NYC NEWSPAPERS CATCH SUBWAY SERIES FEVER

By: Lucia Moses Out-of-town Scribes Brave High Costs To Cover Teams





Start spreading the news: New York's first Subway Series in 44 years could be a home run for the city's dailies. But out-of-town papers are closely watching baseball's uncivil war as well.



The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, for example, planned to send three staffers instead of the usual two because of heightened interest in the Series between the Mets and the Yankees among its local ball fans, Baseball Editor Guy Curtright said. The Atlanta Braves, he noted, lost to the Yanks in two recent Series and beat the Mets in the playoffs last year.



"These two teams are teams Atlanta loves to hate," he said. And Braves relief pitcher John Rocker became famous last year as a New York-basher.



For others, it's just another World Series. The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch is planning its usual coverage, sending a reporter and columnist to the games. The paper has other coverage needs, Sports Editor Danny Goodwin said.



Meal and hotel bills, for as many as nine straight days, may be a shock to out-of-town papers unaccustomed to New York prices. But since their staffers don't have to bounce between two cities, the savings on airfare help offset the higher living expenses.



The hometown papers, meanwhile, began blanket coverage days before the Series even started on Saturday, clearly hoping that this will be as historic an event for their bottom lines as for baseball fans. Newspaper executives wouldn't be specific, but said they expect sizable circulation and ad revenue bounces.



"Suffice to say, phones are ringing," said Ken Frydman, spokesman for the Daily News. "Everybody wants to run [ads] in this thing. The whole town is crazy for the Subway Series."



The New York Post, which signed Pete Hamill to cover the Series, also expects a significant impact. "We'll obviously sell a lot more papers," said Richard Hawkes, vice president and general manager.



The New York Times took the dramatic step of using a rare skyline - in reddish ink, no less - on Wednesday after the Subway Series became a certainty, and planned to run five pages of coverage after each game day. "We're sparing no effort to put out the most comprehensive and exciting Series coverage we can," said Craig Whitney, an assistant managing editor.



The coverage is a logistical nightmare as papers rush to get results for games (that often end near midnight) in by press time. "The games are getting longer and longer," said Howard Schneider, a managing editor at Long Island Newsday. "The games end when most newspapers are trying to get the paper out." To that end, Newsday planned to publish its Series coverage in wraparound sections that allow for printing flexibility as well as more color.







Lucia Moses (lmoses@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor covering business (and baseball) for E&P.







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