Missourian sports editor on the work at the Missourian
Dear Readers:
Among the furniture that crowds newspaper sports sections, the agate page is the sleeper sofa.
It’s big. It’s heavier than it ought to be. And, perhaps most important, it’s not as useful as it was in the days when your college friends used to drop by needing a place to sleep.
But just like the old sleeper sofa, the agate page is hard to get rid of.
So the page — that gray mass of tiny type on the second page of sports; the one that’s jammed with box scores, standings and statistics — gets carted along, often without any real thought.
Why is it still here? Because it’s hard to throw away. And, even if we did, what would we put in its place?
Here at the Missourian, these questions have been turning over in our minds lately.
And the Internet, which has brought sports statistics, standings and box scores to just a click away, has made the questions even more pressing.
In sports, it’s been a while since newspapers were on the top of the information food chain. There are now several 24-hour sports channels on cable television with scores and stats crawling across the bottom of the screen. Even fantasy sports players, who scour statistics to keep track of their teams, have long ago learned to rely on the Internet to make their hobby easier.
Times have changed. An example? The Sporting News, based in St. Louis, once collected every Major League box score and printed each one in its weekly edition. Now, it prints none.
So, at the Missourian, we’ve been thinking that it might be time to cart the old sofa to the curb.
What does that mean? A couple of things we know, and a couple we don’t know yet.
The things we know? Important statistics like Missouri stats, Cardinals box scores and Chiefs stats can be easily incorporated into the rest of the sports section. Fan Fare, a rundown on local games and television and radio broadcasts, stays because of its inherent usefulness.
The thing we don’t know for sure: What to put in its place? There are ideas being tossed about. We could do theme pages. A high school page every Friday? An outdoors page? A NASCAR page? Those all could work in season.
We could also use the space to provide an up-close look at a subject that may not have gotten the attention it deserved. We could print a photo package. A graphic that tells a story in a way that a piece of writing couldn’t.
Any of it? All of it?
Join the conversation. Let us know what you think. Before we take this step, we want to know what you think.
In other words, how would you like to replace the sofa?