More than the Chronicle

September 2, 2005

Like many Americans, I know people who have been impacted by Hurricane Katrina; and, in fact, one of my friends is still in New Orleans waiting to be rescued. However, while my thoughts and prayers go to everyone who has been affected by this natural disaster, I'm going to write about what I know about: basketball.

This week, the city of Houston has opened its arms to thousands of evacuees; but, realize this: a city the size of Houston (approximately 4 million people) has only one major newspaper: The Houston Chronicle. This just in...that is not a good thing. The fact Houston has just one major paper limits the viewpoints, opinions, and coverage a major city needs and deserves; but, the Chronicle is not Houston's only newspaper.

The National Basketball Association has a media specific website which provides the media a centralized area to gather and share information. While navigating the website, I found a page which provides "newspaper links"; and, this page provides a comprehensive list of Web sites for print media that cover the NBA. The outlets vary in the amount of content they publish on their website. Also, some sites may require registration and may charge to access some or all of their Web site. The publications are divided by the team they cover with sections for the national media (at the top) and other useful sites (at the bottom).

Every NBA team on the list has at least three publications listed. Every team, that is, except one -- the Houston Rockets. The Houston Chronicle is the only Houston publication listed which covers the Rockets.

I was surprised for a few reasons. First, I thought the publications which were listed all had website URLs. Wrong. Sixteen publications that do not have URLs (re: "No website available.") are listed. Next, I scanned the Rockets 2004 - 2005 media guide and turned to the page which lists the "Houston Media Outlets". In the print media section of the page, there are twelve publications with Houston area phone numbers that are listed. Three of the publications are written in Spanish and two are written in Chinese.

Three more publications from the surrounding Houston area (Beaumont, Galveston, and Port Arthur) are also listed in this same section of the Rockets media guide.

Why aren't some, if not all, of these publications listed on the NBA's page of "newspaper links"? Even if the league determined these publications were "neighborhood" or "community" newspapers, why aren't they listed? After all, the NBA lists weekly publications for other teams on this page of "newspaper links"; therefore, why not list the "Houston Defender"? or the "Houston Forward Times"? or "La Semana"?

I've seen representatives from each of the Houston area publications attend and cover the Rockets' practices and / or the home games; so, I know the papers exist. Keep this in mind: Beaumont, Galveston, and Port Arthur are not cities which are simply a few miles from the city of Houston; so, these men and women are doing a good amount of driving to cover the Rockets.

In another strange bit of irony, the NBA's page of "newspaper links" provides a list of "non-NBA market publications"; and, yet, there's no mention of the "Beaumont Enterprise", the "Galveston Daily News", or the "Port Arthur News". Why not?

Houstonians constantly complain about the coverage the Chronicle provides; but, the NBA is definitely not helping the situation by acting like the Houston Chronicle is the only newspaper in the Houston area.