Sportsbeat, Thursday, Feb. 5.
(Let me start by saying we’re trying to make this a behind-the-scenes type of blog, taking our audience behind the printing press, so to speak.)
National signing day is huge not only for college programs, but for area kids who get to take athletics and academics to the next level. We had a front page dedicated to their advancement, as well as two inside pages to acknowledge Oakland’s best.
Page 1 was dedicated to Stoney Creek standout Eric Fisher, who signed to play at Central Michigan. A great story out of a developing program centrally located between two stories detailing how Michigan and Michigan State faired in their recruiting. Fisher, the school’s first Division I prospect, definitely set the bar high for his fellow Cougars.
Beneath you’ll see an infobox of the top 10 area recruits, which include some of the best in the state.
Readers may wonder about all the “refers” to interior pages we have in Thursday and Sunday editions. Those are in place to tease the information that doesn’t always make it out front, which happens with a larger advertising presence on the front.
Usually we have more than one sport or topic out front, but with the importance of signing day and the sheer number of outstanding athletes abound, we had to go with that as the sole object on B1.
With the expanded size of a Thursday section, we were able to maintain our standard two pages of local content in addition to the two recruiting pages inside. On a night with the Pistons, Red Wings and Michigan State men’s basketball all playing late with our early press deadline (11:30), our staff was still able to put out our most thorough local content of the year.

Any questions, comments, concerns, take a couple minutes and send me an e-mail at paul.kampe@oakpress.com. Looking forward to hearing from our loyal readers.