Coverage

Greg Jayne is the sports editor at The Columbian. Last week, I had a chance to speak with him about the basketball team and the lack of coverage seen in the Columbian. Usually the results of the games are just called in to the paper so there is no one person who does the write up. Whoever takes the call, writes the report. Jayne states, “As with everything we put in the paper, we do our best to assess the level of interest throughout the community. We consider the phone calls and e-mails we receive, the amount of discussion on our web site, and the level of attendance at the games. In my time here, I haven’t noticed a huge demand for coverage of Clark sports.” People may argue that a team may “deserve” coverage, but part of his job is to cover the interest of the community. Clark County is home to 40 high school basketball teams. The Columbian does not have enough people to cover all the high school teams and Clark. They do their best to cover what they think people are going to be interested in. However, once in awhile depending on the success of the team and the importance of the game, they will send a reporter out for coverage. This week, Clark plays their rival and undefeated LCC at LCC. Clark sits in the West tied in third place with S. Puget Sound. Only the first four places from each division receive a trip to the playoffs. With only two games left for the season, I’d say the LCC game is pretty important.