For the first time in what a number of angry callers/emails told me is 40 years, The Huntsville Times (Alabama, circ. 50k, 70k Sunday) is not running full baseball box scores from around the league. We lost a page from where we were last year (it was tight then), and it wasn’t possible to bring them back.
Amidst the initial deluge of phone calls, emails and person-to-person complaints I received, I reached out to a number of sports editors in our circulation bracket – 40,000-100,000 – on April 7. I asked them the following questions:
1. Are you still running full boxes for every MLB game?
2. If so, are you getting to a point where you’d have to consider cutting them? If not, when did you stop running them?
3. For those who aren’t printing them, what was the response like from readers (total complaints, time span those complaints continued, etc.) when you discontinued them?
4. For those who are printing them, are you having to find content to cut? What kind of content are you cutting?
The purpose was to (1) help give me some perspective as to where other newspapers are at, (2) learn some ways to manage the space I do have and (3) explain to my frustrated readers some of the greater forces in play.
I was grateful to receive the sage wisdom of 25 sports editors from around the country. Below are the findings, as well as some snippets from a handful of responses and the final decision from Huntsville.
Do you still run MLB box scores?
Yes: 22
No: 3
Notes: A few papers have experimented with cutting them in past years, only to return to running them within a week or so. It’s about split between those who still run the expanded boxes and those who run the side-by-side ones, though it’s been trending heavily toward the cut-down ones in recent years. For the bettors, the over/under is at 4.5 pages per day. Over, and just about everyone runs them. Under, and just about no one does.
Have you had to scale back your MLB coverage (don’t have answers from everyone)?
Yes: 13
No: 9
Notes: The three main things cut back were (1) not running back late boxes from the day before, (2) switching to side-by-side boxes and (3) cutting down on capsules. A few papers were even able to expand their coverage for one reason or another (see selected responses).
Have you considered cutting the box scores (don’t have answers from everyone)?
Yes: 9
No: 9
Notes: All but nine at least seemed to suggest that they have had to (or will have to) consider cutting out box scores, but I counted only those who came out and said “yes, we had that talk,” which was almost one in three responders. Most editors noted that keeping box scores has resulted in cutbacks in other areas, from the not-so-bad (NHL and NBA boxes) to the painful (preps, area team coverage).
Selected responses
"We lost our full baseball page last year and cut back to full boxes on what we consider our core teams (St. Louis, Cincy, both Chicagos). To be blunt, we caught hell, and it hasn't stopped yet. We lost some readers, older guys who couldn't live without the daily box scores. Made it hard to stop anywhere for a beer for a while."
Tim Etheridge in Evansville, Ind.
“To keep a bare minimum of baseball coverage, I did have to cut back a little on other things. Wire news that wasn't particularly local took the biggest hit. But preps lost a little space, as did outdoors, basketball and hockey.”
Andy Kuppers in Lakeland, Fla.
“Our section today and for Saturday is about 25 columns, and the baseball coverage takes an entire page. Honestly, I’m not sure how wise it is to spend that much space being a paper of record for an Oakland-Seattle game. But I also know we have a large number of middle-aged and older readers who probably count on the boxes.”
Eddie Wooten in Greensboro, N.C.
“Four years ago we cut down from running the long box scores to the short box scores because we had to reduce space. We got CRUSHED.”
Ed Reed in Fort Myers (who brought the boxes back)
“We actually just started running a MLB page this year. It's something we've never done before and it's being very well received.”
Mike Szvetitz in Opelika, Ala. (whose paper went to a Centralized Editing Center in Hickory, N.C.)
“The younger people on our staff were more inclined to say dump the boxes, because they go online for all that stuff. But the bottom line for us was that our core subscriber base still relies on us and expects us to deliver the box scores.”
Kirk Wessler in Peoria, Ill.
“About 3 years ago, we decided to just run the Braves / Yankees scores and standings (based on the majority of fans in our area who responded to a reader poll). That lasted for exactly two days. The number of phone calls to me, our executive editor and publisher were ridiculous.”
Dan Spears in Wilmington, N.C.
In Huntsville
As for us, we’re sticking to our guns. We run a half-page MLB section that includes just one box score (for the Braves). I’m considering bringing back the full page for the summer days but worry about the reaction when I’d have to cut them again when football starts.
The calls and emails came in a sizeable (yet not unruly) wave, then receded quickly. I still get complaints, but it’s manageable. I obviously want to make all my subscribers happy with their section, but continuing to run the full page cuts out 25% of the space and drastically limits what else we can run.
I’m sure we’ll never hear the end of it, though. I recently came in and the following sticky note was attached to my keyboard: “John, (subscriber) called about box scores and wants a return call. Says he wants to reach through the phone and punch you in the mouth.”
John Turner is the sports editor at The Huntsville Times in Huntsville, Ala. If you’d like to complain about box scores, he can be reached at john.turner@htimes.com or 256-541-0788.
