Guiding the Guide Media guides these days are for the media in name only. Rather, they play an important role in your school's recruiting strategies. Is it time to revamp your approach? By Dennis Read Dennis Read is an Assistant Editor at Athletic Management and a former Sports Information Director at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Athletic Management, 14.3, April/May 2002, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/am/am1403/guide.htm Few terms in college athletics may be more outdated than "media guide." Once upon a time, media guides were produced solely for media use with no thought given to anyone but writers and broadcasters, but those types of publications have gone the way of set shots and drop kicks.
"When I was first in the business, they were looked at strictly as a media tool," says Steve Hurlbut, Athletic Director at Farleigh Dickinson University and a former sports information director. "It seems now that, unless it's for one of the premier media sports, the media guide has become primarily a recruiting tooland hopefully enough information is in there to be helpful for whatever media does cover the team."
Despite an obvious change in the focus of media guides through the years, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. "Ask five athletic directors what percentage of the media guide should be for media and what percentage should be for recruiting and you'll probably get five different answers," Hurlbut says. | |
|
