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(08-19-2014 05:36 PM)odu83alumni Wrote:  I have stopped going to their sports section because there is nothing there for me. We may not be in their coverage area but we are still the hottest college football story in the state of Virginia. So go ahead DP and don't cover that. [/u]

Word.

If ODU is not in the DPs coverage area, what the heck is UVA or VT in? Last I checked the peninsula is still Hampton Roads. Heck, Hampton on Newport News are closer to ODU than parts of southern Va Beach.

(08-19-2014 07:11 PM)monarx Wrote:  If ODU is not in the DPs coverage area, what the heck is UVA or VT in? Last I checked the peninsula is still Hampton Roads. Heck, Hampton on Newport News are closer to ODU than parts of southern Va Beach.

Virginia and Virginia Tech have statewide followings. VCU and UR are closer to the Daily Press than Va. Tech, but guess which one readers are going to want more coverage of?

(08-19-2014 05:31 PM)ODUwildman Wrote:  Old Dominion is NOT in the Daily Press circulation area and does not have the readership that the two larger state schools have. If the DP had a south side readership and circulation presence, then all these complaints might be warranted. I've outlined the staffing issues. You can tell people the facts but you can't make them listen.

Your conclusion fails to recognize the fact that there is indeed a substantial number of ODU Alumni, current students, Faculty and Business owners that operate successful companies in the DP 's“circulation area”. Many that are financial benefactors to the University that share our concerns. I do not have hard statistics, but I would venture to say demographics would support the fact that ODU has an increasing and growing sphere of football fans/supporters that live on the Peninsula. There is no doubt that these stats would confirm ODU has a range of sports enthusiast that maybe one of the larger growing segments of consumers that the Sports department at the DP would/should be targeting as potential readers.

It is quickly becoming apparent that print media is doomed. Print media will be surpassed in convenience and economy by online content, printed magazines and newspapers will most likely dry up in the next decade. Whether or not print dies, its business model will. Physical wares — newspapers, books, magazines, discs—will no longer be the primary or most profitable means of delivering and interacting with future readers (the public). Digital is just better. It has too many advantages - speed, permanence, searchability, the ability to update etc.

The most profitable media sources in the last few years have generated revenues by CREATING a commodity. They attract readers online to view creative, intriguing, insightful, specific and informative topics that will attract target audiences. The most successful media sources have found revenues are enhanced with specific media events. The endorsement dollars from prepaid sponsors, advertisers and co-promoters with exclusive contracts for events have proven to have huge financial windfalls. ESPN entices target consumers to support events and patronize their advertisers. WAVY’s “ODU’s Coaches Show” hosted by Bruce Rader is paid for by advertising dollars, but more important it is a PRE-PAID SPONSOR of ODU football that underwrites the cost. In this case it is “Priority Auto Group”. The same model is being followed by print and digital media more and more. Do you honestly think this program would be on the air for 15-30 min every Friday night (primetime) for 13-16 weeks during football season without an UPFRONT PAID PARTNER?

With over 130,000 living alumni from around the world, I was curious how many may live on the peninsula. After a quick search of Alumni Info I was able to estimate that there are approximately 25,000 - 30,000 registered ODU Alumni living on the peninsula There are over 60,000 on the Southside. The financial influence of this group is who the DP should be targeting with marketing strategies.

You mentioned ODU is not in the circulation area, I assume your reasoning was because we are separated by the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. A non factor IMO, the DP should be concentrating on attracting the most voracious consumers to support their local advertisers, retailers, businesses on the peninsula or in the Hampton Roads area. Your implication would suggest or imply that WAVY is not in the marking area for ODU, simply because they are on the other side of the Elizabeth River.

Anyway, after exchanging several emails it became clear to me that most of the stories featured by the Sports Dept of the DP are by choice not lack of personnel or assets.

Read what the President of the DP assumed was happening “I was under the impression that our sports editor, Andi Petrini, has been working hard to expand our ODU coverage” Mr. Digby Solomon, President / Publisher of the Daily Press.

Yet the Sports Editor communicated to me she has no intention of working hard to expand ODU’s coverage. She responded “We supplement our ODU coverage with wire stories” Contradictory of Dr Soloman’s response.

Andi Petrini followed up with “We do the best we can” Laughable! Mr. Teel followed in lock step with his sports Editor, Andi Petrini and wrote “All I can tell you are we will do our best”.

You can tell people the facts but you can't make them listen. I appreciate your insights and response. It’s the DP that I feel is less than sincere and hard to respect after what they have said.

ODU needs to tell them to cover or they are cutting access. Ridiculous that I heard about the Jones hire from a David Teel tweet and Teel doesn't even cover ODU. ODU is just as at fault as the DP. Why would they spend any resources on us when we feed them the info first anyway? The one thing ODU's AD could learn from VCU is their marketing and PR. Never give away your info for nothing, especially to outlets that are biased against you anyway.

They found time and resources to cover this little development. It's about a sport that isn't even in season, from a regional school that is not even in Hampton Roads, where the recruit isn't even from Hampton Roads.

http://www.dailypress.com/sports/dp-spt-...?track=rss

If you agree that the Peninsula area is football crazy (and it certainly has been over many decades), how do you justify covering a non-football playing school's recruiting coup in their own hometown that is not even close to Hampton in a time where hardly anyone is talking about basketball?

They just don't respect ODU and its football growth story over there.

Its ok with me because I don't think ODU needs the DP to continue its rise up. They haven't been on us from the start and we're still on the move. But I hope ODU fans and supporters keep this in mind in patronage decisions because I see no evidence that the DP is a fan of ODU. And by that, I mean letting advertisers in the DP know that you are about to turn away from the DP altogether.

Let em make a living off schools sitting in Blacksburg, Charlottesville and now Richmond. LOL.

Here's my stab at why there isn't an effort on the DP to really cover ODU Football.

It would take an upfront investment to realize gains in the future that may no exist for them. Think of it like a car lot....they have all these Va Tech, UVA and VCU unsold cars on the lot and not any capital. They don't see the benefit of ordering additional ODU cars at an added expense when they are moving different model cars just fine.

It's not in their short or long term interest to push resources to growing ODUs brand...they would never get that investment back due to industry downsizing.


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(08-20-2014 10:43 AM)ODUR8R Wrote:  Here's my stab at why there isn't an effort on the DP to really cover ODU Football.

It would take an upfront investment to realize gains in the future that may no exist for them. Think of it like a car lot....they have all these Va Tech, UVA and VCU unsold cars on the lot and not any capital. They don't see the benefit of ordering additional ODU cars at an added expense when they are moving different model cars just fine.

It's not in their short or long term interest to push resources to growing ODUs brand...they would never get that investment back due to industry downsizing.


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I appreciate your take on the DP's reason for their biases and your analogy. There may even be a spattering of truth to your comparison. Their perception of selling a 1960's Volkswagen as opposed to a 2014 Mazda appears to be the world they live in. However, after receiving the communication from those at the DP that profess to have an awareness of goals and an overall mission for the newspaper clearly are acting like an ostrich that sticks its head in the sand. IMO, I feel a more accurate comparison or analogy may be "We have used a rotary phone for the last 25 years and in the past it has served us well. Even though everyone around us has changed to an iphone, our bias is to continue to do what we have done for the past 25 years, we will not change. After all we enjoy, like and have NO INTENTION of changing. It is our comfort zone. So go away.

Unless we know the full story of how ODU elects to promote themselves, and I do not, we shouldn't throw too many stones at the DP.




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How many "resources" does it possibly take to give at least minimal coverage to ODU? Local travel for a weekly meeting and an hour of time writing a recap of that meeting?

The only "local" peninsula story on the website right now is titled "Poquoson's Burden, 61, earns gold in FINA World Masters Championships in diving". They even have the Tides.

(08-20-2014 12:58 PM)ODUR8R Wrote:  Unless we know the full story of how ODU elects to promote themselves, and I do not, we shouldn't throw too many stones at the DP.




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ODUR8R, I have great respect for you, but never would I or any of us throw stones, but all of us have a right and duty if we perceive an inequity to express our opinion. It serves no purpose to turn our heads and pretend it is not a glaring bias. Many indiscriminate prejudices in the world we live in have been changed for the better because honorable men and women were compelled to change the status quo and make a difference.

I really wouldn't ask the DP to do anything different. That kind of request just gives them some power they don't deserve. Instead ODU fans should force them to change based on the power we have. Vote will your feet and your wallets. Take the message to the advertisers.

These guys are grown ups and common sense should be telling them that the product is high interest, high growth and extremely proximate.

Do you know for a fact that it is not the Athletic Department that dictates what type of coverage and who it is that writes it?

They have the Pilot and Wavy under their umbrella and that's all they really need.


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Still waiting for someone to tell me what gets cut to increase coverage of ODU. Because it's a zero-sum game. Newspapers aren't adding headcount. They're cutting them as fast as humanly possible. Trust me on this one.

So again: Cut Virginia or Virginia Tech, which have significant almuni and casual interest on the Peninsula? Cut high schools, which newspapers almost consider a community service, and in an area that has history and interest? What goes away? What is diminished in order to make this happen. And think about it from the perspective of a newspaper editor trying to stem the bleeding out of circulation and ad revenue, not from the perspective of the ODU fan who wants more ODU in his paper.

I don't hear answers. I hear "well they're just against us." Believe me, the only thing newspapers are for is saving themselves against a rising tide. The only thing they're against is drowning in it.

They should just prioritize a little better. For example...running an article about VT basketball, that hasn't been relevant for YEARS, at the start of College football was just plain stupid.

(08-20-2014 08:31 PM)Mr.BigBlue Wrote:  They should just prioritize a little better. For example...running an article about VT basketball, that hasn't been relevant for YEARS, at the start of College football was just plain stupid.

This. If they cut ACC pieces by 10% and put that effort into covering ODU, there would still be countless ACC articles and everyone would be happy. As I said earlier, it isn't like it would take a Herculean effort to have a meeting with someone at ODU once a week and give a recap of that meeting. I'm not asking for a full entourage to follow the team around the country. I get it, they don't have the resources and it wouldn't be profitable to invest in them... but a couple of paragraphs per week they can and should do.

(08-20-2014 02:44 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  Still waiting for someone to tell me what gets cut to increase coverage of ODU. Because it's a zero-sum game. Newspapers aren't adding headcount. They're cutting them as fast as humanly possible. Trust me on this one.

So again: Cut Virginia or Virginia Tech, which have significant almuni and casual interest on the Peninsula? Cut high schools, which newspapers almost consider a community service, and in an area that has history and interest? What goes away? What is diminished in order to make this happen. And think about it from the perspective of a newspaper editor trying to stem the bleeding out of circulation and ad revenue, not from the perspective of the ODU fan who wants more ODU in his paper.

I don't hear answers. I hear "well they're just against us." Believe me, the only thing newspapers are for is saving themselves against a rising tide. The only thing they're against is drowning in it.

Cyniclone Wrote: "Still waiting for someone to tell me what gets cut to increase coverage of ODU"

Why would it have to be an all or nothing decision? The mark of good leadership is knowing when and how to rearrange assets to the areas that potentially will give the greatest returns on your investment.

Cyniclone Wrote “So again: Cut Virginia or Virginia Tech, which have significant alumni and casual interest on the Peninsula”

If that is the bench mark, ODU outnumbers both UVA and Tech 3 to 1 combined in the DP’s circulation area. VA Tech estimates the Alumni number for the Peninsula at 5-6K and UVA estimates 4-5K (their Alumni Association hubs/pockets for VA). VA Tech & UVA's Combined Total is 9-11K / ODU 25-30K



ODU's student population in the Greater Hampton Roads & Peninsula area alone is a significant built in demographic for potential readers. Not to mention all the contingent added consumers from Family of students, Faculty, friends, the ODU Peninsula Center and employees from the Norfolk, VA Beach and Peninsula Centers for learning.



I have no concept of ODU’s marketing strategies, but to assume that Old Dominion would not desire more exposure from any media source whether national, regional or local is naive. The University would relish in the extra branding from any source especially if it is free and in our backyard.

Cyniclone Wrote: I don't hear answers. I hear "well they're just against us."

I assume there have been a few ODU fans that have emailed concerns to the sports dept at the DP, based off a comment in a response from an early email replay. It would be pretty presumptions of us to offer up our vision of a solution. There is no “answer” any of us could seriously suggest. With all due respect we may be able to shed light or bring it to their attention how we feel and our observation(s) from a fans perspective, but that is it. Ultimately it is the job of the DP editors and columnist to evaluate what they feel is in the best interest for the paper. I’m fine with that.

I become apprehensive with the “lack of response” to my original correspondence. After some persistence I finally received a very cordial email from The CEO of the DP. The follow up correspondence from others at the DP implied they had no intention of reviewing how they cover ODU football.

Again, I had no intention to ruffle feathers on either side of the water. All I ever desired to achieve was for the local paper "DP" to examine the coverage of Old Dominion and hopefully find a way to fulfill a need for the only local FBS football team with a growing fan base that could be beneficial for all.

Respectfully submitted

(08-21-2014 07:23 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(08-20-2014 08:31 PM)Mr.BigBlue Wrote:  They should just prioritize a little better. For example...running an article about VT basketball, that hasn't been relevant for YEARS, at the start of College football was just plain stupid.

This. If they cut ACC pieces by 10% and put that effort into covering ODU, there would still be countless ACC articles and everyone would be happy. As I said earlier, it isn't like it would take a Herculean effort to have a meeting with someone at ODU once a week and give a recap of that meeting. I'm not asking for a full entourage to follow the team around the country. I get it, they don't have the resources and it wouldn't be profitable to invest in them... but a couple of paragraphs per week they can and should do.

10 percent more coverage wouldn't amount to much. Maybe an extra feature or two? You gotta remember, covering a program is more than just going to the games and occasionally talking to the coach or a kid. It's going to all the games (or as many as the travel budget will allow), a bunch of practices, developing relationships with the coach, the coaching staff, the support staff, the administrative staff, the players -- and most of that happens outside the game or a scheduled interview session.

Honestly, if I were running a sports section, I'd take a s**t or get off the pot approach. If we couldn't, for whatever reason, go all in on coverage, we wouldn't bother, because there's little gained by doing it halfway. By going only to home games, or by not hitting the mid-week press conferences, or by not having a consistent weekly presence on site or in the paper, you'd just tick off readers who expect full coverage, while not moving the needle for casual readers who may or may not read the ODU story, because they went to the paper or the website for the Hampton-Phoebus game or the Virginia Tech coverage.

It's difficult to explain, but sports journalism is a lot more intensive and convoluted than a lot of people realize.

(08-21-2014 09:33 AM)ODU Oldtimer Wrote:  

(08-20-2014 02:44 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  Still waiting for someone to tell me what gets cut to increase coverage of ODU. Because it's a zero-sum game. Newspapers aren't adding headcount. They're cutting them as fast as humanly possible. Trust me on this one.

So again: Cut Virginia or Virginia Tech, which have significant almuni and casual interest on the Peninsula? Cut high schools, which newspapers almost consider a community service, and in an area that has history and interest? What goes away? What is diminished in order to make this happen. And think about it from the perspective of a newspaper editor trying to stem the bleeding out of circulation and ad revenue, not from the perspective of the ODU fan who wants more ODU in his paper.

I don't hear answers. I hear "well they're just against us." Believe me, the only thing newspapers are for is saving themselves against a rising tide. The only thing they're against is drowning in it.

Cyniclone Wrote: "Still waiting for someone to tell me what gets cut to increase coverage of ODU"

Why would it have to be an all or nothing decision? The mark of good leadership is knowing when and how to rearrange assets to the areas that potentially will give the greatest returns on your investment.

Cyniclone Wrote “So again: Cut Virginia or Virginia Tech, which have significant alumni and casual interest on the Peninsula”

If that is the bench mark, ODU outnumbers both UVA and Tech 3 to 1 combined in the DP’s circulation area. VA Tech estimates the Alumni number for the Peninsula at 5-6K and UVA estimates 4-5K (their Alumni Association hubs/pockets for VA). VA Tech & UVA's Combined Total is 9-11K / ODU 25-30K



ODU's student population in the Greater Hampton Roads & Peninsula area alone is a significant built in demographic for potential readers. Not to mention all the contingent added consumers from Family of students, Faculty, friends, the ODU Peninsula Center and employees from the Norfolk, VA Beach and Peninsula Centers for learning.



I have no concept of ODU’s marketing strategies, but to assume that Old Dominion would not desire more exposure from any media source whether national, regional or local is naive. The University would relish in the extra branding from any source especially if it is free and in our backyard.

Cyniclone Wrote: I don't hear answers. I hear "well they're just against us."

I assume there have been a few ODU fans that have emailed concerns to the sports dept at the DP, based off a comment in a response from an early email replay. It would be pretty presumptions of us to offer up our vision of a solution. There is no “answer” any of us could seriously suggest. With all due respect we may be able to shed light or bring it to their attention how we feel and our observation(s) from a fans perspective, but that is it. Ultimately it is the job of the DP editors and columnist to evaluate what they feel is in the best interest for the paper. I’m fine with that.

I become apprehensive with the “lack of response” to my original correspondence. After some persistence I finally received a very cordial email from The CEO of the DP. The follow up correspondence from others at the DP implied they had no intention of reviewing how they cover ODU football.

Again, I had no intention to ruffle feathers on either side of the water. All I ever desired to achieve was for the local paper "DP" to examine the coverage of Old Dominion and hopefully find a way to fulfill a need for the only local FBS football team with a growing fan base that could be beneficial for all.

Respectfully submitted

I think the DP would want to cover ODU as much as it can. Heck, at the risk of outing myself, I've covered ODU events for them as a freelance reporter in the past few years. They definitely have nothing against ODU and I'm sure they'd want to up their coverage. But given their staffing situation, I don't see an obvious answer as to how. At least with the Redskins and NASCAR, they can use the Washington Post and the Associated Press to fill the gaps they used to cover with their own people (Warner Hessler and Al Pearce, at least back in the day).

It goes back to the response I just made to EverRespect -- it's a matter of going all-in or folding. Doing something halfway doesn't make casual customers happy and isn't going to be enough to satisfy committed fans.

The other thing is that while ODU having a large alumni base is a good stat, it's also true that most alumni don't especially care about their school's athletics after they leave, unless the football team makes a top bowl or the basketball team gets to the Final Four. Whereas Virginia and Virginia Tech, for better or worse, have a lot of Wal-Mart fans. And while it's easy to make fun of them, they read the paper and visit the websites. And there's a lot of them.

As for the lack of a satisfying response, I kinda warned you about that (even as I encouraged you to reach out). The DP has precious little wiggle room, and it's only going to get worse -- their parent company has demanded multiple significant cutbacks, and that's not likely to change anytime soon. Put another way: A Daily Press from 10 years ago isn't likely to be selling their place on Warwick Blvd. to move to Oyster Point. They're a much smaller newspaper than they were then. And they'll be a lot smaller 10 years later. Hell, they'll probably be a lot smaller 1 year later. And they won't be the only ones.

Word on the street is another round of layoffs at the Pilot is right around the corner. It won't impact ODU coverage . . . or will it?