MIA - Cincinnati Media

[Bearcat_DF]

According to Josh on his blog - the Cincinnati media will not be covering the BE Media Day.
http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/cincybearcats/

Apparently, they don't have the $800 to cover the event.

There are already 70 comments on his blog about this.

Who said nobody cares about UC football.

Come Early, Be Loud, Wear Black.

Go Cats!
DF

[JBHarrison]

You can excuse the Post,since their long term survival is not likely, but there is no excuse for the Enquirer not to send Bill Koch or some warm body.
Great to see the number of comments on Josh's blog. Hope people don't get personal with Josh over this (some already have). He's just the messenger in this situation and I'd hate to lose his blog info.

[CincySuperFan]

And we wonder why the program struggles to get support. How many people from the Enquirer would be there if the GCL had a media day? It's a sad situation that our own local paper can't cover something special in the UC football program.

[red_n_black_attack]

Is this media day for all sports for the year or just football?

Cincinnati is catching up with the rest of the world as Mark Twain rolls over in his grave. Ten years ago when someone over 25 was asked in Cincinnati where they went to school they answered their high school. Now more and more people are leaving high school behind.

The Enquirer's target audience (and that of their advertisers) should be those who are college educated and there are many folks in this area who attended Syracuse, UConn, 'Nova, G-town, etc...and many many UC grads (and fans). I understand that cost plays a part in any decision in the newsprint industry, but this should be looked at as an investment opportunity. The number of stories that could come out of this that would have broad interest because of first hand opportunity to network with AD's and coaches in the league as well as beat writers and tv coverage from other cities.

I really hope that plopping sound is some editor pulling his head out of his behind and coming to reality. Missing this event would be an injustice. Perhapsif the trip could be done with $800 as stated above, UC would be willing to consider paying half, though that could create a sticky bias moving forward.

I'll throw in $20, just to hear all of the X fans moan and complain about it!

[ctipton]

As of now (about 9:30 Tuesday night) there are 150 comments on Josh's blog and the posters are just BLOWING UP Josh, the Post and the Enquirer. Worth the read. :D

[jkwuc89]

From an article (http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070718/SPT0101/707180356/1064/SPT) in today's Cincinnati Enquirer:

KELLY CRITICAL OF COVERAGE: First-year Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly created a buzz with an unusual media day debut. Instead of promoting his team and his players, Kelly spent most of his time criticizing Cincinnati print and electronic media outlets for not staffing the event.

Kelly refused to answer questions about his team or his offensive philosophy when asked by the freelancer hired by The Enquirer to cover media day. He also criticized former Bearcats coach Mark Dantonio for not pushing for more media coverage during his tenure from 2004-06.

"Mark, if he had to do it all over again, might have fought a little bit harder," Kelly said. "So, I'm not going to make the same mistake. We're going to make it clear that if you want to review the movie, you've got to go see it. If you're going to be a credible source of information, you need to be around those that are in the know.

"Don't tell me you don't have the budget. Don't tell me that you're on vacation. You're either in or you're out as a credible source."

I agree 100% with Coach Kelly's stance on this. There is NO excuse for the Cincinnati media to ignore Football Media Day like they have. I think it is time for us to write the editors of the papers and the sports directors at the local TV stations to let them know how we feel. Below are some direct links for doing just that:


Letter to the Cincinnati Enquirer editor (http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/EDIT0202/302160003)
E-mail Josh Pichler (mailto:jpichler@enquirer.com) - Assistant Managing Editor/Sports for the Enquirer
E-mail letter (mailto:postedits@cincypost.com) to the editor of the Cincinnati Post
E-mail letter (mailto:kherrell@cincypost.com) to the sports editor of the Cincinnati Post
E-mail WLWT Channel 5 General Manager (mailto:wlwtgm@wlwt.com) Richard Dyer
E-mail John Popovich (mailto:jpopvich@wcpo.com) - Sports director for WCPO TV

[ralph1950]

As of January 1, 2008 The Cincinnati Enquirer will be the only paper in town. With no competition they will do as they please, it will pay more get less.

[red_n_black_attack]

As of January 1, 2008 The Cincinnati Enquirer will be the only paper in town. With no competition they will do as they please, it will pay more get less.

My prediction - by Jan 1 2010 USA Today will be the only paper in town.

[jkwuc89]

I posted a link to Bearcatnews.com (http://bearcatnews.com) from the Cincinnati.com High School Sports Blog which raises the question, which is bigger in Cincinnati...high school football or UC football?

One could make several arguments to support either as being bigger than the other.

[ralph1950]

My email to Paul Daugherty who stated budget concerns as the reason The Enquirer did not send a reporter to Big East Media Day on WLW last evening.

"I was listening to your show last evening in my car on the way to dinner when you had Coach Kelly on. . I wanted to call but I did not have the time to wait on line. I have the solution to The Enquirer’s budget crunch so Big East Football Media Day can be covered. The Enquirer should stop sending a reporter to cover The Masters. There is nothing local about The Masters. The Enquirer can use a reporter from an Atlanta paper to send back stories on anything specific that needs coverage and also print AP stories. The Enquirer can use the money saved by not covering The Masters to cover Big East Football Media Day, as I am sure it costs more money to cover the Masters than Big East Football Media Day."

PD covers The Masters for The Enquirer.

[jkwuc89]

There is a column from Lonnie Wheeler in today's Post about the lack of Big East Media Day coverage by the local media. Link to the column is on Bearcatnews.com. I hope Lonnie can stay in Cincy and hook up with the Enquirer. His columns are quite good. Maybe he can replace PD at the Enquirer.

[jplog]

Nice Ralph, let us know if he can muster up a reply!

[qsilvr2531]

It's nice to see Kelly try to boost UC's image, but unless we boost our attendence and/or win a bunch of football games this will come off like us acting like the WNBA rather than a BCS program. The media isn't supposed to drive interest in a sport (or any other entertainment option), the sport is supposed to create enough interest to force the media to start covering it.

If UC finishes 6th in the Big East (which I think is the worst case scenario for the season) and draws just over 20k per game this year, why should the local media spend any extra time or money covering the program?

[bearcatfan]

The media isn't supposed to drive interest in a sport (or any other entertainment option), the sport is supposed to create enough interest to force the media to start covering it.



No, but the media is expected to cover the news. Lonnie Wheeler made this point in his column. The local media failed to provide even basic coverage of a BCS league football team from it's own city.

UC has at least earned that much by attaining BCS status, beating a top 10 team last year in front of 28,000 fans, and then winning a bowl game.

Not to mention that fact that this year, the Big East has 3-4 top 25 teams, 4 Heisman trophy candidates, and possibly 2 legitimate contenders for a national title.

The national media sure thought Big East Media Day was interesting.

[Bearcat_DF]

I believe it is highly probable that UC will set records in attendance this year. It is highly probable that we will see at least two sell out games at Nippert (if not 3).

I think BK is right when he says the Cincinnati media hasn't got it. UC football is a whole new ballgame.

That is part of the news.

There are important new indicators that point to UC moving to be the number 2 football school in one of the most talent rich states in the country.

It will be interesting to see when the Cincinnati media catches up with this new reality - probably when it is old news . . .

Go Cats!
DF

[qsilvr2531]

Why is it relevent that we are a BCS team? Being in the BCS didn't cause us to suddenly start selling out games, or even get a bunch of people to come to games or even make us a better football team. If it didn't raise the interest level of the program on our own campus I don't see how it is a major factor. Moving into the BCS gives us the opportunity to raise the profile of our program, but it doesn't automatically entitle us to a higher profile by itself. Beating high profile teams (like Rutgers last year, though I think beating Oregon State would be just as big this year if we can pull it off) is what will raise our profile. Getting people to show up at Nipert will raise the profile of the team.

The SEC and PAC-10 have just as many top 25 teams, Heisman candidates and contenders for the national title (ok, they might only have one real contender for the national title), but I don't think that means the Enquirer should send someone to their media days. The national media has much more interest in covering the 3-4 top 25 teams, 4 Heisman candidates and possibly 2 legitimate contenders for the national title. That's mostly because all of those things are national news. But since none of them are related to Cincinnati Football (0 heisman candidates, not a top 25 team, not a contenders for a national title) it isn't terribly relevent to the local media.

Look, I think they made a mistake not going to media day. I think there coverage of UC football sucks. But I don't entirely blame them because I think local support for UC football hasn't been all that great either, and I can't stand it when people blame the poor local support on the media's lack of coverage. The fact is, whether we like it or not OSU football has been more popular (and might still be), even on UC's own campus, than UC football on the college level. That's embarassing (and this is coming from someone who is an OSU fan). I don't think it hurts the Enquirer not to cover UC football, because it's always been such a niche market in Cincinnati. If we want them to cover UC football better we're probably going to have to force them to, and the only way to do that is by getting the city to actually start caring enough about the team to come out on game day and watch.