By Thomas Jones, Sports Editor

In a nod to the current state of journalism, the sports department of the Westlake Picayune and the Lake Travis View will soon combine coverage. The View will handle all soccer and girls basketball stories for both schools, while the Picayune will cover volleyball, boys basketball and baseball.

Both papers, however, will maintain independent football coverage. This is Texas, after all.

Does this scenario sound a tad bit implausible? Well, it is. For now, at least. Community newpapers, defying the trend of the industry, remain financially strong by focusing on the most local of news. Readers in Westlake – and Lake Travis, for that matter – will continue to get complete coverage of those communities’ respective high school teams.

Sports fans in one of the biggest markets in the nation won’t be so fortunate, however. The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, papers with two of the better sports sections in the land, recently announced that they will share key segments of their sports coverage beginning next week. The News will provide beat coverage of the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars for both papers, while the Star-Telegram will share its coverage of the Texas Rangers with its eastern cousin, which is owned by a different company.

The papers will also share coverage of college teams and other sporting events, according to Morning News editor Robert W. Mong.

Both papers, however, will maintain independent Dallas Cowboy coverage. This is Texas, after all.

Sharing coverage is all well and good for personnel in the papers’ payroll department, whose signatures send out more than advertising revenue brings in. By swapping stories, the Star-Telegram and the Morning News will trim travel costs, cut into the staff and slow the stream of money that’s been flowing out of daily newspapers across the country.

But the shared coverage will do a disservice to sports fans throughout North Texas, whose ranks include some of the most passionate and informed sports followers around. 

Game stories inherently lack the opinions of a column or the insight of a feature piece, but they provide plenty of clues into a team’s psyche that can’t be found in a box score. Readers learn about their favorite teams and favorite players through regular updates, and such game stories don’t all fit into one mold despite the insistence of those behind a news office’s glass walls. What Star-Telegram beat writer Jan Hubbard sees at a Dallas Mavericks game differs from the Morning News’ Eddie Sefko. Now, readers won’t be able to interpret that difference.

Local teams in Westlake may not quite generate the coverage of one of the four professional teams in the Metroplex, but at least local readers won’t ever confuse a Cavalier for a Chaparral.

For now.