Most Papers Won't Skimp On Olympic Coverage

By: Joe Strupp Although the United States is at war on terrorism and the national economic forecast ranges from partly cloudy to mostly cloudy, major newspapers plan to cover, market, and promote the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City as strongly as they have past Olympiads.

While some daily newspapers, such as The Washington Post, admit that coverage of the Feb. 8-24 event will be cut back slightly to focus on the war, others say they will devote as many pages and resources as they did to the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, and the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia -- and possibly more.

"It's our home turf, and we want to make sure we do a good job," said Monte Lorell, sports editor for USA Today, the Arlington, Va.-based paper that will publish a 12-page bonus section each day, as it did in 1998 and 2000. The paper will send 39 editorial staffers to Utah, a 50% increase over the 26 that trekked to Nagano.

Although The Washington Post will devote less real estate to the Games because of war coverage, George Solomon, assistant managing editor for sports, said he will increase staffing to 12 people in Salt Lake City from seven in Nagano.

Tribune Co. newspapers, which include those that the Chicago-based company acquired last year in its purchase of the Times Mirror Co., plan to collaborate on Olympic coverage, according to John Cherwa, assistant managing editor for sports at the Chicago Tribune. That means he only needs to send 11 editorial staffers to Salt Lake City, three fewer than were dispatched to Nagano.

"It allows for a maximum package," Cherwa said about the sharing of resources with the Los Angeles Times, Newsday in Melville, N.Y., The Sun in Baltimore, and other Tribune papers. "Each of us will cover the cream events, like figure skating and skiing, on our own, but we can share the other coverage." Having more newspapers likely will also mean more advertising and marketing possibilities, although the company would not discuss specifics.

Neil Amdur, sports editor of The New York Times, said that his paper had yet to determine whether it would replicate the daily special section that ran during the Sydney Games. The special war on terrorism section, "A Nation Challenged," that has been running in the Times since shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America, may impede the paper's ability to run another special daily section on the Olympics.

The Games are not usually a major marketing draw for papers outside the host city, said Joseph E. Maschio, senior vice president for marketing at Newspapers First, a national advertising representative firm based in New York. "It is considered more of a TV event," he told E&P. "It is the sponsors who are interested -- and they allocate their dollars to TV."

However, Maschio said that TV ad buys had been slow for these Olympics compared with past Games, which could mean some sponsors are considering newspaper buys to save money.

In Salt Lake City itself, The Deseret News (with daily circulation of 66,804) appears to be grabbing for the Olympic gold, while its rival, The Salt Lake Tribune (with daily circulation of 134,712), seems to be nonchalantly settling for the silver.

Although the two newspapers, published under a joint operating agreement, are combining efforts on a number of promotions during the 17-day event, the News (an afternoon paper) is taking it a step further with numerous solo promotions aimed at getting new subscribers and selling more papers. It will even switch to a temporary morning publication for single-copy sales, offering 10,000 additional copies early each day.

"The Deseret News is really a marketing-oriented paper," said Stephen Kelsey, vice president of circulation for the Newspaper Agency Corp. (NAC), which handles advertising and circulation for both papers. "They are being very aggressive. The Tribune is more of an institution. I wish they'd do more."

Through the NAC, the two papers will each publish a daily 16-page Olympics section with shared advertising, while also publishing discount coupons for an Olympic pin set available in local stores. A special subscription to either paper is available during the Games. It will include a 10-page Olympic scrapbook branded with both papers' logos.

"Our goal is to sell 30,000 subscriptions," said Kelsey. The Tribune also plans to increase its daily press run, by about 60,000 copies, during the Games.

But that's where the Tribune's Olympic marketing effort ends. Publisher Dominic Welch said the Games are not worth any further attempts to increase readership or promote the paper. "We don't know if 17 days will make that much of a difference with [subscription] readers," Welch said. "We can go after them in other ways."

For the News, however, the quadrennial event is a prime time for marketing, and the paper is taking advantage. Among the News' additional promotions are a weekly four-page Olympic contest section running on Thursdays that will culminate in a grand prize of two tickets to the opening ceremonies (a $2,400 value); a 24-page tabloid section for visitors to the Olympic Village at the University of Utah; and special "beaming stations" at area hotels and restaurants that will allow readers to download free electronic copies of the News every day onto Palm handheld devices.

"The Olympics is a way to get our message out and change the reading habit," said Jim Wall, The Deseret News' publisher. "It is a major event."