The Athletic layoffs

Yeah, I don't know that anything in this winter economy is imminent.

 

Pitbull is a NASCAR owner! Mr. Worldwide makes pit stop in Nashville: Pitbull NASCAR's newest co-owner

 

This is what Axios has been doing for years.

 

Print is not even a thought to most newsrooms these days. Depending on when something breaks, it either makes print or doesn't. But print doesn't "drive" anything anymore.

We're constantly having to rewrite online heads, remove online links and remove low-resolution images specifically because everything is written and produced from an online perspective only.

 

I just left a Gannett site that I believe to be one of the most "digital-first" in the company and probably in the whole country. Not everything would make print, and headlines were tailored for the web, like you're saying. The mindset seems very digital-first on a surface level. But when you really stop and think about it, print still plays a big role in how reporters spend their time.

We were still writing pro game stories (which no one reads) because of print. For night games, the reporters were often writing a version for print and then reworking the whole thing before it went online. And there was still of feeling of needing to "fill space" or "have a presence" for certain beats, which forces reporters to spend time fleshing out stories for very little gain in terms of online numbers, or writing stories that no one was going to read just to make sure we had a story that day. These paradoxes will always exist as long as a print product exists.

 

You still have to have some kind of "game story" just to have a breaking news presence when the game is over.

If not, what exactly are you writing five minutes after a game is over to get clicks and let people know what the team did?

Hell, reporters tweet updates DURING games. Harkens back to the old play-by-play gamer days.

 

Do you examples of how game stories draw fewer readers than some other type of a story abut the pro team? I read a fair amount of sports sections and my impression is that game stories often appear in the list of the five most read stories.

 

You don't need to let people know what the team did. They know already; it's 2021. Game stories don't get clicks unless there's some crazy finish. If you're looking for fast clicks, post some quick-hit analysis (takeaways, stars of the game, etc.) at the buzzer. Time after the game ends is best used on writing a strong next-day story that can go up first thing in the morning, rather than writing a game story to satisfy a few 80-year-old print readers.

 

At my last joint, gamers weren't barely read, but the hour-after-the-final-horn analyses did much better traffic and retention-wise — and for an extended period.

 

Not sure if this can be labeled a "layoff", as surely they aren't going to go without a St. Louis Cardinals writer.

 

Stewart Mandel’s strong denial of imminent executions looks interesting now.

 

Well, print makes more money than digital. Still. In many cases a lot more money.

It's still a better overall product compared to most Web sites, a comment I can't believe I'm making. That's how bad most Web sites are.