Sports journalism in 2016

[reformedhack]

Just throwing this out there. In a story for Poynter.org, sports media reporter Ed Sherman says these will be the five biggest sports journalism stories to watch this year:

• The debut (finally) of ESPN's The Undefeated
• What's next for Bill Simmons
• Yahoo Sports launching The Vertical (NBA site)
• The Rio Olympics — or, more specifically, who goes and who doesn't
• More long-time sportswriters leaving the business

http://www.poynter.org/2016/these-will-be-the-5-biggest-sports-journalism-stories-in-2016/390534/

 

[Ace]

Sounds like a pretty dismal year then.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Sounds like a pretty dismal year then.

No kidding. But how many sports journalism stories have ever been predicted in advance?

At least one -- who goes and doesn't go to Rio -- is barely of interest to journalists anymore, let alone of interest to observers.

 

[playthrough]

Don't care
Don't I already know? HBO, new podcast network, ???
Don't care
Really don't care
Care, but it's not really a "story to watch." It's just the biz nowadays.

 

[Batman]

Will the first story on "The Undefeated" be a review of the Guns 'N Roses album "Chinese Democracy?"

 

[I Should Coco]

Regarding Sherman's 5th point, what he could have said was, What metro daily will shutter its sports department in 2016? He seems to be hinting at that with this quote:

The economic hardships have seen some sports sections get so small, you wonder, what’s the point?

I wish I was joking about this. Take a look at any 100K and up metro paper and tell me what section is wide-open, ad-wise. Yes, the entire paper appears that way some days of the week, but the sports section looks like that EVERY day.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

We all know some dope sportswriter is going to tweet about the size of a sideline reporter's boobs. That story will make the Top 10.

 

[Alma]

The Vertical and The Undefeated look interesting, in part because I'm curious to see if The Vertical is basically like Woj's work, which is to act as a in-house league reporter for transactions and a surrogate for the guys he buddies up to, or if it really tries to represent basketball and show favor wherever the game is being played well and right. Woj is a classic and perhaps ultimate insider, which is to say I trust his work as far as it goes, which generally is as far as the interest of the agent talking to him or Woj's own self-interest in maintaining relationships goes. I'm curious to see if there are larger truths, if Woj is capable of those, being that it may scald, to some degree NBA hedge funders he takes care of.

I mean, Bill Simmons, yeah, good, I'll just have to see the content. If it's just "Bill Simmons on this platform over here, with some people" then it doesn't really shift the conversation the way Grantland did, even though it wasn't very good.

 

[Doc Holliday]

how many sports journalism stories have ever been predicted in advance?

I thought it was rather remarkable when Ed predicted Erin Andrews would be filmed through a peep hole while nude in her hotel room in 2008.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I don't know what The Vertical is going to net him, I'm sure nobody does, but the New York Post reported that Woj's Yahoo deal -- signed last year -- is paying him up to $8 million over four years.

http://nypost.com/2016/01/08/yahoo-hoops-writer-got-a-steal-of-deal/