With the consolidation of the Contra Costa Times, San Jose Mercury-News, Oakland Tribune and pretty much every other newspaper, there will be major layoffs in the sports departments of the Bay Area News Group.
There are two major reasons that BANG is likely to cut back on prep sports coverage:
1) High school sports is the most labor-intensive activity in the sports department. (All local news coverage is more expensive that national coverage, which is supplied by wire services.) Not only does it require reporters, it requires photographers, people to take phone calls and the necessity of producing pages on deadline rather than at a steady pace through the shift.
Any manager looking to cut editorial costs ("editorial" is the department that produces the news sections) is going to look hard at high school sports coverage, as it's easy to suggest that only a small percentage of readers care about it since no one watches it on TV, at least compared to the NFL.
2) The Mercury-News, which is now running the BANG show, has always put less emphasis on high school sports coverage than the Times or the Tribune or the East Bay papers.
Given that history, and the quick and dirty savings that would occur by cutting editorial staff in the prep sports department, it seems pretty likely that the coming layoffs will severely impact the coverage of high school sports. It's possible that a web site presence will be maintained, but if the San Francisco Chronicle is any guide, the web site coverage would be the next to go.
If you value print coverage of high school sports -- if you think it's an important part of the fabric of community life -- send an e-mail to Executive Editor Dave Butler at dbutler@mercurynews.com, and let him know that there are many people who read his newspapers because of high school sports coverage, and that it is short-sighted to save some pennies by cutting sportswriters when it will cost his company a large number of customers who will no longer need to buy his product.
After the cuts are made, it will be too late, so I urge you to send that e-mail as quickly as possible -- and have as many people as possible do the same.
There are two major reasons that BANG is likely to cut back on prep sports coverage:
1) High school sports is the most labor-intensive activity in the sports department. (All local news coverage is more expensive that national coverage, which is supplied by wire services.) Not only does it require reporters, it requires photographers, people to take phone calls and the necessity of producing pages on deadline rather than at a steady pace through the shift.
Any manager looking to cut editorial costs ("editorial" is the department that produces the news sections) is going to look hard at high school sports coverage, as it's easy to suggest that only a small percentage of readers care about it since no one watches it on TV, at least compared to the NFL.
2) The Mercury-News, which is now running the BANG show, has always put less emphasis on high school sports coverage than the Times or the Tribune or the East Bay papers.
Given that history, and the quick and dirty savings that would occur by cutting editorial staff in the prep sports department, it seems pretty likely that the coming layoffs will severely impact the coverage of high school sports. It's possible that a web site presence will be maintained, but if the San Francisco Chronicle is any guide, the web site coverage would be the next to go.
If you value print coverage of high school sports -- if you think it's an important part of the fabric of community life -- send an e-mail to Executive Editor Dave Butler at dbutler@mercurynews.com, and let him know that there are many people who read his newspapers because of high school sports coverage, and that it is short-sighted to save some pennies by cutting sportswriters when it will cost his company a large number of customers who will no longer need to buy his product.
After the cuts are made, it will be too late, so I urge you to send that e-mail as quickly as possible -- and have as many people as possible do the same.
