By PHIL KAPLAN
Deputy Sports Editor
Knoxville News Sentinel

Story posted on Jan. 21, 2009

With cuts in travel budgets and loss of staff, newspapers and media outlets have had to make tough decisions on coverage.

The Masters and the Daytona 500 have been covered for many years by newspapers in the Southeast. That has started to change.

At the News Sentinel in Knoxville, Tenn., we dropped coverage last year of both events. Daytona was covered for decades. In previous years the paper had covered the Masters with a columnist and a reporter.

Here's a sampling of some responses from editors across the region.

■ Chris Stephens of the Daily Tribune News in Cartersville, Ga.: "We will not be sending any staff to cover the Masters or the Daytona 500. Don't have the manpower to do so."

■ John Cherwa of the Orlando Sentinel: "We are covering the Masters with a columnist but not a golf beat writer. This is different from years past when we sent two. We have made a deal with our sister paper in Fort Lauderdale whereby they cover golf gamers for us and we cover auto gamers for them. It works quite well. Since Daytona is a local (drive to it) story, we're there and in force."

■ John Bednarowski of The Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal: "We will not be sending people to either the Masters or the Daytona 500."

■ Gregg Dewalt of The Times Daily in Florence, Ala.: "No on site Daytona and Masters coverage."

■ David Ching of the Athens-Banner Herald in Athens, Ga: "We plan to continue covering the Masters as part of the Morris team. We'll have three people there doing a variety of stuff. I don't know that our paper has ever covered the Daytona 500, but we won't be doing it this year."

■ Mike Graham of Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers: "Short answer on Daytona 500 is, yes we will have folks there – probably our auto racing writer Bill Whitehead (correspondent) and columnist Ray McNulty. We may also have photographer there for media day and race day."

■ Rusty Hampton of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss.: "We pulled the plug last year on the Masters and have never covered the Daytona 500."

■ John Boyette of the Augusta Chronicle: "Although our travel budget is almost non-existent, we are still doing things to cover the Masters. We are planning for another big section (typically four sections of 18 pages), and our columnist Scott Michaux is plugging away on the cover story of defending champion Trevor Immelman. We've already taken trips to interview his parents in Charlotte, N.C., and his brother in Columbus, Ga., and we have a scheduled interview with Trevor later this month in Orlando, Fla. In March, we will send Michaux and golf writer David Westin to Florida to gather interviews for stories on individual players and for trend stories that we run during the tournament week."

■ Dave Markowitz of the Daytona Beach News Journal: "Honestly, we're trying to figure it out. We're not any different than anyone else – we've lost three full-timers and all three-part-timers since last year's Speed Weeks, so we have to try to do what we did last year with less staff."

■ Craig Stanke of CBSsports.com: Masters: Steve Elling will be there for us. Daytona: Yes, our autos correspondent Pete Pistone will be there as well as producer Brian De Los Santos."

■ Katy Laughlin of the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel: "We are sending a reporter to cover The Masters for both us and the Orlando Sentinel, and then we will be picking up their Daytona coverage."

■ Doug Tatum of the Times-Picayune in New Orleans: "Our longtime columnist, Peter Finney, will be at the Masters. We never staff Daytona."

Dothan Eagle gets involved

The Dothan Eagle in southeast Alabama provided coverage on many platforms for the annual basketball tournament the newspaper sponsors in December.

The sports department provided a small video clip, stories and photos following each game. Leading up to the tournament, previews on all of the 16 teams were provided in print and on the web. Video/stories/photos were posted as soon as the staff could get them complete. The tournament was played at the 3,000-seat Ozark Civic Center, located 20 miles from Dothan.

"The majority of money raised through ticket sales goes back to the participating teams," said Dothan Eagle sports editor Jon Johnson, who is responsible for putting together the field and sending out contracts to the selected teams. "This year the five-day, single-elimination tournament raised $33,426 in ticket sales. Other members of the Dothan Eagle are involved with ticket sales, overseeing a pass gate and providing a hospitality room for coaches and sponsors of the tournament. The newspaper annually provides a special section with team photos, rosters and past records to be distributed in the newspaper, and available free of charge to fans attending the games."

To see coverage, go to www.dothaneagle.com/dea/sports/prep_classic

Phil Kaplan is the chair of the Southeast Region. You can reach him at (865) 342-6285 or via e-mail at kaplanp@knoxnews.com.

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