Just a few short years ago, The Monroe Times would have covered a local high school team in the state basketball tournament with multiple stories and photos in the next-day newspaper. The Times, and the times, have changed.
When the Monroe and Black Hawk girls basketball teams played in Madison last Friday, the Times had a live blog online with frequent game updates and commentary from our sports team. A short recap of the games were posted to the Web site within minutes of their conclusion. A photo gallery from the Black Hawk game was started online as the Warriors were still playing on the court. Galleries of dozens of photos from both games not used in the newspaper were online the same day. Readers have the ability to purchase any of those photos.
Some newspapers even provide live video streams of the big games and employ other multimedia for coverage.
It's an exciting time allowing enhanced coverage of one of the biggest days in the lives of some high school athletes and their families.
The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) wants to limit or have control over those various forms of coverage. An Associated Press story in the Times a couple of weeks ago states the WIAA has asked a court to rule that it owns the rights to an array of ways the media cover high school sports, including images, sounds and even writing. The lawsuit names The Post-Crescent newspaper from Appleton and the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. The Monroe Times is a member of the WNA. The group's executive director, Peter Fox, argues the WIAA's claims is an "uncomprehensible overreach" of its rights.
He is right, and the public ought to be very concerned about the outcome of the WIAA's case.
The WIAA says that because it sponsors and funds the state's postseason tournaments, it controls the rights to coverage of those games. So it has contracted with private vendors to shoot photos and videos of tournament contests. And it has tried to impose hefty fees on media outlets to provide similar coverage - perhaps to help cover the cost of the $100,000-plus salaries that several of its two-dozen or so employees are paid.
The problem with this logic is that the majority of schools participating in WIAA games, and being covered by local media, are public schools. They are built and maintained with public tax dollars. And the players in the games are kids. The WIAA is trying to take control over what should be public domain to a handful of private companies.
And lest you think this simply is media whining about restricted coverage, consider this. If the WIAA is able to limit how a newspaper can photograph and write about a high school sporting event, don't think that it can't do the same to the parent in the stands.
When the Monroe and Black Hawk girls basketball teams played in Madison last Friday, the Times had a live blog online with frequent game updates and commentary from our sports team. A short recap of the games were posted to the Web site within minutes of their conclusion. A photo gallery from the Black Hawk game was started online as the Warriors were still playing on the court. Galleries of dozens of photos from both games not used in the newspaper were online the same day. Readers have the ability to purchase any of those photos.
Some newspapers even provide live video streams of the big games and employ other multimedia for coverage.
It's an exciting time allowing enhanced coverage of one of the biggest days in the lives of some high school athletes and their families.
The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) wants to limit or have control over those various forms of coverage. An Associated Press story in the Times a couple of weeks ago states the WIAA has asked a court to rule that it owns the rights to an array of ways the media cover high school sports, including images, sounds and even writing. The lawsuit names The Post-Crescent newspaper from Appleton and the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. The Monroe Times is a member of the WNA. The group's executive director, Peter Fox, argues the WIAA's claims is an "uncomprehensible overreach" of its rights.
He is right, and the public ought to be very concerned about the outcome of the WIAA's case.
The WIAA says that because it sponsors and funds the state's postseason tournaments, it controls the rights to coverage of those games. So it has contracted with private vendors to shoot photos and videos of tournament contests. And it has tried to impose hefty fees on media outlets to provide similar coverage - perhaps to help cover the cost of the $100,000-plus salaries that several of its two-dozen or so employees are paid.
The problem with this logic is that the majority of schools participating in WIAA games, and being covered by local media, are public schools. They are built and maintained with public tax dollars. And the players in the games are kids. The WIAA is trying to take control over what should be public domain to a handful of private companies.
And lest you think this simply is media whining about restricted coverage, consider this. If the WIAA is able to limit how a newspaper can photograph and write about a high school sporting event, don't think that it can't do the same to the parent in the stands.
