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Author Topic: Does your local newspaper support bowling?  (Read 2769 times)

The Hose

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Does your local newspaper support bowling?
« on: May 21, 2003, 06:27:23 PM »
If so, how?  If not, why not?

I've spoken to the sports editor and ask him about the lack of bowling news that is in the paper.  He said that he would be more then happy to do articles, a weekly report of scores and league standing if someone from the bowling center would let them know.

Why would any center owner or manager not do this?  Doesn't it make sense that the more coverage it get the more business they would receive?  

All I can say about ours it that they are too lazy.  There is no excuse!

 

NevadaBowl

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Re: Does your local newspaper support bowling?
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2003, 09:34:20 AM »
Bowling?  What's that?

Here in Las Vegas, a major bowling mecca, there is virtually no coverage.  

When the PWBA was in town, during the year that Carolyn Dorin-Ballard destroyed the competition, she led one of the  qualifying rounds here.  The story, a small one in the back of the sports page was "Texas Woman Leads Open".  Sad.

mumzie

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Re: Does your local newspaper support bowling?
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2003, 09:35:43 AM »
If the paper gets the results of a tournament on a day where they don't have prep basket weaving results to publish, we get a half a column inch in the "scoreboard" page - just above the dam levels and fish counts...
And usually, when they are sent EXACTLY what should be printed, like "NWWCBA Results", they'll change the headline to read "PWBA results" or something like that. It's amazing how BADLY they do...
Our new governer is a bowler. About a 170 average. At least, he used it a lot in his campaign. Said it made him just an average guy (pun intended). Bowling got a lot of attention then, but I'm not sure it was positive...
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HamPster

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Re: Does your local newspaper support bowling?
« Reply #3 on: May 22, 2003, 09:56:56 AM »
We have a weekly recap during the fall/winter/spring season, and an honor roll of the highest 10 games and series' for the year along with it.  We usually have 3 or 4 790's that make it (at the bottom, of course) and around 25 300's a year.  Then in August after our annual Top Ten, there'll be a half page write up about it.  It's pretty cool too, the guy interviews people every once and a while, like Maggie Crawford for her 860, and Ron Bahr for his back to back at ABC, and one of the youths that shot his first 300 and then his first 800 a month later.
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9andaWiggle

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Re: Does your local newspaper support bowling?
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2003, 10:55:15 AM »
I see newspapers printing this in smaller towns as opposed to larger cities.  Seem maybe they need more filler for the paper, or maybe just more time to add it to their program.  I don't look for it, but I don't think the Indianapolis Star publishes any bowling reports.  A possible reason is this: there are so many houses in large cities, it would take a couple pages to list every league's high bowler for the week, from every house.  Also, they have plenty of other stories to cover and don't need the filler for the paper.


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Ishmael

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Re: Does your local newspaper support bowling?
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2003, 11:05:26 AM »
I'm in a rural area, and the local paper prints the league standings as well as high games and high series each week (if the league secretaries remember to send them in).

Gene J Kanak

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Re: Does your local newspaper support bowling?
« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2003, 11:24:32 AM »
Hey everyone,

  I think this post is very appropriate for me to chime in, as I am a sports writer for a fairly large newspaper in Illinois.  I am a full-time staff writer for the Daily Journal in Kanakee, Illinois. We have a circulation of around 30,000. Anyhow, I'm an avid bowler, so I always like to get as much coverage for bowling as is possible. However, time restraints and other assignments make it impossible for me to cover bowling full time. What our paper has done is to hire a stringer, an outside person familliar with the bowling scene who submits articles on a weekly basis. The articles run in round up form, recapping the best performances of the week or any major bowling news. It usually takes a 300 game or an 800 series to get a roundup story. In addition to the round ups, we also run an "Honor Roll" on our scoreboard page. This list features games of 260+ games and 650+ series for the men, and something like 225+ games and 600+ series for women. Now, when a big tournament comes along, such as the two PBA Regional events, one senior and one regular, that come to town, I go to the center to attend the event, focusing particular attention to any local bowlers that may be participating. The factor that needs to be understood is that bowling, while popular and one of my loves, is still not considered very important by the public at large. Therefore, it is one of the first things to get bumped aside when space is limited. Everyone wants to have what they're interested in receive recognition, but newspapers are a business. Like any other business, editors need to make decisions about what is appealing to the largest audience. Unfortunately, in most cases bowling does not rate very high on the list, except to bowlers. My advice to any of you who feel like you're not getting the coverage that you deserve is to contact the sports editor of your local paper to see if they will allow you or someone else to string for them. If you are permitted to do this then you can set up contact with all of the centers in your area so that you will be contacted whenever a score or occasion warrants an article. However, you have to be willing to put in the time and effort to gather information for such articles, and that can be difficult. But if you're really passionate about increasing coverage of the sport, that is one way to get what you want.

Gene J. Kanak

da Shiv

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Re: Does your local newspaper support bowling?
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2003, 11:52:24 AM »
The Detroit Free Press has a bowling writer who writes a weekly column during the league season.  If either the PBA or the PWBA is in town (and the PWBA will be here starting Saturday) he usually has a column daily for the duration of the tournament.  Once a week they publish a list on the agate type statistics page that includes all of the 300 games, 150 over average series, 800 series (men), and 700 series (women).  I think the paper gets that info from the local association, so if your secretary is slow to report you might never get to see your name.

There is also an actual entire newspaper devoted to bowling, and it's free!  It's called Bowler's Digest and it is published bi-weekly all year.  This paper started in 1976 and is distributed free to bowling centers, so there is usually a stack of them on the counter in bowling centers.  It's not a small paper, either.  It runs about 20 pages, and besides local bowling news, it includes syndicated columns by people like Chuck Pezzano, John Jowdy, and John Archibald.  Cheryl Daniels of the PWBA writes  a regular column as well.  There are a lot of ads for pro shops, bowling centers, and leagues looking for teams.  There's even a classified ad section where people looking for lanemen, counter help, and managers can place ads.  If anyone is interested in getting this paper;  while it's free if you can get to a metro Detroit bowling center;  you can subscribe for a year (25 issues) for $25.  Their email address is bowlersdigest@yahoo.com.  Phone number is 586-286-2450.

Shiv
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dicnic

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Re: Does your local newspaper support bowling?
« Reply #8 on: May 22, 2003, 08:12:07 PM »
Here in Palm Beach County, FL, bowling gets hardly a mention in the local newspapers. They run the weekly ads from all the houses, of course, which indicates when Cosmic bowling starts, when you can get Pizza and soda and a lane for $15.00 or whatever it is etc. But rarely do we see results from a national tournament or any local tournaments. I think one of their excuses is that the PWBA television broadcasts are tape delayed and they feel they should not publish final results prior to the telecast. But they do not publish much else anyway regarding bowling so that is just BS. I have no idea how many league secretaries or league coordinators at the various bowling establishments ever send in results. Perhaps that is part of the problem. I will have to check locally.
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DON DRAPER

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Re: Does your local newspaper support bowling?
« Reply #9 on: May 22, 2003, 09:04:11 PM »
here in st. joseph, missouri( pop. 75,000 )the news press-gazette does a good putting in honor scores from all four houses. the association however does not do a very good job as far as putting in results from the city tournament, masters invitational, queens tournament, etc. the newspaper does not have someone who knows bowling and this really hurts......

seadrive

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Re: Does your local newspaper support bowling?
« Reply #10 on: May 23, 2003, 07:14:16 AM »
quote:
I'm in a rural area, and the local paper prints the league standings as well as high games and high series each week (if the league secretaries remember to send them in).

Ditto.

A 69 year old guy who had knee replacement surgery in December won our local tournament last week, and the local paper did a very nice write-up on him, complete with photo on the front page of the sports section.

Sometimes we get bumped if there are too many car ads that week , but all in all, bowling still gets pretty decent coverage here.

The Hose

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Re: Does your local newspaper support bowling?
« Reply #11 on: May 23, 2003, 07:21:51 AM »
The Tulsa World does an article every Thursday during the season.  They do a story about someone who has shot some great scores, or an upcoming tournament along with 300's, 800's, 700'.  

Our city of 45,000 has one newspaper and I think there has been one article in the past year.  Not one word about Sawbones shooting 812 at the age of 77.