Tyler Morning Telegraph Sports Coverage

[benchwarmer]

I read in today's Dallas Morning News that the Brookhill baseball team defeated Garland Christian 13-2 yesterday. Why did I have to buy a Dallas newspaper to get this information ?

On a side note, I tried to get a tee time at the following courses yesterday: Oak Hurst(Bullard), Pine Springs(Tyler), Pine Dunes(Frankston), and Echo Creek (Brownsboro). All of these courses were closed because they were hosting district golf tournaments. No results of any of these tournaments were in any of the four sports pages in the Tyler newspaper.

[Straw]

I read in today's Dallas Morning News that the Brookhill baseball team defeated Garland Christian 13-2 yesterday. Why did I have to buy a Dallas newspaper to get this information ?

On a side note, I tried to get a tee time at the following courses yesterday: Oak Hurst(Bullard), Pine Springs(Tyler), Pine Dunes(Frankston), and Echo Creek (Brownsboro). All of these courses were closed because they were hosting district golf tournaments. No results of any of these tournaments were in any of the four sports pages in the Tyler newspaper.

 

 

Maybe cause the Paper's owner has family at Grace? BH doesn't get much Tyler paper support!

[Panther89]

Hey guys,

I'm not from Tyler, but I do read the TMT online, and I have seen what you are talking about. I came to one conclusion, and that is Unless your name is Robert E. Lee or John Tyler, you can forget about anyone else getting headlines in the sports section. Maybe once in a blue moon, you might see TK Gorman, Whitehouse, Bullard, or Chapel Hill have a write up, but most often, it is usually Lee and/or JT getting all of the attention. All it takes is one phone call to get this problem fixed.

[benchwarmer]

There was an article in the Tyler paper today about Brookhill winning the regional golf tournament held in Carrollton.

Who were the winners of the tournaments held in the Tyler area ?

I know nothing about the newspaper business, but it appears that the Tyler Morning Telegraph simply does not allot enough space for the sports department. I have a great deal of respect for Phil Hicks and his sports staff and believe that space to print adequate coverage is being denied them. Four pages to cover pro, college, and high school sports is simply not enough.

[Eagleborn]

There was an article in the Tyler paper today about Brookhill winning the regional golf tournament held in Carrollton.

Who were the winners of the tournaments held in the Tyler area ?

I know nothing about the newspaper business, but it appears that the Tyler Morning Telegraph simply does not allot enough space for the sports department. I have a great deal of respect for Phil Hicks and his sports staff and believe that space to print adequate coverage is being denied them. Four pages to cover pro, college, and high school sports is simply not enough.

Spring Hill boys and girls.

 

lol

[thesauce10]

I hate the new longview news journal website!!!

[bowkchop]

I used to subscribe to the Tyler paper (for the Sports section), but have recently discontinued my subscription because of the poor coverage of East Texas high school sports. Softball, baseball, & track are in full swing, but there is little-to-no daily coverage. It is hard to keep up with who is successful, because there is no coverage. A few box scores and small write ups are in Wednesday's and Saturday's edition due to Tuesday and Friday games. However, these are weak.

How about supplying the reader with daily stories on our own athletes and teams.

If you are going to raise the price for a newspaper, earn your money.

 

 

Boo!!! TMT :thumbdown:

[68Hornet]

People have you not read newspapers are having serious economic problems all over the country. Many are closing and the Tyler, Longview and other smaller papers are also in trouble. Staffs have been cut. I know Longview had several layoffs. They keep adding sports and everyone wants there's covered. It's simply impossible. If coaches don't call in results they get left out. Ask your golf coaches if they called in the results. If they did and they weren't published, then you've got a problem at the paper. But don't expect 3 sportswriters to staff 30 spots events.

[MustangRed]

Never understood why our local schools get left out or they put them far back in the sports section with small articles. Some papers embrace their local schools!

[Eagleborn]

Never understood why our local schools get left out or they put them far back in the sports section with small articles. Some papers embrace their local schools!

Is Bullardnews.com just a website or is it a paper.. Either way its pretty good..

[68Hornet]

Never understood why our local schools get left out or they put them far back in the sports section with small articles. Some papers embrace their local schools!

 

Let's try a little common sense. Advertising supports papers. Tyler, Longview's biggest advertisers are in the city limits or on the immediate outskirts. Most of the paper's readers are in the city. A Longview paper will staff Longview and other local high school more because they have more readers and advertisers. At the same time the paper is obligated to give coverage to any area where they sell papers, but it can't happen if the coaches from those smaller communities don't cooperate. Every paper has readers who could care less about high school sports and the paper also has a responsibility to them if they buy, or advertise in their paper. Papers are shrinking all the time because advertising is disappearing. This means smaller articles and smaller sports staffs. If you quit taking the paper where are you going to get any kind of results or stories on your little high school?

[threejs]

Is Bullardnews.com just a website or is it a paper.. Either way its pretty good..

 

It comes out in print every Wednesday. Even they catch heck for their reporting. I give the sports writer a hard time as well, as my baseball playing child who graduated in 09 scored some points and and hit a few clutch threes for our JV hoopsteam this year, much to the chagrine of his little brother. He and I are already coming up with alternate names for my daughter should she play HS sports in a few years.

 

I won't criticize the Tyler paper too bad as I have an enormous amount of respect for Phil Hicks. Like someone said earlier, I think he does a good job with what he is given.

[Eagleborn]

It comes out in print every Wednesday. Even they catch heck for their reporting. I give the sports writer a hard time as well, as my baseball playing child who graduated in 09 scored some points and and hit a few clutch threes for our JV hoopsteam this year, much to the chagrine of his little brother. He and I are already coming up with alternate names for my daughter should she play HS sports in a few years.

 

I won't criticize the Tyler paper too bad as I have an enormous amount of respect for Phil Hicks. Like someone said earlier, I think he does a good job with what he is given.

Sports guy is a nice guy... Talk to him everytime I see him..

[underarmor8]

Texarkana sportswriters do a helluva job covering all their teams. I have seen a guy cover a softball game and baseball game at the same time and still have a pretty good write up. Of course are main schools are more centrally located than say longview or tyler. I can catch all pro sports highlights on espn or fssw but I want my local paper to let me know what is going on locally in all atheletics. Thats the only reason I subscribe to the paper is for the sports.

[jsharp3353]

Think about all the small schools that are in the Tyler subscription area. There is no way they have the staff to go to all the schools. Cayuga has always had fairly good coverage from their paper because the coaches call the info into the paper. If coaches know who to talk to and call it in, I'm sure it will get reported.

[CoachBird2]

Coaches are responsible for making sure their team has coverage. If you have an event that you want in the paper, then get in contact with the paper. We call in all out results and finals. I'm sorry but schools like Bullard and Chapel Hill aren't going to get the coverage that Lee and JT get unless they are dominating people at the lower levels. That's just the nature of the business. You cater to your bigger audience. Sorry.

[ricnel64]

Kind of a low blow to get on the Tyler Paper for lack of high school golf coverage.

 

REL and JT are what the majority of Tyler readers want to read about and many of the followers of All Saints, T. K. Gorman and Grace Community own businesses that advertise heavily in the Tyler Paper.

 

Those advertising dollars dictate as much, if not more, of who gets covered more so than what the guy that puts his 75 cents in the paper machine a couple of days a week wants.

 

All in all, I think Phil Hicks and his team do a good job!

[Lhornfan]

I quit calling in baseball scores to Tyler after only 2 of about 10 were reported. I realize I'm 30+ miles away in Athens, but I have fans that subscribe to the Tyler paper. Now I just tell them to go to 3abaseball.com for the score and the Athens Daily Review will have the write up the following afternoon.

[bowkchop]

I can't wait to read another article about the JT baseball team. Can't they just copy and paste the same story for every game? I'm sure the subscribers and advertisers feel they are getting their 75 cents worth. :whome:

 

[CoachTobinReid]

The Tyler paper gives great coverage. IT IS THE COACHES JOB TO CALL IN THE SCORES. If the newspaper is not present.

 

Phil Hicks and Joe Buie are the best. :notworthy: So are many of the others that work for the paper as well.

I have only worked with them while I was at Lee.

 

They have been good to us at Big Sandy.

[thesauce10]

I hate the new longview news journal website!!!

 

I hate the new longview news journal website!!!

[caledonia]

The Tyler paper gives great coverage. IT IS THE COACHES JOB TO CALL IN THE SCORES. If the newspaper is not present.

 

Phil Hicks and Joe Buie are the best. :notworthy: So are many of the others that work for the paper as well.

I have only worked with them while I was at Lee.

 

They have been good to us at Big Sandy.

 

I agree it is the coaches duty to call in their games. The only problem I have with TMT is the way they ALWAYS give Van so dern much ink....TMT loves Van! WHY?????

[Smoaky]

I'm sure everyone can find fault with every media outlet, including this one--and some of you have and let me know about it.

 

However, I will use this same response when we've had criticism, constructive or not.

 

No member of a local media outlet that I know of (newspaper, radio, television, magazine or website) will wake up in the morning and say, "Well, I wonder who or what high school or college fan base we can ###### off today?"

 

There have been some legit responses on this thread, but missing one tournament or a handful of scores or even a story isn't intentional.

 

Although I've seen the comment, "it's up to the coaches to call in scores," I tend to disagree in one way. It's also up to us (in the media) to dig around and find those scores too. But, for newspaper coverage----it sure helps if you don't have a reporter present at an event to get a call from a coach so they know it's factual.

 

However, I know throughout my time covering high school sports, fans and coaches can be fickle on wanting coverage when they're winning and they call in throughout the season---and then there's a tough loss and they disappear. That is very frustrating to any media outlet.

 

Phil Hicks and I have talked about the sports links on tylerpaper.com and my biggest complaint is just not quite understanding or being smart-enough (probably best reason) to manage where to go or where to find what I'm looking for at times.

 

I don't have a subscription to the paper each day, but if there's something I want to read, I'll go online and figure it out or drop by the closest convenience store and pick one up.

 

From what I know (and it's not much), I think those guys are doing about as well as they can with the resources they're given, and that's not to be considered a negative comment about ownership either. Things can be tough right now, the staff itself or the hours can be cut back and I'm not so sure it wasn't too small in the first place.

 

I spoke at a banquet two weeks ago and told Scott Tyler of the Palestine Herald how impressed I was with the coverage, stats, box scores, and more they make available, especially during football season.

 

Sometimes, in our business or many businesses---we don't say "good job" enough when we see it.

 

Just my two-cents worth--which isn't worth much.

 

David Smoak

[email protected]

[Smoaky]

I hate the new longview news journal website!!!

 

 

I spoke with News-Journal sports editor Jack Stallard about their changes, and I too find it difficult to navigate, and I think there are a handful of other local newspaper sites that have changed---do to ownership change.

 

They can only work with what they're given and if there's an ownership change you can almost assuredly expect some changes and even cut backs in what resources they have available.

 

Smoaky

[coogiemon]

Longview News-Journal is superior to Tyler Morning News covering high school sports. I am referring to the online coverage. However, new format on News-Journal is terrible. But, I appreciate their efforts.