The Modern Journalist

Sports Page 2.0

Image via Wikipedia

I was speaking with Joe, a former Cincinnati Post writer working to launch a local news organization called CinDaily, about what a modern newspaper should look like.

Our discussions are good for him, I think, but I know they are good for me. They help me start to outline what exactly a newspaper should look like. It’s easy to sit on the sidelines and scream: fix it. It’s a lot harder to sit down, pound out the details of HOW an operation should run and function.

I know. At Technology Review, the fights we had were intense and amazing as we pushed and plodded our way through the transition. Fortunately, we had a boss who was committed to the change.

So in our continuing attempt to define what that modern environment looks like, today I’m going to take on the sports page, with kudos to John Borland (my writing partner) and Joe, for helping me work this out.

Now:

The sports page is probably my favorite section of the local paper because it’s filled with the best writers, by and large. Even the columnists don’t always make me want to tear my hair out, although I think the art of good column writing has past.

The first thing I would do is set about collecting every piece of data from every high school, college and professional team (all they way down to the minor leagues, rookie ball, scout team) so that I could create a database of that. I’d have my junior reporters making sure that we had the most up to date information — maybe it’s once a week for preps and once a week for college and pro. It would depend upon what you were doing.

This is one instance where I’d look to partner with an outside group like What If Sports, which creates fantasy-type settings where you can create your own teams and play simulated seasons.

If the primary goal of a news organization is to inform and engage the public, what better way to do that than to give people the opportunity to interact directly with the “players.” Would that reach everyone? Absolutely not. The goal isn’t to reach everyone. The goal is to give your most passionate readers a chance to interact — while giving your least passionate readers an informative experience.

I’d also run ARG-type contests using Citizen Logistics where fans had to form collectives and attend local sporting events, take pictures, upload them, get autographs, interact with other fans, post updates, with the winning team getting some type of big reward (spring for tickets to the world series or super bowl or something that would truly get people excited). You want to spend your marketing budget on something that gets people motivated — try doing that.

Your community would explode.

I’d also set up a predictive market on local sports teams. Predictive markets are one of the most engaging — and intriguing — ideas for me. The people who get on these spend HOURS researching, and if you localize it, you’ve created an amazing outlet for your town. And if you add your content to the research section of the market, you’ll see a dramatic rise in page views and time on site (worthless measures, but ones that seem to be important to some).

All of this would supplement what is, I think, the best run part of most papers. People read sports. They love sports and the coverage is pretty good. I’d spend more time on local sports, covering local high schools and area conferences with the same fervor that you cover the pro sports teams.

I’d enlist the high schools to submit stories — or better yet, I’d hire a student reporter to cover each conference. And by hire, I mean pay them. Possibly as part of the community managers job. Run a contest with student submitting a column and a round-up of conference play. Post them and vote for who gets the job.

It’s a lesson in community building and it gives you the opportunity to bring in young talent while engaging the younger readership (who would come for the fantasy sports about them anyway).

I think that addresses many of the concerns local papers have: how to build community, how to engage younger readers and readers in general, how to capitalize on the emerging interactive world.