Janesville paper suck for wrestling info!

maggie · February 07, 2014, 02:07:03 PM

I hope ever single person here can take a min to send editor Scott Angus a note to tell him how much it sucks that a paper that size can't even cover a wrestling event!....thanks..

Big House · February 07, 2014, 02:28:27 PM

Margaret ... all worked up on a Friday afternoon! You gotta relax man ... it's the best month of the year!

maggie · February 07, 2014, 03:07:46 PM

...I just spoke with the sports director...told me he was under staffed... I told him if that's the case, then layoff 1 more person then just close the joint down for good..

Jim Shoe · February 07, 2014, 03:24:05 PM

Quote from: maggie on February 07, 2014, 03:07:46 PM
...I just spoke with the sports director...told me he was under staffed... I told him if that's the case, then layoff 1 more person then just close the joint down for good..

I 100% agree with you Maggie and I know that most areas don't get great coverage in wrestling! I would recommend that anyone in an area who feels you have poor coverage post out the name and address/Email of the person in charge of that paper. We then need to all work together to email/call/write and let that person know that we have a significant # of people who care! We also need to offer a solution, such as we will find someone to take pictures/write articles if they will put them in the paper. If an area doesn't pay attention to the demands, start a petition letting the paper know that the people that have signed their names will drop the paper or not get a subscription if things don't change. Go to a competing area paper and let them know if they will cover your team and sport that you will get a subscription to their paper and will help with others to do the same. At the end of the day, newspapers are about the bottom line and it takes a few numbers to have an influence!

DeLaRiva · February 07, 2014, 03:33:34 PM

What's a newspaper?

Hungus · February 07, 2014, 07:04:25 PM

The Appleton Post Crescent is terrible also. Before Tom Goff retired they were top notch, Tom was at every major event covering wrestling. now they didn't even publish a season preview, and their reporters have little to no knowledge of wrestling.

digimon · February 08, 2014, 07:00:12 AM

I agree..... the Appleton Post Crescent prints mostly just the box scores and maybe informs the readers who had pins. dah. I know they are under staffed as well, but the PC is not short on basketball articles and multiple basketball photos 4-5 days a week. They had a nice feature on Kaukauna, the Cheesehead, and when Appleton East won their first FVA dual like in 8 years over Appleton West. Whippeeeeeee. If I was a young athlete opening up the paper - would I choose the wrestling route or basketball? What gets more ink, what's more popular in the eyes of our young athletes? I think we all know that answer. We need to continue to promote this great sport, get kids hooked, and keep it fun. Looking at all the box scores I'm saddened by so many forfeits.

Fabulous Falcons · February 08, 2014, 08:53:11 AM

Had the same problem with the Sheboygan Press years ago. . .they are a little better now.
1) Contact the sports editor and call him or her out
2)Submit wrestling editorials to the paper, consequently follow the maximum word limit or they will cut and chop your article as they want.

Good Luck! :-)

imnofish · February 08, 2014, 04:52:09 PM

It's hard to find sports writers who even understand wrestling, let alone a newspaper that makes an effort to provide good coverage of it. This has always been a wide-spread issue. In fact, ancient cave art is purported to contain complaints on this same issue, usually accompanied by the slogan "Kilroy was here."

1Iota · February 10, 2014, 12:45:59 PM

I agree that coverage of our sport is often lacking, & Janseville is awful. With that in mind I would like to acknowledge the few Papers & writers that do a good job. I think the States largest Paper, The Milwaukee Journal does a decent job covering our sport. Every Thursday they profile it on the prep page & this year we have already seen 3 front page stories. Also, JR Radcliffe of the Lake Country News (Milwaukee Suburban Papers) gives wrestling as much if not more coverage than any other sport.

bulldog · February 10, 2014, 03:43:16 PM

It does seem that many papers do a poor job of covering wrestling. Sometimes I think they are very understaffed and I wonder if the HS made it part of the school newspapers "job" to submit sports info to the paper if that would be better. But then I wonder...do all schools still have school papers. Maybe a school could make submitting sports scores as part of a class. You would think there has to be an aspiring sports writer in most schools that would do it for extra credit. Papers are excited to get the info but only have enough staff to cover a small part of the sports. Seems basketball, football, hockey, baseball get coverage but wrestling, gymnastics, swimming, cross country sometimes gets overlooked. Anyone try to have someone at the school write and submit articles to their papers?

imnofish · February 10, 2014, 09:06:45 PM

Quote from: bulldog on February 10, 2014, 03:43:16 PM
It does seem that many papers do a poor job of covering wrestling. Sometimes I think they are very understaffed and I wonder if the HS made it part of the school newspapers "job" to submit sports info to the paper if that would be better. But then I wonder...do all schools still have school papers. Maybe a school could make submitting sports scores as part of a class. You would think there has to be an aspiring sports writer in most schools that would do it for extra credit. Papers are excited to get the info but only have enough staff to cover a small part of the sports. Seems basketball, football, hockey, baseball get coverage but wrestling, gymnastics, swimming, cross country sometimes gets overlooked. Anyone try to have someone at the school write and submit articles to their papers?

That's what we are expected to do in our area. Otherwise, wrestling will be totally ignored by our local paper.

Jim Shoe · February 11, 2014, 11:29:40 AM

Quote from: bulldog on February 10, 2014, 03:43:16 PM
It does seem that many papers do a poor job of covering wrestling. Sometimes I think they are very understaffed and I wonder if the HS made it part of the school newspapers "job" to submit sports info to the paper if that would be better. But then I wonder...do all schools still have school papers. Maybe a school could make submitting sports scores as part of a class. You would think there has to be an aspiring sports writer in most schools that would do it for extra credit. Papers are excited to get the info but only have enough staff to cover a small part of the sports. Seems basketball, football, hockey, baseball get coverage but wrestling, gymnastics, swimming, cross country sometimes gets overlooked. Anyone try to have someone at the school write and submit articles to their papers?

::)Maybe we can find someone who could promote our sport by starting a Wisconsin wrestling seasonal paper/ or online publication that would cover wrestling (call it "The Grappler" or something that promotes wrestling) A school could pre-determine the weekly or bi-weekly amount of space for coverage and simply submit what they want in pictures & articles saving the publisher time to put this together. A fee paid by a school/Club/business would pay the cost & provide a platform that could promote our sport & schools. Trackwrestling started with just an idea and has become a fabulous success story. Maybe we can identify an entrepreneur who wants to take on this project & have a chance to build a successful publication to promote wrestling.

Jim Rockford · February 11, 2014, 12:15:32 PM

Quote from: Jim Shoe on February 11, 2014, 11:29:40 AM

Quote from: bulldog on February 10, 2014, 03:43:16 PM
It does seem that many papers do a poor job of covering wrestling. Sometimes I think they are very understaffed and I wonder if the HS made it part of the school newspapers "job" to submit sports info to the paper if that would be better. But then I wonder...do all schools still have school papers. Maybe a school could make submitting sports scores as part of a class. You would think there has to be an aspiring sports writer in most schools that would do it for extra credit. Papers are excited to get the info but only have enough staff to cover a small part of the sports. Seems basketball, football, hockey, baseball get coverage but wrestling, gymnastics, swimming, cross country sometimes gets overlooked. Anyone try to have someone at the school write and submit articles to their papers?

::)Maybe we can find someone who could promote our sport by starting a Wisconsin wrestling seasonal paper/ or online publication that would cover wrestling (call it "The Grappler" or something that promotes wrestling) A school could pre-determine the weekly or bi-weekly amount of space for coverage and simply submit what they want in pictures & articles saving the publisher time to put this together. A fee paid by a school/Club/business would pay the cost & provide a platform that could promote our sport & schools. Trackwrestling started with just an idea and has become a fabulous success story. Maybe we can identify an entrepreneur who wants to take on this project & have a chance to build a successful publication to promote wrestling.

We have the Crossface

bulldog · February 11, 2014, 07:33:19 PM

And Crossface is GREAT for the sport. But grandma/grandpa/aunts/uncles don't subscribe to crossface. They want to see news and brag about their kids to the bridge club/church group/friends and neighbors. The Crossface is for the folks in the wrestling community but to grow the sport we need the local papers to include info about the sport. And I think they would but, just like anything else, sports editors probably don't understand wrestling so they have a hard time covering it when they have girls and boys basketball, hockey, swimming, gymnastics to cover. So maybe they can be helped along. Every time our sport gets coverage in the local press we stand a chance to impress/impact someone into becoming involved with the sport. Their is no substitute for the Crossface...it is excellent. But local news can help promote the sport if they are given the tools. Our paper does a fine job covering wrestling once they are given the information.