Times-News fails again

[Justin]

For some reason when I first saw this posting from Joe last week I knew it would turn into this. Come on guys, lets try to not be totally ridiculous. In my opinion the paper has in fact improved their coverage of high school T&F and XC since Kevin has come into the area. There is no way in hell a state champion distance runner would get a headline on the sports section the day after the race otherwise. Even though Kevin is not an official sports writer for the TN, I think his influence has improved things some. Road racing has seen the biggest boost by far. Every race has articles leading up to them announcing the upcoming race and then a small article highlighting the races is regular. This was almost non-existent in the past.

All in all though the egos and arguing skills of our local adult runners is not what is important in this case, it's the acknowledgment of our fantastic student athletes, whose achievements should be reported on honestly and accurately. I've always felt the paper was always short of an honest effort when reporting on "minor" sports as a whole, including our sports. I do feel we have get a leg up on other sports though, I haven't seen much on other minor sports.

What has always bothered me about the local coverage has been the ignorance as to the level our local young runners compete related to other sports. It is a routine exercise for local athletes to go down state and win state titles and move on to collegiate competition. This is unprecedented in any other sport in our area.

Overall though from my experience, this shortcoming affects the student athletes very little. Never in my time running in this area did I think in training or racing that I was really hoping the paper would cover this, or care. The congratulations from my coach, family, teammates, and friends were more important. An unrealized place where I felt a ton of pride getting props from was from the local road racing and running community. Having Dave Reinhart or Jeff Smith come up to me for congratulations when I would see them was more of a highlight than I can remember. Most of all though being happy within myself was what I loved most. There were races where I won, but maybe didn't give my all and I was unhappy, but other races where I had not won, but I went deep down to see what I had and I was more proud.

I guess my point of this long post was to encourage you guys to cool it and to realize what is important in our sport. These young people follow your lead more than you realize and showing them the way should be a top priority and trump any and all petty feuds that may exist.

[kspradlin]

Justin, I agree with much of your post from the second paragraph down (I won't touch the first one).

Minor sports - tennis, running and in some markets (such as this one) wrestling, among others - are consistently overlooked. Not saying those are worth front page, above the fold stories on a regular basis but the fact that very rarely there are any results in there ... certainly shows the priorities of local media outlets. And individual reporters will made their own calls on what's newsworthy. In a state title meet, some might advocate that anyone who qualified for that competition and competes deserves mention. Others would argue only medal-winners - top 8, top 6 or maybe just top 3. Others might say just the winners and runners-up. Depends on many factors (interest, space, deadline, etc.).

I tried to offer people on this board an out on that issue, or at least a point of agreement. Some refused to take it. I also offered a solution - call the newspaper (or other outlet one might have concerns about).

I also mentioned that it takes an advocate for that team/school/minor sport to submit information to the local media outlets. for these minor sports. How do you think public golf outings get into the paper? I assure you the sports staff at the Times-News is not at the country club covering golf on a regular basis - or pool at the local bars. But it gets in anyway because someone took the time to submit it. It's clear they usually won't take the time to do it themselves.

My passion is running. While my knowledge of the sport can be argued all day long, I don't think many can reasonably question my interest and desire to promote the sport - at all levels.

The Times-News certainly isn't the only problem in this market - although one I can speak to best about for obvious reasons. Right now, WCBC, for example had this to say about Ian's state title:

"Ian MacFawn brought home a state title in track after delivering a great performance at the Maryland 1A State Track Meet this weekend. MacFawn won the 1600m event and finished 2nd in the 3200m event."

Two lousy sentences. That's it. That's not good enough. And did other outlets have at least that much, or more? Not sure, but it'd be nice for someone to check out.

As for anything running-related that comes my way, here's how I generally work: I submit my material first to TriStateRunnur.com 99 percent of the time because I know it will be published with 24-36 hours. Usually less. With other outlets, it could take much, much longer to see the light of day and be available to readers. In print media, space is always a consideration and, of course, I appreciate any space any paper is willing to give anything I might write (from Garrett County to points east).

Only on very, very rare occasions will I give my stuff to the Times-News first on an exclusive basis. That's because I want it printed immediately and, for many reasons, the paper can't accommodate that sometimes.

I'd like to take this opportunity - if you're still reading - to send to me - preferably at [e-mail] but also at [e-mail] - any interesting tidbit you think is worth an article. Maybe I can follow up, maybe I can't. Even if it's not a state title winner story, maybe it's a slow news day (or, for TSR, I have a few extra minutes at home) and can follow it up anyway.

I'm in the information business. I'll take it any legal way I can get it. Email is best (I can respond at my convenience). Phone call is OK, too, but please know that whether I'm at work or at home, I might not have the time to talk about running at that moment - but I'll be happy to call you back.

Oh, and lastly - I make mistakes. All reporters do (and anyone else who writes). Just let us know and most credible writers are willing to fix those errors as quickly as possible.

[davetreber]

I was mainly on here checking to see how many people had offered to volunteer for the Rocky Gap Triathlon. Let me know -- Karen and Larry and all need volunteers! But while on the message board I saw all this thread....

I have no complaints about media coverage from the Times-News. We have a fair number of running articles in there all in all, and that's thanks to many people, both from the inside and the outside.
Could the coverage have been different? It's all re-hashing now. In the future, if one of us wants to ask the Times-News if someone is going to be at an important event and then offer that we can help out: How many words do you want? Pictures? And then meet their deadline, e-mail it in plain text, write well with a look at all the schools overall, well, I don't know how many papers where there is such a high likelihood that this article would run word for word. The fact is, even now, if someone wants to write up a "HS Track & Field Year In Review" about the outstanding season from so many of our student-athletes, Mike would probably love that for the Sports Insert. I realize it would not be as timely as next-day coverage, but still would be much appreciated by the student-athletes and the families/communities that support them.

As to the inaccuracies that have been cited, send them a blurb and it will probably get printed as an update/correction. We do have the "inside track" on quality information, and in this paper at least an opportunity to help our high schoolers get recognized. I may be "biased" on this, too, of course, but whatever people think of me they can't take away all those sub 4-minute high school miles I used to run when no one was timing me.

Happy running to all!
Dave Treber

[Justin]

Dave,

My personal favorite article in the paper every year is the run down of how well the local guys and gals are doing in collegiate XC. It is amazing at how many of our local student athletes step up to the next level, and I've always thought is was awesome how you put the compilation together as much as possible.