Wasting Ink or: How I Learned to Pile on VeloNews

by PopUp Rolen on Dec 18, 2008 8:44 PM EST

Last night, gavia cast the first stone at VeloNews for its quite amusing typo.

“Vesus to broadcast the Tour Down Under”

A day and 26 comments later, and evidently, Vesus still has the rights to the TdU.

Today, I believe VeloNews made an even more egregious error in wasting an insane amount of ink on a fight at Cyclocross Nationals. This story appeared at the PdC and was given the exact treatment I felt it deserved: 105 words by the Chief that summed up the situation and provided excellent links to another story and photos. Chapeau Chief!

Conversely, VeloNews’ “scuffle coverage” extended to 781 words.

781 words on a fight that did not involve one thrown punch or occur during or immediately after the race. In comparison, VeloNews used the following amount of words on what I perceive are pretty important stories:

Giro route announced: 343 words
Vuelta route announced: 237 words

To recap, VeloNews spent 781 words writing about a shoving match after a cross race, and the unveiling of the Giro and Vuelta routes garnered a combined word count of 580. That seems really bizarre to me.

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Comments

It would be really interesting

to see the stats on how many people clicked on each article.

If only a shoving match could have broken out after one of the route unveilings…

by jsallee00 on Dec 18, 2008 8:51 PM EST reply actions

An Italian shoving match would have been so much more fun....

If only the sprinters had started attacking Mr Zomegnan.

by Albertina on Dec 19, 2008 8:16 AM EST up reply actions

it's so all about learning new skills

Yes, I do rather think the editorial priorities are a bit skewed in that sampling. The post-race thingy at Natties didn’t even make the front page here. We aren’t exactly rocking huge coverage of the Vuelta at the moment, but the Giro has definitely gotten some pixels here. More than 300 ;-)

by Jen See on Dec 18, 2008 9:22 PM EST reply actions

Oh, and...

The Vesus thing? Still not fixed.

by Jen See on Dec 18, 2008 9:23 PM EST reply actions

And the funniest, maybe saddest part, is that someone got an email on the oops and it's still not changed.

"The most wasted day is that in which we have not laughed."

by nikki on Dec 18, 2008 10:25 PM EST up reply actions

Thanks, PopUp Rolen

I humbly take a bow and am now back up in the sun roof of my comm car.

by Chief Commissaire on Dec 18, 2008 10:59 PM EST reply actions

Dang

At least we’re willing to admit when we get bored. And it wasn’t during the Giro or Vuelta rollouts. But December is a tough month for cyclojournalism. You know, base/buiild period involves some long hours in the saddle.

CQRanking.com, you complete me.

by Chris Fontecchio on Dec 18, 2008 11:06 PM EST reply actions

Oh boo hoo

they are getting payed money to put up stories, I’m sure they can pull something out of their ass. I mean CN somehow comes up with at least 6 stories per day to put in their news of the day things, all VN has to do is come up with one sort of entertaining story per day. Plus they have no excuse for not coming up with more, as Jimbo would gladly write some stories for them in exchange for a Pinarello Prince.

"If you go (with a break), you can either win or not win. If you don't go for it, you definitely won't win."
~ Jens Voigt

by Phil H. on Dec 18, 2008 11:56 PM EST up reply actions

Thanks for the shout-out Phil

but I should probably point out that I don’t really write “stories”. Gav and Chris and Ursula and others do the story writing while I try very hard to keep my contributions here to be as content-free as possible. If that is what VN needs, then sign me up!

by Jimbo... on Dec 19, 2008 12:19 PM EST up reply actions

sshhh...don't tell them that

just make sure you get hired and get your Pinarello and then you can tell them you don’t really write stories. Although you have written some very entertaining “begging for Pinarello” stories, so don’t sell yourself short, you wouldn’t be all that bad at it.

"If you go (with a break), you can either win or not win. If you don't go for it, you definitely won't win."
~ Jens Voigt

by Phil H. on Dec 19, 2008 1:19 PM EST up reply actions

"as content-free as possible"

heh-heh…that’s funny.

Amen to that. I, too, strive for non-substantiative filler material. I come here for a “break”. If I tried to contribute something with actual depth, ala Gav/Chris/Ursula, the one hamster in my head would fly off it’s wheel and there would be critical neuro-systems melt-down.

by swells on Dec 19, 2008 2:40 PM EST up reply actions

should add

When I talk about them getting in their miles, it’s sort of a long running joke of mine that most organizations staffed by cyclists struggle to convince their employees that their top priority is something other than “getting in their miles”. I imagine this is particularly tough in Boulder.

CQRanking.com, you complete me.

by Chris Fontecchio on Dec 19, 2008 12:45 PM EST up reply actions

Plus, when it is boring...

at least it’s entertaining.

I’m getting to where I don’t visit VN very much anymore. If there is something pertinent in the world of professional cycling happening that I need to know about, someone here will have it posted within 14 seconds.
I don’t need no stinkin’ sources, I’ve got gavia.

by swells on Dec 19, 2008 4:52 AM EST up reply actions