Why no press on Shakir Bell?

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LoyalAlum said:
The media playing zero role in apathy is entirely NOT TRUE. If alumni were reading/hearing about ISU athletics on a regular basis in Indy, ISU athletics would be on their radar. As it stands now, they see nothing, hear nothing, know nothing. The media plays a huge role in this.
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I disagree.

IF an alumni WANTS to follow the Fightin' Trees, they CAN.

Try one of THESE SOURCES:

www.gosycamores.com

www.mvc-sports.com

tribstar.com/collegesports

www.sycamorepride.com

http://espn.go.com/college-football/team/_/id/282/indiana-state-sycamores

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/teams/iif

If you WANT to follow them you can; the alumni have to do SOME of the work, just as the university does.

It sucks that the Star (continues) to ignore ISU; BUT at this point, I've witnessed it for 25+ years, so I'm no longer suprised.
 

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4Q_iu said:
IndyStar coverage of ISU was abysmal when it was still owned by the Pulliam-Quayle Dynasty (Central Newspapers, Inc).

I got a good chuckle from Letko pointing the finger at the AP, a very easy cop-out.

Does the Star "rely" on the AP for all of the coverage of gloomington?!

Yeah, didn't think so.

Letko's attitude is nothing new at the Star.

As to alumni apathy WRT State athletics; don't blame the Star, blame it on SEVERAL years of poor to middling teams AND the alumni themselves.

Media plays zero role in alumni apathy

BTW - When did we become the state's Land Grant school? thought that was west laffy...
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My bad……should have said "Public Institution"
 
4Q_iu said:
I disagree.

IF an alumni WANTS to follow the Fightin' Trees, they CAN.

Try one of THESE SOURCES:

www.gosycamores.com

www.mvc-sports.com

tribstar.com/collegesports

www.sycamorepride.com

http://espn.go.com/college-football/team/_/id/282/indiana-state-sycamores

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/teams/iif

If you WANT to follow them you can; the alumni have to do SOME of the work, just as the university does.

It sucks that the Star (continues) to ignore ISU; BUT at this point, I've witnessed it for 25+ years, so I'm no longer suprised.
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Casual IU/PU/BSU fans get their sports news from Indy media. Only the real big fans visit fan sites. I'm referring to the casual alum who would listen/read about ISU if it was there. A huge chunk of fan bases are made up of casual fans who won't search out information.
 
ISU Doing Its Job -- OK

Jason -- just as I suspected ISU is doing its part (although you were not clear about whether or not they send video clips out -- game last week was over about 5:30 or so -- video highlight clips should have been on their way to Indy via the Internet by 6:00 PM).

But all this talk about Indy Star staff / AP staff / etc is irrelevant !

This is 2011 ! If ISU is doing their job, the Star and the Indy TV stations should be getting the stuff -- essentially immediately after the games.

No Indy Star / Indy TV / AP people need to be involved at all in gathering the data/video. It just arrives, ready for their use, very shortly after the end of a game.

This ain't "rocket science" .....................
 
Getting the information there is only half the battle.....

As the former assistant sports information director at Indiana State for nearly 17 years, and working as the football SID most of that time, I can tell you from experience that we got the information to Indy media outlets. We called, emailed information. Talked to writers and editors about stories, story ideas, game and event coverage. We sent video to the TV stations. We even hand delivered the video directly to the TV sports departments. And you know what? Lots of times, they still didnt use it. We made it as easy for them as you can make it. But they have to want to use it. I was told on many occasions that people at the Indy Star and the TV stations just dont hear that much from Indiana State fans asking, yelling, demanding coverage. They get it occasionally, like now or last year's basketball tournament run, but they dont hear from ISU fans and alumni on a regular basis. So, in a lot of ways, there is nobody to blame but ourselves.

We can logically argue that, hey, if you get them the information, it's there for them to use right in front of them, then they'll use it. No real work for them. But noooooooooooo. They don't. Logic doesn't necessarily work in the world of the Indy media.

No matter all the hard work that Ace, Kevin and Danny all do in the sports information office at Indiana State, and from being in their shoes, I know they do a LOT of hard work, the people at the other end -- the media getting the information handed or emailed to them -- has to want to make use of it.
 
LoyalAlum said:
Casual IU/PU/BSU fans get their sports news from Indy media. Only the real big fans visit fan sites. I'm referring to the casual alum who would listen/read about ISU if it was there. A huge chunk of fan bases are made up of casual fans who won't search out information.
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reading letko's "reasoning," west laffy and muncee fans are best served by reading the west laffy and muncee papers.

who cares' where anyone other fan base get their sports news.

Stating that the Star should carry ISU sports for the casual fans who only read the Star for their coverage... if this was the 1980s, I'd agree.

30 years later; I ain't buying it.

I want the Star to carry more ISU coverage; I will not give the 'casual ISU fan' a pass for ignoring ISU just because the Star DOESN'T carry more coverage.

I only listed one 'fan site' - this board; the rest, even CASUAL fans can find them.
 
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Exactly My Point .....

When the Indy media is contacted, they are usually polite. But they have some excuse -- usually revolving around not having the money or staff to provide coverage.
But obviously, that's not the real reason -- they don't need staff or money. They have the stuff delivered right to their doorstep (you don't need to know how to make pizza if you have a Domino's in town).
So the comment from Lefko about having better ties with the Terre Haute newspaper would help is pure BS -- that has nothing to do with them not covering ISU games better.
Its a choice they are making, so when we contact them (as we should) we should not accept their comments about no money/no staff/poor contacts with the TH media. Point out that is not an acceptable answer.

Unfortunately, the low level of support/attention our alumni in Indy give to ISU sports is pretty true. Great turnout last year for the ISU -- Purdue game in Indy --- I was really inmpressed. But ISU needs substained support in both money, attending games, and contacting the Indy media to get better coverage.

Things are getting better -- much better. But as several have commented, now is the time to move on several fronts. We have very talented teams who have the opportunity for great success, even on a national level.

Its time to move on all these fronts ..................

:sycamores:
 
Not to defend the Star too much since I'm the one who started this, this time around, but many papers have cut back on their coverage rather dramatically. Papers that once covered the entire state like the Indystar and papers in Madison and DesMoines, no longer come close to giving the coverage they once did. I think the Indystar is content to give up TH to the TH media and guard its own dwindling audience. As for press releases, papers only do so much with those. They should at the very least result in a brief. A paper wouldn't write up a big story off a press release though, and would never run the release itself - at least not the big city papers. I don't expect game stories from them, but the occasional feature (at least one per season) should be a must.
 
bent20 said:
Not to defend the Star too much since I'm the one who started this, this time around, but many papers have cut back on their coverage rather dramatically. Papers that once covered the entire state like the Indystar and papers in Madison and DesMoines, no longer come close to giving the coverage they once did. I think the Indystar is content to give up TH to the TH media and guard its own dwindling audience. As for press releases, papers only do so much with those. They should at the very least result in a brief. A paper wouldn't write up a big story off a press release though, and would never run the release itself - at least not the big city papers. I don't expect game stories from them, but the occasional feature (at least one per season) should be a must.
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we are at least getting a box score on Sunday in the star 3 years ago we didn't get that. I am not agreeing with their reasons for not covering us but I am believing that with continued sucess this will change.
 
I could really care less about the Indy Star. I don't read it and I probably never will. I have even seen some local high school scores from around Terre Haute make the paper, and even the Indy TV stations. Not just when they are playing Indy schools either.
 

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Well, Jim confirmed for me that they do in fact get all of the ISU press releases. He then said that he directs folks to gosycamores.com if they want to see anything about ISU.

Guess Tom was right. They have the stuff, they just don't want to use it...
 
IndyTreeFan said:
Well, Jim confirmed for me that they do in fact get all of the ISU press releases. He then said that he directs folks to gosycamores.com if they want to see anything about ISU.

Guess Tom was right. They have the stuff, they just don't want to use it...
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Does he understand how many ISU alumni are in the Indy metro area?
 
SycamoreFan317 said:
Does he understand how many ISU alumni are in the Indy metro area?
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in a metro area the size of indy? The ISU Alumni Assoc says 11,300
http://www.indstate.edu/alumni/chpt_indy.htm

In 2010, Indy metro's (MSA) population is: 1,756,241 (34th-largest/country.)

So, that's a percentage of: 0.006434197.....

So, no; while the Star may KNOW that there are 11,300 ISU Alumni in the Indy-area; they don't care.

Bump up that figure to 11,300 HOUSEHOLDS at 2.5 folks per and numbers rise to 28,250 people and a percentage of 0.016085492...
 
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And of that 11,000 how many additional subscribers would they actually pick up by doing a few more stories about Indiana State athletics? I'm guessing 100 would be a very optimistic number. If they cover ISU more, it won't be about serving ISU alumni. It will be about whether more of their readers in general would find it interesting or informative. That's why I suggested they should at least do something on Bell.
 
Ah yes but don't forget that those ISU households likely hold 4 year college degrees which means an educated population likely with disposable income! Those ISU alums can read and can afford a paper...therefore I think we need to cut the 1.7 million figure down....gotta be at least a couple hundred thousand Ball State grads in there who can't read and therefore fall out of the "target demographic."..................... J/K J/K just poking fun Ball State lovers.
 

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Hmm....so the Indy Star can't write about Indiana State eh????

But yet in today's Indy Star is a feature by Mike Wells on money games. Wells talks with people at Ball State AND Indiana State (Trent). They even run a picture of Trent coaching during the Penn State game, where the caption talks about Indiana State "being crushed, as expected."

That the Indy Star can find time to do. But a story on the resurgence of the Indiana State program, that one they dont have the time or the manpower to do. And they didn't even use the Associated Press accounts in the story either.

Whoever wrote to Lefko might want to ask him about that.
 
TJames said:
But yet in today's Indy Star is a feature by Mike Wells on money games. Wells talks with people at Ball State AND Indiana State (Trent). They even run a picture of Trent coaching during the Penn State game, where the caption talks about Indiana State "being crushed, as expected."

That the Indy Star can find time to do. But a story on the resurgence of the Indiana State program, that one they dont have the time or the manpower to do. And they didn't even use the Associated Press accounts in the story either.

Whoever wrote to Lefko might want to ask him about that.
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The Indy Star may not find the time to do the story on the resurgence, but Foxsports.com does. Stay tuned.
 
4Q_iu said:
in a metro area the size of indy? The ISU Alumni Assoc says 11,300
http://www.indstate.edu/alumni/chpt_indy.htm

In 2010, Indy metro's (MSA) population is: 1,756,241 (34th-largest/country.)

So, that's a percentage of: 0.006434197.....

So, no; while the Star may KNOW that there are 11,300 ISU Alumni in the Indy-area; they don't care.

Bump up that figure to 11,300 HOUSEHOLDS at 2.5 folks per and numbers rise to 28,250 people and a percentage of 0.016085492...
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It is not about percentages.
 
TJames said:
But yet in today's Indy Star is a feature by Mike Wells on money games. Wells talks with people at Ball State AND Indiana State (Trent). They even run a picture of Trent coaching during the Penn State game, where the caption talks about Indiana State "being crushed, as expected."

That the Indy Star can find time to do. But a story on the resurgence of the Indiana State program, that one they dont have the time or the manpower to do. And they didn't even use the Associated Press accounts in the story either.

Whoever wrote to Lefko might want to ask him about that.
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I get your point, but that also proves my point. Any mention of Indiana State is going to be in a story like that, one that isn't about Indiana State itself, and serves a larger audience. And as you and I both know, it doesn't take much effort to call and get a quick quote from Miles on that issue - one that Miles is right to comment on, by the way, as those money games could be in jeopardy with the super conferences slowly taking form. Just wish it was something with a more positive context.

http://www.indystar.com/article/201...est-beneficiary-college-football-money-games-
 
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