LOCAL MEDIA COVERAGE

by **Drakey** » December 7th, 2018, 10:37 pm

I continue to be amazed a the lack of coverage Drake gets in it's hometown newspaper. Some games don't even get an article. There is never a preview of any game. We lost one of our best players to injury and it has not even been mentioned in Des Moines newspaper. I am curious as to whether any other Valley teams receive such lack of coverage in their hometown papers.does anybody else have this problem? Thursdays victory resulted in a two paragraph one column article on page 3 or 4 of the sports section.do any of the other schools NOT get a front page article when they win a game? We haven't had a photo from a game this season.

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by **BigMacAttack** » December 8th, 2018, 6:58 am

Drakey wrote:I continue to be amazed a the lack of coverage Drake gets in it's hometown newspaper. Some games don't even get an article. There is never a preview of any game. We lost one of our best players to injury and it has not even been mentioned in Des Moines newspaper. I am curious as to whether any other Valley teams receive such lack of coverage in their hometown papers.does anybody else have this problem? Thursdays victory resulted in a two paragraph one column article on page 3 or 4 of the sports section.do any of the other schools NOT get a front page article when they win a game? We haven't had a photo from a game this season.

I saw the "Part of the USA Today Network" on the website for the Des Moines Register and knew exactly how you feel. The Evansville Courier is also part of that network.
However the paper has a dedicated beat writer in Pat Hickey that does an excellent job covering the Aces. He tweets about the Aces, is a member of the PurpleAcesFans forum, and provides great coverage. The one complaint for us paper reading fans is that the post game article is usually not the next morning but the second morning after the game.

by **DUBulldog** » December 8th, 2018, 8:27 am

The Register seems to have some articles on-line about Drake that never make the actual printed paper. Coverage of Drake has never been good. 40 years ago, when I was a student, Drake outdrew Iowa State regularly, but still received 3rd class coverage in the local paper. As the Register continues to lay off reporters/writers, it's gotten even worse. They have made a decision that they would be all Iowa/Iowa State all the time.

by **Majik45** » December 10th, 2018, 8:16 am

Bradley has a dedicated beat reporter from the Peoria Journal Star, Dave Reynolds who is very good. The coverage is not what it used to be, but comparatively to others, they still give Bradley quite a bit of local coverage.

by **Drakey** » December 10th, 2018, 9:43 am

A few months ago there was a feature article in the Peoria paper about Drake that somebody posted on her. more coverage than we ever get in the Des Moines paper. They don't really run many articles. They are mostly just cheerleader pieces saying how Iowa State is the greatest at one thing or another. The stories are more like something you would see in a high school paper.

by **BCPanther** » December 10th, 2018, 9:50 am

DUBulldog wrote:The Register seems to have some articles on-line about Drake that never make the actual printed paper. Coverage of Drake has never been good. 40 years ago, when I was a student, Drake outdrew Iowa State regularly, but still received 3rd class coverage in the local paper. As the Register continues to lay off reporters/writers, it's gotten even worse. They have made a decision that they would be all Iowa/Iowa State all the time.

Yet they still employ Leistikow and Pandy. Literally paid professional cheerleaders.

by **E-Villan** » December 10th, 2018, 10:19 am

BigMacAttack wrote:
Drakey wrote:I continue to be amazed a the lack of coverage Drake gets in it's hometown newspaper. Some games don't even get an article. There is never a preview of any game. We lost one of our best players to injury and it has not even been mentioned in Des Moines newspaper. I am curious as to whether any other Valley teams receive such lack of coverage in their hometown papers.does anybody else have this problem? Thursdays victory resulted in a two paragraph one column article on page 3 or 4 of the sports section.do any of the other schools NOT get a front page article when they win a game? We haven't had a photo from a game this season.

I saw the "Part of the USA Today Network" on the website for the Des Moines Register and knew exactly how you feel. The Evansville Courier is also part of that network.
However the paper has a dedicated beat writer in Pat Hickey that does an excellent job covering the Aces. He tweets about the Aces, is a member of the PurpleAcesFans forum, and provides great coverage. The one complaint for us paper reading fans is that the post game article is usually not the next morning but the second morning after the game.

Gannet, or USA Today has been buying papers up left and right. The newspaper business is tough these days, but these guys are destroying everything they touch. My guess is they are planning to eventually turn all of these locals into USA Todays, similar to what Macy's did when they gobbled up Famous Barr and others. Of course, few would say they improved the stores any. I noticed one of the Evansville reporters was tweeting that he would be covering the Ball St-UE game for the Muncie paper, another Gannet gem. Ball State isn't a small school, and obviously the biggest sport team in Muncie, and they don't even get local coverage for an in-state game.

I was in Chattanooga the day after our Wyoming game. I picked up the local paper at the hotel, and noticed there was the score of our game. I found it interesting that people in Chattanooga were able to see our score from the night before in their local paper, but people in Evansville were not.

I still keep a Sunday subscription, and it is solely to provide a little support for Pat Hickey, who indeed does an excellent job covering the Aces. It's just a shame his coverage can't be seen for a couple of days afterwards.

by **musiccitybulldog** » December 10th, 2018, 11:17 am

I remember when we used to take the Des Moines Register while living out of town to keep up with Drake basketball. Slowly it waned to where it wasn't worth doing. I believe this is becoming true of newspapers in general, except for a several major city newspapers that are almost national.

Usually you get a couple paragraphs about basketball on the online version. Even with so called beat writers I am not sure how much they contribute other than some team interest stories once in a while and small summary's after the game. Usually you have a short clip of the press conference. My guess is most in the Valley are alike.

We just quit taking the Sunday Tennessean. Seemed all we read about was the same convenience store robberies they talk about on local TV news.

My theory, this is why the pre-season predictions are so off base these days and a lot of unknowns, so little local coverage and national press probably get their coverage from what they glean from the local writers online. Some writers(Media) seem to not be that excited about the game. I remember in 07-08, my wife and I talked to a CBS announcer in St. Louis and we were amazed at his knowledge of the team.

by **isumvc1** » December 10th, 2018, 6:38 pm

Todd Golden covers the Sycamores pretty well in the Terre Haute Tribune Star, always at all the football and basketball games and usually has pregame and a couple post game articles

by **Drakey** » December 11th, 2018, 8:53 am

It sounds like most Valley schools at least have a writer assigned to cover their team at some level. The Des Moines Register does not. The entire staff is assigned to cover Iowa and Iowa State sports exclusively. I went through the six page sports section the other day, and there was literally not one article in those six pages about anything other than Iowa and Iowa State sports. No other Iowa stories, no national stories or any stories other than features on those two schools. I can't believe that anybody else has a sports section that bad.