Media coverage

[valpo04]

In the late 90's and early 2000's, I subscribed (paid) to a newspaper that was mailed to me that had a hyper focus on VU athletics. From what I remember, it was written and published primarily by one guy, Dick Harlan. He was totally independent from the local media and the university, just a big Valpo booster. His son is still in the area and has been a high school volleyball coach since a short stint of writing about local athletics in the Times. Maybe Paul can do a hybrid approach for all Valpo Athletics with a focus on Men's Basketball? He could produce a weekly or monthly print newsletter, on-line daily articles, and his periodic podcast to cover all bases.  It could be paid for via subscriber payments and local businesses. He did say, "Covering college athletics is all I've ever wanted to do", so let's see how resourceful he is. Anybody here willing to provide some seed money?

If there is interest in doing something like this, we certainly already have the infrastructure on this site to do it.

When I created this site, I wanted a blog/article component and built it on a Wordpress platform to provide the needed backend to do it. We used to have some activity in the past: https://www.valpofanzone.com/blog/

I haven't done much to maintain it since there hasn't been any demand, but I can certainly update and modify it.

[Just Sayin]

https://twitter.com/ValleyHoops/status/1480555106911330313

[Just Sayin]

https://twitter.com/ValleyHoops/status/1480570548186984454

[Pgmado]

News coming later today.

[Just Sayin]

News coming later today.

Bush league.

[Pgmado]

News coming later today.

Bush league.

[Pgmado]

For those that missed it, I stepped away from the NWI Times yesterday. It was a good run of 16 years, but all good things must come to an end.

What isn't coming to an end is my coverage of VU athletics. I'll be attending tonight's game and "covering" the game on Twitter. Give me a couple weeks to get this new venture off the ground and I'll be launching something toward the end of the month. I'm going out of town for a week in January (1/22-1/28) so I'm not going to launch anything until I'm back.

Thanks for all the kind words over the years and I'm excited to be able to continue VU coverage in what should be a fun way starting in a couple weeks.

[valpo tundra]

So sorry to hear this news, Paul. It's certainly our loss and the Times' loss. Did you check your University voicemail from yesterday?

[Chairback]

Very grateful you are still covering Valpo Basketball.  I got worried. 

You are the best in the Valley by far and bring so much to spot lighting the Valpo U teams. 

Can't wait to see what is in store and will be a supporter for sure. 

[wh]

You are the best in the Valley by far and bring so much to spot lighting the Valpo U teams. 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ojQ-ED0gnL8&feature=share

[justducky]

News coming later today.

Bush league.

Just ignore him. Little by little this is sinking in for our majority.

[VUGrad1314]

Congratulations on your new venture and best of luck! I was very worried and wanted to hear more before commenting hoping that everything is all right. I'm glad to see that it is and that you will still be covering the team! As others have said you are the best in the MVC at what you do and Valpo is very lucky to have you in whatever capacity they can to cover their athletes! I'm very excited to hear what this new era entails for both you personally and for VU athletics coverage!

[Just Sayin]

News coming later today.

Bush league.

Just ignore him. Little by little this is sinking in for our majority.

Yep. In your profile section, click on modify profile and then on buddies/ignore. Put my handle in there and voila,  you'll never have to read another post of mine.

[Pgmado]

News coming later today.

Bush league.

Just ignore him. Little by little this is sinking in for our majority.

Yep. In your profile section, click on modify profile and then on buddies/ignore. Put my handle in there and voila,  you'll never have to read another post of mine.

I'm just trying to figure out why you said "Bush league" when I said that some news was coming.

[valpopal]

A sign of the times: Gannett to eliminate Saturday print editions across the country:
[tweet]1481407365316501509[/tweet]

[valpopal]

Now that Paul has stepped away from the NWI Times, I will be curious to see the impact on VU sports coverage in the newspaper. Yesterday, following the Loyola game there was no story in the paper, which probably was to be expected because the double-overtime likely extended beyond the issue's deadline. However, today the absence in the paper continued, and the Loyola contest didn't even get a summary comment in the sports digest section, though there was a brief mention of the Valpo tennis team pre-season ranking of fourth place, which obviously came directly from a Valpo Athletics release since the wording is the same as on the VU homepage.

[valpopal]

Once again, there was no story about VU sports in this morning's NWI Times. Just as after the Loyola game, the result of the men's game was only included in the "Sports Digest" section below a mention of the win in the women's game. The three main stories in the sports section were about high school video gamers, girls swimming, and high school wrestling. Given the recent play by Valpo, I guess the near total loss of local media coverage could be considered a blessing.

[vok22]

Once again, there was no story about VU sports in this morning's NWI Times. Just as after the Loyola game, the result of the men's game was only included in the "Sports Digest" section below a mention of the win in the women's game. The three main stories in the sports section were about high school video gamers, girls swimming, and high school wrestling. Given the recent play by Valpo, I guess the near total loss of local media coverage could be considered a blessing.

The less people that know how bad we have become, the better.

[humbleopinion]

In what I guess could be seen as a positive sign, The Times sent a reporter to the post-game press conference and included a box score in the paper.

https://www.nwitimes.com/sports/college/valparaiso-university/watch-now-valparaiso-press-conference-following-loss-to-bradley-jan-26-2022/video_ca2f5dff-5480-5ba5-a7e6-ca315f752122.html?utm_source=nwitimes.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletter-templates%2Fnews-alert&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_content=aff3e3ab485e21d1b502abb394bb694f4c9e2b32

[Brandon]

In what I guess could be seen as a positive sign, The Times sent a reporter to the post-game press conference and included a box score in the paper.

Here is a story that is on the front page of the sports section in today's print edition by Times sports editor Aaron Ferguson: https://www.nwitimes.com/sports/college/valparaiso-university/beacons-beat-taking-stock-in-valparaiso-halfway-through-mvc-play/article_2468f221-5ba9-5442-9b9f-e20042fd453d.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_nwi.

Actually, both stories on the front of the sports section this morning are Valpo related with the other being about Lloyd McClendon becoming the manager of the Toledo Mud Hens.

I'm posting the link here to hopefully drive some more traffic to the story as I know page views are an important piece of the coverage decisions for The Times. I met Aaron Ferguson for lunch last week and had a productive conversation with him about Valpo Basketball coverage. He's a hard worker and a very good reporter and editor, but the state of the newspaper industry overall is unfortunately much different than it was even a few years ago, causing some coverage limitations. Although coverage won't return to what it was when newspapers were booming, I'm hopeful that we'll see an increase in the coverage our fans desire and deserve as we move through the remainder of the season.

[valpopal]

Thank you for your continuing interaction on this board, Brandon.

[vu72]

This says it all:

"Blending that experience is what I think takes a little bit of time. I actually talked to coach Drew — Bryce and I are still pretty close — and they brought in a bunch of transfers (at Grand Canyon) as well," Lottich told Andy Katz this week. "(Drew) said, 'My experience is, it's around January where everything starts to come together.' We're in January and it does feel like we're starting to take some positive steps forward."

So Bryce says it take till January because of all the transfers but GCU is 14-4 while we are 10-11. They are 10-1 at home while we are 6-6.  GCU has, however lost their last two games, falling on the road at Sam Houston in front of a rowdy crowd of 602!!

[Valpo89]

This says it all:

"Blending that experience is what I think takes a little bit of time. I actually talked to coach Drew — Bryce and I are still pretty close — and they brought in a bunch of transfers (at Grand Canyon) as well," Lottich told Andy Katz this week. "(Drew) said, 'My experience is, it's around January where everything starts to come together.' We're in January and it does feel like we're starting to take some positive steps forward."

So Bryce says it take till January because of all the transfers but GCU is 14-4 while we are 10-11. They are 10-1 at home while we are 6-6.  GCU has, however lost their last two games, falling on the road at Sam Houston in front of a rowdy crowd of 602!!

And, I believe Bryce may not have coached in either game due to Covid.

[valpo64]

I don't believe Bryce's league competition comes close to the MVC from top to bottom and consistency over the years.  While he may be a good coach, remember he lost his job at Vanderbilt and there was not a long line of schools waiting to hire him.  And I will always remember how he bailed out while in New York for the NIT as I am not sure his heart was in it when he took us to the NIT for the final game then almost immediately afterword announcing he was leaving for Vandy.  I am tired of hearing about the Drews...they did well and are gone...deal with it.

[valpotx]

Yeah, you can't really compare the WAC to the MVC.