Friar Forecast Special: Is the Internet Killing Newspapers?
November 19th, 2009 | Published in guest posts, media | 12 Comments
By: John Conniff
No, newspapers are killing newspapers.
Recent reports show that the industry is losing significant portions of its circulation, including the San Diego Union Tribune which saw its readership decline by ten percent from last year.
What we all remember reading every morning has morphed into an increasingly multi-faceted media platform, delivering information in a variety of forms; print, on-line, audio and video.
However, despite the new format which was unveiled a few weeks ago on SignOnSanDiego.com, the San Diego Union Tribune’s website, the people that run the newspaper/website are still implementing the same model they used twenty years ago rather than with their new 21st century infrastructure.
What works in print is different from what drives people to visit different sites; similar to the distinctions between radio and television programming. To have a thriving website and newspaper each must have its own original information, tailored to their own unique audiences.
Why would anyone want to go on-line to read the same content that was in the morning paper?
Baseball is one of the better examples of how many websites, both nationally and locally, have filled voids that daily papers fail to cover.
San Diego Padres new general manager Jed Hoyer was hired for two primary reasons, his ability to run a scouting and development program - the draft and the minor leagues - and his ability to understand and implement saber-metrics, or the use of baseball statistics.
Looking to read anything about these subjects on the new and improved SignOnSanDiego?
Good luck.
Most newspaper editors have determined that statistics laden sites such as Baseball Prospectus, a pay site run by full-time journalists, are too esoteric for their readers. In reality these types of articles play off much better on the Internet; where the authors hyperlink players and technical definitions.
Herein lays the problem. It’s understandable to choose to go in another direction or ignore this subject if you are only interested in running a print operation. However, by not having some type of basic saber-metrics on their website, similar to the excellent articles that Geoff Young has written for so long on Ducksnorts.com, ignores a very important part of the game that many fans would like to know more about.
The draft and development side, while not as Internet centric as statistics, is equally ignored by the UT. The Padres farm system is spread out throughout the country, with only one team, the Lake Elsinore Storm, within an easy reach of San Diego. Thus, the Union-Tribune chooses not to cover this subject for a variety of reasons, cost and space the two biggest, regardless of how much the team’s future depends on the development of young talent.
In a minor concession this year, they introduced a cursory “minor league blog” by Padres beat writer Bill Center, who does his penance by writing a few sentences derived from the nightly box scores. No interviews, no analysis and no quotes other than the occasional blurb from a Padres’ front office official swinging by the press box or the ubiquitous unnamed scout dropping a comment on random San Diego minor leaguers.
Again, the web on a national basis with Baseball America, which despite a bi-weekly print publication is more of an Internet site than a magazine with all of its original content appearing first on-line, has filled the void once occupied by the old Sporting News and is the unquestioned leader in national high school, college and minor league coverage.
Other writers on the minor leagues such as Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus and Keith Law of ESPN.com are also widely read and have no real comparable equivalents in print. Locally Padres’ fans can go to MadFriars.com, a pay site where the writers visit all the minor league teams in addition to daily interviews with players, coaches and members of the front office.
What does the UT provide? A recap of last nights’ game, a few tidbits from the daily meeting the manager has with the beat reporters and occasional feature pieces, which is essentially the same information that would have been reported in the team’s inaugural season in 1969.
So are they incompetent? Full of aging people attempting to turn back the clock and hope this internet fad flames out?
No.
Their problem is covering baseball statistics and the minor leagues don’t really fit into the print model; and seemingly if it doesn’t fit into it, then it’s not really news; which isn’t a great philosophy as they are attempting to have a presence on the web.
Newspapers seem to yearn for the same thing network television executives do, a return to the days when there were only ten to twelve choices on the dial as opposed to the 500 plus we now have with cable and satellite.
Unfortunately for both the days of limited competition are over.
SignOnSanDiego should be the premier web site for sports in the city. It has incredible natural advantages, specifically a large and established readership base and more resources than any of the sites mentioned. There is no reason they can’t offer the same type of information that is on the web other than the misperception that what is being covered really isn’t important.
Ideally the typical San Diego reader would go over his sports page in the morning with their coffee, catch up on a few things they missed at lunch and then maybe log in during the afternoon to read two or three new stories that would appear on the web. And they would be articles, interviews or analysis, not leftover “Twitter” feeds or random blog posts; but actual journalism designed for the new medium.
Or to make it a little simpler for my older colleagues, what you are doing now is simply repackaging the morning edition and trying to sell it as the afternoon paper.
To be relevant going forward there are many changes that must be made other than cosmetic.
Some change needs to be substantive as well.
John Conniff is a senior writer at MadFriars.com and a freelance contributor to Baseball America
November 19th, 2009 at 11:52 pm (#)
[...] Friar Forecast Special: Is the Internet Killing Newspapers? :: Friar Forecast friarforecast.com/?p=1326 – view page – cached Recent reports show that the industry is losing significant portions of its circulation, including the San Diego Union Tribune which saw its readership decline by ten percent from last year. [...]
November 20th, 2009 at 1:10 am (#)
Lots of great points here, John.
I *want* to like the SignOnSanDiego website, I really do, but I just don’t find myself visiting it all that often. There just isn’t that consistent analysis that I’m looking for (I know, I may not be in the majority). They may provide the news first or some good information, but the stuff I generally want is located on blogs or smaller sites.
Like you say, I don’t think they’ve come close to fully embracing the internet era. They should have their main writers have regular columns, but also focus heavily on a blog, like the guy in Seattle, Geoff Baker(and many other professional writers). That’s the model to shoot for. Based on the discussion on Baker’s blog, it looks like it is working.
To me, it seems like the UT website covers the Padres like there are still concerns for space, while the internet provides the perfect outlet to expand on things and really dig deep on different, more esoteric, issues (the minor leagues or the front office structure, for instance).
November 20th, 2009 at 4:18 am (#)
I started tuning out the UT this summer when they had an intern writing many of the “Padres Notebook” pieces. A serious downgrade from the stuff Tom Krasovic used to write in that space.
November 20th, 2009 at 7:13 am (#)
The biggest problem is that there is nothing in the “Sports section” that we cant get from ESPN.com or reading a blog. IMO what they need to do is do exactly what madfriars does, make it something worth reading that gives the fans an insight that they wouldnt get normally.
Interviews with players and especially coaches and members of the front office.
While you dont neccessarily have to cover the minor league in depth how about giving the Padre fans a little more information on the top prospects? How many Padre fans (that dont visit this site and other blogs) know who Jaff Decker, Simon Castro, Kulbacki, Portillo, Darnell, etc… If Eckstein gets injured again and the Padres call up Sogard or Zawadzki is anyone outside of us going to know who they are?
Give the fans a reason to be connected not only with San Diego teams but with the players. What about SDSI (football, basketball, baseball), USD, Chargers, etc… give the fans more than just a boxscore with a little commentary. (Also hiring guys who actually know what they are talking about would be nice)
November 20th, 2009 at 7:16 am (#)
also since when did we have a Twitter account? Haha tweets from friar forecast
Thanks for posting so soon Daniel. I’m off to Denver for the Charger game this weekend. Cant wait to read all the comments when I get back.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:36 am (#)
You are comparing apples and oranges. The baseball specific websites you are talking about are all pay websites that cater to a certain niche (prospects, sabermetrics, or whatever). Signon Sandiego is a free website that tries to give something for everyone. Of course the specific baseball analysis you are talking about is better on a pay website dedicated to that information. I dont think a local newspaper is really affected by niche pay websites.
November 20th, 2009 at 5:27 pm (#)
Ben-Awesome that you’re going to that game. I’m hopeful that the Chargers will beat up on the Broncos, but Denver is always a tough place to play.
November 20th, 2009 at 9:49 pm (#)
Thanks for all the comments and I wish I was in Denver too.
I think Kevin hit the problem on the head, how do you define niche? Currently Kevin and the UT see being interested in the minor leagues or saber-metrics as a “niche”; the problem is what determines a good baseball team is how well they understand these both these concepts.
For example the trade involving Jake Peavy and potential trade of Adrian Gonzalez all revolve around prospects, a niche subject. Additionally much of the excitement around the team this year was on the arrival of home grown prospects such as Kyle Blanks and Mat Latos, of whom little was reported on before they arrived in San Diego.
The inability to trade Kevin Kouzmanoff or why he isn’t valued by other GMs revolves mainly around OBP and fielding range stats, a niche saber-metric subject.
As stated in the article, SignOnSanDiego isn’t interested in covering these subjects and if you aren’t reporting on these subjects, you really aren’t providing the fans of the team the information they should be receiving.
One additional point, I made some minor edits to the article after it was posted and the guys of Friar Forecast were kind of enough to correct my mistakes.
Again, thanks for running it.
john
November 21st, 2009 at 12:11 pm (#)
Nice work, John, and thanks much for the mention. The U-T’s coverage of the Padres was a huge motivating force in my decision to start Ducksnorts back in ‘97. The content I wanted simply wasn’t available, so I created it myself in the hope that other people would find it interesting or, failing that, I would at least get to speak my mind.
The shallowness of newspaper coverage is hardly a recent phenomenon; unfortunately it doesn’t appear to be improving. This makes their product an increasingly tough sell in an age when consumers have come to demand and expect better information.
I actually dedicated 14 pages to the issue of media coverage in the Ducksnorts 2009 Baseball Annual. Excuse the pimpage, but I think this passage is relevant:
“…baseball is evolving, and there are aspects where many within the media have been slow to react.
For example, statistical analysis has become a vital component in player and team evaluation. It’s not your job to like that fact, but it is your job to acknowledge it as fact. Categorically dismissing notions that have withstood the scrutiny of rigorous testing isn’t acceptable, nor is clinging to those that are mindlessly repeated without sufficient evidence to support them.
…
You may not know what VORP, DIPS, and UZR mean, but if you are committed to delivering the best coverage possible to fans that deserve it, you owe it to yourself and your readers, listeners, and viewers to learn such concepts. Have a basic understanding of what these metrics mean, why they are more useful than the ones you have been using, and how to communicate their importance to your audience.”
Sorry for the lengthy excerpt. I’m a little passionate about this stuff, although I’ve largely given up hope that it will ever change.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:08 pm (#)
I agree with Geoff that I don’t see change happening at the UT, but I do think at some of the major newspapers there is a growing appreciation of not embracing ignorance.
In today’s NYT Tyler Kepner, the regular beat writer for them on the Yankees has an excellent piece on the changing face of statistics.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/sports/baseball/22awards.html?ref=todayspaper
The problem with the UT, and really 1090 as well, is that they are quasi-monopolies, they have limited competition. The UT with its recent layoffs is left with an aging staff that seems to have little desire or use to learn anything that wasn’t from their childhood.
…and I wish I had written Geoff’s words on the need to understand and the importance of this knowledge.
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:37 am (#)
Thanks for the NYT link John.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:33 pm (#)
Joe Poz’s site about the subject:
http://futureofpapers.blogspot.com/2009/03/whats-story.html