(07-31-2016 11:50 AM)Shox Wrote: After looking into this a bit, it looks like people aren't pissed about WDAY not getting the contract, their pissed that the 2 media guys covering since NDSU pre DI, especially Kolpack who's family has been covering NDSU for 50 years in paper, was cut out and and now has limited access. Hell, the guy just wrote a homer book about NDSU and his reward...kicked to the curb for $. Sounds pretty bush league to me.
I can't really reference any other schools but the two non media partners journalist in Wichita, Paul Sullentrop and Bob Lutz from the Eagle, are given a ton of access. They can interview coaches, blog from the arena etc. Lutz in particular isn't always the best friend of Shocker athletics.
The problem is in the misunderstandings that ForumComm is pushing.
Background for everyone unaware of names:
Forum Communications(ForumComm) is a Fargo-based media company that owns many newspapers, a radio station, and a TV station with some repeater stations.
Jeff Kolpack is the Fargo Forum sportswriter covering NDSU athletics. He also guests on some radio shows. Dom Izzo is the sports director for WDAY-TV as well as hosting a WDAY-AM radio segment and guesting on other radio shows. Together, they host a weekly radio show and run the Bison Media Blog.
There seem to be three major misunderstandings going around.
First(and maybe most importantly), is the misunderstanding of the word 'interview' in the new media guidelines. People(like yourself) seem to think that Kolpack and Izzo are no longer going to be able to talk at all with Chris Klieman(FB) or Dave Richman(MBB). That's not the case. If Kolpack wants to talk to CK, he can do it just as before. He can even record the conversation to make sure he gets the quotes correct. What he can't do is take that recording and broadcast it on the radio or post the audio on the internet. Same goes for Izzo. He can interview CK and quote him on the 10pm news, but he can't roll the video. And they have to ask first to schedule the interview, but that's nothing new.
Second, the pregame tailgate show. Kolpack and Izzo have a pregame show on their blog that they have broadcasted from the Fargodome parking lot. They have done this even though their company did not have the media rights. This directly competes with the pregame show from the official radio and TV media partners. Starting this year, they are still free to have the show, they just can't do it from the Fargodome or the parking lot. Go across the street to the BWW. Or use the Fargo Air Museum next door.
Finally, the live blog. After the pregame show is done, Kolpack and Izzo would go inside the Fargodome pressbox and run a live chat on their blog during the game. That doesn't have to change. What they can't do is a continuous play by play of the game. That really shouldn't be an issue. They can still describe big plays, talk about what they see, keep up on injury situations, give score and time updates, etc. They just can't give updates every play. Is that really such a big deal? I'd rather use live stats for that level of detail anyway.
A few other things are restricting highlight video to three minutes per newscast. Limiting live reporting from the facility on game day to a 10min segment. No live broadcasts from the facility from 30min before gametime until the event is over. No live broadcasting of weekly press conferences(recordings for later showings are fine). Assistant coach interviews for broadcast are limited to 10min and no callers are allowed.
I just don't see where this is the giant issue that some are making it out to be. Dom and Jeff are fantastic at their jobs, but they work for a company that tries to have their cake and eat it too. They lowballed the bid thinking they could get much of the benefit without any of the cost. Well, that gravy train is over. It sucks that Dom and Jeff are caught in the middle, but the blame lies most on ForumComm. It doesn't help that Jeff gets super emotional about this stuff and takes it personally. This is about the fourth or fifth time he's cried about something that NDSU has don't that he didn't like. I've personally gotten tired of it.