By LARRY VAUGHT
Danville (Ky.) Advocate-Messenger

The disappearing access facing sports staffs at all levels can sometimes be a matter of perspective. Access is a topic we are hearing a lot about now and it goes beyond the professional level.

There are so many more media outlets wanting access, and that is a big part of the changing landscape, said New York Times sports editor and session moderator Tom Jolly. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Alex Marvez, a beat writer covering the Miami Dolphins for the last seven years, noted the declining access to NFL coaches and players that affects everything from practice coverage to assistant coach interviews.

It has been a battle, he said, and it is only going to get worse. Access is for sale more than ever. Miami does not make its assistant coaches available, but meanwhile, interviews with them are on the team Web site, Marvez said. Frank Fitzpatrick of the Philadelphia Inquirer said access issues were not limited to professional teams.

He said Penn State football practices are closed, assistant coaches are off limits and freshmen players are not available for interviews. Los Angeles Times columnist T.J. Simers didn't want to hear the "whining" about lack of access. Instead, he chided sports editors for not being more diligent in making sure their writers took advantage of access they did have.

"What do we do with the access we have now? Not a damn thing. We don't ask tough questions. We don't hold people accountable," he said.

He suggested the best way to solve access problems was to start the process long before a major story breaks. He says reporters willing to work hard develop relations and find a way to gain access.

"Good people do not worry about access. They go get it. They don't worry about being loved by everybody. They just go do their jobs because I am a big believer that access comes down to accountability," Simers said. "If you are demanding, you are ostracized by your peers. We shrink our own access by not being more diligent and aggressive."

Rick Millians, sports editor of the Columbia (S.C.) State, shared the problems his beat writer had when former South Carolina head coach Lou Holtz took away the offensive coordinator duties from his son, Skip.

"Lou Holtz wouldn't talk. Skip Holtz wouldn't talk. So our reporter called Skip's wife. She blasted her father-in-law for breaking up the Holtz family. It made for a great story he got by pursuing a different angle," Millians said.

Marvez said Simers' aggressive style might not work for everyone.

"I just want access. If we screw it up, then it is our fault," he said. Cincinnati Enquirer sports editor Michael Perry said his staff brings coaches and administrators from the University of Cincinnati as well as the Cincinnati Bengals in once a year to discuss coverage issues.

He says that has worked well and that the Bengals were not aware his paper viewed the Bengals' Web site as competition for their own Web site. Long-time sports editor Bill Dwyer said he has been stunned to see how many "shy people" were now working as sports writers.

"The key thing to come out of this session is that sports editors need to figure ways to hold writers' feet to the fire," Dwyer said. "However, you are asking people to change their personality in a lot of instances and be confrontational. That's not easy, but it needs to be done."

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