Showing posts with label Humphry Slocombe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Humphry Slocombe. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

The Miami Herald's dismal Pony Express-style coverage of The World Series -compared to the New York Times- is a bad omen for readers


The Miami Herald's dismal Pony Express-style coverage of The World Series -compared to the New York Times- is a bad omen for readers, or, Breaking News at the Miami Herald STILL isn't the same as Breaking News elsewhere in the country.

Today's latest installment of "That's why they're the Herald"... which I've been meaning to discuss for ten days.

According to the
Miami Herald, two of the headlines I've copied below were also Breaking News at 8 p.m. Friday night.

Breaking News
* Teen slashed with machete at North Lauderdale street brawl

* Democrat donor files suit against GOP congressional candidate David Rivera
*

* NBA commissioner: Miami Heat is a global sports obsession


They are stories which had also been Breaking News all Friday afternoon in the same exact spot as they were, more or less, when I sent out an email to a few folks I know in the sports world and newspaper industry, at 3:47 p.m. on Saturday, October 30th, following the latest lethargic and embarrassing loss in the Randy Shannon era of U-M football.
(To UVA up in beautiful Charlottesville.
)

One of which -shocker- was a puff piece to the NBA on the day of the
Miami Heat's NBA home opener against the
Orlando Magic, and a national telecast on ESPN.

To quote myself, "Guess it's been a slow news day at the
Herald, huh? I hear there's an election coming up soon..."

Friday's edition of the New York Times for the South Florida market was printed in Deerfield Beach, about 25 miles or so north of me.

On 60% of the front page of the
Times' Sports section were stories and columns about Game 2 of the World Series, reflecting that the Giants had won and were half-way to winning their first title in San Francisco.


The next page was entirely about the second game, also reflecting the final score.


Friday's Broward version of the Miami Herald, located exactly 14 miles away, simply had the words Late Game near the top of the sports section next to Game 2.
They had no information about the second game.
Really.


See for yourself.



It's low-hanging fruit I know, but why make it complicated to show how the Herald continues to sink deeper into the abyss, as it takes its remaining readers for granted?

Before the playoffs started, my prediction was Giants-Rangers, with the
Giants winning in 6 games.

By the way, if you hadn't noticed it, the Herald now considers Broward County and it's readers so far away from the center of their strange upside-down News Universe, that in the recent past, they've now re-classified Broward County, and now place us in the distant outpost category of The Keys, as you can see just below the masthead and the headline about Meek.


Above, "Broward & Keys Final"

Speaking of San Francisco as I was -which I last visited in January of 2000, when I walked around the Giants new stadium on the Bay before it opened later that spring- I commend to you an illuminating blog post from last Tuesday by Alan D. Mutter at his excellent and noteworthy blog, Reflections of a Newsosaur, subtitled Musings (and occasional urgent warnings) of a veteran media executive, who fears our news-gathering companies are stumbling to extinction, http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/

Alan's post is
about a Bay Area ice cream shop called
Humphry Slocombe besting the San Francisco Chronicle, Ice cream shop out-‘fans’ S.F. Chronicle
http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2010/10/ice-cream-shop-out-fans-sf-chronicle.html#comments

As usual, Alan's post was informative and amusing, and holds lots of lessons for people at all levels of the news and media world, whether print or digital.

Lessons they'd be foolish to ignore.