SALT LAKE CITY — Think you can squash the Great Zucchini?
That’s what readers of the Daily Herald in Provo, Utah, attempt to do, as mild-mannered staffer Neil Warner channels his alter ego, the outlandish and outspoken “Zuke,” to pick who will win the big high
school games in the area.
What once was a weekly staple in the newspaper has been adapted for online, with Warner also making humorous videos of “Zuke” teaching a new play to a coach or instructing a player how to shoot. Readers also get to make their picks online and compete for prizes.
With prep coverage seeing some of the same cutbacks in the past few years as the rest of the sports section – such as reduced staffing and a shrinking news hole – websites have become a home for some of that traditional coverage and provided new opportunities.
In Provo, that meant video previews of all 17 football teams in the coverage area. The videos featured interviews with players and coaches and some practice footage.
“Twenty years ago I had a really good idea about what readers wanted. Now, I’m not so sure,” Daily Herald sports editor Darnell Dickson said. “Do they still want to read their names in the paper? We have to look at it a different way (with the internet) and address their needs. Maybe they want something else.”
Danyelle White’s prep staff at the Salt Lake Tribune covers the entire state, yet must do so with about a column worth of space on weekdays.
“After a photo and a tease to online, that leaves about 10 to 12 inches (for a story),” said White, who does get a two-page pullout on Saturdays, which expands to four pages during the football season,
plus six weekly zoned editions that cover a 100-mile radius around Salt Lake City. “What we do cover, we make the most of it with videos, blogs and chats.”
The Chicago Tribune’s Paul Skrbina is just a year removed from being the sports editor at the under-20,000 circulation Sauk Valley (Ill.) Newspapers.
“It used to be high school was king (in Sauk Valley) … now it’s not even a servant in the royal court,” joked Skrbina, who has to battle for space in the Tribune with pro and college coverage.
Skrbina stressed the need to get quality enterprise pieces in the paper, leaving much of the day-to-day coverage for the web.
Robert Gagliardi of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle in Cheyenne has helped institute a content-sharing plan with its sister paper in Laramie, about 45 miles away. Gagliardi said that has helped lead to more features and interactive content.
“We’re hoping merging the two staffs will make us twice as good,” Gagliardi said.
Maybe that’s what sports editors can take away from balancing preps for print and web – it can make our product twice as good.
And maybe even good enough to squash the Great Zucchini.
