The Akron Beacon Journal

[a-zip]

I have to say through the years I played and attended The University of Akron, I was always disappointed in The ABJ's coverage of our sports teams. In the past year I am becoming downright disgusted with them. There clearly appears to be an agenda to try and destroy the University of Akron. Granted, some of the things that are going on are unpopular but to me when I read the news I want to read facts and from there I will form my own opinion. The ABJ seem to be reporting what THEY want to report and almost seem to be trying to create a mutiny.

Zippyrules said in a post a while back “The demise of professionalism in NEO journalism is sad to watch.” I agree 100%. The ABJ seems to be not only fueling the fire…..but starting it.

Why would people want to come and support UoA’s sports teams when they are being conditioned to despise the school?

Shouldn’t it be one if the goals of a local newspaper to try and promote good will, a sense of community and pride in the city?

One of the best marketing avenues UoA should have is the city’s own newspaper PROMOTING the home team. Don't put UA articles on page two and OSU on the headline - put US on the headline!! And put the good stuff about us on the headline……not stories about a f#@ing olive jar. There are plenty of good things going on at UA but thanks to the ABJ, we barely hear about them.

How is any of what they are stirring up good for the school and the community? If UA football goes down the tubes and the Info rots in the middle of the city, how is that a good thing for Akron?

On a side note……I am not able to read some of the links that are provided by the ABJ (Ohio.com) on here because they want me to subscribe and pay $.99 per month. Hey ABJ!!!! The crap you write is not worth $.99

[Dr Z]

Years ago, my new years resolution was to stop complaining about this subject. One of the best resolutions of my life.

[interfx]

I'm starting to wonder if all the ABJ stories are about getting more paid viewers of their Ohio.com website... I refuse to pay to read their news(after 7 free articles per month)...

Cleveland.com seems to have better reporting anyway...

[K92]

All you have to do when you reach your limit of 7 articles is clear your cookies.

[Blue & Gold]

The ABJ is a disappointment. I am thinking Repository

You beat me to the punch. I was going to say how I wished the ABJ would treat the UA as well as the Canton Repository treats the McKinley Bulldogs. If you read the Repository, you'd think a ticket to a McKinley football or basketball game was the hot ticket. They recognize that the high school gives the community their sense of community; sense of place, which in turn helps sales of the paper.

If all you care about are Cleveland sports & the OSU Buckeyes, well, there are plenty of other news sources available.

[roopride]

The ABJ stinks. They put OSU article top front page today AND they don't have a real article about the ZIPS game with OU. AND the aricle they do have is about OU. Just awfull.

[Balsy]

Good luck finding the story about the Zips decisive victory in the ABJ today. It's a 100word story buried on C6, while State Ohio University has front, above the fold story, along with Can't state. Unbelievable. I mean it's just absolutely unbelievable how much of a rag the ABJ is.

[skip-zip]

A "deadline" for the paper would not explain having no game pictures in the physical newspaper. They can take those and send them anytime.

We also now know that we had a "staff reporter" assigned to our game. No excuse for that either.

Plus, our game ended a little after 10pm.

And for those who don't know, oftentimes the game story is already written, except for the ending. This is why you often see those details of what happened in the first, second, and third quarters sprinkled in toward the end of a game story. The games outcome can be put together very quickly and sent in as a full story for a game that ends at 10pm. I'm sure a Browns or OSWho game would be handled just fine.

Folks, there's no excuse here. It was decided that the Akron game would get little coverage, and would be a small story by a staff writer in the corner of a far inside page. I'm pretty sure there was no "Plan B" for a great, season-defining performance from their "Home Team".

[a-zip]

What I find interesting about the ABJ is not as much the lack of coverage or the timeliness of coverage of our sports teams BUT the speed, frequency and placement of the negative things around UA. They have even published things that are completely unsubstantiated and emotional. I am painfully aware of OSU being a priority but I believe the hometown paper has a responsibility to promote the GOOD as well as the bad around the hometown University. I also understand bad new sells more than good news but why would a student or a top athlete consider a school when they read the faculty is unhappy, the attendance is the lowest in the NCAA, they are in financial trouble, enrollment is down.....etc....etc. There are GOOD things happening.

To me the whole issue around UA making a jump nationally is a chicken and egg dilemma;

In order to get people to come to games and support, we need wins

In order to get wins, we need top players

In order to get top players, they want to go to a program that is well supported

In order to get support, the program needs to be promoted (ABJ could help)

If support increases, hits on UA news goes up

I am not blaming the ABJ but I do believe someone there has a hidden agenda. At a minimum, they do appear to be supportive of their local University's success.

Seriously, I want to read more about Cody Grice, Jerome Lane, Tommy Woodson now, Jatavis Brown..

[skip-zip]

It's actually a rather interesting discussion from a business standpoint. When you are reaching out to cater to more distant clients, you risk losing the support of your local base. For instance, if the Beacon suddenly thought that St. Ignatius fans were reading the Beacon, they might start catering to them, at the cost of pissing off the St. V's and Hoban's. That's normally not a beneficial business decision, in the long run.

Columbus has a paper that covers their sports market, because they are most closely linked to that market, and can best service that market. Akron's paper should find that they are best suited to cover Akron's sports market too.

[Balsy]

Though I'm sympathetic to what you're saying A-Zip, a newspaper doesn't have an obligation to report the "good" and the "bad". A newspaper has the obligation to do nothing really. Really, they don't even have to have an obligation to report objectively...they're a business. "Good" and "bad" are relative quantities and are inherently bound to bias. News organizations that attempt to use the "good" vs "bad" formula, sometimes they call it "fair and balanced" or "50/50", aren't any of the above. They're almost inherently biased because in trying to provide each one of those things they must conform to a specific bias in order to do so.

Now I'm sympathetic to the idea that there should be a level of journalistic integrity, but that's an entirely different discussion that would require talking about advertiser's influence on media content.

[Blue & Gold]

For years I've only wished the ABJ would cover UA like the Canton Repository covers Canton McKinley.

[Dr Z]

A newspaper has the obligation to do nothing really.

I would image they have a standard and ethics policy just like others.

[zippy5]

Unfortunately they write about what people are going to read. At the moment, more people care about the financial "crisis" of the U and OSU than Zips football. Hope the team performs better and gets some fans interested so that changes.

[Balsy]

I would image they have a standard and ethics policy just like others.

They create that of course. But I was answering the contention that news reporting businesses (let's not forget that's what they are) somehow have an obligation to do something. They don't. I'm sure Fox News has a code of Standards and Ethics as well, but they are far from objective or "fair and balanced".

But the point is that in attempting to be "fair and balanced" or "50/50" or reporting on "good" and "bad" things within a community is itself, as a concept, inherently biased.

[ZippyRulz]

For years I've only wished the ABJ would cover UA like the Canton Repository covers Canton McKinley.

If they were smart they would try to encourage a following of all the area teams in order to increase their stories of interest and demand for their product.

[roopride]

Starting a log

10/14 ABJ SPORTS ZIPS 1 BUCKS 1

10/15 Bucks 1

[Balsy]

With your log you should include Can't.

[roopride]

Starting a log

10/14 ABJ SPORTS ZIPS 1 BUCKS 1

10/15 ZIPS 0 Bucks 1

10/16 ZIPS 0 Bucks 1

10/17 ZIPS 1 Bucks 1 Cant 1

[ZachTheZip]

Are you only counting certain sports? There was a great article on Brad Ruhaak on 10/15. And then there was this today.

[roopride]

Are you only counting certain sports? There was a great article on Brad Ruhaak on 10/15. And then there was this today.

Very good article. At this time just tracking football.

[roopride]

10/16 ZIPS 0 Bucks 1

10/17 ZIPS 1 Bucks 1 Cant 1

10/19 all zeroes

10/20 ZIPS 0 Bucks 1 Cant 1

10/21 ZIPS 0 Bucks 1 Cant 0

Not been much to report

1o/29 ZIPS 0 Bucks 1

Edited October 29, 2015 by roopride

[LZIp]

14 hours ago, K92 said:

You know, I am gonna blow this thread up.  Real Zips fans can't go to practice and observe and report but George Thomas can.  The name Darryl Monroe doesn't even ring a bell.  #amateurhour

I've finally had enough of this joke of reporting from the local newspaper and sent a lengthy email letting making my displeasure known to the managing editor, Darrin Werbeck, I'd encourage others to do the same if you truly want better. His email is dwerbeck@thebeaconjournal.com. Go out and enjoy he beautiful day first, though

 

Additionally, I did some more thinking on what we can do. I've made a little mention of this before, but if the powers that be would be interested in getting a student to intern as Zipsnation's beat reporter (I feel like this could be done for free or very cheap pay wise), I would be happy to do whatever I can to help in just about every way. Also, I was thinking about how it was noted on here before that the new guys in charge at UA will happily give out press passes to blogging sites (Hustlebelt, and even Zipsnation for Dr.Z and Cap'n a few times I believe). I was wondering if there is any way to have this arranged so die-hards like Keener, Johnnzip, etc could obtain the credentials for whatever practice/event/etc they want to attend. They would obviously bring great insight back to the board.

[Balsy]

21 hours ago, LZIp said:

Additionally, I did some more thinking on what we can do. I've made a little mention of this before, but if the powers that be would be interested in getting a student to intern as Zipsnation's beat reporter (I feel like this could be done for free or very cheap pay wise), I would be happy to do whatever I can to help in just about every way. Also, I was thinking about how it was noted on here before that the new guys in charge at UA will happily give out press passes to blogging sites (Hustlebelt, and even Zipsnation for Dr.Z and Cap'n a few times I believe). I was wondering if there is any way to have this arranged so die-hards like Keener, Johnnzip, etc could obtain the credentials for whatever practice/event/etc they want to attend. They would obviously bring great insight back to the board.

 

I love this idea!  But from personal experience...Zips Athletics Department has been downright hostile towards student reporters, not open to issuing passes, credentials etc.  They rare every issued them to my photographers or writers when I went through all the proper channels.  Which is asinine, because they issue them to Hustlebelt.  Go figure.  Hopefully things have changed.

[ZipsVoice]

I know this is preaching to the choir here, and I don't know where else to post this, but anyway...I'm travelling this week on business and I'm in the ice capitol of the world, Buffalo.  The town has three pro teams, multiple high school teams, and a newspaper about the size of the ABJ.  Low and behold, I picked up the morning paper yesterday at breakfast and there was an article on the U at B tennis teams!  Two artlicles, one on the mens team and one on the womens team.  And an additional article on the Buffs that made the NFL draft.  And an article on the softball team was in today's morning paper.  All in the same sports section that had articles on the Bills recent draft, NHL games, local high school games, etc.  I kept rubbing my eyes, thinking how it would be nice to see just ONE article on a Zips team a week, let alone multiple ones each day!  This story plays out for me every week.  I'm travelling for business almost every week, and many times I'm in a college or university town for the evening,, and I see coverage EVERY DAY in the local paper about whatever sports the local U or C is involved in.  Oh yeah, to make matters worse, the local Fox affiliate here in Buffalo ran a story last night about the UB softball team!

 

Just needed to vent....thanks for listening....GT, you listening?