The Daily News is struggling to cover late-breaking sports
The Daily News seems to have a tough time getting late-breaking sports stories into the “sports final” edition of the paper as the Chicago-based Tribune Publishing seems to have imposed strict early deadlines.
“When Mort Zuckerman owned the Daily News, the deadline was 1 a.m. for the Sports Final and 2 a.m. replate for West Coast games,” said one News veteran. “Rarely did we not have a Yankees or Mets final score in our Sports Final.”
On Tuesday, many of the sports final editions were on newsstands without any mention of the University of Virginia’s Monday night NCAA basketball championship.
The tablet edition showed a front page with a headline “Yes Virginia” on its cover — but it could not be determined how many, if any, of the replated editions made it onto newsstands in the five boroughs.
The beleaguered tabloid also seemed to have trouble the following night on late-breaking Mets and Yankees games. The Yankees were in a later time zone playing the Houston Astros, and there was no mention of the game in the Sports Final editions that Media Ink saw on newsstands on Wednesday.
The Mets were home Tuesday, but there was a half-hour rain delay, and the game where Cy Young award winner Jacob deGrom was unexpectedly shelled took over four hours to complete, pushing its completion time close to midnight.
Daily News Editor-in-Chief Robert York insisted there were Sports Final editions with the scores on newsstands — just none that Media Ink spotted.
The Post, in contrast, had the Mets and Yankees games in all editions of its Sports Extra and Late City Finals, the two editions that make it onto newsstands in the five boroughs. And the Virginia game was in the Sports Final editions.