Here's a look at today's print column, in which I discuss the way we handle news and sports in the newspaper. Make sure get to the end. Lo and behold, the Eagles did not lead the paper. And with good reason.
Today I shoot for the Trifecta.
Each of the last two weeks I have used this space to talk not about news, but rather sports. You know, all that material that starts on the Back Page and works its way forward from there.
As an inveterate people watcher, I suggest you take the following test. The next time you’re in a Wawa, watch what happens when a man picks up a copy of the Daily Times from our stack there.Yep, first thing he does is flip the paper over to look at the Back Page. That’s because that’s where the sports section starts.
Two Mondays ago, I wrote about what I consider the greatest moment in Philadelphia sports history. I refer to it simply as “Wilbert off right tackle.” That’s a reference to the key play in the Eagles 1980 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC title game.
Of course, I showed a particularly warped sense of timing to do this. That is I announced this to the world on a morning when the entire Delaware Valley was coming down with a serious case of Phillies Phever. That’s because not even 24 hours before, the Phillies had completed their improbable journey from perennial also-rans to National League East Division Champions.
I heard from more than a few readers who wondered why I would possibly talk about the Eagles on a morning when everyone was out purchasing the latest in Phillies paraphernalia. Granted, my sense of timing was not the greatest.
I confirmed that last Monday, when I wrote of my son’s conversion into both a baseball and Phillies fan.
Maybe we jinxed them. Forget Sports Illustrated, although I am tempted to remind readers that Jimmy Rollins did appear on the cover of SI that week.
I am not a soothsayer. I don’t deal in predictions. I usually write my column early in the week. I try to get a feel for what might transpire later on in the week.
How was I supposed to know that the Phillies would be so carried away with winning the National League East that they would fail to win a single game in their best-of-five series against the Colorado Rockies?
That’s right. On the morning that I declared how my son had finally embraced baseball, the region was still licking its wounds over the fact that the Phils had gone meekly in three straight games. Yes, my son and I huddled by the TV late on that Saturday night and cursed our fate. Get used to it, I informed him. It comes with the territory.
Being a Phillies fans — hell, being a Philadelphia sports fan — is never easy.
Which brings me to today, and the reason for this third installment in a sports troika.It has to do with sports, in particular pro sports, and how this newspaper covers them.There was one thing I could be sure of in all the giddiness that surrounded the Phillies and their march to the playoffs.I knew that I would receive complaints from some dedicated readers.
They are the same readers who call me just about every Monday in the fall and winter to voice their discontent over our Eagles coverage.It’s not that they aren’t interested in reading about the games and fans. They just don’t want it on their front page.
I make a lot of decisions here every day. But easily the most important one I make is what is going to appear on our front page. We use it as a billboard to sell the newspaper. It’s incredibly valuable real estate.Some readers believe we cheapen it when we use our lead Page One space for a sports story.As one caller informed me last week: “They already have the Back Page, isn’t that enough? Let’s try to reserve the front page for news.”
I feel your pain.Yes, we led the paper several days last week with the Phillies. They were our lead element each day Monday through Thursday. And each day, I got at least one call from readers complaining about our choice of a sports story to lead the paper.
That streak was snapped on Saturday. That’s because on Friday they buried Michael Reagan, the volunteer firefighter from Sharon Hill who was killed in the line of duty.
It did not go unnoticed that the Phillies did not play on that Friday.It wouldn’t have mattered. Even if they had played, the services for Reagan still would have been our lead for Saturday.
I had already decided that when I looked at the schedule earlier in the week.
That was really a pretty easy decision to make. Some days it’s not that easy. Take today for instance. Unless something big happened, I would guess as I write this on Wednesday that our lead item on Page One today was the Eagles.
Let’s hope it’s a win. If it’s another loss, they may not be such big news much longer.
Philip E. Heron is editor of the Daily Times. Call him at (610) 622-8818. E-mail him at editor@delcotimes.com.
Today I shoot for the Trifecta.
Each of the last two weeks I have used this space to talk not about news, but rather sports. You know, all that material that starts on the Back Page and works its way forward from there.
As an inveterate people watcher, I suggest you take the following test. The next time you’re in a Wawa, watch what happens when a man picks up a copy of the Daily Times from our stack there.Yep, first thing he does is flip the paper over to look at the Back Page. That’s because that’s where the sports section starts.
Two Mondays ago, I wrote about what I consider the greatest moment in Philadelphia sports history. I refer to it simply as “Wilbert off right tackle.” That’s a reference to the key play in the Eagles 1980 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC title game.
Of course, I showed a particularly warped sense of timing to do this. That is I announced this to the world on a morning when the entire Delaware Valley was coming down with a serious case of Phillies Phever. That’s because not even 24 hours before, the Phillies had completed their improbable journey from perennial also-rans to National League East Division Champions.
I heard from more than a few readers who wondered why I would possibly talk about the Eagles on a morning when everyone was out purchasing the latest in Phillies paraphernalia. Granted, my sense of timing was not the greatest.
I confirmed that last Monday, when I wrote of my son’s conversion into both a baseball and Phillies fan.
Maybe we jinxed them. Forget Sports Illustrated, although I am tempted to remind readers that Jimmy Rollins did appear on the cover of SI that week.
I am not a soothsayer. I don’t deal in predictions. I usually write my column early in the week. I try to get a feel for what might transpire later on in the week.
How was I supposed to know that the Phillies would be so carried away with winning the National League East that they would fail to win a single game in their best-of-five series against the Colorado Rockies?
That’s right. On the morning that I declared how my son had finally embraced baseball, the region was still licking its wounds over the fact that the Phils had gone meekly in three straight games. Yes, my son and I huddled by the TV late on that Saturday night and cursed our fate. Get used to it, I informed him. It comes with the territory.
Being a Phillies fans — hell, being a Philadelphia sports fan — is never easy.
Which brings me to today, and the reason for this third installment in a sports troika.It has to do with sports, in particular pro sports, and how this newspaper covers them.There was one thing I could be sure of in all the giddiness that surrounded the Phillies and their march to the playoffs.I knew that I would receive complaints from some dedicated readers.
They are the same readers who call me just about every Monday in the fall and winter to voice their discontent over our Eagles coverage.It’s not that they aren’t interested in reading about the games and fans. They just don’t want it on their front page.
I make a lot of decisions here every day. But easily the most important one I make is what is going to appear on our front page. We use it as a billboard to sell the newspaper. It’s incredibly valuable real estate.Some readers believe we cheapen it when we use our lead Page One space for a sports story.As one caller informed me last week: “They already have the Back Page, isn’t that enough? Let’s try to reserve the front page for news.”
I feel your pain.Yes, we led the paper several days last week with the Phillies. They were our lead element each day Monday through Thursday. And each day, I got at least one call from readers complaining about our choice of a sports story to lead the paper.
That streak was snapped on Saturday. That’s because on Friday they buried Michael Reagan, the volunteer firefighter from Sharon Hill who was killed in the line of duty.
It did not go unnoticed that the Phillies did not play on that Friday.It wouldn’t have mattered. Even if they had played, the services for Reagan still would have been our lead for Saturday.
I had already decided that when I looked at the schedule earlier in the week.
That was really a pretty easy decision to make. Some days it’s not that easy. Take today for instance. Unless something big happened, I would guess as I write this on Wednesday that our lead item on Page One today was the Eagles.
Let’s hope it’s a win. If it’s another loss, they may not be such big news much longer.
Philip E. Heron is editor of the Daily Times. Call him at (610) 622-8818. E-mail him at editor@delcotimes.com.
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