Or maybe Cleveland’s major daily paper is not sending reporters to all Indians road games. It is saying it will send them to “select” road games. So far, however, it has not sent beat reporters to either Chicago or Tampa Bay, the Tribe’s first two road stops of the year.
That news comes from Cleveland Scene, which pays attention to such things. It also pays close attention to the media company which owns the Plain Dealer and its online outlet, Cleveland.com. Based on this story and past coverage, it appears to be a cost-cutting move.
I’ve written many, many things questioning why baseball is covered the way it is covered and have suggested that it doesn’t necessarily have to be the way it is (this one last year is probably my most recent thorough handling of the subject). Personally, I’d love to see experiments in how baseball is covered. You obviously can’t get quotes from afar, but are the quotes important? You can obviously see the game better on a TV screen, but can the person you have doing that write a compelling story that contextualizes the game in ways that make reading it worthwhile to those who saw the same game from the same view? Interesting questions, interesting challenges. So interesting that I’d love it if a newspaper or website dared to do something different in this regard with its coverage of baseball games.
But this example is not that. This, it seems, is simply a matter of a newspaper being cheap and hoping no one notices, all the while putting their reporters at a disadvantage compared to the competition. So to that I say pfffft! Either be bold and original or do things the established way. Don’t just cut costs and act like you don’t give a crap. Because if you don’t, why should your readers?