Sports Media Guy: What can I do for you?
A newsletter reboot
What can I do for you?
It’s the unwritten question behind every newsletter, every blog, every podcast, really anything that’s created. There’s got to be a point, right? There’s got to be a reason why you’re here, reading this when there is so much to read in the world.
It’s the question that I’ve thought about a lot with this newsletter, in its many different iterations through the past few years. It’s the question that anyone creating one of these newsletters in 2020 needs to think long and hard about. There was chatter all over my Twitter feed this about the Substackification of journalism, about the seemingly growing number of reporters creating their own subscription newsletters and what that means for those of us who consume news.
Certainly, there are advantages for the journalists who do this. Along with the creative freedom that comes with being independent, there’s a nice financial incentive. Say you create a $5 a month subscription newsletter. If you get 1,000 monthly subscribers — which, for a journalist who has thens of thousands of Twitter followers is not a huge lift — then you’re making $60,000 a year from your own newsletter. Multiply that out by subscribers, and it’s certainly possible to make a living.
But the same cautions that news organizations face due to the Subscription-Pacalypse face Substack as well. When there’s an oversaturated market, what can an individual writer give you to make that subscription cost worth it? How do individual writers solve the HBO Problem - giving readers that one thing they can’t live with out?
This is something I’m really interested in and will be digging into here and on Sports Media Guy in the next few months. There’s a lot of research potential here, and I’m interested to see where it goes.
So, what can you expect from this latest iteration of Sports Media Guy The Newsletter?
It’s free. I know it probably felt like that opening section was setting you up to have to pay for this newsletter, but we’re nowhere close to that. I have a KoFi, and if you’d like to buy me some virtual coffee, I’d be humbled by your support.
No more than bi-monthly: In the past, I’ve tried to do this newsletter weekly, and that is frankly insane. There’s simply not enough sports media news to do this every week. I’d rather do fewer issues well than crank out copy every week for the sake of doing so. So expect no more than 2-3 emails from me a month.
What I can do for you: The point of this newsletter, and of Sports Media Guy, and of my research in general, is to bridge the worlds of sports media research and practice. I’ll take what’s happening in the industry and put a research spin on it, and I’ll take the latest in sports media research and translate it to what it means for the professional world. If you’re interested in sports media and sports journalism, what’s happened in the past, what’s happening in the present and what may happen in the future, this is the newsletter for you.
Links: I host/produce several podcasts, and I’ll put links to all of them below — as well as any really great stories I read throughout the week. I take a cue from Will Leitch here - if you find what I do interesting enough to read and subscribe to this, I figure you’d be interested in the same things I am.
The Other 51
Episode 139: Full Historian Mode with Amy Bass
Amy Bass, a professor of sports studies at Manhattanville College, joins Brian to do a deep dive into the writing and reporting of her book, “One Goal.”
Amy talks about how she first learned the story of the Lewiston High School soccer team and what drew her to it as a potential book. She talks about how she developed the trust of the coaching staff and of the Somali refugee community there. Amy describes her reporting style as “hanging out” and discusses what that logistically looks like. She also talks about how she took the results of all that hanging out and turned it into a book.
Amy also talks about how sticking to sports means talking about politics, race, gender, etc.
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2HfeyeM
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/35IBY5G
Episode home: http://bit.ly/3kKidio
Bonus:
Two Kids and a Broadway Star
Forgive a proud dad here. But my daughter and her best friend have started a podcast, where they bring Broadway to them by interviewing their favorite actors. So far, they’ve interviewed Hunter Foster and Dana Steingold, and they’ve got a lot of killer episodes planned for the future. They’d love it if you checked them out.
Two Kids and a Broadway Star homepage: anchor.fm/twokidsandabroadwaystar
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2EC9dfGQdUaw1jcLT8tI8t
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/two-kids-and-a-broadway-star/id1534679746
Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful holiday, be safe!
-Brian