Linkaroo
Truth be told, I agree with most of it. It's actually rather good to have if you're a Internet writer.
A couple sections:
And
Truth be told, I agree with most of it. It's actually rather good to have if you're a Internet writer.
A couple sections:
So what happens beginning with the rise of the Internet?
Suddenly every writer is competing with every other writer in the country. (Note: this is slowly starting to happen with radio now too. It's why I'm so bullish on the new Outkick the Show we're launching soon.) The newspaper media islands turned into connected continents. Everyone could see what everyone else was writing. Instead of having 32 individual NFL writers making $90k a year, a guy like Peter King, the best of the group, could become the national NFL writing superstar and make $3 million a year.
Some people got it -- Bill Simmons rode this digital train to a payday unmatched in today's sportswriting universe -- but more often than not most writers were confused and uncertain how to handle a changing world. That's because writers, as a general rule, aren't really that good at business. We chose words over math, after all.
Yet, the business had shifted ground beneath them and they were like the old baseball scouts on "Moneyball", totally unaware how to respond to a competitive market that voted with readership. Their media islands were overrun. (There's a definite irony here in that many of these same sportswriters watching "Moneyball," and laughed at the old scouts way of thinking without realizing that they were, in fact, the scouts of their own industry).
I noticed this at FanHouse, the writers we hired from newspapers weren't aware they had to promote their writing online. It was a totally different universe. The only promotion they'd needed for most of their careers was a byline in a paper. People either bought the paper or they didn't. And if they did, no one had any idea which articles were the most popular. Even back then the vast majority of a newspapers articles weren't read. Many writers were uncomfortable with self-promotion, which, honestly, is the lifeblood of Internet writing.
Suddenly every writer is competing with every other writer in the country. (Note: this is slowly starting to happen with radio now too. It's why I'm so bullish on the new Outkick the Show we're launching soon.) The newspaper media islands turned into connected continents. Everyone could see what everyone else was writing. Instead of having 32 individual NFL writers making $90k a year, a guy like Peter King, the best of the group, could become the national NFL writing superstar and make $3 million a year.
Some people got it -- Bill Simmons rode this digital train to a payday unmatched in today's sportswriting universe -- but more often than not most writers were confused and uncertain how to handle a changing world. That's because writers, as a general rule, aren't really that good at business. We chose words over math, after all.
Yet, the business had shifted ground beneath them and they were like the old baseball scouts on "Moneyball", totally unaware how to respond to a competitive market that voted with readership. Their media islands were overrun. (There's a definite irony here in that many of these same sportswriters watching "Moneyball," and laughed at the old scouts way of thinking without realizing that they were, in fact, the scouts of their own industry).
I noticed this at FanHouse, the writers we hired from newspapers weren't aware they had to promote their writing online. It was a totally different universe. The only promotion they'd needed for most of their careers was a byline in a paper. People either bought the paper or they didn't. And if they did, no one had any idea which articles were the most popular. Even back then the vast majority of a newspapers articles weren't read. Many writers were uncomfortable with self-promotion, which, honestly, is the lifeblood of Internet writing.
And
The simple fact is: most sportswriters don't work that hard. Most people in every industry don't work that hard. That gives you a chance to succeed.
Find me someone else who runs his own site, did over 20 hours a week of live radio, and traveled cross-country for TV.
Good luck.
Tons of people want to do this job until they realize the work involved to be good. I've never seen anyone be good at anything without working hard at it. Talent matters, sure, but drive matters as much or more than talent.
So work harder than everyone else.
I'll give you a recent example. At this year's SEC Spring Meetings a couple of writers pulled me aside and complained because I was Periscoping what the coaches were saying. This, they said, allowed competing sites to watch those feeds and write what the coaches said, disadvantaging, so they said, the writers who were actually there.
That's such a newspaper way of thinking it drives me crazy. But it wasn't unique to those guys, lots of people still believe that.
Here's the deal: if you can't write more interesting stories actually being there than the people are writing watching my Periscope feed can write, why are you traveling and writing at all? Why not just watch my Periscope feed too? Why should your company be paying to put you up in a hotel and pay for you to travel and pay for you to write what others are writing from their couches?
The fact of the matter is no one is reading those articles on any substantial basis -- 99% of sportswriting -- or writing on the Internet in general -- will get less than 2,000 readers -- but these guys were used to having something unique based entirely on their job, not their work ethic. If your article doesn't contain something unique or entertaining, what's the point of writing it? People don't have to wake up the day after a game and read the newspaper to see what happened. They can watch or listen to the press conferences themselves. In order to build an audience, you have to work harder and smarter than other writers.
Find me someone else who runs his own site, did over 20 hours a week of live radio, and traveled cross-country for TV.
Good luck.
Tons of people want to do this job until they realize the work involved to be good. I've never seen anyone be good at anything without working hard at it. Talent matters, sure, but drive matters as much or more than talent.
So work harder than everyone else.
I'll give you a recent example. At this year's SEC Spring Meetings a couple of writers pulled me aside and complained because I was Periscoping what the coaches were saying. This, they said, allowed competing sites to watch those feeds and write what the coaches said, disadvantaging, so they said, the writers who were actually there.
That's such a newspaper way of thinking it drives me crazy. But it wasn't unique to those guys, lots of people still believe that.
Here's the deal: if you can't write more interesting stories actually being there than the people are writing watching my Periscope feed can write, why are you traveling and writing at all? Why not just watch my Periscope feed too? Why should your company be paying to put you up in a hotel and pay for you to travel and pay for you to write what others are writing from their couches?
The fact of the matter is no one is reading those articles on any substantial basis -- 99% of sportswriting -- or writing on the Internet in general -- will get less than 2,000 readers -- but these guys were used to having something unique based entirely on their job, not their work ethic. If your article doesn't contain something unique or entertaining, what's the point of writing it? People don't have to wake up the day after a game and read the newspaper to see what happened. They can watch or listen to the press conferences themselves. In order to build an audience, you have to work harder and smarter than other writers.
