In late May, collegiate sports information departments made headlines when three Big Ten institutions announced they would no longer print media guides. Very quickly, many other schools followed suit and within six weeks, the Pac-10 had proposed NCAA Division I legislation to ban the printing of media guides.

Tight budgets are a big part of these decisions since printing media guides is expensive. But advancements in technology is another huge factor--it has become very easy to post guides on the Web, where they can be accessed by anyone and more easily updated.

But where will these changes leave recruits, fans, and members of the media who still want printed guides? And is the trend as significant at the NCAA Division II and III levels? We asked sports information directors at three different institutions to explain how their schools have made the decision to continue to print or not, and what they've done to follow through.

A NEW OPPORTUNITY

By Shelly Poe

Shelly Poe is Director of Athletics Communications at The Ohio State University and responsible for handling communications and public relations for Buckeyes' football. A 2006 inductee into the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Hall of Fame, she joined the Ohio State staff after 19 years as Sports Information Director at West Virginia University. She can be reached at: PoeS@buckeyes.ath.ohio-state.edu.

For the 2009-10 academic year and beyond, The Ohio State University will no longer print media guides for its varsity athletics programs. That's the news you've read. But what hasn't been publicized as well is the discussion we had leading up to the announcement.

While the cost savings associated with this decision could total as much as a quarter-million dollars annually, we believe the benefits and opportunities will reach far beyond the bottom line. By moving all our information to an online format, we can provide a more detailed and more diverse product in a number of ways.

At Ohio State, we are proud to offer 36 varsity sports and have a rich tradition that includes 61 national championships, 286 conference titles, and more than 1,900 All-Americans. In addition, our athletes are year-round achievers in the classroom and in the community. We have come to the conclusion that one printed piece per season (with maximum page counts and other NCAA restrictions) limits our ability to tell our stories in a timely and thorough manner.

By putting all our team information online, we reap several benefits:

• We can update news, records, and achievements throughout the course of the season so they are available around the clock to the media and fans.

• We can include color images, audio and video features, and more on the historic elements of our programs.

• We can link to coverage of our teams and student-athletes in other media.

• We can more easily adapt content provided by the NCAA, our conference office, and other partners in athletics.

• We can have constantly updated records and statistics available around the clock to the media and any fans who want them.

And that's really just the start. Combining this transfer of resources with imagination and new technology gets us excited to explore what these online guides can become in the future. The possibilities are vast and will continue to increase with technical advances and innovative thinking.

We are also excited about using online content to better match our information channels with the people we are trying to reach. For example, we know that the young people who dominate our campus are not newspaper subscribers. But do we know how to best get their attention? Those of us providing information to a variety of audiences must constantly assess the most effective ways to reach our targets.

Of course, none of these changes are happening in a vacuum. Media outlets are also changing the way they deliver their content. Newspapers, radio stations, and television stations are expanding their online presence to broaden their reach. Forms of participant journalism like blogs and YouTube have become standard sources of information for millions of consumers. This is the wave of the future and we want to be on it.

We don't dislike books. By nature, those of us who work in sports information are lovers of history--records and archival materials are our passion. But the ability in the 21st Century to utilize more than just printed words and still photos gives us an opportunity to shift our resources into areas that will make use of prose, pictures, video, and interactive content to tell fuller, more captivating stories to more audiences.

Eliminating printed media guides also makes sense from an environmental viewpoint. The reality is that printed guides consume a tremendous amount of paper, much of which is discarded after the event or season had passed. A reporter who had one copy of each Ohio State varsity media guide from 2008-09 had 2,734 pages of information to manage. A nationally sought-after women's basketball recruit would have 72,176 pages of material if she received a brochure from every Division I school. That's a whole forest of trees!

What will this change look like on a day-to-day basis? Instead of mailing a guide, we are providing a Web link to our team information. Instead of leaving a printed piece in the home, coaches give recruits a CD that can be shared with their families and mentors on any computer. Users can print what they need, or view and compare information on-screen.

We do realize there are short-term drawbacks. A coach cannot leave a publication on a table where high school students might leaf through it. A family without computer resources or limited Internet connectivity will not be able to access large quantities of online information in a single sitting. Members of the media will have access to information only through their computers rather than in booklet form. Parents will no longer have the guides as keepsakes to remember their child's days as a student-athlete. Some boosters and alumni enjoyed getting a printed piece each season as their connection to a particular varsity team. And some fans avidly purchased and saved these collectables over the years.

Anyone will still be able to print their own copy of the product from the Internet, but we know it's not quite the same experience. In response, we are openly seeking new ways to recapture that relationship with readers.

Perhaps much of the discussion surrounding the format of media guides has gotten off track. We are talking a lot about the framework of the product and not so much about its content.

In other words, our focus must be on the message itself. Presenting information is still the bottom line, even if the channels of distribution have morphed into methods unimaginable a few years ago. As formats and technologies change, we need to use them to get our message out to our constituencies.

Here at Ohio State, we believe that investing our communication resources in new technological tools instead of printed products will give us the best chance to provide the most people with the widest range of information efficiently and economically.

PROUD TO PRINT

By April Emory

April Emory has been Sports Information Director at Elizabeth City State University since 2001 and sits on the CoSIDA Board of Directors. She was the 2009 recipient of the CoSIDA College Division Rising Star Award and can be reached at: aemory@mail.ecsu.edu.

THE ECONOMY. These two words have gripped our country over the past year, and intercollegiate athletics is no exception. Here at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina, an NCAA Division II school, we have all had to do our share to assist in handling this crisis, from cutting expenses to limiting travel.

One thing we haven't done, however, is halt the printing of our sports media guides. At the start of the 2009-10 fiscal year, I sat down with our Athletic Director to discuss my budget. We quickly decided that, regardless of what other schools did, we were committed to providing printed versions of our guides.

The first reason for our decision is that these books are a favorite of our older fans and alumni base. At the small school level, we often have to work harder to secure fans and bring alumni back into the fold. We find our printed media guides to be critical for connecting with these people. Older fans especially want a book they can enjoy looking through and bring to games. Going online is not part of their daily lives.

At our school, there is still much interest from the general public about the release of our guides. They are very much part of the fabric of the University community, and not producing them in tangible form would most likely be a blow to fan relations.

Another reason we are holding fast to the printed guides is that they are an important link to our history. As an HBCU, documenting our history is becoming a larger part of our institutional goals. Some HBCUs, including my institution, have been notorious for the lack of historical information due to poor archiving, and we are working hard to change that.

Since becoming Sports Information Director at ECSU eight years ago, I have taken great pride in improving our publications each year, piecing together history as I come across it. I have slowly pulled together our all-time results in football, and I've secured other notable facts I now include in the guides.

I still have more work to do on gathering our history, and this is a process and a project we want to continue. Each year, the readers of our media guides look forward to seeing what new aspects of our history will be in the book. For us here at ECSU, the media guide as an archive has much significance.

A final reason we are committed to printing our guides is that we feel they are still critical for promotion and media relations. I have yet to poll the media that covers our conference on how they would feel about online media guides, but as we look for increased local and national exposure, I want to make sure we are not handicapping ourselves in any way.

And let's not forget that NFL teams still send requests for football media guides. Maybe they, and scouts in other sports, would be okay with online publications, but I'm betting that some of the older scouts would not. Anytime a pro scout comes calling, we want to do all we can to make sure our student-athlete has the support he or she needs.

At the same time, we don't spend a lot of money on our media guides, and we will continue to print them as cost-effectively as possible. We do a combination media guide/game program that serves both the media and the public--and that my coaches still use for recruiting from time to time. We print a large number at the start of the season, and I update the book with inserts for each home game. That has long been our way of containing costs.

An added consideration in our decision is the reality that we don't have the resources to make our Web site the end-all for our teams. As a one-woman sports information operation, adding a lot of bells and whistles to the Web site is just not feasible. And without that extra attention to the Web site, it cannot easily replace the media guide as a comprehensive source of information.

As administrators at other schools make the decision to print or not to print, my advice is to be cautious before you mimic what our colleagues at BCS universities are doing. Every athletic department is unique, and it's important to think about the significance of the media guide for your particular institution. Have firm reasons before you go paperless and don't try to keep up with the Joneses only to sacrifice the personal touch.

With all that being said, I don't have a crystal ball, and I can't say ECSU won't one day eliminate its printed media guides. Maybe we'll eventually find that our constituents would benefit from us going online. Change can be good, yet ECSU will make the choice to stop printing only if it is appropriate for our fan base--not someone else's.

WORKABLE ON THE WEB

By Eric McDowell

Eric McDowell is Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information at Union College. He has served on the CoSIDA Board of Directors and was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame this past summer. He can be reached at: mcdowele@union.edu.

Here at Union College, we are as aware of the current economic climate as anyone else. So when we heard about other institutions choosing to no longer print their media guides, we discussed whether we should do the same.

With input from our athletic administration and head coaches, we decided to discontinue the mass printing of guide publications. The financial savings is great, and the downsides seem to be few for our particular programs. However, we also understand the value of the printed guide to some individuals, including media members, and we have put plans in place to supply hard copies as needed.

What made this decision possible was a new opportunity with our Web provider, which has introduced a digital media guide. This Web-based product posts the guide online and allows statistical updating throughout the season. It was perfect timing for us, as it provided the financial savings we needed, while also promising a publication that would continue to serve the media and potential recruits.

We are an NCAA multi-division institution, with two Division I teams and 23 Division III teams. For our Division I ice hockey squads, we have always needed a top-notch Web site, so the pieces were already in place for our site to be our main conduit for media relations.

From a Division III standpoint, we find that our coaches' top recruiting tool is the Web site. Therefore, the recruiting aspect of the decision also made sense. We take pride in the fact that our Web site looks great and is updated quickly and often--no matter the sport.

At the same time, we are very cognizant of the need to print some media guides, and we are still doing so. For selected media members who want a printed copy and cannot do so themselves, we will supply a hard copy. We will also offer media members the guide on a flash drive.

Keeping members of the media supplied with resources is critical and we won't sacrifice their needs. Home or away, our ice hockey sports information director will always have a few printed copies of the guides to provide to a media member on site. It is important that the media trust the sports information department and know that we have their best interests in mind.

Also, a minimum number of guides will be printed for coaches to give to recruits. And our printer will now offer fans a way to purchase a guide that will be printed per request through our Spirit Shop on the Web site. Overall, we were able to reduce our printing budget by 50 percent.

Our coaches are excited about the switch. They feel that our use of new technologies allows them to recruit quality student-athletes in a competitive environment. By offering live statistics and Web streaming, for example, we provide attractive alternatives to a printed publication. Thus, a parent of one of our Division III women's lacrosse players can see the stats and video of the game just like the parent of a student on a Division I team. This makes an impact.

The best part about the online option is that it will include updated statistics. Thus, the media guide becomes an "up-to-date yearbook" that is never stale. It is no longer really a preseason guide, but instead an ongoing source of information.

Another important factor in this discussion is that technology keeps evolving and adding more and more to the sports information department's plate. In response, we must shift our efforts to the priority areas. Prior to the Web, small college athletic programs often compiled, edited, and printed brochures for many, if not all, sports. But who has time for that anymore? The Web site's demands, coupled with other technologies in place (in game statistics, Web streaming, post-game Web site updating, distribution to other Web sites), have transformed the profession.

In the near future, we will evaluate our decision. This will involve crunching numbers, including seeing how many hits the online guides receive, how many were used for recruiting, and how many were printed for press relations.

When the time comes for you to discuss this topic, please make sure to involve all the appropriate parties. In addition, discuss options with off-campus individuals like your printer to see what alternatives can be provided to continue to serve the media and recruits. Moving from print to online is a work in progress, but it is exciting to see where the future will take us.

Sidebar: BANNING BOOKS
In early July, the Pac-10 Conference proposed a new NCAA rule that would prohibit all Division I schools from printing media guides in the near future. The Southeastern Conference then crafted its own proposal that would allow schools to print guides for use by the media, but prohibit them from supplying copies to recruits.

The two proposals are currently working their way through the NCAA legislative process, and either one, or some sort of compromise, could face a vote during the NCAA Convention in January. To help administrators better understand the nuances of such a rule change, John Humenik, Executive Director of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) presented a list of pros and cons to eliminating printed media guides to the NCAA, which we have posted on our Web site.

Look for the title, "Pros & Cons" at: www.AthleticManagement.com/blogs.php