Today we publish the third of a four-part look at the sports coverage of three mainstream print publications from a weekend with one of the most diverse sporting line ups of the year.
In Ireland, it was the opening weekend of the Guinness six Nations and also saw a full slate of fixtures in the Allianz Football and Hurling Leagues, the Lidl Ladies Football National League and the opening weekend of the Littlewoods Camogie National League.
It was the weekend of the Dublin Racing Festival and on an international level, there was a full round of Premiership football, the finals of the Australian Open Tennis Championship and the Super Bowl.
What better time then to look at a benchmark of how the three main national newspaper titles treated each of the different sporting events in terms of coverage through their Saturday sports supplements.
Today we take a look at The Irish Examiner, following on from our analysis of The Irish Times and Irish Independent before a wrap-up and commentary on Thursday morning.
Guinness Men’s Six Nations
A total of 13 stories spread across six pages of the 40-page sports pullout. Iincluding feature pieces on Eddie O’Sullivan and Tommy Bowe as well as Donal Lenihan’s column.
Total Paragraphs 249
Percentage of total coverage 22.9 per cent
Horse Racing
Ten pages are given over to Racing, including full-colour racecards and a full-page column by Ruby Walsh looking ahead to the Dublin Racing Festival
Total Paragraphs 142
Percentage of total coverage 13.0 per cent (not including racecards)
Allianz Hurling Leagues
Hurling leads the way in Cork, the spiritual home of the paper and the coverage of the Allianz Hurling Leagues beats that of the Football in the Examiner, unlike the case in the other two papers. Anthony Daly’s column is devoted to his former Clare teammates Davy Fitzgerald and Brian Lohan.
Total Paragraphs 133
Percentage of total coverage 12.2 per cent
English Premier League
Previews of the big weekend games across two pages of coverage.
Total Paragraphs 116
Percentage of total coverage 10.6 per cent
Allianz Football League
Previews of the big games featuring the main Munster Counties lead the way.
Total Paragraphs 80
Percentage of total coverage 7.4 per cent
Other Football
There is a piece on the FAI deal being secured, an interesting snippet on Niall Quinn forgetting his passport and missing a meeting with UEFA on Friday and a feature by Liam Mackey on Liverpool and the FA Cup
Total Paragraphs 70
Percentage of total coverage 6.4 per cent
Super Bowl
The most extensive coverage of all the papers with two pages of previes including a profile of the Ballybunion roots of San Francisco 49’ers former player and now General Manager John Lynch
Total Paragraphs 75
Percentage of total coverage 6.1 per cent
Other GAA
There is coverage of the Munster Council Convention which does not appear elsewhere and Columnist Larry Ryan also devotes his back page primarily to GAA matters
Total Paragraphs 64
Percentage of total coverage 5.9 per cent
Other Rugby
Munster Rugby signings and reports from International Club and Schools matches in Munster and Leinster
Total Paragraphs 36
Percentage of total coverage 3.5 per cent
Littlewoods Camogie National League Opening Weekend
The best coverage of all the papers with four separate pieces of coverage led by a preview of the weekend action
Total Paragraphs 34
Percentage of total coverage 3.1 per cent
Australian Open Tennis
A preview of the Men’s final between Djokovic and Thiem
Total Paragraphs 22
Percentage of total coverage 2.0 per cent
Guinness Women’s Six Nations
An interview with Aoife Doyle as part of a preview of the opening fixture against Scotland
Total Paragraphs 19
Percentage of total coverage 1.7 per cent
U20 Six Nations
Match report from Ireland’s win over Scotland in Cork on Friday night.
Total Paragraphs 18
Percentage of total coverage 1.7 per cent
Greyhound Racing
The only one of the three papers to give editorial coverage to Greyhound Racing
Total Paragraphs 12
Percentage of total coverage 1.1 per cent
Lidl Ladies Football National League
Simple previews of the weekend matches
Total Paragraphs 10
Percentage of total coverage 1.0 per cent
Athletics
Sports Shorts coverage of Nike’s announcement on technology
Total Paragraphs 5
Percentage of total coverage 0.4 per cent
Coverage of GAA and Rugby ran neck and neck through the paper with the big three sports of Rugby, Football and Gaelic Games accounting for 76.5 per cent of the coverage in the paper
There was a visually strong guide across the centre pages to all the televised sporting action for the month ahead and the coverage of the Super Bowl was more extensive than elsewhere and with an Irish twist
The coverage devoted to Women’s sport was a disappointing five per cent, brought down by limited focus on the Lidl Ladies Football League but stronger than elsewhere on Camogie.
Tomorrow we will carry an overall commentary on the differences we found over the three different newspapers.
Today’s Highlights on Sport for Business
Image Credit: Sport for Business
