canceled. Study completed.

As far as I am concerned, thats a 100% cancelation rate in my book.

[madpolecat]

I own a business, and I wouldnt for long if MY business didnt suit the needs of MY customers. If I wanted to do everything MY way and not let MY customers wants/needs have any effect on what I did, I would not be in business for long.

Because YOU are the most important -- and only, as you seem to believe -- reader on their list...

Granny who buys the paper to see who died doesn't necessarily give a rat's arse about high school football.

[boogerred]

I think it is hilarious when a person knocks on the grammar of someone else and uses '5th-grade' grammar himself.

It should have been 'that's', not thats.

[Bleeding Red]

I think it is hilarious when a person knocks on the grammar of someone else and uses '5th-grade' grammar himself.

It should have been 'that's', not thats.

If you want to see real grammar problems, read the PDT.

Sorry, I dont work for them. My grammar is not down to their level, even with silly mistakes. You must work for the PDT.

Doesn't matter. I certainly wont be buying their paper. They can keep pleasing the "grannies" who want to read the obituaries. I like the sports myself, as does all of the other people on here hating on their current work ability.

[The_X_Factor]

If you want to see real grammar problems, read the PDT.

Or SouthEasternOhioPreps forums

I like the sports myself, as does all of the other people on here hating on their current work ability.

As DO all of the other people...

Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones, Bleeding Red.

I want to see the windbags like you back up what you've been saying. Here's how...take an article from last Friday's games or one from this Friday. Use the quotes the Times writer does. Write me an article. Let's see you do it. If you can do it at a competent level, or one better than they do at the Times, then you can talk.

[warhoop]

Personally speaking, a few of you have missed the point of the thread and thankfully most others have not. In this great land of ours, we have the FREEDOM to voice our frustrations and dislikes which in this instance happens to include the lack of adequate coverage of area sports. We're only asking for at the very least, the coverage we used to get. I don't recall seeing anyone say 'I demand to see my child on the front page with a color photo" etc. And the real beauty is...this is a common opinion among the area readers/parents/otherwise intersted parties.

Bottom line is, we're only expressing our frustration. We'd prefer better coverage of our teams. Yes, a lot of people do buy the paper because of it..and consequently have also stopped taking the paper because of it. Arguably, there is little else of interest in the paper. For the most part, everything else can be read online or seen on TV, that is EXCEPT our area sports coverage.

Look at The Scioto Voice for example. I would assume they're a relatively small paper by comparison to The Times. Yet the Voice seems to be able to come up with something intelligent to say about the games...AND they do it for all of them...WITH pictures. Now there's a concept.

Someone is taking this a little too personally on here and you have to wonder why? Maybe the WUAH's were from personal experience more than an observation of anything that was being written on this topic.

I will admit that he is right about one thing, I do expect it. And I have the right to stop patronizing a business that doesnt fulfill my needs or meet my expectations as a customer In our area, we expect at the very least, the coverage we're used to...of all area sports. We like it and we want to read about them. It has nothing to do with my son's 'stats' or an inflated ego.

I was very pleased with my recent purchase of The Voice. Think I'll make a habit of it. By the way, starting my sentences with verbs and prepositions isn't great grammar...but at least I know that. When one is typing on an informal blog or forum...it's not exactly the same as submitting something for publication. Again, just my opinion.

[sportsfan_1959]

Well said Warhoop.

[RogueWarrior1965]

I was very pleased with my recent purchase of The Voice. Think I'll make a habit of it. By the way, starting my sentences with verbs and prepositions isn't great grammar...but at least I know that. When one is typing on an informal blog or forum...it's not exactly the same as submitting something for publication. Again, just my opinion.

Ditto for me. I now make it a point to either buy it on Thursday if I am in the area or on Friday before or after the ballgame. They do a really nice job. The other thing I may do is subscribe to the Scioto Voice online. It is only $22 per year, you can access the entire paper online and it is in a PDF, so the text is sharp and the pictures are really clear. If you visit their website they have a sample from last week's paper, which is the first page of the sports section (the Wheelersburg game and the West game, I think are the two games on the sample page). The key thing is they cover ALL the teams. A lot of it looks like what is briefed out by the coaches on the Saturday Morning SportsLine, which is great. You know you are getting the correct information then and not something from a reporter that doesn't have the expertise to properly cover the game.

Great job by the Scioto Voice and I too will no longer waste my money on the PDT.

[madpolecat]

I was involved with -- writing, photography and layout -- a paper that covered 14 high school football teams and aimed to get actual stories -- not "coach calls in blurbs" -- on the street by Saturday morning, and we were successful at it except for one thing... we lost money hand-over-fist on the thing.

There weren't enough people in Gallia, Jackson, Meigs, Mason WV, and Jackson WV -- total population of roughly 140K -- who wanted to buy the thing.

The Scioto Voice sounds like a neat publication. If they are covering all the high school football games, I would love to talk to somebody about the logistics of how they get that done.

Is it a daily paper does it come out a couple of times per week? When do the high school football stories hit the streets? Who writes them?

Where can I find it so that next time I am down around New Boston and Wheelersburg, I can take a look at it?

[Bleeding Red]

If you want to see real grammar problems, read the PDT.

Or SouthEasternOhioPreps forums

I like the sports myself, as does all of the other people on here hating on their current work ability.

As DO all of the other people...

Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones, Bleeding Red.

I want to see the windbags like you back up what you've been saying. Here's how...take an article from last Friday's games or one from this Friday. Use the quotes the Times writer does. Write me an article. Let's see you do it. If you can do it at a competent level, or one better than they do at the Times, then you can talk.

I will use my Master's Degree on something much more important- my business. I'll talk whenever I want. There is nothing you can do about it.

[yabbadabbadoo]

I will give the kudos for the gameday coverage today. It looked more like last years. You could actually read the articles and make sense of it.

Now onto the sports page itself. They had all of that High school action on page 3, yet the front sports page had 3 AP stories, one on the Buckeyes, one on the Reds and one on the freakin' Columbus Crew. Who cares about the Columbus Crew. maybe 5 people in the county.

They still need to do a better job on covering the local teams and not worry so much about the AP stuff. I realize it is easier to cut and past rather then actually writing a story.

Still not changing my mind in cancelling my subscription.

[drrabbit]

The Scioto Voice sounds like a neat publication. If they are covering all the high school football games, I would love to talk to somebody about the logistics of how they get that done.

Is it a daily paper does it come out a couple of times per week? When do the high school football stories hit the streets? Who writes them?

Where can I find it so that next time I am down around New Boston and Wheelersburg, I can take a look at it?

http://www.thesciotovoice.com

The Scioto Voice is a once a week paper. It is a family owned and operated enterprise. The owner manager at one time was a manager at PDT but even then had philosophical difference on what should be covered. She bought the Scioto Voice in 2000. It had little sports reporting before 2001. Since then, her husband quit his job and now works full-time as the 'sports editor.' They have no other paid sports staff though I think one of the other guys writes a few of the articles. Some coverage and most of the pictures are by unpaid volunteers who like to see the coverage. Mark is responsible for most of the football articles. He attends one or two football games a weekend. The rest of the information is gleamed and written up from a variety of sources. The paper goes to publishing on Tuesday and is printed on the presses in Ironton.

You can visit the website. There used to be a list of stores that carry the paper on the website but I don't see it now. Most of the gas stations, convience stores and Deemers' grocery carry it in Wheelersburg. I have seen it at the Country Store in Lucasville and a variety of other sites.

Front page of the sports from two weeks ago:
http://www.thesciotovoice.com/sports/B%20front.pdf

[madpolecat]

Thanks for the info...

[madpolecat]

Not a bad-looking front page.
The stories have a very old-school feel to the way they are written.

As far as producing the VOICE, having until Tuesday to write up the games probably helps things a great deal as far as getting all the games in there. Volunteer labor for stories and photos also helps.

The fact that THE VOICE sports is basically a one-man show without a pressing deadline (three hours after the games end, like many daily papers) goes a long way in aiding the production of the paper, as well as keeping costs down.

I guess that it would be kind of hard to compare the VOICE to PDT, though. One is a daily newspaper that must address a broader readership than a weekly paper.

I guess that you just have to choose your flavor, Coke or Pepsi, and go with it.

[boogerred]

Really nice looking pics, but I think more than two stories should be on the front of a section.