High school gears up for TV debut

The Washington Post today outlines the pregame buildup for a local school football team (Good Counsel, in Montgomery County, MD) that will be on national TV this Thursday night.
Preparations for the Thursday-night game will include all the tasks and costs involved in crowd management and security for an event sure to draw thousands of extra fans (on a school night, no less). The tasks are being handled by school administrators who are usually paid for other duties, and the school must also dole out money for extra police officers and preparation of school grounds for the crowd.
The payoff? $1,000 from ESPN -- a paltry sum in relationship to advertising revenues for the network -- and extra ticket and concession sales. The game will also give Good Counsel national name recognition, although the article doesn't explore how such exposure furthers the academic goals of Good Counsel.
The game is one of 19 scheduled to air on ESPN this fall.

The old is new again

Sports journalism has struggled to gain credibility as an ethical enterprise since the days when sportswriters were an extension of the team -- accepting freebies as the norm. APSE decades ago introduced a code of ethics, much of which focuses on sportswriters' avoiding discounts and freebies from the sources they cover.
So it was interesting to read, in a Sports Business Journal article titled "Newspaper cutbacks slice into sports coverage" that newspapers may receive offers of discounted hotel rooms for journalists at sports events -- courtesy of the sports entities they're covering. The article outlines plans by Major League Soccer to negotiate lower-priced hotel rooms on behalf of journalists who might cover their events. It benefits sports entities: They get more coverage. News organizations won't complain: They get a discount. But the appearance of this kind of benefit coming through sports organizations to journalists might again erode the reputation of sports journalism as an ethical enterprise.

We already knew, but...

The Wall Street Journal, in an article headlined, "Maybe Women's Sports Don't Hurt NCAA Men," relayed the results of a Women's Sports Foundation study demonstrating that Title IX is not to blame for cuts in men's collegiate sports. Instead, skyrocketing expenditures on men's revenue sports such as football and basketball often lead administrators to cut men's Olympic-style sports such as wrestling.
Our research shows that the Title-IX-as-culprit myth has gone unchallenged in media coverage over the years, and that many reporters also believe the myth -- so it's nice to see this latest WSF research getting some attention. Of course, the report has already been attacked by the College Sports Council and others opposed to Title IX.

A salute to pioneer Mary Garber

Mary Garber, a sportswriter who said her idea of heaven would be "football season," died over the weekend at age 92. She started working at the Winston-Salem Journal and Twin City Sentinel as a sportswriter in 1946 and retired in 1997 although she kept working part-time until 2002.
As the story of her death in the Journal notes, "she was probably the first fulltime woman sportswriter at a daily newspaper in the country, and she certainly had the longest career."
Garber took seriously her role as a role model for women who aspired to cover sports. "I thank you in the name of all young girls around the country," she said in accepting the 2005 Associated Press Sports Editors Red Smith Award.
Sports journalists all over the country -- men and women -- remember Garber as a pioneer and a class act. AWSM President Jenni Carlson, who noted that Garber didn't get access to a locker room at the ACC basketball tournament until 30 years after her sportswriting career started, added: "Mary didn't let that roadblock get in her way. No roadblock got in her way."
Lisa Mickey, senior writer for the Duramed FUTURES tour, recalled being mentored by Garber, who gave Mickey books to read and encouraged her career. "Mary never worked for the money or the by-lines. She did it because it was in her and she loved every interview and put her heart into every word," Mickey wrote in an e-mail.
To hear Garber interviewed about her career, visit the Washington Press Club Foundation oral history project.

You know it's bad: Economy hits the NFL

Terry Lefton of Sports Business Journal was interviewed on American Public Media's Marketplace report today about the NFL's budget shortfalls.
The NFL is still the biggest, most profitable sports property in the U.S., says Lefton, but Roger Goodell's recent memo to the league even hints at layoffs in light of less-than-projected revenues.
For the first time in Lefton's memory, the NFL started the season without a new corporate sponsor. Financial services and the auto industry are traditionally big sponsors, and both sectors are struggling.
Smaller leagues and teams are likely in much worse shape than the NFL. On top of that, what Lefton calls the "false economy" -- ad money and sponsorships pumped into sports via the U.S. election and the Olympics -- will dry up next year.
Are there any bright spots? Yes -- the WNBA recently announced a banner year for marketing, media and revenues.
Credit increased publicity because of the Olympics, the infusion of Candace-Parker star power, and better marketing by teams and the league. It's good to see the WNBA -- which has struggled in a market dominated by male leagues -- continue to grow.

A primer for sportswriter wannabes

Joe Gisondi, who teaches sports journalism at Eastern Illinois University, has moved his blog, which provides reporting and writing tips for aspiring sportswriters. Gisondi, who also advises the student paper at Eastern Illinois, provides examples from college newspapers from around the U.S. His blog includes links to many college newspaper sports sections and to high school sports coverage on major newspaper Web sites. It's worth bookmarking for anyone who teaches sportswriting.

Paying attention to youth sports

A new Ad Council campaign is one of the newest indicators of the problems emerging in high school sports as they continue to develop into a big business. Remember the days when prep sports really were "pure"? As LA Times writer Eric Sondheimer recently observed about high school basketball: "It's now about branding opportunities, exposure to recruiters and media, and preparing for future stardom."
The Ad Council campaign, which uses YouTube to reach young athletes, takes aim at steroid use. If you're interested in keeping up with youth sports issues, bookmark Mark Hyman's blog, which is current and informed.

Dropping sports coverage: The answer to declining viewership of local newscasts?

No, argues UNC professor Charlie Tuggle, in the latest edition of Electronic News.
Tuggle says the trend toward scaling back or getting rid of sports segments is misguided. The problem is in how they present sports, which he calls "banal." He accuses too many local sportscasters of being "ESPN wannabes," chasing national stories when they should instead focus on local athletes.
While I think Tuggle is right about the lack of priorities for in local sportscasting, the problem for local newscasts may be much bigger than their sports segments, making the question of how to improve those segments a very low priority for news directors.

Another opening ceremony in Beijing

Most Americans are likely not aware that the world's second-largest sporting event -- the Paralympics -- opened today with ceremonies for thousands of athletes from around the globe. It's hard to get news about the games, although The New York Times has provided some coverage today, and video of events is available online.
Stephanie Wheeler, a wheelchair basketball player on the U.S. women's team, has been sending e-mail dispatches. In her latest, she writes:

"I hope that the Paralympics will prove to be much more than an
arena where medals are won and competitions are held. I hope that this helps to begin to change the face, perceptions, and social identity of people with disabilities in China and all over the world for that matter. Being a part of the Paralympic movement is such an honor and a responsibility that myself and my teammates don't take lightly. Yeah, we are here to compete and win a gold medal, but we are also trying to open the eyes of those who don't believe people with disabilities can live fulfilling lives."

The U.S. team will start going for the gold Sept. 8 with its opener against Germany, also a top-ranked team.

Investigative journalism and match-fixing

Play the Game, an organization made up of sports organizations in Denmark in close cooperation with the International Federation of Journalists, is promoting a book that alleges rampant match-fixing in global professional sports. The book, called The Fix, is written by a Canadian journalist. The allegations, most of which involve soccer, are stunning. A short excerpt of the book, looking at corruption in the Chinese Super League, is available online.

"You can just hear them now"

Will Leitch, Deadspin.com founder at the receiving end of Buzz Bissinger's famous tirade against bloggers months ago, told APSE sports editors that Web hits "pay the bills" for more traditional, mainstream coverage (of course, that's not really true...not yet, anyway). In his talk with editors, Leitch defended the idea of fan-driven coverage. He also argued that readers don't know -- or care-- about the difference between what they get on blogspot or at the newsday.com.
Our research with young people (under 25) supports Leitch's contention that the idea of sports journalism has really morphed into a lot of things, including team and league sites, blogs, and traditional reporting. The competition from all corners -- the armchair journalists and the PR writers, he argues, is good for journalists.
Leitch also reported an interesting discussion he had with Bob Costas, who asked him why "everyone online had suddenly become so mean."
Those fans with the snarky, sexist, homophobic comments and a willingness to say just about anything, it turns out, have been there all along, says Leitch, but now they have a voice. Of course, But the fact that these voices now have a forum isn't necessarily a positive development for sports or the culture.

Gays and sports: The real problem

Sports journalists at the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association national conference discussed gays and sports during a panel session yesterday.
Most interesting to me was not the back-and-forth about whether journalists should ask athletes to disclose their sexuality or whether gay athletes should be "outed." Instead, it was the assessment of panelists that performances of "tough-guy" masculinity are central to sports, despite sexuality. Ted Rybka, who leads GLAAD's efforts to reach out to the athletic community, said, “With sports in general, it’s all about masculinity…It’s about you not being ‘man enough’.”
Bill Konigsberg, formerly with ESPN but now with the AP, said he thought that the climate for gay men in sports journalism was better than it had ever been. He added:
“The misogyny is almost stronger than the homophobia everywhere I’ve worked.”
In that light, the absence of a lesbian voice on the panel was regrettable. The discussion did briefly turn to women's sports, specifically to the WNBA. ESPN's LZ Granderson said he believed that women may be "the main culprit" in the league's stagnation. “Until it’s properly supported by women” it won’t move to the next level, he said.
Granderson's comments reinforce the general misunderstanding that interest in sports exists in a vacuum. The truth is that the socialization of women and men turn them away from watching women's sports in a myriad of ways.
This same gender socialization that keeps the WNBA from real breakout status, though, is the same socialization that will continue to force sexual minorities in sports to be marginalized and stigmatized.

Journalists on a "witch hunt"?

Even the most zealous fans of Penn State football should agree that coach Joe Paterno, in an interview on today's Outside the Lines, looked out of touch when he accused an ESPN journalist of being on a "witch hunt" for questioning the outrageous number of PSU football players arrested since last year.

Simply because of his tenure in the business, Paterno should know better than anyone that welcoming media attention when all is well, and then condemning the same reporters when the news isn't so good, isn't smart or responsible.

The ESPN story put a bright spotlight on the unusually high number of arrests involving Paterno's players during the past year. We need more -- not less -- investigative journalism in sports.

The OTL story has its own problems; for instance, it characterizes the off-field situation as a "trend," presenting overall numbers since 2002 that are startling. Broken down year-by-year, however, 2007's unusually high number is cause for alarm, but not necessarily part of a trend, as the number is more than three times as high as the previous year. (We're not told why ESPN chose 2002 as a starting point. Also helpful for context would have been more information about the types of bad off-field behavior -- how much involved non-violent misdemeanors? How many were felonies? How does the rate compare to arrest rates for the student body?)

The story also failed to put Penn State in context within the college sports culture. How does Penn State compare to other D1 schools (and not over just a single season)? Stepping back and looking at the big picture: Are Penn State's problems a reflection of the missteps of a single coach -- or might they signify larger problems with big-time football programs across the country? How do football programs in general compare with other sports?

The limited research on the relationship between off-field violence and male college athletes in revenue sports tells us that there is a problem -- but it goes beyond a single program or coach.

That's the bigger, and more important, story -- but one that would force us to look at the entire college sports culture in a more critical way than many want to do, I suspect.

Apparently, even a brawl can't convince FOX that WNBA is worth watching

Although much has been made of the fight that broke out during a WNBA game earlier this week in the mainstream media and in sexist/homophobic blog entries, it's apparently not enough to convince Fox and Friends morning hosts that women's sports are worth watching. In an exchange that starts with a focus on sexism and ends with the smug conclusion by a host that more women ("your people," he tells his female co-host) should watch sports, the WNBA is assessed as a ratings loser and women's sports as simply not interesting. The exchange demonstrates, among other things, the cultural role of sports in justifying sexism.
It's also these kinds of assessments of women's sports -- judging them by male standards -- that feed the tremendous struggles of female athletes for legitimacy. (Unfortunately, even the WNBA fight has been assessed as a positive for the league -- "a much needed a shot in the arm to boost attention," according to a women's sports blog.)

August excitement: Not only in Beijing

Although the world will turn its eyes to the Olympics next month, many parents and communities in the U.S. will also be putting their attention on their local football stadiums. High school basketball players will wait for the spotlight -- but not long, and they've already been playing in high-profile, commercialized camps all summer.
I know that the appeal of scholastic sports is in their love-of-the-game, not-corrupted-by-money aura, but one has to question that image in light of the big business they are quickly becoming. Jacob Leibenluft's "Great Basketball Exodus" on Slate.com, which refers to a senior's decision to go pro in Europe in hopes of then jumping to the NBA, refers to lawyers, "basketball factories," and the prospect of big-dollar contracts for young players as though the are an established part of the high school sports world.
His focus -- on the prospect of NBA hopefuls forgoing college for a Euroleagues, is troubling. He speculates on the media's role in making it more lucrative for teens to go this route. And he doesn't sound far-fetched. After all, as cable nets have focused more on high school sports (cheap programming that can be promoted with media-generated rankings), Leibenluft's suggestion that the nets might follow young players across the Atlantic is plausible. The implications of that for high school sports, the NCAA and the NBA, he argues, are worth pondering.

More bad news for golf fans...?

Apparently, Golf for Women isn't the only golf-related coverage getting the axe these days. Sports Business Daily reported today that the number of newspaper reporters at major events dropped this year. The Daily quotes Golf World writer Bill Fields, who recently noted that media centers at the PGA Tour The Players Championship and the U.S. Open this year were "noticeably less crowded, with 12[%] fewer reporters at the Players and [5-10%] fewer at the U.S. Open" than in '07.
But fewer newspaper reporters doesn't necessarily mean less coverage, as the hand-wringing in the SBD and other publications might suggest. As SBD notes, 90 U.S. journalists were accredited for the British Open. Sure, the number of newspaper writers among them has dropped -- but there are still journalists covering the event. What would be more interesting is to the look at the number and type of organizations that are sending writers.
Bottom line: The fact that there are fewer newspaper reporters covering golf these days doesn't necessarily translate to poorer golf coverage. Does anyone believe that golf fans can't get as much information on any given event today than they could when newspaper journalists filled media centers?

Another women's sports magazine dies

Conde Nast announced yesterday that its Golf for Women magazine will cease publication after this month. The magazine, launched in 1988, was purchased by CN in 2001. The publisher also shuttered Women's Sports & Fitness in 2000 after purchasing it and relaunching it during the late 1990s.
Golf for Women and Women's Sports & Fitness both had respectable circulations -- around 600,000, the same rate base as that of The Sporting News. So, what's the problem? As with other women's sports titles that have come and gone (such as SI for Women) -- it's identity and advertising. These magazines struggle for positioning satisfactory to advertisers. For instance, should they focus solely on competitive sports (think SI, ESPN magazines), participatory sports (think Runner's World) that are often popular among women, or beauty-focused fitness (think Shape)?
SI for Women and WSF both waffled before they finally ceased publication, and it's been interesting to see the evolution of HerSports, perhaps the newest general-interest sports title for women. Finding the formula that will attract the ad dollar has so far proven elusive for many women's sports titles.

Nader: It's time for a Taxpayer Stadium

I've just gotten around to reading Dave Zirin's recent interview with presidential candidate Ralph Nader. Nader, never one to hesitate about speaking truth to power, talks about his League of Fans movement and the ways he believes sports fans are being swindled by major leagues. Nader also suggests that newspaper sports pages be labeled for what they are: showcases for spectator sports only. "They don't cover participatory sports: amateur sports, amateur leagues, what's going on at the local playgrounds or any effort to promote activity and competition," he says.
I hope that after the presidential election is over, Nader will get back to doing what he does best -- consumer activism -- and put his energy into developing League of Fans into a movement that can make a difference.

The revolving door keeps turning -- and churning more women out

I mentioned in my June 20 blog (about an interview with Julie Ward) that shrinking staffs in sports departments were likely disproportionately eroding diversity. It looks as though APSE's latest study indicates that while racial diversity has improved just slightly (although still dismal), women have generally lost ground since the APSE's 2006 report was issued. Richard Lapchick, an author on the study, questioned decision-making about content by staffs that continue to be overwhelmingly dominated by white men.
In a statement in the report, Tribune Co. Sports Coordinator John Cherwa seems to imply that newspaper losses are at least in part a result of diversity gains at ESPN.com and other TV-Web operations. But that is likely not the case, and certainly the APSE study can't support such a claim -- given that two major operations, CBS and Yahoo, declined to participate. What we need is benchmark data on diversity in hiring at these and the many other Web operations (including those such as MLB.com) that compete with newspaper operations.

Narrow path for female SIDs

Next week, members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (COSIDA) will meet in Tampa for the organization's annual convention. On the agenda is research by the Center for Sports Journalism that shows the disparities between men and women in employment and promotion -- women are only about a tenth the industry, and far fewer women reach the top ranks.
Focus groups with female SIDs show that discrimination and sexism are still a problem and that old-school ideas about women and sports can keep women from opportunities they deserve ("Sometimes I just want to wear my resume on my shirt just to say I am qualified," said one SID). Challenges in reconciling work and family obligations are a big reason women decide to leave the profession.