Response from Gazette sports editor

[CySmurf]

For Cy-Hawk week, our local Hy-Vee set up a tailgating display with about 12 dozen Hawkeye apparel items, a Hawkeye tailgating tent, and on the other side, a Cyclone crock pot. I was giving the kid (who I know well) doing merchandising a hard time, and he said he didn't order any of it, they just put out what corporate sends. The manager heard us talking and said the Hawk merchandise sells better. Yeah, we're southern Iowa but we are a little closer to Ames than Iowa City. Granted I only go there as a convenience store, prefer driving 20 miles to Fareway. But it is the prevalent attitude that no one but the Hawk fans matter.

How the hell would they know how well Cyclone stuff sells if they never have Cyclone things there to buy?

 

[BoxsterCy]

We have a nutjob who publishes our small town paper. That's the free press in Iowa.

I grew up loving to read the Sunday peach pages of the Register. They used to actually cover high school sports outside the DM metro. Now every day they fill up pages with Chad Leastacow and Randy whether anything is going on or not. They will cover Iowa baseball but refuse to acknowledge anything going on with ISU cross country or volleyball. Just a waste of paper.

This. I used to read both papers in the school library everyday in the late 1960's and occasionally drop into the public library to read some of the big city papers. As part of my Tribune subscription I get the Washington Post digital and subscribe to the NY Times. Not all the news can be reduced to a thirty second video spot or a 140 character paragraph.

 

[FinalFourCy]

"You see, The Gazette is an Eastern Iowa newspaper that caters to readers from Sigourney to Decorah, Tama to Epworth. Cedar Rapids-Marion and Iowa City are our biggest markets. Through lots of surveys, analytics on our website and interaction with our readers, we know Iowa athletics — and Iowa football in this case — is No. 1 among our customers. A close second is our high school coverage."

Do they cater to hawk fans, or create them?

 

[SolarGarlic]

I don't really understand why people still read newspapers.

I don't read them anymore, but I like reading it for nostalgia's sake sometimes. I enjoy looking at the layout, and there are still quality writers in the bigger markets. Unfortunately, we get stuck with Randy, who is unreadable and completely out of touch with reality.

With Gannett buying up every paper in the country, everything is looking more cookie-cutter. The better technology and talent in the design department make it look more like a magazine than a newspaper. We're getting stale content from over-the-hill writers who get paid very little to produce stories that are out-of-date by the time they hit your doorstep. It's a bad formula that puts style over substance.

But I know I'd much rather read an article from Montz or Halsted than watch a video of Randy and Birch.

 

[theshadow]

Love how he compliments Ben Vissers coverage when he couldn’t even get the right players name in a picture... and these two players are pretty hard to mix up

The captions are done by the photog before going on the wire. In this case, the USA Today guy effed up.

 

[Messi]

The captions are done by the photog before going on the wire. In this case, the USA Today guy effed up.

Mike Hlas collumn has the correct name

 

[Spam]

We are going lose that Gazette reading geeky recruit from Cedar Rapids who is never going to learn that ISU defeated OU.

 

[theshadow]

View attachment 50634
Mike Hlas collumn has the correct name

Then somebody caught it and fixed it on that story.

 

[Jeffrey Scott]

I say let's get this thing rolling so they can't ignore us. Make them change the format and advertising strategy of the paper. Sweet.

 

[Cydkar]

Simple answer is, don't buy their paper. They are directly telling you that they don't care about you as a customer, why would you spend money on such a product.

Duh, coupons

 

[tube1]

People still get newspapers, I guess you do learn something new everyday.

Edgy.

 

[weR138]

Meh, I just look at the stat lines in the paper...get my news here.

 

[CysRage]

I was just about to post about this too. Thought I'd grab a CR Gazette paper on the newstand Sunday at HyVee and maybe hang it if it was any good. I laughed when I saw Iowa had the whole front page to themselves while ISU was tucked inside the sports section with the headline "Ain't no lie, Cy Cy Cy". What kind of headline is that for possibly the biggest College Football upset of the year? It seriously looks like an intern wrote it. The next time one of the CR Gazette's sales reps are at the door of HyVee (which they are almost every Saturday), I'm telling them to cover ISU better and then I'll maybe subscribe. They're obviously hurting for subscribers if they have to bug people who are grocery shopping.

 

[Cycsk]

I wonder if their research tells them anything about how many Iowa State alumni are in their readership area. Of course, their EIU readers want to read about the Hokeyes. But coverage that consists only of a headline and two articles in the midst of Hok Central about an event as big as this is not going to expand their readership, especially with "better" options, such as the DM Rag available online. They probably feel pretty good about what they did. And it probably is better than many of us would have expected. But it is hardly a move that will draw much beyond their base, particularly if things go back to "normal" next week.

 

[michaelrr1]

This is how I imagine the OP -

"So after our biggest win ever, what do we have to complain about this week? New logo? Play calling? Officiating? Wait, I've got it! Time to start a thread."

 

[JRE1975]

I read somewhere that of the 99 counties in Iowa, 77 of them had more students going to Iowa State than Iowa. The editor should have surveys that cover the target population of potential readers and not those that currently subscribe to see how many potential subscribers they are missing because of not having certain content.

A smart editor would have a special Saturday and Sunday 4 page wrap that covers all three major schools and explains to his sales staff how to educate the advertisers that more people from the target market would be drawn to read the information if they covered all the teams.

 

[AuH2O]

The CR Gazette. Marketing through self fulfilling prophecy since 1980.

It has to be horribly depressing working at a paper.

 

[IAStubborn]

This is appearing in tomorrow's paper. He sent this link to me in response to my complaint. Interesting how the "wrap around" is sponsored space and locked up with the inner pages being the so called Front page. The only thing I agree with is he had no idea this huge upset was coming. I also can't believe anyone bothers to read 4 full pages of the great win over Illinois, Hawk fan or not.

It's just too much Hawks and little else. They really should see the sports banner to just read "Hawkeye Sports" and be done with it

http://www.thegazette.com/subject/sports/gazette-sports-coverage-we-are-what-we-are-20171009

The problem I have with his rational "our readers want Iowa" is that he is supposed to be a journalist. Journalism isn't suppose to just cater to the whims of the reader but to cover the events of the area and the biggest "news" of the day. Can you imagine a newspaper in Alabama saying "sure we have a conservative bias because that is what our readers want to hear". Second he is a moron. Iowa fans won't stop buying if they cover ISU a little more but ISU fans certainly are leaving the gazette in mass and have been for years.

 

[farcyted]

This is appearing in tomorrow's paper. He sent this link to me in response to my complaint. Interesting how the "wrap around" is sponsored space and locked up with the inner pages being the so called Front page. The only thing I agree with is he had no idea this huge upset was coming. I also can't believe anyone bothers to read 4 full pages of the great win over Illinois, Hawk fan or not.

It's just too much Hawks and little else. They really should see the sports banner to just read "Hawkeye Sports" and be done with it

http://www.thegazette.com/subject/sports/gazette-sports-coverage-we-are-what-we-are-20171009

Tell them to look at how many ISU grads live in their "Prime" areas and then to check and see what their education is and their disposable income is.

 

[OnlyCyclones]

Iowa fans won't stop buying if they cover ISU a little more

I want to say that you're right, but then I come across butthurt Hawks who think that the DMR slobs us but calls Leistikow, an open fan, an objective reporter. I think some, including the staff of the Gazette, would throw a tantrum.