Geno’s girl blogging for paper savvy move
Posted: Wednesday, September 09, 2009 5:06 PM
Filed Under:
Rants
When it comes to newspapers trying to dominate coverage of popular area sports teams, most use the saturation approach. Anything and everything gets mentioned.
Big, medium or small, doesn’t matter. Everyone tries it ‘cause fans wanna know everything. So what’s after saturation coverage? What’s out there that others don’t have?
Names. Give a former athlete/coach a voice and people respond.
The Las Vegas Sun launched Shark Bytes last year, a blog from former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian. It’s about what you’d expect – funny anecdotes and stories from a guy who’s been around. (Tark’s health woes this year made for infrequent posts, but still amusing. You can hear Tark’s voice.) It’s a worthy addition for the paper.
But what about a sports figure’s relative? Is it the same kind of value? The Hartford Courant will find out.
Geno Auriemma’s daughter, Alysa, is going to contribute to the paper’s coverage of the UConn women’s team. The plan is for her to give an insider’s viewpoint and take readers behind the scenes, according to the AP article. That means the occasional blog, story or Q&A. She’s being paid an undisclosed amount.
The Courant’s beat writer, John Altavilla, likes the hire: “Her blog, an inside look at what it’s like to be her, is an entertaining read, and a nice insight into the life of the women’s basketball team you all care about so much,” Altavilla wrote in his Courant blog.
But here’s the rub -- she won’t write anything controversial. From the AP story:
The move was questioned by a journalism ethics expert and media observers of the Courant, which has come under fire in recent weeks for allegedly stealing news stories from competitors and allegations that it dismissed its consumer columnist because he wrote columns critical of advertisers.
Kelly McBride, head of the ethics faculty at the Poynter Institute in Florida, said Alysa Auriemma’s job poses problems for the Courant and its readers.
“When you hire the coach’s daughter, as an institution your independence is compromised,” McBride said. “They’re going to have to explain how this does not imply that they’re essentially not going to become part of the family.”
Let me get this straight. Because Auriemma’s daughter is going to write for the paper, it’s going to call everything they do with Huskies into question? The Courant’s reputation has sunk that low?
It doesn’t say anywhere that she’s going to be making editorial decisions. She’s not the beat writer. Nor is she doing commentary. The paper doesn't even have to play up her stuff (and eat the money she's being paid). It’s simply the view of a 23-year-old woman with a degree in the dramatic arts.
In other words, it’s supplementary content. It’s something that might appeal to readers without taking away from how the paper covers the team. And the competition doesn’t have it.
Man, we’re a defensive bunch.
