The Present and Future of Sports Media

By the TSB Staff

On this Labor weekend, The Sports Bank staff discusses the industry within which they labor. Mariotti’s leaving the newspaper industry and subsequent controversial comments made us think about where the sports media industry is and where it’s going.
 

PAUL M. BANKS:

Everyone knows that newspapers are going the way of the Wooly Mammoth, but I’m more interested in how bloggers and blogging are no longer considered inferior entities. The idea that bloggers are just losers who “live in their parents’ basement” is so 2006. Today, reporters in all sports mediums blog, and as more newspaper reporters accept contract buyouts, they’ll all be bloggers someday! Of course, we have a long way to go in terms of understanding which blogs have credibility and which ones are just useless. Look at websites authored by people posting their real names with a clear and in-depth “About” page identifying the site’s background and credentials, because as Marshall McLuhan said, “the medium is the message;” updated for Web 2.0 in the Look at Me Generation, I’d say “the user is the content.” Especially in the case of that infamous guy named Ballz Deep who comments on Deadspin.
 

DAVID K.:

I think Mariotti’s national exposure as Woody Paige’s pretend arch-nemesis on “Around the Horn” definitely played a part in Mariotti fleeing the newspaper business, and who can blame him?  I have a college friend who is a sports editor at a smaller newspaper in northwestern Wisconsin who admittedly jokes how he works in an industry that will likely be extinct in 25 years.  And it’s true.  We live in a world where news is all about immediacy.  Why wait to read what happened yesterday in the newspaper when you can visit a web-site that keeps you up-to-date every minute with stories and events that are currently breaking.  It makes sense.  How many people do you know who spend half their work day surfing the web or immediately turn to one of the many major sports sites when they hear about a breaking sports story?

Even in the television news business, sports departments are experiencing a dramatic overhaul.  Major local affiliates continue to downsize their sports staffs, partly because of the struggling economy and partly because of the other avenues people use to acquire their sports information.  Recently the NBC affiliate in Green Bay, where 90% of their news revolves around the Packers (and we all know the NFL is king of revenue among sports leagues), eliminated their entire sports team.  This seems to be a continuing trend in the business.

 
 

JEREMY ZULEGER:

Radio has seen erosion. 95% of all Americans used to listen to radio regularly. Those numbers have fallen to about 88% over the last 10 years. In that same time period newspaper subscriptions have fallen more than 50%. The stories you may hear about the demise of radio are mostly about declining revenues, but also pure media hype. Revenue has fallen along with revenue from print, TV, cable and most major media while online is growing. But unlike most other major media, radio still has roughly a 40% profit margin… for publicly traded entities that number is HUGE.

SARAH SPAIN:

The decline of the newspaper world cannot be ignored or denied. In big cities like Chicago and New York young people often note that they only read the paper on the subway or the bus. Newer generations consider the internet their first choice for sports and entertainment news and rarely pick up a newspaper if they’ve got the web right at their fingertips. Older generations still support print media, but their opinions are becoming less and less relevant as they age out of the target market. It will be interesting to see the way the media grows in new and different ways as the print sector continues to become more and more obsolete.

 

ANDY WEISE:

I, myself am evidence in the decline of newspapers and television production staff. As a journalism graduate, I was given a choice: stay in a small market or go back home (Minneapolis/St. Paul area) and leave journalism behind. I choose the latter because of friends and family basically.

In Minnesota, one of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Viking beat writers Kevin Siefert recently took the helm of the ESPN North Blog. While I think Siefert is clearly missed at the Star Trib, he jumped at the opportunity to join ESPN because he will never have to worry about a job there, unless he under performs. Another guy a few years back, Dan Barreiro, made the transition from the top columnist at the Star-Trib to full time radio host, 4-7 “Bumper to Bumper” on KFAN Sports Radio station. He’s got a great gig and left before the paper was even cutting people.

In a day where you constantly read about budget cuts in the newsroom, it’s very alarming and sad. I think the paper will always be around, but the blog is taking over. All newspaper sportswriters here in Minnesota now have blogs. In fact, it’s only a matter of time before the St. Paul Pioneer Press closes up shop. That paper, which competes head on with the Star Trib, has been shrinking for quite some time. Some days, the sports and local sections are barely even 6 pages.
 

PETER CHRISTIAN:

In addition to what Andy said, we both come from a school (and a department) that was completely unwilling to change their views and teachings for the changing journalism world. I still remember my arguments with the department head who required me to take a course that was effectively learning how to write for a newspaper even though in my other broadcast courses were teaching that writing in that style was not only flawed, but fatal. I do know that a portion of online writing was introduced to the newspaper course (although the style of writing remained the same, which was a definite error by the department/school’s brass). 

However, I think that coupled with the fact that more and more people were getting their news from other better updated sources (i.e. the internet, 24 hour cable news) the newspaper brass had a choice to make in order to keep their industry relevant. Instead they decided to stand pat for a few years and do nothing. When they finally realized that the internet was something to embrace rather than shun, it was too late and they were behind the eight ball.

Another glaring issue that the print media has been facing for decades (long before their medium was irrelevant) was the fact that the style of writing thought to be the “newspaper way” has been flawed for years. The quality of the writing has deteriorated to a string of horrible sentences with little to no structure that the writer could cover up with an above average vocabulary. Add in the fact that the corporations owning the newspapers were beginning to push agendas (political or otherwise) on their writers and it was a recipe for disaster.