The relevance of the classic game story

[DennisReynolds]

Saw this today and thought it might make for an interesting topic of discussion: http://thebiglead.com/index.php/2010/03/03/why-do-newspapers-remain-slaves-to-the-game-story-and-boring-quotes/

The author is basically saying there's no need for your typical game story now, especially with your typical cliched quotes from athletes, in today's world. I assume he's talking about pro sports coverage, which is a distinction that I think has to be made. If you're writing about preps or small colleges, you need the game story because there was probably no TV coverage and you might be the only source of info about what happened.

Even though gamers can trend toward the formulaic side, especially under deadline (and I've written plenty myself), I disagree with the premise that newspapers should do away with them. For example, if the coach makes a critical strategic decision, people want to know what went into it. You need the quote, and that's part of the story.There are plenty of good game stories that help put a game in the proper context or provide insight, even if quotes often don't help with that.

On the other hand, there are a lot of bad or at least boring ones too, and as the author said, people who already saw the game and got a quick-hit reaction on a blog might not bother to read it. What do you all think?

 

[imjustagirl]

At my first paper, we used AP for gamers for UK and used staff stuff for the sidebars (on things like the key coaching decision, etc.) and columns. I think that's a better way to go, especially by editing down the wire gamer.

 

[schiezainc]

We're weeklies so we typically shy away from game stories but, for some odd reason, our readers complain if we don't have them. So, usually, we'll go to a game, write a quasi-gamer, quasi-feature that takes more about what what happened means vs. just the nuts and bolts play by play.

And I disagree that you can't write anything but a strict by-the-numbers gamer on deadline. I've had 30 minutes to write a 700 word story and have often done away with strict PBP anyway.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Jason Fry offered a more thoughtful take on this ... http://sportsjournalism.org/sports-media-news/let’s-reinvent-the-game-story/

There is no one-size-fits-all decision on this. You've got to know your market.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

There's never been a need for crappy game stories.

Good ones? Different issue. I see a lot of people who have adapted and write useful stories off the games.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

IMO, the idea of the game story is to capture the essence of the game in the lede, and then expound on that concept, whatever it might be. A two-hit shutout is obvious. Many games are less so, and call for creativity.
Look the beat writer's job has become a 24/7 nightmare due to technology -- blogs, tweets, etc. Writing the gamer is about the only creative work the poor guy or gal gets.
There is also the fact that your customers are used to a gamer and a headline which tells them if team A won or lost. When you take things out of a paper, you take customers out, too. Always.

 

[tmr]

I think the straight game story is one of MLB.com's biggest editorial strengths. It's very helpful for research purposes for a reporter, and I imagine a die-hard reader.

I wouldn't go by a Big Lead writer's advice there. There wasn't much original thought in that post, just a "us against them" mentality. He's not writing about weekly or small dailies, and most big-city, big-beat writer will eschew the traditional game stuff when something big is going on, experienced baseball writers especially.

And not every quote is "we played good today," as we all know, when you ask specific questions about situations. I bet if the writer actually looked for good game stories,ones that don't rely on the p-b-p, he'd find more than he thinks.

 

[cranberry]

IMO, the idea of the game story is to capture the essence of the game in the lede, and then expound on that concept, whatever it might be. A two-hit shutout is obvious. Many games are less so, and call for creativity.
Look the beat writer's job has become a 24/7 nightmare due to technology -- blogs, tweets, etc. Writing the gamer is about the only creative work the poor guy or gal gets.
There is also the fact that your customers are used to a gamer and a headline which tells them if team A won or lost. When you take things out of a paper, you take customers out, too. Always.

Fair point. But it seems to me, as in IJAG's example, that the idea is to replace the gamer with more valuable content and better utilize your own staff for more creative work.

Yet I still think there's room for a well-written gamer. Buster Olney used to write terrific, insightful gamers for the NY Times, which I enjoyed much more than any of the commentary he's doing for ESPN these days (although the links are helpful).

 

[21]

Big Lead says newspaper reporting is for old dying people, sun rises in the east.

 

[Point of Order]

Big Lead says newspaper reporting is for old dying people, sun rises in the east.

What's more useless, the straight gamer or the 184th thread on SportsJournalists.com about the uselessness of the straight gamer?

 

[DennisReynolds]

Coming at it from the perspective of a fan, I know if I attend a game, I like to then check out the gamer afterward, just to get what I witnessed put in perspective. The good writers will tell you something you didn't know or present it in a new light.

 

[zagoshe]

Gamers that are longer than 10 inches now are a waste of space.

 

[Small Town Guy]

Great gamers still have a place. He's been gone from the paper now for awhile, but Tim Brown's Laker game stories in the LA Times were incredibly good. And Bresnahan's are also superb. Reading them, I definitely get something out of them, even if I've watched the game.

 

[writingump]

I say game stories still have their place. Just stay away from play-by-play and hit the high points. Use the most relevant quotes and just remember quotes are a mix, not a staple, and you'll be OK.

 

[RustyHampton]

Interesting discussion as always on this topic, one I've struggled with in 8 years as a sports editor. We want to do things differently, and each year we try new wrinkles, but biggest issue we all face at daily newspapers is deadlines. Ours are the worst they've ever been, which often makes gamers a nightmare for our college and high school writers.

Here's a gamer from our paper today from the high school state basketball tournament. It was a day game and the writer had some time. There's some good quotes from both coaches in here. We need more of these kind of gamers...

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20100304/SPORTS0609/3040345/1346/Sky-s-the-limit

 

[Kato]

This ... http://sportsjournalism.org/sports-media-news/a-plea-for-a-fading-form/

 

[jlee]

I've been through the many cousins of this thread, and it always gets me wondering: How can we avoid straight gamers every day? We cover sporting events, and for a minimum of 300 days a year, those sporting events will not include feature-worthy material. They will be games. Many will be boring and pointless, as will their corresponding stories in the daily rag. Someone will win, someone will lose and you're there to tell people how things happened, what effects it has and what it was like to be in the game via player/coach insight. That's why people began reading sports sections in the first place.

I can see where IJAG's paper can do better by focusing their writers on the stuff that's not in AP's straight gamer. That may be the way to go. And the dozen or so mega-markets in America may be a different scenario. But to assume that readers have already seen the game and gotten all the information they desire from TV, bloggers and wire services is to assume our own irrelevance.

So why even print? If there's a big game in town, just make the front page in Futura bold, 240 points:

Well,
You Saw
The Game
Already:
How Was It?​

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

You lose the games and you lose the essential drama that draws fans to sports in the first place. Conflict/resolution are essential to any good storytelling. And in sports, unlike in much of life, there usually is a resolution that satisfies the readers' emotions even when the outcome is unfavorable.

Now there is a difference between the rote recitation of facts and vivid accounts that put the reader on the field, in the dugout/bench, in the locker room and inside the heads of those who participated.

That's one thing that people like TBL forget. There is a niche for the off-the-field outsiderish pissiness they publish, but it is only a niche and not a business plan for those engaged in mass communications. The vast majority of sports fans wants to be transported someplace they can't quite go without assistance, even if they already know the outcome and even if they had front-row seats. That's something only an experienced beat writer, an eyewitness columnist, a skilled photog and tuned-in page designers and headline writers are apt to give them. The AP gamer on ESPN.com is unlikey to convey this.

 

[SoCalString]

The traditional gamer is still vital to online coverage, and really the Internet's presence can make the traditional gamer as relevant now as in newspapers' Golden Age. Get a good gamer up quickly after the final horn, and voila - in depth, in person coverage that Sportscenter can't touch with its two highlights while making room for 20 minutes of Night at the Improv.

But when it comes to the next day coverage of a game, I'm keen on features and angles from the game than the game itself. More WHY than WHAT. But the WHAT still has an important place, I feel that place is the Web.

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

I worked for years at a paper with tons of space and lots of pages and a tendency toward long gamers. Now, I work for a weekly with a Web site, where I blog the games in detail and pick a game (or 2) of the week to highlight in the print publication.

Our first try with this approach came out this week. Those of a certain age will know the inspiration for what's anchoring the two pages of the double-truck.

<a href="http://www.tigerrag.com/wp-content/uploads/lsu-10-william-mary-92.pdf">Example</a>