Baseball May Be ‘America’s' Pastime But To US Newspapers These Days It’s Just A Cost Center

Philip M. Stone April 16, 2009 Follow on Twitter

Newspaper readers are not stupid; they recognize editorial cutbacks when they see them – they may not always complain but they know what is going on -- which is why the Washington Post has had to come clean on its baseball coverage cutbacks.

The Post’s ombudsman has had to answer complaints such as “I may have missed it, but I never saw a statement in the paper about its obvious decision not to cover the Baltimore Orioles (baseball team) this season. The coverage of the Orioles has disappeared.”

It’s the type of complaint being heard in newsrooms across America these days as readers who know what they are looking for in their favorite daily read suddenly aren’t finding as much of it any more. Baseball league play began just last week and the coverage cutbacks are obvious and readers are letting it be known they don’t like it. Mess with coverage of someone’s favorite sports team and you are just plain asking for trouble!

Many suburban newspapers across the country have decided to not cover teams with a staffer anymore, relying instead on the AP, or if they continue staffing home games they’re not staffing the expensive road trips to venues across the country.  Newspapers that previously considered themselves competitors are now exchanging their coverage to cut costs and the rule seems to be in today’s newspaper business model that you get coverage where and how you can at the cheapest rate possible unless you absolutely, positively must do it all yourself. One problem with consolidation and the like, of course, is that newspapers seem to forget there is a reason for a byline – readers tend to get comfy with a name they see day in and day out over the years – something to do with building trust -- and when suddenly a new name pops up it takes some getting used to.

It’s all part of the new reality in newspaperland as editorial budgets get slashed and no matter what mask newspapers put on their coverage this year, the end result is likely to send more male newspaper readers to the Internet or to cable sports networks to get the baseball fix that used to be available at the kitchen breakfast table. Why read the AP story in the morning when it can be read the night before on the Internet? Newspapers used to offer something different for morning readers – some still do, but not as many as before and is that not a prime example of shooting one’s self in the foot?

The Post’s ombudsman, Andrew Alexander, explained in his column, “As with other recent changes in coverage and content, The Post has done little to spell out the rationale to readers.”  The explanation given by Sports Editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz was simply that the newspaper needed to cut expenses.

The Post used to dedicate a writer to cover Oriole games, but no more. It has a deal to exchange its coverage of the Washington Nationals for The Baltimore Sun’s coverage of the Orioles. The Post has dropped its Orioles Notebook column and whereas it used to dedicate separate editorial pages to cover the other games in the American and National Leagues that coverage is now condensed to one page.

The Orioles are a secondary team to The Post given it has the Nationals, but with Washington only 40 miles (60-kms) from Baltimore the newspaper obviously has Orioles fans, especially those living between the two cities, who now may well be saying they are not getting their necessary dosage from The Post. Maybe they’ll switch to The Sun just so they can get their fill of Orioles coverage?  Tracee Hamilton, The Post’s deputy sports editor, admits she opposed reducing Orioles coverage, recognizing that it would “alienate some longtime readers who have strong attachments to the Orioles.”

(The Sun, owned by Tribune, is big into cutting news coverage costs via consolidation and for bringing in new revenue. While for years Washington and Baltimore have considered themselves competitive newspaper markets going after the same suburban readers between the two cities, The Sun now actually prints the Washington Times.)

The Post’s ombudsman succinctly summed up what is true not just for The Post but for many other newspapers these days. “The Post faces an uncomfortable public relations dilemma in talking about the Orioles cutbacks. Open acknowledgment, coming on the heels of other content reductions, may seem too risky at a time when the newspaper just increased the price of home delivery for the weekday and Sunday newspaper.

“But silence is worse, creating suspicion among readers and eroding loyalty and trust. Readers are smart and understanding. They would accept The Post’s solid reasons for its painful decision to reduce Orioles coverage.”

Another major example of consolidated coverage is in Texas between The Dallas Morning News and the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram.  Both newspapers use the Star-Telegram’s Texas Rangers baseball coverage and both use the Star-Telegram’s coverage of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and the Dallas Stars ice hockey squad.  They’ll also share coverage of some college teams but columnists remain separate. The Texas Rangers are located in Arlington, just about halfway between Dallas and Ft. Worth and both newspapers used to compete mightily on that coverage. But no more.

But there are limits even in bleak economic times and both newspapers are continuing their separate coverage of Dallas Cowboys football. The team opens a new stadium next season; its old stadium had only a partially closed roof and the question visitors would always ask is why the architects didn’t go the whole way and close it up. The snappy answer was they didn’t want to prevent God from watching His team at play!  Obviously, with such a patron, coverage consolidation is off limits -- Texans take their football real serious.

The Baseball Writers Association of America laments that this year the organization is experiencing it biggest membership drop in 15 years, down 65 members and even that is with the addition of online writers. Usually the numbers are down 10 -15 annually, and much of the decline is due to suburban newspapers cutbacks.   The Free-Enterprise (Belo) in Riverside some 60 miles (100 kms) east of Los Angeles, for instance, used to cover  The Los Angeles Dodgers at home and away with a staffer, but this season only home games are staffed.  

Consolidation is rife, such as the agreement between The Orange County Register, in Santa Ana, and The Los Angeles Daily News on coverage of their two local teams – The Register covers the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (7 miles from Santa Ana, 36 miles from Los Angeles) and The Daily News does likewise for the Dodgers.  

The big metropolitan newspapers are still covering their in-town teams at home and away but “we’re waiting for the first domino to fall, for that first major newspaper not covering its team on the road,” said Baseball Association President David O’Brien.

Baseball coverage doesn’t come cheap. The New York Times estimates than in addition to staff salary, covering a team away adds another $50,000 in costs for the season.  Which is why even it sometimes sends just one staffer on away trips when it used to always send two. 

Newspapers are making the cutbacks for all the reasons that don’t need further explanation. The real question out there, however, is whether messing with man’s favorite sports team could be the straw that broke the reader’s back?