No Beat Writer for LaTech

[Dawgpix]

Got this email today. They're even slighting their local HS coverage.:



Dear T,
This morning, you received an email calling for nominations to our "I Am Sport Award" contest. Unfortunately, this program is not yet available for your market and the email was sent inadvertently.
We regret the confusion this may have caused and apologize for our error.
If you're interested in having a High School Sports Awards event in your community next year, let us know at gcicpgan@gannett.com.
Sincerely,
The News-Star

[PawDawg]

Got this email today. They're even slighting their local HS coverage.:



Dear T,
This morning, you received an email calling for nominations to our "I Am Sport Award" contest. Unfortunately, this program is not yet available for your market and the email was sent inadvertently.
We regret the confusion this may have caused and apologize for our error.
If you're interested in having a High School Sports Awards event in your community next year, let us know at gcicpgan@gannett.com.
Sincerely,
The News-Star

Gannett is a bunch of losers. Why do we insist on being partnered with them?

[PawDawg]

BTW, Isabella is suddenly our best friend again. He finally covers a game in Ruston after taking off forever.

[Tech77]

I got the high school athlete nomination email also.

[Dawg06]

BTW, Isabella is suddenly our best friend again. He finally covers a game in Ruston after taking off forever.

Will they allow our part-time beat writer to cover two baseball games and a basketball game in one week? Or does Grambling have a WBB game?

[theprofessor]

I want Ferrell (and Lang) and the News-Star editor types (who confirmed all this to me) to understand this: We as fans and subscribers like to read about Louisiana Tech.

We also feel as subscribers we should not have to share a beat writer's weekly 40 hours with another university. Just like their Gannett LSU beat. Just like their Gannett uslull beat. Just like their Gannett nlulm beat.

(For what it's worth, why not a GSU beat writer and a NSU beat writer?)

If you list the computer hits and the number of Gannett PAID subscribers I venture to say those who support Tech outnumber all the others besides elessewe, uslull (located in the same town as a Gannett newspaper) and nlulm (located in same town as a Gannett newspaper).

So . . . if you want to build your subscriber base, hire the extra beat writers and watch the numbers grow.

And . . . quit teasing your customers because an administrator might have been out of line. He/she doesn't buy my subscription.

PS--If you are not a current online or dead-tree edition Gannett subscriber, please don't respond to my post. Unless you have skin in the game, you don't have skin in the game.

As a former Gannetteer, I never liked the practice but I understood why they did it. The two universities are so close in proximity that it made sense to have one person based in Ruston to cover the two of them. However, what made sense in the 1990s doesn't always make sense in 2017. Louisiana Tech University is not the same university that it was in the 1990s. We have continued to grow, both athletically and academically. From the success of the football program to men's basketball and now baseball, there is a whole lot to be excited about as a Tech fan. And it doesn't make sense to not have someone available to cover those teams on a full-time basis.

For a long time I have been a proponent of Gannett hiring a Louisiana Tech beat writer. You have two newspapers on the I-20 corridor that have subscribers who are Tech alums and/or fans. It just makes sense. And honestly, it needs to be The Times leading the charge on this. The News-Star has three Division I universities within 30 miles of its office. The Times has .... *crickets* Louisiana Tech could be one of the top sports beats in all of Shreveport if Gannett would properly invest in the university with a beat writer to be shared among the two papers.

[Dawg06]

As a former Gannetteer, I never liked the practice but I understood why they did it. The two universities are so close in proximity that it made sense to have one person based in Ruston to cover the two of them. However, what made sense in the 1990s doesn't always make sense in 2017. Louisiana Tech University is not the same university that it was in the 1990s. We have continued to grow, both athletically and academically. From the success of the football program to men's basketball and now baseball, there is a whole lot to be excited about as a Tech fan. And it doesn't make sense to not have someone available to cover those teams on a full-time basis.

For a long time I have been a proponent of Gannett hiring a Louisiana Tech beat writer. You have two newspapers on the I-20 corridor that have subscribers who are Tech alums and/or fans. It just makes sense. And honestly, it needs to be The Times leading the charge on this. The News-Star has three Division I universities within 30 miles of its office. The Times has .... *crickets* Louisiana Tech could be one of the top sports beats in all of Shreveport if Gannett would properly invest in the university with a beat writer to be shared among the two papers.

Not gonna happen with the Tech haters currently calling the shots at The Times, and Ferrell/Lang aren't going anywhere until The Times folds. They refuse to publish half of Isabella's Tech content as it stands now and bury and butcher what they do choose to publish. The Times simply doesn't want good Tech coverage. For example, the Tech-Arkansas recap was buried on page 3 without a picture and with half of the article chopped off online and in print with two video interviews stripped from the online version, and they didn't publish Isabella's live blog from the game.

I would also add that Grambling isn't what it was back then either. HBCUs have become irrelevant over the last generation.

[Exes&Ohs]

I don't think many of our fans or our AD understand what a big deal this is. Another weekend with no game coverage by TNS or Times. Since our AD is not going to mend fences our fans should demand that we cut ties with Gannett by doing away with the "in kind" sponsorship advertisement they receive. We can get much more bang for our buck by working closely with the local daily papers in Ruston, Minden, and Bastrop along with the weekly papers. We owe Gannett nothing!

While we are at it I wonder about our lack of coverage in the Baton Rouge Advocate. That paper covers 2/3 of the population in our state and seem to ignore the fact we even exist. These two games with the Razorbacks should have had good coverage yet the only thing I saw was simply the score. Not even a line or box score, just the score itself. Same applies to other sports. Has anyone been in touch with them?

[PawDawg]

Has anyone been in touch with them?

No

Nobody will even get in touch with The Times.

[Dawg Fan]

Got this email today. They're even slighting their local HS coverage.:



Dear T,
This morning, you received an email calling for nominations to our "I Am Sport Award" contest. Unfortunately, this program is not yet available for your market and the email was sent inadvertently.
We regret the confusion this may have caused and apologize for our error.
If you're interested in having a High School Sports Awards event in your community next year, let us know at gcicpgan@gannett.com.
Sincerely,
The News-Star

I received the two e-mails, but I can understand why sending the e-mail asking for nominations was an error in my case. I have an on-line subscription to the paper, but I live in SE Georgia.

[Bearpaw]

While we are at it I wonder about our lack of coverage in the Baton Rouge Advocate. That paper covers 2/3 of the population in our state and seem to ignore the fact we even exist. These two games with the Razorbacks should have had good coverage yet the only thing I saw was simply the score. Not even a line or box score, just the score itself. Same applies to other sports. Has anyone been in touch with them?

I'm surprised they even had that much...

[Dawgpix]

Has anyone been in touch with them?

Yes, they're on the email list with all other news outlets for news releases and game stories.

[revf]

In all honesty if Tech hired a skilled social media/communications person who understands the new media they wouldn't need Gannet at all. Most people get their news through one source now...Facebook.

The trick is how to do it effectively. (It's not as simple as posting a recap just once) effective social media involves direct targeting of people inside and outside. It involves getting dummy accounts to share. It involves ads both paid and unpaid.

[Dawg06]

Yes, they're on the email list with all other news outlets for news releases and game stories.

KALB (I think the only CenLa-based TV station) told me that they weren't on Tech's SID release email list for some reason.

"We are not on the email list for Louisiana Tech, so we get no articles from them." -KALB 5 Sports Director

[DONW]

KALB (I think the only CenLa-based TV station) told me that they weren't on Tech's SID release email list for some reason.

"We are not on the email list for Louisiana Tech, so we get no articles from them." -KALB 5 Sports Director

When I lived in Pineville from 78-83, the newspaper only printed negative articles about Tech. It's only about 90 miles from Alexandria/Pineville to Ruston, but you would think it was in another world in a hostile country.