TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -Scaled-back staffing plans by a number of media outlets resulted in what may be the first-ever dip in the number of media credentials issued for the Super Bowl.
NFL officials said more outlets applied for credentials, 633 versus 576 last year. But many outlets requested fewer than in the past, causing the total number of credentials to drop to 4,589 from the 4,786 issued for last year’s game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots in Glendale, Ariz.
Though NFL officials don’t have complete records for all 42 previous games, it’s believed to be the first time that number dipped.
NFL spokesman Michael Signora said the change is due in part to an economy that has left many large newspapers with smaller contingents for Sunday’s game between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers, or none at all. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has no reporters here. And there is only one print journalist from the San Francisco Bay area, which has two NFL teams.
Publisher that it cost his paper about $3,500 to send someone to the game for a week.
However, some of the credentials have been scooped up by Web sites and other new media. And the 28 foreign countries represented are the most ever.
The last time the Super Bowl was in Tampa, in 2001, there were 3,502 media credentials issued.
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