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Response from Gazette sports editor

Cycsk

Cycsk

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Clonepackof1 said:
I am a Cyclone fan. I am an employee of the Gazette. Candidly, the role I have here would allow me to dictate coverage if that is what I wanted to do. But that would be a bad idea for a variety of reasons.

To first address the market research, every three years we do a fairly significant market study. The study is conducted by personnel at a research firm that frankly don't really care what the outcomes are, they simply conduct the study and turn over the results. The study typically consists of the following: Three small in-person focus groups (10-12 each), one comprised of subscribers, one comprised of non-subscribers and one that is mixed. This is to get opinions and feedback about a wide variety of topics including content of all types, print layout, digital layout, community interaction and other things of the groups' choosing. That feedback is then taken and put into a "quant" study to get a statistically valid market sample of hundreds of people on those topics that were generated and discussed in the focus groups. The quant survey is completed by a balance of subscribers, occasional readers but not subscribers, and those who almost never consume our products. Decisions about the product are made off the resulting data. If there is a bias, it comes from our market - not from those inside the building.

Secondly, I actually had a hand in creating our Game Day and Final Score sections for Saturdays and Sundays in the fall. In fact, when we went to market to get our first sponsors over eight years ago, I personally reached out to over a dozen "pro-Cyclone" business owners. I also reached out directly to Jamie Pollard in an attempt to give someone, anyone who cared about Cyclone athletics to step up and establish a presence in Eastern Iowa. None wanted to play.

Prior to that, when we owned KCRG and purchased the rights to air a select number of Iowa State basketball games (Eustachy era), we put on a HUGE dog and pony show at the station. Food, drink, a sizzle reel of Iowa State, market research showing a significant number of ISU grads in our viewing area. We were the number one station in market. You know how many packages for those games were sold to advertisers: Exactly zero. You know why? Advertisers said the following: Cyclone fans don't spend money like Iowa fans do, and there are a lot more Hawk fans to market to.

So, between pro-Cyclone entities that choose not to play when we give them first look, and businesses that view us as "tight" or "cheap" (exhibit A to the poster earlier who bragged of spending less than $10 on his consumption of ISU news), profitably covering ISU is a non-starter. It is also the reason why I get much (nearly all, frankly) of my ISU information from this very website. I would prefer to get it from my own publication, but I also understand the economics involved. On that note, it would be my sincere hope that everyone in this thread who has lodged a complaint about coverage has made some sort of monetary donation to Chris to help fund his ongoing coverage of the Cyclones. If you haven't, then you really don't have anything to complain about.
Click to expand...


Kudos to a stand up guy. Not sure I agree that the research leads to the results he claims, but I give him lots of credit for coming on here and explaining it from his perspective.

Love his closing line:

"On that note, it would be my sincere hope that everyone in this thread who has lodged a complaint about coverage has made some sort of monetary donation to Chris to help fund his ongoing coverage of the Cyclones. If you haven't, then you really don't have anything to complain about."

Indeed. It is time to dial up our support of CF, not just our complaints.
 
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huntt26

huntt26

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Clonepackof1 said:
I am a Cyclone fan. I am an employee of the Gazette. Candidly, the role I have here would allow me to dictate coverage if that is what I wanted to do. But that would be a bad idea for a variety of reasons.

To first address the market research, every three years we do a fairly significant market study. The study is conducted by personnel at a research firm that frankly don't really care what the outcomes are, they simply conduct the study and turn over the results. The study typically consists of the following: Three small in-person focus groups (10-12 each), one comprised of subscribers, one comprised of non-subscribers and one that is mixed. This is to get opinions and feedback about a wide variety of topics including content of all types, print layout, digital layout, community interaction and other things of the groups' choosing. That feedback is then taken and put into a "quant" study to get a statistically valid market sample of hundreds of people on those topics that were generated and discussed in the focus groups. The quant survey is completed by a balance of subscribers, occasional readers but not subscribers, and those who almost never consume our products. Decisions about the product are made off the resulting data. If there is a bias, it comes from our market - not from those inside the building.

Secondly, I actually had a hand in creating our Game Day and Final Score sections for Saturdays and Sundays in the fall. In fact, when we went to market to get our first sponsors over eight years ago, I personally reached out to over a dozen "pro-Cyclone" business owners. I also reached out directly to Jamie Pollard in an attempt to give someone, anyone who cared about Cyclone athletics to step up and establish a presence in Eastern Iowa. None wanted to play.

Prior to that, when we owned KCRG and purchased the rights to air a select number of Iowa State basketball games (Eustachy era), we put on a HUGE dog and pony show at the station. Food, drink, a sizzle reel of Iowa State, market research showing a significant number of ISU grads in our viewing area. We were the number one station in market. You know how many packages for those games were sold to advertisers: Exactly zero. You know why? Advertisers said the following: Cyclone fans don't spend money like Iowa fans do, and there are a lot more Hawk fans to market to.

So, between pro-Cyclone entities that choose not to play when we give them first look, and businesses that view us as "tight" or "cheap" (exhibit A to the poster earlier who bragged of spending less than $10 on his consumption of ISU news), profitably covering ISU is a non-starter. It is also the reason why I get much (nearly all, frankly) of my ISU information from this very website. I would prefer to get it from my own publication, but I also understand the economics involved. On that note, it would be my sincere hope that everyone in this thread who has lodged a complaint about coverage has made some sort of monetary donation to Chris to help fund his ongoing coverage of the Cyclones. If you haven't, then you really don't have anything to complain about.
Click to expand...

I guess that is also why we can't get a pro-Cyclone bar in CR either - even though it is requested almost every week here on CF for game watch locations. Sigh.
 
huntt26

huntt26

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The bad part about CF vs Gazette is that casual fans and non-fans read the Gazette. If Gazette has stuff in there about ISU being awesome or doing cool things in the community, it gains more fans, support, etc. The ISU coverage on CF is freaking amazing. But the people that read CF are already Cyclone fans or trolls of rival teams.
 
BryceC

BryceC

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FinalFourCy said:
It's not brain surgery, yet you're ******* it up. Ames: Iowa City
Des Moines: CR
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If you the the demographics of the ratio of cyclone to hawkeye fans are the same in those to cities I don’t know what to tell you.
 
dmh

dmh

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dbodeenisudm said:
Local sports radio in Cedar Rapids actually tries to talk about Iowa State including having John Walters; Brent Blum and others on every week. But the bottom line is Iowa State is just not that interesting of a topic in Eastern Iowa.
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Growing up around your traditional "I went to Walmart to buy this Hawkeye shirt" and "every team but the Hawkeyes sucks" as well as the classic "the refs want the hawks to lose" type of hawk fans, it got real flippin annoying hearing hawk coverage as much as I did. Their annoying fans as well as the biased coverage made ISU more and more intriguing after the first time I heard of the cyclones. I grew up in the northeast corner.

I forget how many Cedar Rapids area players are cyclones but, there are plenty I know.... Including starting center Julian Good Jones.... Iowa City may be closer to Cedar Rapids clearly but, it does not make the Cyclones, Panthers nor Bulldogs mincemeat.

I know the ratio of Hawk to Cyclone to ________ fill in the blank fans in eastern Iowa is probably around 500-10-1. I do sadly get that. I also sadly get that many Panther fans are Iowa fans. Its ok though. However, aside from rivalry weeks, it is almost a hatred in some areas with some hawk fans. There are also some mature fans that once the rivalry week is done, they either ignore or support the other teams in the state.

I understand why the gazette does not want to change sadly. I honestly do not see the register being as pro-cyclone as the gazette is pro-hawk. Its one thing for the Ames Tribune to be more ISU focused or the IC Press Citizen to be more hawk focused. I get that. However the gazette is the unofficial hawk paper some days. That's ok though. ISU got the center headline Saturday on ESPN.com...... That sounded better anyways!
 

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mganzeveld

mganzeveld

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I live in CR and there actually is a decent amount of Cyclone fans here considering our location. The ISU marching band played at Kingston last night and there were at least 30 kids in the band who were from the area. Rockwell keeps quite a few grads in their departments so it isn't like the market is invisible. Got sick of the page 3B garbage and canceled our subscription a long time ago. Their policy is their loss. Still makes me angry though because their online site is just as bad. It is almost like they sit on articles and when ISU does something fantastic they'll post the ISU headline and then unleash the lesser things so the ISU news gets buried. Now if an ISU athlete gets arrested for armed robbery, that'll make the headlines on page one of the Gazette.
 
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CTTB78

CTTB78

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huntt26 said:
I guess that is also why we can't get a pro-Cyclone bar in CR either - even though it is requested almost every week here on CF for game watch locations. Sigh.
Click to expand...

Our 'Cyclone fan' Gazette sports editor will tell you it's because Iowa State fans would not spend enough money if a location was established. Double sigh.
 
Cyforce

Cyforce

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Biggest win in program history, some bring access to tidbits of accolades from the national media which is fine but I'd rather read real incite about the win from people that know Iowa State. But the crap I hate are the butt hurts that choose to find the perceived slights as a call to arms.
 
Cydkar

Cydkar

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I don't read the Gazette so therefore have no gripe about the Gazette. I don't read the Register either and they are both readily available in CR. If you don't like it, don't pay for it. EZ-PZ.
 
Psyclone

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dbodeenisudm said:
There are definitely more Cyclone basketball fans in Eastern Iowa. I have seen a growing trend of old time Hawkeyes fans from the 80s and 90s lose interest of the Hawkeyes over time but pick up Cyclone basketball as a winter hobby. That is not happening on the football side of things. Luckily in Cedar Rapids we have KGYM ESPN radio which is great I must say. It is on the Cyclone Radio Network and their local shows give balanced coverage. Listening and reading about the Cyclones all the time gets old sorry. Between this site and cyclones.com there is more than enough content and we dont need the newspapers to feed us quotes anymore; cyclones.com has that covered. If anything this thread is a funeral for the newspaper industry. KCRG is probably the top media medium in Cedar Rapids. This is hard for folks to understand but its no conspiracy; ISU football just is not that interesting of a topic for those in Eastern Iowa currently. Only competing on a national stage can help that.
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I live in Cedar Rapids and quit the Gazette in the 70's due to poor coverage of the Cyclones. I used to listen to KGYM and while they had John Walters and an occasional Cyclone guest on, they couldn't change the subject fast enough when they hung up the phone.

Fortunately I can listen to KXNO and other podcasts on my iPhone. I like KXNO because of the more balanced coverage they give the Cyclones. I listen to every minute of every podcast. I haven't tuned to KGYM for a few years. Heck, they don't even have the call in show on live. It's delayed 30 minutes, so they're out and CyclonesTV is in.
 
Psyclone

Psyclone

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Cycsk said:
Kudos to a stand up guy. Not sure I agree that the research leads to the results he claims, but I give him lots of credit for coming on here and explaining it from his perspective.

Love his closing line:

"On that note, it would be my sincere hope that everyone in this thread who has lodged a complaint about coverage has made some sort of monetary donation to Chris to help fund his ongoing coverage of the Cyclones. If you haven't, then you really don't have anything to complain about."

Indeed. It is time to dial up our support of CF, not just our complaints.
Click to expand...
About 15-20 years ago, I met with the guys selling advertising for what was KCRG radio, now KGYM. After talking with them it was clear they would have trouble selling advertising for Cyclone games. They didn't believe in the product. They were Hawkeye homers. They were defeated before they even set foot in a business. And I think they liked it that way.
 
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weR138

weR138

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farminclone said:
their logic is flawed - they don't have any ISU readers because they don't provide any good ISU coverage.

Chicken and the egg.
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It's the same bull**** you used hear at Scheels..."We don't sell more ISU gear because people don't buy it." In the ten years since I first heard that the ISU section has grown bigger than the UNL section.
 
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