So I saw the official Hawaii post-game "presser" on YouTube. It was done via Zoom, so it was very easy for any reporter to attend, assuming they knew the link to click.
Who came? Ben Parker of the Stanford Rivals site was there. Jackson Moore from the Stanford 247 site attended. And so too did Harold Gutmann of the Mercury News. That was it. Nobody from Chronicle/SF Gate. Nobody from Daily Stanford. Nobody from ABC 7, KPIX 5, NBC Bay Area, NBC Sports Bay Area, or even KRON. Nobody from KNBR or 95.7 The Game. Jon Wilner couldn't even be bothered to log in at 8:30pm to ask a few questions to the coach of the most local team in the sport on which he career is pretty much based.
My reflexive reaction is to assume this is a massive failure by Stanford's Sports Media Relations, and of course that ultimately means Muir. How can the SID not be reaching out to as many sports reporters and personalities they possibly can to join a post-game Zoom with Stanford's new coach and players? It's not like these people had to travel 5 hours to Hawaii to cover the game. They could have taken 20 minutes out of their lives to partake, couldn't they? I mean I understand college sports get short shrift there, but my gawd, you wee getting a lot of attention over the Pac12 implosion, so there was a big chance to at least remind people about your team and its new coach, and make a statement that could be heard by more than the people on fan sites.
But maybe this is indicative of the hollow shell local news has become. If it is, and just three people are going to cover Stanford after it plays a game, how about opening up the questions to fans who might make a donation (like a YouTube SuperChat) for the privilege of being able to ask them? Something has to be done. Either the Media Relations staff is an abject failure at its job, or the job doesn't really exist any more and someone needs to come up with something new to drum up coverage of, and interest in the football program and I would imagine other sports as well.
Thoughts?
Who came? Ben Parker of the Stanford Rivals site was there. Jackson Moore from the Stanford 247 site attended. And so too did Harold Gutmann of the Mercury News. That was it. Nobody from Chronicle/SF Gate. Nobody from Daily Stanford. Nobody from ABC 7, KPIX 5, NBC Bay Area, NBC Sports Bay Area, or even KRON. Nobody from KNBR or 95.7 The Game. Jon Wilner couldn't even be bothered to log in at 8:30pm to ask a few questions to the coach of the most local team in the sport on which he career is pretty much based.
My reflexive reaction is to assume this is a massive failure by Stanford's Sports Media Relations, and of course that ultimately means Muir. How can the SID not be reaching out to as many sports reporters and personalities they possibly can to join a post-game Zoom with Stanford's new coach and players? It's not like these people had to travel 5 hours to Hawaii to cover the game. They could have taken 20 minutes out of their lives to partake, couldn't they? I mean I understand college sports get short shrift there, but my gawd, you wee getting a lot of attention over the Pac12 implosion, so there was a big chance to at least remind people about your team and its new coach, and make a statement that could be heard by more than the people on fan sites.
But maybe this is indicative of the hollow shell local news has become. If it is, and just three people are going to cover Stanford after it plays a game, how about opening up the questions to fans who might make a donation (like a YouTube SuperChat) for the privilege of being able to ask them? Something has to be done. Either the Media Relations staff is an abject failure at its job, or the job doesn't really exist any more and someone needs to come up with something new to drum up coverage of, and interest in the football program and I would imagine other sports as well.
Thoughts?
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