Sports editors in the state of Alabama had some experience in a local team winning the BCS championship, from when Alabama beat Texas last year.
But a record southern snowstorm on gameday Jan. 10, when Auburn defeated Oregon in Glendale, Ariz., created a fresh set of challenges this time around. Several editors and reporters scrambled to adapt to last-minute changes because of the historic storm that left some parts of the state covered in a foot of snow and ice, all while satisfying a divided readership split between bitter rivals in the Crimson Tide and Tigers.
*– This was the biggest of hometown stories for Mike Szvetitz and the Opelika-Auburn News' three-person staff, which sent two reporters, a photographer, and a web manager for the site www.oanow.com/bcs in Glendale. The News' sports and news sections devoted three pages daily for the weekend leading up to the game, plus a 24-page special section running Jan. 9.
Game night had four sports pages, plus three pages from the A section. A 24- page retrospective is planned for Jan. 22, the day of Auburn’s official celebration at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Szvetitz said there are many Alabama fans in their coverage area, in the eastern part of the state, and that the News covered last year’s game the best it could, but Auburn was obviously more important and the staff worked to its capacity. A trade agreement with the Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard helped round out the content and show fans how "the other half lived," Szvetitz said.
"Three days later, we still have people lined up in our lobby wanting to purchase copies of Tuesday’s paper, as well as ordering plaques and commemorative editions," Szvetitz said. "Our online numbers have jumped significantly as well, and our social media following has increased, too."
*– Brad Zimanek said the Montgomery Advertiser used three reporters and a photographer, but kept an additional photographer home due to weather concerns. However, the weather did not affect the deadline. The online component was handled at HABOTN.com (Hottest Auburn blog on the net) from the paper’s website, which Zimanek said increased traffic.
The Advertiser used its existing newshole pregame, with a 20-page postgame section that sold ads, unlike the Alabama section from last year.
There was also a book published at 9 a.m. the next day, which was available in Montgomery by Friday after the game.
*– Randy Kennedy of the Mobile Press-Register ran a 20-page broadsheet special section before the game and a 12-page broadsheet after it.
Gameday devoted all of 1A, the sports front, and four inside pages.
This paper shared content with fellow Newhouse papers in Birmingham and Huntsville, and the Portland Oregonian. Kennedy added there was internal concern last year when they introduced the idea of shared coverage among the three papers, but the end result was enhanced coverage through a cooperative effort.
The Press-Register also teamed with the Portland Oregonian for a 142- inch position-by-position analysis of both teams and material that did not make it to print was well-received online.
"Within Alabama, the split is about 65-35 in favor of Alabama," Kennedy said. "But the interest in college football is so great in this state that fans on both sides were greatly interested in the coverage both years, even if most were cheering for the out-of-state team one of those years."
*– Tom Arenberg and the Birmingham News apparently felt the worst of the weather crunch after a 30-page preview section (94 columns of newshole) on the Sunday before the game and a 10-page live section with 38 columns postgame, with the six-person Newhouse team. Birmingham, the biggest paper in the state and located near its geographic center, covered the last two BCS title games evenly, Arenberg said.
"Everyone in the sports department was scheduled to work and indeed showed up — in some cases by going to a downtown hotel room before the snow hit and in some cases by driving very, very slowly on the ice," Arenberg said. "It was a nice display of professionalism by the entire department."
Arenberg said the paper’s management decided on the afternoon of game day it could not meet the Tuesday morning delivery deadline of 5:30 a.m. without risking the safety of their carriers after weather and road conditions prevented delivery of Monday’s paper. So they went with a noon, Tuesday delivery deadline and ran just one edition instead of the usual two. That gave the staff a later deadline of 2 a.m. instead of 1 a.m. Central time, but also increased some nerves.
"That put tremendous pressure on everyone not to make any mistakes, because we wouldn't be able to fix them once the pages were output," Arenberg said. "We were all dreading the possibility that a historic section that Auburn fans would keep forever might have some horrible mistake in it. But that didn't happen, thankfully."
Both the Monday and Tuesday editions were delivered sometime on Tuesday, Arenberg said, and the paper made its online electronic edition, (a replica of the newspaper) free to all to compensate for the delivery troubles.
There was also coverage on the shared website www.al.com, with an on-site producer and blogging, videos, photo galleries, and live chats before and during the game. Thanks to content sharing with the Oregonian, Auburn fans were able to question Oregon reporters, and Oregon fans could question Auburn reporters. There was also a joint Facebook page with Oregon Live. Arenberg said on-line unique visitors were higher this year, but thought that was mainly due to snowstorm information and that over a period of several weeks, page views this year were less than last year.
*– John Turner and the Huntsville Times, at the other Newhouse paper, published two special sections, one preview and one commemorative, and both at 14 pages. There was also a 12-page postgame sports section, with nine on the game. Deadlines were bumped up by 90 minutes the day before and the day after the game. On the night of the game, there were just two people, including Turner, on the desk because of travel conditions. An agate clerk was called off three nights in a row due to snow and ice.
"Needless to say, that was a tough night, But it got done, and we’re all still alive," Turner said. "Working with our Auburn bureau, as well as writers from Mobile and Birmingham, was extremely helpful in getting strong content to fill those news holes in the 37- day layoff."
*– Gregg DeWalt and the 28,000-circulation Florence Timesdaily also shared content, but with sister papers in Anniston and Decatur.
Anniston has the Auburn beat writer and Florence, in the northwest part of the state, has Alabama writers. They had three writers and a photographer in Arizona from Jan. 4, and an additional writer and shooter from Anniston arrived on Jan. 7. Florence began planning in mid-December, reviewing some of Alabama’s coverage the year before, and budgets changed often in that time.
DeWalt said Florence’s daily goal was a 1A story, a sports centerpiece, combined notebook, and two columns. There were four-page wraps for Saturday and Sunday, a 12-page GameDay preview section with most of the copy done before the trip. Mark Edwards of the Decatur Daily blogged and Florence posted additional photos to the web each day.
Some of their 1A presence at the Timesdaily was hindered by a series that began running the week before the game and then Monday and Tuesday because of the biggest snowstorm to hit this area in 50 years.
"We devoted four pages to game coverage — the cover (gamer, column), and three inside pages (an early picture page, two pages of coverage)," DeWalt said. "Our deadline was 1 a.m., which we came pretty close to hitting. I sent my column at 1:07 a.m. after writing a 1A story and doing Oregon team grades, gamebreakers and early notes."
