CJR: 'How the sports beat needs to evolve'

Analysis and fairness are not mutually exclusive.
Reporting and analysis are not mutually exclusive.
In fact, the best columns have been thoroughly reported, are fair and deeply analytical. No reason the best gamers can't be, also.
You want to see what I'm talking about, trying reading stuff from the other side of the pond, especially in the London papers like the Telegraph.

 

Hey, I won $75 playing Eskimo bingo in Alaska two weeks ago.
I fucking rule.
(That last part was the analysis.)

 

I couldn't disagree more! Just because Fox News Channel has carved out a profitable niche serving extremely conservative, demographically old Americans, does not mean "most" people like their information through a filter.

The super-rabid fans I know still like their daily info from a newspaper (or newspaper's website) (or website that links newspapers such as Buster Olney's blog).

The fans I know do not check ClevelandIndians.com on any kind of a regular basis.

There are too many dramas, injuries, and commissions of criminal acts that the "team website" won't touch.

I feel really, really strongly about this.

 

You only think you fucking rule.

(Contrarianism/counterargument/meta-analysis.)

 

You should, because you're dead on. Sure, our fanboy site puts up links to stories on the team webpage, but they're certainly not the only voice we want to hear.

Perhaps I'm in a dwindling minority, but this reader still wants to trust the beat guys to give me the facts -- without spin -- and let me form my own opinion.

 

Mrs. Editude is a huge fan of her team, and while she checks the team Web site frequently, she knows our coverage, online and in the paper, is giving her the best perspective. Most non-dillusional fans feel the same way.

 

Why? You can't be objective and analytical at the same time?

Frankly, this is the way we all should have been writing all along. Don't tell me what happened. I can read a box score. Tell me why, and how, and what it means.

 

Ummm ... isn't this how good sports stories are already written?

 

To be honest. what's the purpose of allowing beat writers for these teams? What's in it for the pro team?

The games are all on TV, and you can allow one AP writer to the thing. Do the rest online.

Access is already limited, I am waiting to the point where teams shut clubhouses down, and only allow press conferences after.

No one wants us there anymore. We are there because sports writers have always been there. Somone is going to figure out one day that maybe all this access doesn't help the product.

The non-mega daily is going to get squeezed out of these beats. Seriosuly. Unless you are the super metro, everyone else is going to get shutout. It's all going TV and off site sit at your couch blogging. A well-crafted story? Not in your life.

More Bill Simmons, that's the futre, get used to it. I am waiting for our pages to be paginated in India and then printed at a local contracted printing factory.

 

I don't know about where you live, but around here the talk-radio folks would have nothing (and I mean zilch) to rant about if there wasn't newspaper stories for them to discuss, and even the broadcasters doing the games (and around here they're not bad, generally speaking) rarely go more than one game without mentioning a newspaper story. It all builds buzz. There's a handful of elite teams that don't need us (well, ALL of the NFL), but most of them still need to worry about selling tickets.

 

blah, blah, blah
Let's go write the obit for a $60 billion industry.
If I have to read one more article about how papers have to evolve, I think I'm going to puke.
Word to the wise: If you have to puke, don't use your bathtub. Trust me on this one, big mistake.
Anyway, sports is a unique beast, but Lebron not giving one-on-ones to the Cleveland press isn't exactly the end times.
And it is also a bit oddball to call out Sac-Town for dropping its "nearby" Bay baseball coverage and not note that by "nearby" the writer means a 90-mile one-way drive and it taking a couple of hours at a minimum to get there. Four hours round trip might be nearby for some, but not for me.
Some sports might adopt a pool appoach to some coverage, but that will only be for special events and unique things.
Real fans and the gamblers, remember them?, they want credible information. The interest boom in sports is as much driven by gambling as anything else. The only way to get credible information is to get it from an independent outlet.
You may not realize it, and if you don't your head is stuck in the sand, but that little squib you tack on the end of your practice report. The one that says the star RB is questionable? Yeah, that one. It's worth millions to the right people.
A team Web site isn't going to get that in. The paper will.

 

As long as there are gamblers and fantasy leagues, there will be a demand for actual reporting.