Note To MRASOR

[GoZips]

Well, it did not take the Leakin' Urinal long to renege on its new found loyalityto the community it serves.Hence, no more nice guy from me and I sincerely hope the rest of the loyal Zips nationof fans. The new owners can keep their piece of crap newspaper. Even if they display undying loyality to Akron and its community I for one will NOT buy the rag. That was one lie toomany for me.The Columbus State SUCKEYES are their darlings. Screw Columbus. Screw the sorry,lame, lying editors of the Leakin' Urinal.Liars one and all. So, just stick it.

[sgm405]

Well, it did not take the Leakin' Urinal long to renege on its new found loyalityto the community it serves.Hence, no more nice guy from me and I sincerely hope the rest of the loyal Zips nationof fans.  The new owners can keep their piece of crap newspaper.  Even if they display undying loyality to Akron and its community I for one will NOT buy the rag.  That was one lie toomany for me.The Columbus State SUCKEYES are their darlings.  Screw Columbus.  Screw the sorry,lame, lying editors of the Leakin' Urinal.Liars one and all.  So, just stick it.

1) Ohio State vs Penn State was a little bit bigger of a game...Akron was basically playing a tune-up game2) With 16,000 (and that being a generous count) showing up for the home opener of a defending conference champion team...do we even deserve the coverage? If I'm a ABJ editor I'm looking at that crowd and coming to the conclusion that people don't give a damn about the team. Say what you want about OSU's fans, but they had 101,000 strong in a downpour. If we truly want to get to the level of OSU and other bigger programs, our fans and community need to start acting like fans of a big time program.3) Why call out Rasor in the topic title? He doesn't decide who writes what at the ABJ. He does a good job of giving coverage to the Zips, one of the few in the area...why include him in your rant?

[bobbyake]

I didn't see the CBJ today, did it have OSU all over the front and Akron somewhere hidden again??

[bobbyake]

) Ohio State vs Penn State was a little bit bigger of a game...Akron was basically playing a tune-up game

You have got to be out of your mind!!!! This is the first home game for the University of Akron, that's bigger news than a team from Columbus playing a team from penn. Get off OSU's nuts, why don't you just transfer there? Seriously, this is Akron, not Columbus.

[sgm405]

) Ohio State vs Penn State was a little bit bigger of a game...Akron was basically playing a tune-up game

You have got to be out of your mind!!!! This is the first home game for the University of Akron, that's bigger news than a team from Columbus playing a team from penn. Get off OSU's nuts, why don't you just transfer there? Seriously, this is Akron, not Columbus.

In the National scope, it was a bigger game. I'm not going to respond to the rest of your post...just more of the same garbage.Again...if I'm an ABJ reporter and I see that 16,000 (generously) showed up to the home opener of the MAC Champion, I'm not going to be pushing to get them front page...I'm going to assume nobody cares.

[bobbyake]

In the National scope, it was a bigger game.

Does anyone in Columbus read the ABJ??? Does the ABJ even sell newspapers outside of the Summit County area???The ABJ isn't a national paper. They should be giving sporting events happening locally more attention OSU isn't a local event for Akron. I'm tired of hearing your garbage about OSU being the front runner's team of choice and that everyone in this community roots for the front runner because they have winning tradition and have little ties to this community. I'm tired of hearing you defend OSU's attention on why they should be written about more than Akron. It's all garbage. You wouldn't see the papers in Pitt giving more glory to Penn State than Pitt.

[sgm405]

In the National scope, it was a bigger game.

Does anyone in Columbus read the ABJ??? Does the ABJ even sell newspapers outside of the Summit County area???The ABJ isn't a national paper. They should be giving sporting events happening locally more attention OSU isn't a local event for Akron. I'm tired of hearing your garbage about OSU being the front runner's team of choice and that everyone in this community roots for the front runner because they have winning tradition and have little ties to this community. I'm tired of hearing you defend OSU's attention on why they should be written about more than Akron. It's all garbage. You wouldn't see the papers in Pitt giving more glory to Penn State than Pitt.

Bobby -If you are a newspaper and you want to sell copies of it, you want to put in stories about what people care about the most. When 16,000 (or realistically 13,000) show up for the home opener of a team who is defending conference champion, it's obvious to me and apparently to them that people in this area don't care that much about the Zips. THAT is what I hate, not the ABJ's decisions on what to cover. If we want to be treated and be covered like a big time program, the city, alumni, and students have to do a better job of showing that the Akron Zips are a big deal. Blame the city and the fans for the lack of coverage - the attendance last night was an embarassment, and was a sad and frustrating but truthful look at how much this community gets behind and cares for the Akron Zips. And you know what? Only the city of Akron and the students of the University of Akron can change that.

[bobbyake]

why the hell would anyone from Akron care about that team in Columbus?? The ABJ loves to feed the front runners. Soon, they'll stop writing for the Browns, the Steelers will become glorified.

[sgm405]

why the hell would anyone from Akron care about that team in Columbus?? The ABJ loves to feed the front runners. Soon, they'll stop writing for the Browns, the Steelers will become glorified.

I know why people around here would care about OSU...I do...I just don't know why they'd care about them more than Akron. That we agree on.

[bobbyake]

good thing to take a note on, a girl from Can't said that her and a friend discussed about how Akron has a better campus than Can't now. She was really impressed with Akron's campus.Akron must beat Can't this Saturday. It really helps with recruiting the local students around here. A win next week and you'll see a better enrollment for next year than this year. It also helps to beat them in basketball.

[sgm405]

good thing to take a note on, a girl from Can't said that her and a friend discussed about how Akron has a better campus than Can't now. She was really impressed with Akron's campus.Akron must beat Can't this Saturday. It really helps with recruiting the local students around here. A win next week and you'll see a better enrollment for next year than this year. It also helps to beat them in basketball.

I agree that it's very important. Not only for what a win does to help the program, but also in considering what a loss would do. Dropping a game to our rival that is 3 for their last 13? Trust me, we'd be longing for the attendance we had last night.I didn't expect it to be coming into the year...but HUGE game this Saturday...

[GoZips]

Let us set the record straight.The Leakin' Urinal editorialized through its principal writer, one highlyrespected and nationally esteemed individual that it, the "rag" would make everyeffort to put its local community sports as the prima topic. This lasted less thanthree weeks.The football game between OSU and PSU does deserve front page coverage. On thatI concur. The problem is that that game did not belong as the lead article on thepage. It rated second place. There are just three instances where OSU deserves topbilling. If and when OSU wins the national championship, the Michigan game, win orlose, and any event pertaining to serious infractions of rules or large scope personnelchanges. No other article about OSU merits top billing ... ever, period.This community is Akron. Its core is the University of Akron, not OSU.The principal reason so many souls follow OSU is because for 80 years they have been spoon fed hype coming out of the Leakin' Urinal.MRASOR is an influential writer who defended the said rag. His honor and word werebesmerched because he defended the rag. Thus, he is liable for his defense of therag. He, like the rag, lied to this community. It is his responsibility to call out theeditors. They stabbed him in the back. He better take it personal. If he takes my attacks on him for his organizational failures then he will never amount to a reliablejournalist. He owes, you, me and the entire Zips community a sincere and humble apology. Three weeks ... no way is a community going to change in three weeks.The placement of the OSU story is huge. It signifies a lie.I stated weeks ago that in order for the Akron community to embrace the Zips as theirteam it would take three years of making the Zips number one.After Mass today as I sat in my favorite restaurant I listened as several people openlydiscussed the betrayal. These are not UA students, but adults who live and work in thecommunity. Not one believed that the OSU game deserved top billing. People arealready becoming Akron centric. No one was putting OSU down or making nastycomments. Simply that this community needs its own identity. They get it. Why is itso difficult for the newspaper to understand that it is part of this community and notColumbus? How many papers does the paper sell in Columbus on a Sunday? Enough to justify glorifying the Columbus university? Let us build our community.Support our community. Let Columbus take care of its own. For SGM ... the OSU vs PSU game is more important to who? The people of Raleigh, NCdo not give a damn about either of those teams. Our interest should be greater thanWolfpack fans (congratulations on a fine win), but not higher than our own team.SGM ... you need to have children. Thus they can learn the value of having a child froma different school get praise and compliments from your child's teachers for work thatchild did in the other school. Your child needs to be treated like an orphan so you canlearn the heartbreak. Otherwise you will always be a shill for your opposition. What? We were expecting a miracle change in attendance? This is about instantgratification? That's what bit the newspaper. Three weeks of featuring the Zipsprobably led to quite a few gripes from life long OSU fans about the change. It willtake time to change attitudes. Three weeks is hardly a long time unless you are an ant.SGM .. what specifically did I say to trash MRASOR? I only called him to his responsibility.He writes. He supports the paper. His loyalties lie with making a buck. He is not writingbecause he is an ardent supporter of the Zips. Frankly, I think he took one in the back.The bottom line is simple. You want your newspaper to make money? Of course. This gives you two choices. One, you can continue to focus on OSU and continue to watchyour community and sales dwindle. Two, you can focus on your community. support andinvigorate your community. Thus, ensuring your community will thrive, grow and in turngrow your own business which is to sell newsprint and advertisements. In closing, not once in the past several weeks did I ever refer to the newspaper as theLeakin' Urinal or the team from Columbus as the Suckeyes. You can rest assured that I will revert to my former ways as a direct response to beinglied to.

[zen]

I understand your point, and let me try to distil it down to motive.If the local newspaper continues to cover non-local teams greater than the local team, even though said local team won their conference last year as has a lot to report on this year, then why would you expect there ever to be any interest in the team?13,000 at the rubber bowl? I wonder why? :duh:It's obvious! The local paper has dropped the ball!It's not like we are asking them to cover a 2-10 team here.Now, I can also see from the other perspective.Let's use an analogy out side of sports. If Bush holds a press conference and says we caught Bin Laden, and Plusquelic holds one and says we caught a bank robber, which do you think get's the headline?Aside from the OSU/Penn game having some degree of significance to the rest of the nation, the fact remains, the local paper has a CIVIC FREAKING DUTY to report on local news. If the ABJ wont do it, who will?We have no freaking TV news around here. Someone needs to be the 'BEACON' of hope and light for local news.

[bobbyake]

the Plain Dealer should start a small Akron paper that focuses on the Akron community. The Columbus Beacon Journal needs some competition.Someone should buy out the Akron Legal News and use the place to print the Akron Legal News as well as a new Akron paper.I'm thinking about starting a facebook group called, I'd rather read the Plain Dealer than the Beacon Journal.

[Buckzip]

Just to add my .02 to this discussion of the same old BS, what does the title have to do with this thread? Does Rasor now work for the ABJ?

[Dale Carnegie]

Just to add my .02 to this discussion of the same old BS, what does the title have to do with this thread? Does Rasor now work for the ABJ?

I think he's upset because the ABJ is a horrible newspaper. Don't know why Rasor is mentioned. Only thing I can make out of it is that he wants Rasor to write something to address the issue with the ABJ.

[bobbyake]

Maybe this is why he's upset

[MRasor0200]

When I picked up the paper, I saw exactly what I expected. The ABJ editors did plenty for UA coverage in today's paper.Since when is sending a reporter, photographer and lead columnist to the game not enough?I'll give you this: The page designer overdid it. OSU got much more space on A1 and C1.As to GoZips comment that I'm not writing because I support the Zips, I disagree. While I am paid to write my blog (blogs.ohio.com/rasor), I write my sports column for free.I have no allegience to the ABJ, the paper that laid me off last month. I am writing strictly from my own interpretations and opinions.In short, I enjoy writing, I love the Zips and I still think the ABJ is working toward converting itself away from Columbus-centric college football coverage.

[Sergeant Zip]

I still think the ABJ is working toward converting itself away from Columbus-centric college football coverage.

I hope you are right but ultimately they will cover what is going to sell. It would be a foolish business decision not to cover the #1 team in the country, regardless of where the paper is located (Akron, Canton, Youngstown). Winning sells and people are proud to say they are from Ohio because the Buckeyes are national contenders. Your casual fan knows the Buckeyes, it gives them something to make small talk about. The almighty dollar will win every time. Take the Akron Aeros title last year; it was barely a blip in the paper. It was there the day after they won and nothing really leading up to it and nothing much after it. It doesn't sell papers. Did any of you know that Cuyahoga Falls has a professional basketball team called the Cuyahoga Falls Cougars? Maybe, they cover them occassionally but reporting on the Cougars isn't selling papers. Did you know that last year the Akron Racers rallied from a four-run deficit and defeated the top-seeded Chicago Bandits, 5-4, to win a NPF championship? Most probably don't know who the Racers are because the Beacon won't sell papers talking about them. The Canton Legends in Canton won a national title for the AIFL. Was that really covered in the paper, no. I bet the Canton Repository doesn't really cover them because they don't sell papers. It comes down to $$$. I know I didn't present anything original but money seems to have been forgotten in all of the previous rants.Another point is the paper is titled the Journal not the Sporting News. They have limited resources just like any business. So they can't always commit big resources (i.e. Terry Pluto ??? hahaha) to all Zips games because of my earlier points.

[Sergeant Zip]

Maybe this is why he's upset

I loved the pic Bobby, I wanted to look at the supposed pics too and noticed it didn't work.

[bobbyake]

I hope you are right but ultimately they will cover what is going to sell. It would be a foolish business decision not to cover the #1 team in the country,

You and I both know that the Beacon Journal is going to sell papers in this area whether they put OSU all over the sports section or not. This community will read whatever is fed to them. But by putting OSU all over the front page and giving them another big page while the Zips get the short end of the news, well, that's hurting sells right there. That's making my generation and the University of Akron fans a reason to hate this paper. The Plain Dealer should be jumping all over this opportunity to get it's paper sold around Akron and Can't. Imagine, if the Plain Dealer headlined Akron and Can't, people around here might actually subscribe to it over the Beacon Journal.

[Sergeant Zip]

The Plain Dealer should be jumping all over this opportunity to get it's paper sold around Akron and Can't. Imagine, if the Plain Dealer headlined Akron and Can't, people around here might actually subscribe to it over the Beacon Journal.

Would be a good idea because Cleveland State has nothing much sports wise going for them. Unfortunately I don't know that their distribution system could handle that large of an area. Unless, you are willing to get up at three and deliver papers for them.

You and I both know that the Beacon Journal is going to sell papers in this area whether they put OSU all over the sports section or not.

You are right but I guarantee putting an OSU headline on that paper jumps sales, maybe even dramatically.

But by putting OSU all over the front page and giving them another big page while the Zips get the short end of the news, well, that's hurting sells right there.

I do think that sucks and they could give more pub to the Zips inside and not one Buckeye article after another. Quality reporting inside could lead to a future of front page articles once the fan base is there.

This community will read whatever is fed to them.

I agree but I think we are in the wrong forum/blog for this discussion.

[sgm405]

I hope you are right but ultimately they will cover what is going to sell. It would be a foolish business decision not to cover the #1 team in the country,

That's making my generation and the University of Akron fans a reason to hate this paper.

I've been in Akron about six years now and haven't heard too many people complain about the ABJ...just on this board. Yes, they have people that dislike them...but to say the whole generation and all UA fans hate them is a big, big overstatement. Personally I don't care where the article on the Zips lands...God was good enough to give me hands and thumbs that give me the ability to turn the page...so as long as I have those, it really doesn't make a difference to me.

[bobbyake]

I hope you are right but ultimately they will cover what is going to sell. It would be a foolish business decision not to cover the #1 team in the country,

That's making my generation and the University of Akron fans a reason to hate this paper.

I've been in Akron about six years now and haven't heard too many people complain about the ABJ...just on this board. Yes, they have people that dislike them...but to say the whole generation and all UA fans hate them is a big, big overstatement. Personally I don't care where the article on the Zips lands...God was good enough to give me hands and thumbs that give me the ability to turn the page...so as long as I have those, it really doesn't make a difference to me.

that's because we all know you like looking at OSU on the front page. You seem to show little pride or passion for the Zips.