Ashland Area Sports Coverage

[kele_okereke]

I read the Sunday paper at about 5:30 PM on Saturday night before I left work. But I do think the Independent has too much of an Ashland bias. It claims to be a regional newspaper.

Because Ashland is the best around duh! :lol:

[FBALL]

Because Ashland is the best around duh! :lol:

:lol: That is funny.

[Armchair Coach]

Because Ashland is the best around duh! :lol:

 

 

Gee did anyone tell Boyd?

[mcroyalsfan32]

This year has been THE WORST for Maysville sports coverage. Practically full-page articles if you're from 40 miles away in Ohio, limited if any coverage of Maysville teams. I'd say the sports staff must all be from Adams and Brown Counties, but JF grew up a couple of doors down from me here in Maysville. Lots of my friends are getting pretty upset about the lack of coverage for Mason County boys and girls basketball.

 

The coverage here is terrible. I have posted comment after comment on the comment line in the newspaper and they omit them. I cant believe they are allowing this to happen

[Kick]

Everyone talks about the DI's maroon tint toward coverage. Maybe that is so but I don't see it. If it is I would think it's because they look at where the majority of their papers are sold at and report the stories based on that.

[bobbyearl]

It was a deadline issue guys, relax, some people take off a little early for Christmas, I would look for the stories Tuesday, I think the ADI does a good job with the resources they have, its not that easy a job

Three area tournaments with game times of 2,4 6 pm, on the day before christmas eve there are a lot of people in service related jobs that have to work holidays. I would think most people work the day before christmas eve. There could have at least been a box score so people could have known who won or lost their games.

[scooterbob]

Everyone talks about the DI's maroon tint toward coverage. Maybe that is so but I don't see it. If it is I would think it's because they look at where the majority of their papers are sold at and report the stories based on that.

 

This might be true but there are a goodly number of subscribers/purchasers living within the Ashland city limits who are not particularly fans of the local public high school. There are also a large number, bigger than you might think, who never bother to read the sports page and have no interest in Ashland or any other high school teams.

 

Nevertheless, it is still, in reality, the ADI and not the DI and it is natural that Ashland's sports teams get the lions share of the publicity.

 

I will say that, when Ovinton, et als. were at Rose Hill, Rose Hill got excellent coverage. The coverage of the Royals games seemed to get the headline over the locals and, in light of the national publicity, that is how it should have been. If another school stands out as did those two Rose Hill teams, I believe they will get their just dues.

[ACE]

This might be true but there are a goodly number of subscribers/purchasers living within the Ashland city limits who are not particularly fans of the local public high school. There are also a large number, bigger than you might think, who never bother to read the sports page and have no interest in Ashland or any other high school teams.

 

Nevertheless, it is still, in reality, the ADI and not the DI and it is natural that Ashland's sports teams get the lions share of the publicity.

 

I will say that, when Ovinton, et als. were at Rose Hill, Rose Hill got excellent coverage. The coverage of the Royals games seemed to get the headline over the locals and, in light of the national publicity, that is how it should have been. If another school stands out as did those two Rose Hill teams, I believe they will get their just dues.

 

 

Well said, Scooter. I think Ashland gets the lions share justifiably. It also seems the team performing the best locally gets excellent coverage, wheather it be Russell in football or previous Rose Hill basketall teams. I have no problem with the coverage overall. However, I would like to see a daily posting of all local games and tip off times.

[Bird33]

Because Ashland is the best around duh! :lol:

 

You must be a kid, to make a statement like that:laugh:

[scooterbob]

Since Gatorlover brought cheerleaders into the conversation, I must say that my favorites are the ones at Rose Hill. It may not sound politically correct but, so far as I am concerned, there are no cheerleaders superior to invisible cheerleaders.

[KY Buckeye]

I've been lurking and debating on joining BGP for a while but the chance to sound off on this topic made it well worth the $15. I'm looking forward to posting quite a bit here so hopefully this one doesn't come off the wrong way, it just gave me an outlet to say something I've wanted to for a while.

 

It's really convenient to take shots at the local paper (or whatever media outlet) because their coverage isn't exactly what you'd like, but rarely does anybody ever stop to think about the logistics of it all.

 

The Ledger has been getting killed about "not covering Mason County and St. Pat" but if you pay attention, absolutely nothing about the coverage has changed from last year or any other year. I'm not sure where all this new found hatred comes from, but judging by most of the comments and posts, it seems that everybody thinks the Deming/Bracken/Augusta/Lewis/Fleming/insertOhioschoolhere coverage is coming at the expense of Mason when it's not. The fact is, the Ledger sports department, due to different circumstances, was severly understaffed for the better part of last basketball season and many times the coverage was ONLY Mason and St. Pat. This year, there's not any less coverage of MC and SP, just more of everybody. If anyone has a legitimate complaint it's the other schools who got the short end of the stick in 05-06, especially the Ohio schools who got completely left out.

 

At the time all those comments about not covering MC/SP were showing up in the comment line, the Ledger had been to and done a full writeup of every single Mason County or St. Pat boys or girls game within an hour of Maysville. In addition, all 13 of the schools in the coverage area had at least one game covered with a full story by 2 weeks into the season, something that didn't happen over the whole season last year.

 

That's where the logistics come in. The Ledger hasn't had a full writeup for away games, but it's not like there's one in the past either. Everyone acts like the writers have some kind of agenda against Mason County instead of thinking about what would go into covering a game at Bourbon County (let alone Perry County Central) with a full story before deadline. And not to get too far off topic, but if they did ignore deadlines, budgets and everything else to drive all over the state to cover these games, the same people would be the first to complain when the price went up or their paper doesn't show up on time in the morning.

 

Still, ignoring all of this, people will complain about having a box score and quick recap for away games. This despite the fact that this info is usually something a coach has to call in but the staff goes to great lengths to track down ONLY FOR MASON COUNTY.

 

I apologize for the longwinded first post and hope I don't step on any toes with it. If anything, it just happened to give me an outlet to get started with something I've wanted to say for awhile. While everything I've said has been specific to Maysville since I'm pretty close to the situation (I won't go into great detail but you can probably figure it out), I wouldn't think things are much different in Ashland either.

 

I guess my message is to think about things before you randomly take shots at someone. The writers want to have the best coverage they can but there are time, budgetary and any number of other limitations. Let's face it, we all love high school basketball, but we're not exactly dealing with a UK or NBA game where a story and stats are immediately available at your fingertips. Nobody is out here with a vendetta against a certain program. Do you honestly think that the writers sit there saying "Hey, I want to go watch West Union girls tonight instead of our hometown team which also happens to be one of the best in the state?"

 

Constructive criticism can be a good thing and if there's really something you still can't understand about the coverage, call up one of the writers and talk to them about why it's that way. Heck, shoot me a PM if you want to. It's better than taking blind shots in the comment line.

[scooterbob]

KY Buckeye, you are a welcome addition to BGP. Keep posting.

[Uncle Jed]

Welcome Kybuckeye, You are speaking as a newspaper person. Let me speak as a consumer. Give me what I want or I won't buy your paper. Give the people what they want and subscriptions go up. Subscriptions go up hire more writers, give them more of what they want.