Life of Reilly: The rise, fall and rise again

You guys know me well here. Just to recap-- news editor of my college paper-- after college got into TV & video-- did that 15 years then had kids-- now I'm freaking back to the (text) writing. As I said recently, I've come aboard the Titanic in a cute sailor outfit wondering what's all the fuss about the iceberg.

And I don't do longform. I did some "longform" TV pieces, and those did almost kill me, so I get it.

But here's a "newbie's" take on something-- word count.

Seriously?

Maybe because I write mainly for digital platforms, word count is the last thing that occurs to me when I'm writing. The story's length is what it is. The story determines its length, not me.

An editor said something recently about 750 words, and I really had very little concept of what that meant.

And you know what? I don't wanna know.

 

It all comes down to metrics in the digital age. Most editors know how many words readers will read online. Sure, a good story will make people read more, but most stories aren't as good as the writer thinks they are. And most could stand some tightening.

And when you're determining space in print -- which is still hanging on -- word counts (which translate to column inches) are vital.

 

I'm not sure The View is the gold standard in ratings. Not even sure how the show survives or gets the buzz it does.

Might be interesting to throw some old white dudes in that mix, though.

 

It also converts to dollars when you're talking about magazines.

A glossy doesn't run a ten-thousand word story that'll take up eighteen pages unless it's good enough to justify the space it requires.

Which also explains in part why the "long = good" calculus continues to exist, even though it's no longer applicable.

 

Bro. I used to work for rob king, so maybe I know a little more about this than you. Bro

 

So he told you he hired them to fulfill his agenda?

 

No, the black exec hired a black woman and a black man for shits and giggles. Stay in school, bro. Or go back to it.

 

CD has been ranting about how Rob King is a militant pro-black racist for years here. Based on ... what exactly? It’s never clear. Weirdly I’ve never heard a single person at ESPN lob this charge at him, even in private, and he’s been nothing but great to me and every other white dude I work with. But hey, he’s black, so ... agenda.

 

Let's not forget that what Rob was trying to capitalize on was the success of 'His and Hers,' the podcast/TV show that Jemele and Michael had turned into a pretty solid hit.

The 6pm SportsCenter was moribund, so Rob tried to fix it by moving an already successful property into that space.

Didn't work.

The only 'agenda' at ESPN is success.

 

So a black woman and a black man couldn't have been the best people for the job? Why would that be?

 

THIS. So much this. They tried something. It didn't work. The ratings were falling before they changed things, in part because of cable cutters. Cable cutting picked up, and ratings continued to fall. Cutting back on highlights -- one of the mainstays of SC -- probably cost them more than who the anchors were.

The bottom line is, as hard as it is for many of us to understand, a program like SC is not the necessity it once was. I've seen the highlights and read the analysis of the games I care about before SC ever airs in many cases. The audience shrank. And it wasn't because it had two black anchors who didn't like Trump. That was well after the ratings started going down, and if anything, it was only a small factor in a much larger picture.