The NCAA News - News and Features

April 21, 1997

Credentials

Online services seek equal status with other media

BY SALLY HUGGINS
Staff Writer

One byproduct of the expansion of the Internet is an increasing demand by Internet-based media for credentials to cover major sports events.

The issue recently affected the NCAA when some online services expressed unhappiness at being denied credentials to cover the Final Four. The NCAA limited credentials for online services to its own Web site.

Representatives of online services believe they should be treated the same as broadcast and print media in applying for credentials. However, those who process applications for credential applications say they cannot treat such services the same because there is no acceptable way that usage can be measured in a way comparable to newspapers' circulation and broadcasts' viewership.

For the Final Four, print media must meet a circulation threshold to receive credentials, said David E. Cawood, NCAA assistant executive director and media administrator for the Final Four.

"Our problem is we have no figures for circulation of online services. We don't have any way of measuring that," Cawood said. "Newspaper credentials are given according to circulation. Anyone with the minimum circulation can get credentials."

Brian Morrison, director of media relations for the Atlantic Coast Conference, said the ACC sent out a memo in advance of its popular postseason men's basketball tournament stating that no credentials would be given to online services because of the difficulty in determining which services were viable entities.

"We had discussed the issue last summer before the football season to see if we could restrict credentials according to usage, but found there was no way to substantiate a service's claim to its hits. We searched and found no quantifiable services to verify this," Morrison said.

But online journalists believe that usage can be determined and that the services should be eligible for credentials. To help resolve this and other issues, the Society of Professional Journalists has established the Task Force on Online Journalism.

Staci Kramer, chair of the task force, said there are ways to determine an online service's "circulation."

"It's very possible to determine activity. It is also possible to determine resources -- how much depth a service has. It may not be as standardized as some would like it to be but you can determine it," Kramer said.

The task force wants to work with the NCAA and others that determine who receives media credentials to resolve the issue and eliminate bans on online journalists as a group. Major media across the country are interested in solving the problem, she said, and the way to do that is to work with the NCAA and others.

"We're not all on the same page. We're not all speaking the same language. We need to understand each other," Kramer said.

Cawood said he has talked with Kramer and likely will meet with her as the NCAA strives to resolve the issue before next year's Final Four. But Cawood said he was not aware of any credential requests from online services until he arrived at this year's Final Four.

"It really wasn't an issue this year," he said. "But it brings up a whole new set of problems. And there is a logistical issue. We have limited space, so I don't know what we will do if we open it up to online services."

James F. Wright, NCAA director of statistics and media coordinator for the College World Series, said credential requests from online services are a fairly recent phenomenon.

"We didn't have a problem with the 1996 College World Series because the online services had just started to blossom. The 1996-97 year is the first time we have really had to deal with this," Wright said.

Services can be helpful

Online services can be helpful in publicizing an event and getting information out to the public quickly, he said, and he is receptive to granting credentials to established services. But it is difficult to determine which services are viable and which are produced by an individual with an interest in the event.

"I will be more comfortable once we have a way to determine the interest in an online service," Wright said. "How do you draw the line between a very good service that has a lot of people using it and one that Jim Wright might have created? Online services can be a very good way to promote an event, but there are a lot of mom-and-pop sites popping up."

The ACC granted media-room credentials to one online service from each of its member institutions if the service operated from the campus and was designated by the school's sports information director as the school's official site, Morrison said. But the services did not have courtside credentials.

Of 900 media credential requests for the ACC tournament, only seven requests were from online services -- including ESPN, Sportsline and USA Today -- and they were denied based on the theory that it would be a violation of the ACC's exclusive television contract with ESPN, he said. No complaints were received about the denial of credentials, he added.

Cawood said the NCAA also decided that credentials for online services would violate its exclusive agreement and gave credentials only to the NCAA's Web site for the Final Four.

During the next several months, the NCAA will continue to examine the issue.

"It's going to come up again. Whether we decide to keep it on an exclusivity basis like this year or treat it like the print media, I don't know," Cawood said.

Case-by-case consideration

Wright said unless an exclusive agreement for the College World Series is signed, he will consider credential requests from online services on a case-by-case basis.

"I probably will give credentials to some online services if the NCAA does not have an exclusive contract for the College World Series," he said. "I would give them to some of the more established online services such as ESPN, USA Today and CBS Sportsline. A way to determine who should get them is on a case-by-case basis through talking to others such as conferences and professional leagues."

Kramer said the Society of Professional Journalists does not want the discussion to become adversarial, but she does want it resolved.

She said the SPJ task force was created because it is evident that no one knows how to deal with online journalism. The feeling is that online journalists need to provide input or the issue will not be resolved.

"We have to deal with a way to set up the guidelines for online that match the guidelines for other media," she said. "You could say you can't do live coverage online or something. I understand limited space. So you re-evaluate the way you hand out credentials. You don't ban the whole group. It harms the NCAA in the long run, which wants coverage, which wants exposure for its championships."

Kramer said there are different types of online services:

* Stand-alone services that are exclusive to the Internet and have no print, TV or radio counterpart, but are journalism enterprises.

* Media outlets with their own Web sites that use a common staff.

* Amateur efforts that are serious and feature complicated Web pages, but are done by individuals.

* Fan pages, which are the most amateur and are not journalism-based.

"How do you decide which can go to an event? You look at market," Kramer said. "You look at circulation or rating, influence, coverage. If somebody has credentials during the season, using a Web site, they should be credentialed."

Morrison said the ACC took the approach that online services are more fan services than media.

"This issue isn't going to get any easier," he said.