CJR: How sportswriting can recapture its relevance

Rumpleforeskin...i feel your pain. i can identify totally. i am also on a two-person staff and, not to be bragging, our paper with even such a shortage of folks does a heckuva job in covering everything from youth sports to locals who go on to the pros..but as you said, one can only do so much. i snap photos, write gamers, write features, write a column, write a blog and layout the pages--no kidding--each day. yes, layout along with all of those other things. and then to somehow find time to develop folks, interview people, etc., etc., etc..thankfully, i am single, so family obligations don't enter the equation. but hey, we all need some downtime and there are times such luxuries are few and far between. not complaining, just presenting what we do and have to face when one is on a small staff. still, i love it and bust my ass trying to do the very best i can.

 

I do. I think. ???

 

oh gosh yes, i understand. when I was coming up, everybody wanted to write like Jim Murray..you know, those unusual and off-of-the-planet leads like "Santa Claus is alive and wearing a 49er jersey."
but guys like him, they're rare as Paris Hilton minus a no-limit credit card. and my cohorts who tried it couldn't sustain a marathon ride of play on words, etc...but still, he was a hero to them.
Rick Reilly would be today's answer to Murray, I would think. but sometimes, it gets to the point of being over "cute."
i loved Red Smith. outstanding. Frank Deford, too. Great writers. And Dan Jenkins.
I think Mike Lopresti, day in and day out, is outstanding. he's underrated i believe in today's business.

 

Actually, Jenkins is a good one to mix in there. I think at my best hopes, I wanted to be a mix of Red and him, an weird hybrid to be sure.

 

Bingo, amen, could not agree with this statement any stronger. The focus is backwards and the eritorial side has to stand up and stop letting sales dictate where they spend their time and effort.

 

the author explains himself, sorta:

http://www.sportsmediaguide.com/interviews/gary-andrew-poole/

Q. Isn’t journalism market-driven? And if so, isn’t the market getting what it wants from sports media?

A. Journalism - like any business - is market-driven, but just because McDonald’s sells a billion chicken McNuggets doesn’t mean it is the most worthwhile food on the planet.

 

what ehlobuddy was mentioning is exactly the mindset of our publisher...he doesn't believe right now that the web is guiding readers to subscribe to our paper..thus, we're not putting as much emphasis on it. maybe later, but until he sees that it is helping drive up circulation, he's playing low key with it.

 

stylish writing is irrelevant now.
most young readers don't care and couldn't recognize it.
they like snark.

 

Well, of course, I suppose there are different styles of snarkiness, too.