Wednesday, August 27, 2008
jumping ship
Jay Mariotti, the high profile Sun Times sports columnist is leaving the paper. Apparently he thinks that newspapers are fighting a losing battle against web based journalism, so he decided to jump ship. Whether or not there are some other reasons behind his departure is anyone's guess, but to me it seems as people in Chicago still rely heavily on their daily newspapers to get info about the cubbies and da bears, or am I wrong? Anyhow, nowhere is the tension between bloggers and mainstream media higher than in sports writing, it seems.
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3 comments:
Bastiaan- I only need to look at my local sports paper to see the sad truth behind the antagonistic Mariotti's words. The Los Angeles Times has largely ditched its traditional approach and gone the way of the internet stratosphere. Past are the days of long, exhaustive sports coverage on print--my dad and I counted the pages one day over summer, and the section averaged 4 or 5 pages less than when I was a kid. Sports like golf, formerly with Thomas Bonk, and soccer, formerly of Graham L. Jones, are cut and the writers nowwhere to be seen. To save money on paper, the Times' online edition has tons of those ubiquitous blogs and game coverage of sports apparently not important enough for the sports pages (horse racing?!). In fact, even on the front page, blogs are advertised right next to a beat story in lieu of a columnist. During Lakers season, the Kamenetzky Brothers' blog gets just as many hits and exposure as Mike Bresnahan, the actual Lakers beat writer for the Times.
My favorite columnist, J.A. Adande, was gone a few summers ago when I visited home. I worried at first, and thought the paper must really have been bankrupt to have fired such a talented writer. Nope ... apparently even J.A. wised up, and he now writes for ESPN.com.
Interesting points, Mack. I think it is useful to make a distinction between ESPN.com, which is part of a big "traditional" mainstream media organization that provides content in multiple formats and more "independent" blogs, that came out of nowhere so to speak.
One of the big things in sports journalism of course is access. We can all have an opinion and blog about which of its two mediocre quarterbacks the Bears should start, but aren't fans really thirsty for inside knowledge? What do the offensive linemen think, what is the pulse in the locker room, when and how was this decision made? To get this kind of information I assume you need some connections and networks. How do sports blogs/web based journalism do in terms of getting access to info? Or is the blogs' saving grace that they do not have to worry about access and can be as critical as they want without having to fear to lose access?
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