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Latest example of a troubling trend. FWIW, the old Scout (the one that used to be part of FOX before being sold off and going bankrupt) was pushing very hard for us to go heavy toward video.
https://t.co/zOZKNLUI5D has gone all video. That is why I no longer can write on our site.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 12, 2017
I still am working TV for Fox and MLB Network.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 12, 2017
That’s why I have no interest in viewing their site anymore. Watching videos for everything is a pain in the butt.
I thought it was because it was cheaper and faster than having to gather the information and then write the article (particularly for interviews).
I don’t really care for coaches and players interviews. If you have heard one you have heard them all. And I really don’t like it when they minimize the action and show the interview on half or even all the screen while the game is going on.
the whole world in too much into editorializing today. And ESPN doesn’t seem to be able to cover an event with less than 5 people talking.
Oh for the days of just Chris Berman, George Grande and Gail Gartner.
Same here. Whenever an article is accompanied with a video, I never watch the video. I just want to read about the topic. With a video, I find my mind drifting and do not get the same information as I do from reading.
But I think this is a reflection of a changing world. The younger people prefer video. Whenever my wife’s sons come over to our house, especially if there are a bunch of people around, they spend a lot of time showing everyone these funny videos they find. They pretty much do everything by video.
I don’t do audio recordings for all the same reasons I don’t do videos. I’ve missed a lot of content here, in the form of interviews that I would find interesting, but have never been able to work in more than a sprinkling of the audio content despite many attempts.
Maybe people who grow up watching youtube videos and whatnot prefer the video format, and I suppose it is a way to spew more content with less man hours. That seems to be what many things are all about.
That is too bad as I just taped five interviews over the last two days with State College. Some like to hear the players’ and coaches’ voices tell the story in their own words. We don’t do it for everything obviously, but audio and video can have a place.
As a one-man band, I can’t handle a video camera and conduct an interview simultaneously, but audio works fine.
Didn’t mean to offend Brian. I do enjoy your interviews, particularly with the coaches and minor league officials. I am referring to the sideline interviews during the games.
That trend will continue for a while but there will always be a need for good writers.
People don’t like robot voices. It may happen that someday ai will be able to imitate human writing to that point but it sure isn’t here yet… And reading isn’t declining really. Just changing formats.
Hate what happened to THE source for MLB info in my youth, then-St. Louis based Sporting News. Sadly, video/tabloid push is cross-industry. https://t.co/5d1vkCM6HI
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) August 2, 2017
News from Mark Saxon, former ESPN Cards beat writer who was laid off by them:
Excited to announce I’ve accepted a part-time faculty position at @websteru School of Communications
Excited to announce I've accepted a part-time faculty position at @websteru School of Communications
— Mark Saxon (@markasaxon) August 11, 2017
Ken Rosenthal has chosen a new place for his writings, a subscription site.
https://theathletic.com/86701/2017/08/23/ken-rosenthal-why-im-joining-the-athletic/
Interesting times indeed. Speaking of which, the LA Times hired Ross Levinsohn as its 8th publisher since 2000. In the paper’s glowing announcement, his stints running MySpace (huge bust for FOX) and Yahoo (lost CEO competition) are noted.
https://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-levinsohn-latimes-20170823-story.html
What missed that story was one of his most recent assignments as co-chairman of Scout Media. Last year, Levinsohn was forced out with Jim Heckman by the board as the company reeled toward bankruptcy a few months later.
https://nypost.com/2016/07/12/scout-media-ceos-firing-prompts-mass-resignations/
Here is a very bold statement, from a NY Times article.
“We will wait every local paper out and let them continuously bleed until we are the last ones standing,” Alex Mather, a co-founder of The Athletic, said in an interview in San Francisco. “We will suck them dry of their best talent at every moment. We will make business extremely difficult for them.”
The Athletic is a subscription sports website and app featuring pages of local articles that roughly replicate newspaper sports sections. It launched in Chicago in January 2016 and has expanded to full coverage in seven cities, hockey coverage in eight more, national college basketball and football sites and plans for more. Subscribers get access to all of it.
The Athletic is already one of the biggest sports media companies in the country, with about 65 editorial employees. “Our ambition is to be the local sports page for every city in the country,” Mather said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/sports/the-athletic-newspapers.html
More cuts on the writing side of the industry. FanRag Sports is part of the trend going to more video content and have released a number of writers, including two guys I know personally, Bernie Pleskoff and John Perrotto.
The Athletic has been hiring a lot of top talent and is starting locally-based sites. They have hired Bernie Miklasz as a columnist for their new StL presence.
Interesting to see as he seems to push writing away for radio, then it creeps back in. It is unclear how often he will write for The Athletic (pay site) and how often on 101’s website for free. He is continuing his daily radio show, as well.
Also, The Athletic has not yet announced its Cardinals beat reporter, though that is rumored to be in the works.
I have been an Athletic subscriber for awhile just because I like reading Ken Rosenthal but they have some other good content also. I like Bernie (most of the time).
Jayson Stark is the latest to join The Athletic. I see Jim Bowden is there, too.
I hope their investors funded the business extensively. Hard to see how subscriptions are going to pay all these people and one of their selling points is being ad-free (as we are here in our little corner of the internet). I’ve been on the other end of many “It is going to be really great in the future” sales pitches from wildly-optimistic executives over the years.
I certainly wish them well.
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