PRINT IT? When it comes to media guides, that has been the question of the year for college sports information offices. In this article, three authors explain the three very different paths their schools took to answer this question.
Tight budgets are a big part of these decisions since printing media guides is expensive. But advancements in technology is another huge factor; it has become very easy to post guides on the Web, where they can be accessed by anyone and more easily updated.
But where will these changes leave recruits, fans, and members of the media who still want printed guides? And is the trend as significant at the NCAA Division II and III levels?
Athletic Management Magazine asked sports information directors at three different institutions to explain how their schools have made the decision to continue to print or not, and what they've done to follow through. The three were: - Shelly Poe, Director of Athletic Communications at The Ohio State University and a 2006 inductee into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame;
- April Emory, Elizabeth City State University SID and a current member of the CoSIDA Board of Directors;
- and
Eric McDowell, Assistant AD for Sports Information at Union (NY) College and 2009 inductee into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame.
In late May, collegiate sports information departments made headlines when three Big Ten institutions announced they would no longer print media guides.
In early July, the Pac-10 Conference proposed a new NCAA rule that would prohibit all Division I schools from printing media guides in the near future. The Southeastern Conference then crafted its own proposal that would allow schools to print guides for use by the media, but prohibit them from supplying copies to recruits.
The two proposals are currently working their way through the NCAA legislative process, and either one, or some sort of compromise, could face a vote during the NCAA Convention in January. To help administrators better understand the nuances of such a rule change,
John Humenik, Executive Director of CoSIDA, presented a list of pros and cons to eliminating printed media guides to the NCAA, which we have posted on our Web site.
Look for the title, "Pros & Cons" at: www.AthleticManagement.com/blogs.php
Read the full article online: Print It?: When it comes to media guides, that has been the question of the year for college sports information offices.Click here for
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION
Read excerpts from Poe, Emory and McDowell below.
A NEW OPPORTUNITYfrom Shelly Poe, The Ohio State University (
PoeS@buckeyes.ath.ohio-state.edu)
For the 2009-10 academic year and beyond, The Ohio State University will no longer print media guides for its varsity athletics programs.
While the cost savings associated with this decision could total as much as a quarter-million dollars annually, we believe the benefits and opportunities will reach far beyond the bottom line. By moving all our information to an online format, we can provide a more detailed and more diverse product.
At Ohio State, we are proud to offer 36 varsity sports and have a rich tradition that includes 61 national championships, 286 conference titles, and more than 1,900 All-Americans. In addition, our athletes are year-round achievers in the classroom and in the community. We have come to the conclusion that one printed piece per season (with maximum page counts and other NCAA restrictions) limits our ability to tell our stories in a timely and thorough manner.
By putting all our team information online, we reap several benefits:
• We can update news, records, and achievements throughout the course of the season so they are available around the clock to the media and fans.
• We can include color images, audio and video features, and more on the historic elements of our programs.
• We can link to coverage of our teams and student-athletes in other media.
• We can more easily adapt content provided by the NCAA, our conference office, and other partners in athletics.
• We can have constantly updated records and statistics available around the clock to the media and any fans who want them.
We... must constantly assess the most effective ways to reach our targets. Newspapers, radio stations, and television stations are expanding their online presence to broaden their reach. Forms of participant journalism like blogs and YouTube have become standard sources of information for millions of consumers. This is the wave of the future and we want to be on it.
The ability in the 21st century to utilize more than just printed words and still photos gives us an opportunity to shift our resources into areas that will make use of prose, pictures, video, and interactive content to tell fuller, more captivating stories to more audiences.
Eliminating printed media guides also makes sense from an environmental viewpoint. A reporter who had one copy of each Ohio State varsity media guide from 2008-09 had 2,734 pages of information to manage.
Instead of mailing a guide, we are providing a Web link to our team information. Instead of leaving a printed piece in the home, coaches give recruits a CD. Users can print what they need, or view and compare information on-screen.
We do realize there are short-term drawbacks. A coach cannot leave a publication on a table where high school students might leaf through it. A family without computer resources or limited Internet connectivity will not be able to access large quantities of online information in a single sitting. The media will have access to information only through their computers. Parents will no longer have the guides as keepsakes. Some boosters, alumni and fans enjoyed getting a printed piece and saved these collectables over the years.
Anyone will still be able to print their own copy of the product from the Internet, but we know it's not quite the same experience. In response, we are openly seeking new ways to recapture that relationship with readers.
Our focus must be on the message itself. Presenting information is still the bottom line, even if the channels of distribution have morphed into methods unimaginable a few years ago.
PROUD TO PRINTby April Emory, Elizabeth City State University (
aemory@mail.ecsu.edu)
Here at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina, an NCAA Division II school, we have not halted the printing of our sports media guides. At the start of the 2009-10 fiscal year, I sat down with our Athletic Director to discuss my budget. We quickly decided that, regardless of what other schools did, we were committed to providing printed versions of our guides.
The first reason for our decision is that these books are a favorite of our older fans and alumni base. At the small school level, we often have to work harder to secure fans and bring alumni back into the fold. We find our printed media guides to be critical for connecting with these people. Going online is not part of their daily lives. The guides are very much part of the fabric of the University community, and not producing them in tangible form would most likely be a blow to fan relations.
The printed guides is that they are an important link to our history. As an HBCU [Historically Black College & Universities], documenting our history is becoming a larger part of our institutional goals. Some HBCUs, including my institution, have been notorious for the lack of historical information due to poor archiving, and we are working hard to change that. Each year, the readers of our media guides look forward to seeing what new aspects of our history will be in the book. For us here at ECSU, the media guide as an archive has much significance.
A final reason we are committed to printing our guides is that we feel they are still critical for promotion and media relations. I have yet to poll the media that covers our conference on how they would feel about online media guides, but as we look for increased local and national exposure, I want to make sure we are not handicapping ourselves in any way.
And let's not forget that NFL teams still send requests for football media guides. Anytime a pro scout comes calling, we want to do all we can to make sure our student-athlete has the support he or she needs.
We will continue to print them as cost-effectively as possible. We do a combination media guide/game program that serves both the media and the public. We print a large number at the start of the season, and I update the book with inserts for each home game. That has long been our way of containing costs.
An added consideration in our decision is the reality that we don't have the resources to make our Web site the end-all for our teams. As a one-woman sports information operation, adding a lot of bells and whistles to the Web site is just not feasible. And without that extra attention to the Web site, it cannot easily replace the media guide as a comprehensive source of information.
As administrators at other schools make the decision to print or not to print, my advice is to be cautious before you mimic what our colleagues at BCS universities are doing. Every athletic department is unique, and it's important to think about the significance of the media guide for your particular institution. Have firm reasons before you go paperless and don't try to keep up with the Joneses only to sacrifice the personal touch.
Maybe we'll eventually find that our constituents would benefit from us going online. Change can be good, yet ECSU will make the choice to stop printing only if it is appropriate for our fan base--not someone else's.
WORKABLE ON THE WEBby Eric McDowell, Union College (NY) (mcdowele@union.edu)
Here at Union College, with input from our athletic administration and head coaches, we decided to discontinue the mass printing of guide publications. The financial savings is great, and the downsides seem to be few for our particular programs. However, we also understand the value of the printed guide to some individuals, including media members, and we have put plans in place to supply hard copies as needed.
What made this decision possible was a new opportunity with our Web provider, which has introduced a digital media guide. This Web-based product posts the guide online and allows statistical updating throughout the season. It was perfect timing for us, as it provided the financial savings we needed, while also promising a publication that would continue to serve the media and potential recruits.
We are an NCAA multi-division institution, with two Division I teams and 23 Division III teams. For our Division I ice hockey squads, we have always needed a top-notch Web site, so the pieces were already in place for our site to be our main conduit for media relations.
From a Division III standpoint, we find that our coaches' top recruiting tool is the Web site. Therefore, the recruiting aspect of the decision also made sense. We take pride in the fact that our Web site looks great and is updated quickly and often - -no matter the sport.
At the same time, we are very cognizant of the need to print some media guides, and we are still doing so. For selected media members who want a printed copy and cannot do so themselves, we will supply a hard copy. We will also offer media members the guide on a flash drive.
Keeping members of the media supplied with resources is critical and we won't sacrifice their needs.
Also, a minimum number of guides will be printed for coaches to give to recruits. And our printer will now offer fans a way to purchase a guide that will be printed per request through our Spirit Shop on the Web site. Overall, we were able to reduce our printing budget by 50 percent.
Our coaches are excited about the switch. They feel that our use of new technologies allows them to recruit quality student-athletes in a competitive environment. By offering live statistics and Web streaming, for example, we provide attractive alternatives to a printed publication. Thus, a parent of one of our Division III women's lacrosse players can see the stats and video of the game just like the parent of a student on a Division I team. This makes an impact.
The best part about the online option is that it will include updated statistics. Thus, the media guide becomes an "up-to-date yearbook" that is never stale. It is no longer really a preseason guide, but instead an ongoing source of information.
Another important factor in this discussion is that technology keeps evolving and adding more and more to the sports information department's plate. In response, we must shift our efforts to the priority areas. Prior to the Web, small college athletic programs often compiled, edited, and printed brochures for many, if not all, sports. But who has time for that anymore? The Web site's demands, coupled with other technologies in place (in game statistics, Web streaming, post-game Web site updating, distribution to other Web sites), have transformed the profession.
In the near future, we will evaluate our decision. This will involve crunching numbers, including seeing how many hits the online guides receive, how many were used for recruiting, and how many were printed for press relations.
When the time comes for you to discuss this topic, please make sure to involve all the appropriate parties. In addition, discuss options with off-campus individuals like your printer to see what alternatives can be provided to continue to serve the media and recruits. Moving from print to online is a work in progress, but it is exciting to see where the future will take us.