The Demise of the WNBA in Florida: A Mixed Method Case Study of Newspaper Coverage About Women's Professional Basketball (Report‪)‬

The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a hot phenomenon on the American sports scene. With its recent popularity, the question has been raised as to whether newspaper coverage of the teams is pivotal to the survival of the fledgling franchises. This study sought to discover if the actual coverage of the Miami Sol and the Orlando Miracle, two now defunct WNBA teams, affected the demise of the franchises. Our mixed method case study compared a qualitative inquiry (interviews) with an empirical examination of the newspaper coverage. It examined the development of coverage for the two franchises, story placement, the average number of column inches for each story, use of photographs, and story content. It attempted to discover the viewpoints of the beat writers for the two teams at the Miami Herald and the Orlando Sentinel. Additionally, a perspective was shown of how prevalent the Sol and Miracle public relations directors think their teams' coverage is.