Sports Media Test 1
SW: George Plimpton
-"participatory journalism" -pitched in an exhibition game, sparred 3 rounds against Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson, preseason hockey goalie with Bruins -"Paper Lion" -April 1st, 1985: Sports Illustrated -Wrote about Siddhartha Finch (pitcher in Mets spring training threw baseball 168 mph, never played before, teams complained, Finch retired week later) story was HOAX April fools joke
radio
-150 sports talk radio stations in US, Podcasts -Blogs- not usually authored by "traditional" sports media, helped to report -Pay websites- subscription based sports journalism, no ads etc. "high-quality written content"
Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit issue
-1964 five page layout -part of weekly mag. -1997 issues became stand alone -Time, Inc.'s best selling issue each year -2005: 35 million in ad sales, 10% of yearly income, earned over 1 bill in revenue, 2014 edition was 252 pages Criticism: "Not sports content", "dehumanizing women to male audience", "sexist", not always wearing swimsuits -1978 Cheryl Tiegs photo
Overview of Sports Media
-2005 sports programs 14% in 2015 93% -2009- newspaper editors cut about 300 full time jobs 20% of total staff
ESPN: successes
-30 for 30 documentary films, first created to celebrate ESPN's 30th as of sept. 156 films -Won Peabody, Emmy, Academy Award -2008: ESPN worth more than 40% of Disney's entire value -Approx. 88 mill homes -2016: number one in cable among 18-34, 18-49, men 18-34, men 18-49, men 25-54 age groups -first in both broadcast and cable men 18-34 -HUGE STEP: streaming service coming 2018
Bill Simmons empire
-30 for 30 idea, exec producer for all of them -Signs a contract worth 5 mill a year -highest-paid piece of talent in the network's history up to that moment Problem: stops writing his column felt edited too much etc., move to Tv joins NBA countdown quits after two seasons
Sports writing early days
-850 BC: wrestling, throwing, boxing, and racing were all events that were written about in ancient Greece -1823: New York evening post is the first newspaper to cover boxing -1850: sports coverage continues to increase -1870: newspapers start setting up -1930: 80% of all male newspaper readers read some portion of the sports page
Bill Simmons
-AOL digital city Boston, became Boston sports guy, $50 a week -Blog was very edgy, no editor/censor, nearly impossible to find online today -writing style made him diff, fan-centric articles, very long, lots of pop-culture ref. -ESPN finds him, "1999 ESPY Awards: Greatest Night in Sports...Or TV Holocaust?"- hired him
Simmons created profitable media empire away from ESPN
-Any Given Wednesday with B.S.- show cancelled after 17 episodes -new media outlets have opened doors previously weren't there, 30 years ago B.S. would not exist -ESPN is more powerful than all, he was too much for them to handle
Sports Illustrated: Brand extensions
-CNN/SI aimed to combine television, in depth reporting, internet Big problem: channel reached about only 20 million homes, ESPN was in 86.5 million at time, launched in 96' closed 2002 -Partnership with Fox -SI swimsuit enterprise- turning it into its own business- developing licensing programs- business partnerships with the models- charging to watch videos
S.B: Deadspin & editor AJ Daulerio
-Discussed Jenn Sterger and Brett Favre incident, private conversation about Favre sending bad photos -Pays 12,000 for the photos and voicemails -Manti Te'o girlfriend: biggest story of year, gf died/grandma same day, DS said it was a HOAX, 22 year old college senior broke story, got national attention [ESPN previously did not want reporters to acknowledge Deadspin]
League of Denial: aftermath
-Doc. won Peabody Award public service by a tv station, concussion movie Will Smith plays Bennett Omalu -ESPN gets back into concussion game by discussing how they love the book -heavily promotes book, excerpt on ESPN, story, 8 min interview Sportscenter, radio interview, appear on Outside the Lines, authors both ESPN reporters -ESPN broke big concussion story- Chris Borland retires after rookie season with 49ers to prevent getting hurt (Can we trust ESPN when they report on NFL? doc opportunity was very critical to their biggest business partner and backed out.)
League of Denial
-ESPN reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Stave Fainaru to write book on concussions, evolves to more -ESPN and PBS decide to work collaboratively on doc. film, focus on Mike Webster story, research center at Boston Uni. -PBS portion on Frontline, ESPN air on Outside the Lines, 2 months prior ESPN pulls out from NFL pressure to quit (15 bill deal they need them) -Frontline showed trailer at the press conference, ESPN mad
ESPN and Bill Simmons empire
-Feature writer on page 2, more opinion-based, less news driven, most emailed column of year, viewership doubled in first 16 months -expand empire-ESPN the magazine, cartoons, Podcast "The B.S. report", most downloaded podcast at ESPN, first to recognize emergence of Podcasts -Book author- "Now I Can Die in Piece", NY times best seller-list 5 weeks, "Book of Basketball..." debuted at #1 NY times best-seller list -Column remains most popular, ESPN.com column attracted 740,000 unique visitors one month, that probably made him most widely read sportswriter in America
ESPN: Early successes
-First to broadcast NFL draft MAJOR step, put in business with NFL -NBA games shown first major professional league on ESPN, USFL, MLB, NHL all sign deals -1987 wins NFL rights 3 year deal 153 mill, lead to 700,000 new subscribers, biggest channel on cable
Simmons doing his own thing
-Grantland: created sports pop culture blog associated with ESPN, known for long form journalism, use of statistics, highly regarded not highly visited -Speaks his mind: suspended 3 weeks after calling NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a "liar" discussing Ray Rice elevator incident, Dan Patrick show talking about "Deflategate" -Fired him next day "NFL didn't tell us to do it"
Origin of Sports Blog
-High school sports blog, professional and amateur blogs -U.S.S. Mariner- blog about bugs bunny -not everyone was a fan, Will Leitch and Buzz Bissinger Coasta
SW: Lesley Visser
-In 1974, won grant to work as sportswriter, The Boston Globe -1976, assigned to cover New England Patriots, first ever female NFL beat writer
SW: Frank Deford
-Late 80s early 90s feature stories in SI became magazines biggest draws -Heads up The National, daily sports paper -The National folds, losing 150 million
Sports blogs: Deadspin
-Launched 2005 part of Gawker Media network -Blog silly, early posts were drunk photos of QB's etc. -New editor: AJ Daulerio takes over in 08', Leitch leaves for NY mag, takes a turn to more investigative, posts more often -very influential to people's careers
ESPN: failures with staff
-Negatives: personalities behaving badly, cord cutters. -obsession with stories, Tim Tebow -Tony Kornheiser- regarding Hannah Storms' outfit -Curt Schilling- posted comment on Twitter comparing Muslims to Nazis, put offensive comment about shared bathrooms NC -Biggest problem: people getting rid of cable, 5 years have lost 11,346,000 subscribers -liberal bias, spent lots of money, layoffs
SW: Dick Young
-Revolutionized sports coverage, in early 1940s, began to go into clubhouse to find out what the players had seen/thought during game -very combative with athletes -wasn't poetic sports writer people were used to
Early days ESPN
-Their idea wasn't going to work, found out cheaper to send network to entire country if they bought a satellite -Getty oil invested, early majority owner -Anheuser-Busch first big sponsor -First big sport and little luck, ESPN agrees to agreement with NCAA -Will broadcast 18 diff NCAA sports for 2 years 1. NCAA title game "Magic vs. Bird" 24 mill viewers on NBC
ESPN History
-Tv only had a few channels, none 24 hrs -invention of cable- designed to get television to remote areas/areas blocked by mountains/buildings -Bill and Scott Rasmussen: "Entertainment and Sports Programming network" -Original goal of ESP: covering Connecticut sports only (Hartford whalers, Bristol red sox, Connecticut huskies)
Famous moments Olympics
-USA vs. USSR hockey semi finals Russia won 6 out of 7 gold medals, heavy fav, USSR won 10-3 in practice, one of the biggest upsets USA wins 4-3 -1972 stopped summer games Munich, group of Palestinian terrorists stormed Olympic Village apartment of Israeli athletes, Jim McKay on air 14 hours- "they're all gone"
SW as celebrities: Rick Reilly
-closest thing sports writing ever had to a rock star -National sportswriter of the year 11 times -Wrote 11 books -Wrote for SI, "Life of Reilly"
Sports Illustrated: The cover/studies show
-cover: a competition for athletes and photographers -most covers: Michael Jordan (50)*, Muhammad Ali (40), LeBron James (25)*, Tiger Woods (24) -Study found 37% of those on cover had something bad happen to them in following weeks -Whose reading?: 2014 circulation over 3 million, 13th highest among magazines, most read sports mag of all time
SW: Grantland Rice
-early innovator for sports journalism -best known for his work covering college football teams starting in 1925
Sports Illustrated: Early days
-first issue 1954 -first 12 years not profitable- aimed at more upscale audience, "participatory sports" -1960s sports became really popular because could watch sports on tv -focused on big sporting events, hired great writers -decided photographs would set them apart, color photos unlike anyone else caused time issues
Olympics: History
-first modern game in 1896 Athens, Greece. Los Angeles Herald -1936 games were first to be broadcast on television, 25 tv viewing rooms set up in Greater Berlin area -not on tv in US until 1960. CBS paid 50,000 for Winter games that year **Instant replay came out of these games**
Sports blogs: SB Nation?
-had problems with unsupervised, Plagiarism issues & bad posts -don't pay employees much money if any at all, 600 a month expected to write a lot. -Lawsuit filed by former site manager
S.B: Deadspin's popularity
-increased readership means increased attention -blogs used to not be considered real journalism -changed in 2012- Hulk Hogan sex tape, Gawkers editor in chief AJ Daulerio, lawsuit Hogan won -Gawker filed bankruptcy, sold now its gone -Daulerio owes Hogan 115.1 mill
ESPN: business failures/ partnerships
-negatives: partnerships with various leagues, business failures, lack of journalism -Business failures: mobile, 3D, Grantland, the Longhorn network (pays Texas average min. 15 mill a year, 3.2 mill in year revenue -Been accused of playing favs, gets defensive, needs SEC teams to be good -Partnerships: signs 15 bill deal with NFL, rarely show NFL poorly, NHL is on NBC sports
NBC criticism Olympics
-something for tv during summer/winter months -NBC- summer games since 1988, winter since 2002 continue on NBC until at least 2032 Negatives: pro-American bias, tape delay shows, only show specific sports/people, focusing on only American athletes, other sports overlooked/ignored, foreigners mostly enemies minus favorites NBC: "women watch the games more than men, women just want the results not the journey" audience skewed older than most sports programming
First ESPN
9/7/1979 7pm - Sports Center: main attraction highlights from games around the world, interviews, reports straight from game, see no matter where you lived -ESPN lots of money problems, Anheuser-Busch gave 1 mill then 5 mill year later -Didn't show sports live, tape delayed
Katherine Webb
Auburn, former Miss Bama USA, BF to AJ McCarron is quarterback for Bama, went to national game to watch, sports caster Brent Musburger made creepy comments about how attractive she was, lifted her career and fame off ground, was on Splash dive show
Brand extension?
going beyond what you are known for, finding new ways to stay relevant in an evolving marketplace
Athletes and twitter
nearly 50% of all tweets sent out by athletes are direct engagement with fans The Players Tribune- content written by athletes "first person story", became known for breaking news Criticism-do athletes really write those articles
Gatekeeping?
process through which info is filtered/dissemination, whether for publication, broadcasting, internet, some other mode of communication streaming and future- avoiding gatekeeper, stream everything