brianstl Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Exactly. The valuable real estate is on the home page of Stltoday.com, not on the sub-pages. It is absurd that a local, top 25 team does not get a headline in the sports section of the local paper's home page. Really? When I want sports news I click the tab on the top of the page for the sports section. I don't still down through ten other section to get a small set of links for sports stories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 From a newsworthy point of view, I get the angst directed towards the PD. However, from the perspective of a business in the newspaper industry, the PD has to be particularly focused on getting the most views (whether digitally or with the paper) it can. Assuming Bernie is correct, and it makes sense, the Cards drive the financial bus for the PD and the Billikens do not generate the same readership/click numbers. I think this, as opposed to any grand conspiracy theory, is the reason for the lack of coverage. However, this is kind of a vicious circle. The PD assumes the Billikens won't generate interest/money so they don't cover them extensively. The lack of coverage only exacerbates the problem for the Bills. It seems to me that the PD's thesis is generally correct. But, there should still be a way to work the Bills into the coverage effectively and more frequently. If done correctly, it seems coverage of the only local and nationally ranked bball team would surpass some of the less interesting/marketable stories the PD promotes. +1 Follow the money. Also. if you look at the lack of activity on the SLU Forum over there, you could understand why they probably have a perception that there is not a lot of interest in SLU. They can measure where the eyeballs are going. Regarding the front page, on the Sports Section, it looks like primarily videos and blogs they are promoting... not headlines from games. Go to the sports page and the SLU game is given good treatment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waldo027 Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Number of links in the sports section about: Rams: 5 Cardinals: 3 Mizzou: 2 Blues: 1 Billikens: 1 Barry Hinson: 1Montee Ball: 1Lance Berkman: 1 Penn St beating Ohio St: 1 Generic NHL: 1 Generic NBA: 1 I don't blame them for only writing about the stuff that sells the most, and ignoring everything else. Who the hell pays money for a newspaper these days, especially when all the articles are online for free? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b.hayes Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Really? When I want sports news I click the tab on the top of the page for the sports section. I don't still down through ten other section to get a small set of links for sports stories. I don't read STLtoday (because I live in Chicago) outside of Bills articles that I generally arrive at via direct links from twitter. However, when I go to the Chicago Tribune's website, I'm not only going for sports news. I scroll through the entire front page and open new tabs for each article I want to read. I almost never go to the Tribune's sports "homepage" because the news I read is current enough that it's on the front page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheChosenOne Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Joe Strauss is discussing the Billikens on twitter: Joe Strauss @JoeStrauss3m SLU played its best game of season last night before a remarkably sedate gathering. Thank goodness for the band. Joe Strauss @JoeStrauss25m Denying reality only perpetuates situation. SLU letting opportunity slip. Unfortunate. 15 years ago UVa., UR owned Richmond. Now, VCU. Joe Strauss @JoeStrauss28m Using Groupon coupons to hike attendance does nothing to substantiate growth of brand. The 314 is more black/gold than blue/white. Joe Strauss @JoeStrauss30m Those pointing to uptick in SLU attendance intentionally miss point re: market penetration. MU still dominates The 314 outside SLU campus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicCityBilliken Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Joe Strauss is discussing the Billikens on twitter: Joe Strauss @JoeStrauss3m SLU played its best game of season last night before a remarkably sedate gathering. Thank goodness for the band. Joe Strauss @JoeStrauss25m Denying reality only perpetuates situation. SLU letting opportunity slip. Unfortunate. 15 years ago UVa., UR owned Richmond. Now, VCU. Joe Strauss @JoeStrauss28m Using Groupon coupons to hike attendance does nothing to substantiate growth of brand. The 314 is more black/gold than blue/white. Joe Strauss @JoeStrauss30m Those pointing to uptick in SLU attendance intentionally miss point re: market penetration. MU still dominates The 314 outside SLU campus. Geez, he's encouraging. As a non-St Louisan what is the 314? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Geez, he's encouraging. As a non-St Louisan what is the 314? 314 area code...... I really think he's full of it. A crowd will usually get a bit more sedate when watching a shiite stomp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheChosenOne Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Geez, he's encouraging. As a non-St Louisan what is the 314? 314 is the area code for St. Louis city and most of St. Louis county. I don't understand why Joe Strauss seems to take such pleasure in prodding local sports fans when he is a writer for the local newspaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 I will say that I was a little disappointed in the attendance last night. I don't fault the crowd much. Hard to keep up noise during a blowout like that. Strauss wants to fault everyone and say that SLU can't attract fans. Maybe if the local media would talk about SLU more it would change Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Geez, he's encouraging. As a non-St Louisan what is the 314? I kind of like Strauss but that is his shtick, to stir the pot. He does it with all of the teams. On the bright side, at least we are becoming important enough for him to bother with. That being said, I kind of agree with his point. Attendance could be stronger and the local following should be more. I don't think there is any thing SLU can be doing to necessarily make that happen outside of get into a better conference. I can't tell you how many people have told me they'd buy season tickets if we were in the Big East. Of course, many are just saying that and won't follow through, but even if a few are true to their words, it would dramatically change things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dwayne's_World Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Joe Strauss is discussing the Billikens on twitter: Joe Strauss @JoeStrauss3m SLU played its best game of season last night before a remarkably sedate gathering. Thank goodness for the band. Joe Strauss @JoeStrauss25m Denying reality only perpetuates situation. SLU letting opportunity slip. Unfortunate. 15 years ago UVa., UR owned Richmond. Now, VCU. Joe Strauss @JoeStrauss28m Using Groupon coupons to hike attendance does nothing to substantiate growth of brand. The 314 is more black/gold than blue/white. Joe Strauss @JoeStrauss30m Those pointing to uptick in SLU attendance intentionally miss point re: market penetration. MU still dominates The 314 outside SLU campus. Maybe if Joe would put the 19th ranked team IN THE COUNTRY on the FRONT page, more people would realize how good we really are. The only reason mizzery is so popular in STL is because the Post kisses their *** every single day Also, it gets really annoying when half the crowd leaves with a full 5 minutes left. Just to beat the traffic and get home 10 minutes earlier than if they had stayed the whole time? Kind of pathetic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicCityBilliken Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 314 area code...... I really think he's full of it. A crowd will usually get a bit more sedate when watching a shiite stomp. Oh! Kind shocked by those tweets from a reporter on this subject and taking sides. Kind of like trolls that regularly visit this board. Very abrasive. Why turn-off potential or ongoing readership (8000+ was in the stands last night). These tweets are like going out of your way to make fans pi***** at you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Struass is pretty damn good when it comes to giving the Billikens coverage and he is right about the groupon stuff, too. The groupon stuff devalues your brand and generates little income after groupon takes their cut. When you do it for basically every game people will never be willing to pay full price for your product. They will only buy if they get the big discount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b.hayes Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Struass is pretty damn good when it comes to giving the Billikens coverage and he is right about the groupon stuff, too. The groupon stuff devalues your brand and generates little income after groupon takes their cut. When you do it for basically every game people will never be willing to pay full price for your product. They will only buy if they get the big discount. Agreed. However he's slobbing over a MU fanbase which has drawn exactly one crowd in 11 tries this season that has met their average crowd from last season. Mizzou's arena is currently averaging 55.48% capacity this season and is down almost 3,500 fans from their average. If they sell out all 6 of their remaining home games (15,061) they would sitll average over 1,000 less fans this year as compared to last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMM28 Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Struass is pretty damn good when it comes to giving the Billikens coverage and he is right about the groupon stuff, too. The groupon stuff devalues your brand and generates little income after groupon takes their cut. When you do it for basically every game people will never be willing to pay full price for your product. They will only buy if they get the big discount. I've been beating this drum for a long long time. Why would anyone buy an upper bowl season ticket when they know the marketing department will just run a groupon/living social/daily deal for every single conference game? On the good side, SLU gets 50% of the cost of the deal. Some are as low as 25%. I don't mind it as much for non-con games to get folks in the door, but it is a terrible idea to do it all year. Folks will just wait for the next groupon deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMM28 Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Agreed. However he's slobbing over a MU fanbase which has drawn exactly one crowd in 11 tries this season that has met their average crowd from last season. Mizzou's arena is currently averaging 55.48% capacity this season and is down almost 3,500 fans from their average. If they sell out all 6 of their remaining home games (15,061) they would sitll average over 1,000 less fans this year as compared to last year. He is blasting people for using anecdotal arguments, but then saying "MU dominates the 314" as his factual argument. That doesn't add up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Denver has a MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA team. And a big state school. Also a team in the Super Bowl. Scroll half way down the Denver Post's sports page website and you see an article for a basketball player on Denver University. Scroll 2/3 the way down of stltoday.com sports page and you see "Mizzou/colleges" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonwich Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Almost universally, no one at the P-D "gets it" -- but even worse, almost universally, they think they do. The argument about the Cardinals getting the most clicks is totally irrelevant. Is the number of Cardinal clicks steadily growing? If not, you're dead. Grow or die, especially as a publicly held company. (Well, OK, Lee as publicly held is probably a stretch.) Growth is to be found on the margins. Years ago, the P-D argued that there was no market for high school sports stories. Now they have an entire subsidiary dedicated to them. Most important, however, is the fact that a columnist wrote and several editors approved a story that pointed out weak local support of the Billikens yet failed to point out that their own online site home page had no tab to find Billkens news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Strauss is a turd whose primary objective is to troll for clicks to STLToday. Don't fall for his schtick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheChosenOne Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 It will be fun to hear his commentary when SLU blasts VCU twice this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 A few comments: First, I recognize that a subset of online readers tend to go directly to the "Sports" sub-page, but most readers access stories through the home page for the site. This is particularly true of the many readers who are trying to stay current with local news, regardless of type. While I don't have direct knowledge of the stats for the stltoday.com site, I have direct knowledge of the click-through stats of several major websites. Almost universally, a link (and prominence) on the parent home page is the largest determinant of the number of views content receives. Second, the debate above is moot because the Billikens are largely underrepresented in both areas (home page and sports sub-page). Third, I agree that there is a "chicken and egg" debate with the interest in SLU basketball on the site, but it shouldn't matter because with 12 story links and one featured headline, including SLU isn't an either/or. There is plenty of room to link SLU's pre and post game articles and still force a plethora of Cardinals and Rams articles. Fourth, I am confident that it is flawed, short-sighted business decisions driving this approach. Someone at the PD has concluded that the Cardinals and Rams (and MU scandals) drive clicks and eyeballs, so they are riding these horses. This may fill short-term KPIs, but it certainly won't build any equity necessary for long-term growth of the PD brand. To do so, they would need to broaden their base of coverage. Plus, there are lots of college basketball fans and SLU-connected people in St. Louis. Fifth, I haven't yet received any acknowledge or response to my email to the PD, which was professional and fact-based. Are these guys in charge there so arrogant they don't even acknowledge readers who take time to compose this kind of email? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 A few comments: First, I recognize that a subset of online readers tend to go directly to the "Sports" sub-page, but most readers access stories through the home page for the site. This is particularly true of the many readers who are trying to stay current with local news, regardless of type. While I don't have direct knowledge of the stats for the stltoday.com site, I have direct knowledge of the click-through stats of several major websites. Almost universally, a link (and prominence) on the parent home page is the largest determinant of the number of views content receives. Second, the debate above is moot because the Billikens are largely underrepresented in both areas (home page and sports sub-page). Third, I agree that there is a "chicken and egg" debate with the interest in SLU basketball on the site, but it shouldn't matter because with 12 story links and one featured headline, including SLU isn't an either/or. There is plenty of room to link SLU's pre and post game articles and still force a plethora of Cardinals and Rams articles. Fourth, I am confident that it is flawed, short-sighted business decisions driving this approach. Someone at the PD has concluded that the Cardinals and Rams (and MU scandals) drive clicks and eyeballs, so they are riding these horses. This may fill short-term KPIs, but it certainly won't build any equity necessary for long-term growth of the PD brand. To do so, they would need to broaden their base of coverage. Plus, there are lots of college basketball fans and SLU-connected people in St. Louis. Fifth, I haven't yet received any acknowledge or response to my email to the PD, which was professional and fact-based. Are these guys in charge there so arrogant they don't even acknowledge readers who take time to compose this kind of email? I just looked at the front page... looks like SLU story is now the 5th item listed - http://www.stltoday.com/ Maybe they are reading billikens.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Someone at the PD has concluded that the Cardinals and Rams (and MU scandals) drive clicks and eyeballs, so they are riding these horses. In fairness, thanks to Mizzou's long history of scandals, the editors have a pretty good feel for the number of clicks that such incidents generate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettFlight5 Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 In fairness, thanks to Mizzou's long history of scandals, the editors have a pretty good feel for the number of clicks that such incidents generate. Winner. They've had plenty of practice covering the antics over at BCCC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Winner. They've had plenty of practice covering the antics over at BCCC. Due to the volume of scandals, there should be a page and forum designated just for that topic. It would be labeled SPUMAC... of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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