Dallas Morning News Pathetic!

meangreenbob · August 28, 2008

I have lived in Dallas 58 years. The lack of UNT sports coverage has always been bad but nothing like leading up to this season. It was non-existent and I believe it was all intentional. Lots of smu and big 12 but nothing on UNT.

If 40,000 UNT grads subscribe to the dmns at 1/2 the subscription price of $228.00/yr, they would generate 4,560,000 millions dollars in revenue for Belo. Amazing how the can snub UNT and get a way with it.

There are many rich people in Dallas with smu and big 12 ties who are scared to death of UNT's potential.

Charlie NT 73 · August 28, 2008

I cancelled my DMN subscription 3 years ago. Sorry sports ( except for Ray Sasser

and his outdoors stories ) department. During the football season, if North Texas

won their game, the DMN sports section would have the story buried somewhere

in the HS game sections. If North Texas lost, the story was on the front page

of the sports section.

Hey, I did see a NT sports story on Channel 5 sports, Dewy Scruggs (?) interviewed

Coach Dodge. The message Coach Dodge stated was something to the effect that

this 2008 team will have alot more bullets in their belt this year vs last years team.

Green Mean · August 28, 2008

I have lived in Dallas 58 years. The lack of UNT sports coverage has always been bad but nothing like leading up to this season. It was non-existent and I believe it was all intentional. Lots of smu and big 12 but nothing on UNT.
If 40,000 UNT grads subscribe to the dmns at 1/2 the subscription price of $228.00/yr, they would generate 4,560,000 millions dollars in revenue for Belo. Amazing how the can snub UNT and get a way with it.
There are many rich people in Dallas with smu and big 12 ties who are scared to death of UNT's potential.

While I agree that the NT coverage in the DMN is weak, I dont know if DMN is all to blame. As we wll know NT's outreach is terrible and there are many people that live in Dallas that probably have never heard of our school (Yes I have met those people). Talking about the Big 12 is a given as thats what everyone cares about. Talking a lot about SMU this year is also a given since they since a big time high profile coach so its obvious there will be a lot of anticipation and hype. I think its a two way street when it comes to the media coverage and outreach for our school and its athletics and I am willing to guess that its pretty pathetic on NT's end also.

meangreenbob · August 28, 2008

You could be right but the FW Star Telegram has given UNT decent coverage.

Objective Aggie · August 28, 2008

There are many rich people in Dallas with smu and big 12 ties who are scared to death of UNT's potential.

I am not sure the blue-haired ladies in Highland Park lose sleep about an invasion coming in from Denton.

College sports will continue to lose coverage in the local media as long as more pro teams are invented.

Dallas is a tough market. Cowboys are king. Mavs. Rangers. Stars. Desperados. HS football. TCU. SMU. Big 12 schools (A&M, Texas, OU, etc all within three hours). North Texas is just hard to squeeze in.

I cancelled the DMN because it became irrelevant to me. If I want national news I pick up a New York Times or a Wal Street Journal. If I want sports, I read the internet. I actually scan dmn.com most everyday, but mainly for local news. The sports to me there is average now. In the late 80s / early 90s when newspaper still reigned supreme, DMN was one if not the best.

As far as local news goes, I stopped watching that twenty years ago.

KRAM1 · August 28, 2008

Win and watch the coverage increase. However, I agree with the comment about coverage and have noticed that very thing this season. I have heard that the DMN has made some significant cutbacks and that the sports section will see some of those cutbacks.

On a side note, I travel a fair amount and did travel (Montana to Mississippi territory) a fair bit for a living once, and I can tell you for a fact, as bad as we think it is, the DMN and the FWS-T, both do a much better job on sports and have a much bigger section than many other large market area papers.

That, however, does not excuse the poor UNT coverage. But, it may have something to do with the poor level of support UNT's own fans and alumni give the University. Perception is reality in many cases. This might be one of them. I wonder how many folks have called the DMN to complain? Cancelling a subscription does not do much to increase coverage since, once you cancel...why should they care what you think? But, if you "stay and fight" so to speak, and if there are enough who want to "stay and fight" we might just get better coverage. And, by the way, I subscribe and I have called to complain, and I do not pay $228.00/year for my subscription. If you call and "negotiate" an annual rate (pay for the full year at one time) you can get it delivered Mon-Sun. for about half that! I did and do.

So, call the DMN, let them know we are out there and we care about UNT coverage.

GO MEAN GREEN!

BleedGreen64 · August 28, 2008

The coverage was poor but equal to TCU. SMU got more because of being local (this is supposed to be a regional paper) and the new coach al la Dodge last year. I will call an discuu the subscription peice. I would love to pay a year and get half price.

Hunter Green · August 28, 2008

In addition to the DRC, we should all adopt the FW Star Telegram as our second "official" newspaper.

DeepGreen · August 28, 2008

Think about this: the last time UNT beat Texas Tech, it was front page sports everywhere. Beat Kansas State and we'll get the same coverage. After all, what have we done the past three years?

NT80 · August 28, 2008

The DMN has delegated (or would that be relegated) most of it's UNT sports stories to copies or parts of Vito's DRC articles. We are the only public university with a 1-A football program within 200 miles of DFW and are given third class treatment by the DMN. I say we move the school to another metro area that would appreciate it more! :angry:

greenminer · August 28, 2008

The DMN has delegated (or would that be relegated) most of it's UNT sports stories to copies or parts of Vito's DRC articles. We are the only public university with a 1-A football program within 200 miles of DFW and are given third class treatment by the DMN. I say we move the school to another metro area that would appreciate it more!

No way! They're the ones that suck. Why should we have to move? Make them do it.

Rebuild our own metroplex*

*synonymous with winning.

Objective Aggie · August 28, 2008

The DMN has delegated (or would that be relegated) most of it's UNT sports stories to copies or parts of Vito's DRC articles. We are the only public university with a 1-A football program within 200 miles of DFW and are given third class treatment by the DMN. I say we move the school to another metro area that would appreciate it more!

per google earth:

Dallas to College Station 188 miles

Dallas to Norman 188 miles

Dallas to Austin 196 miles

UNTLifer · August 28, 2008

The DMN has delegated (or would that be relegated) most of it's UNT sports stories to copies or parts of Vito's DRC articles. We are the only public university with a 1-A football program within 187 miles of DFW and are given third class treatment by the DMN. I say we move the school to another metro area that would appreciate it more!

Fixed

DeepGreen · August 28, 2008

Fixed

The margin for error is ever so slight on this board.

Ibleedgreen · August 28, 2008

If word got out that UNT fans had adopted the FW Star-Telegram as our official newspaper, I'll bet our coverage would increase that much more.

filmerj · August 28, 2008

The DMN has delegated (or would that be relegated) most of it's UNT sports stories to copies or parts of Vito's DRC articles. We are the only public university with a 1-A football program within 200 miles of DFW and are given third class treatment by the DMN. I say we move the school to another metro area that would appreciate it more!

The DMN owns DRC, so they share content, and just choose not to throw in Vitto's stuff. His stuff is always in the "quick notes"

August 28, 2008

per google earth:
Dallas to College Station 188 miles
Dallas to Norman 188 miles
Dallas to Austin 196 miles

Dallas to Plano (location of Big XII Conference Office) 18 miles

That is the main reason that the Big 12 gets the amount of coverage that they do.

Belo owns both the DMN and the DRC so it's a cost-cutting decision to use Brett Vito's articles (sometimes in whole, mostly in part) in the Dallas Morning News.

We get better coverage from the Star-Telegram but we don't get it as often.