Will the Crowd Go Wild?: Reimagining the Newspaper Sports Section for Digital Subscribers

ABSTRACT

The economic troubles facing the media industry have led newspapers to search for new revenue models. At least one major American media company has made a big bet on digital subscriptions, including those that unbundle the daily report by content area. This includes the sale of sports-only packages. This paper uses interview data with five editors within the chain to explore how a shift in audience strategy may affect the day-to-day work of the newspaper sports section. This study finds general support for the initiative, especially because of the implicit revaluing of journalistic work. Yet it also reveals the limits to how sports departments are redefining work routines and beat structures to appeal to an online-only audience while staying within the bounds of journalistic professionalism. As the conception of the news audience shifts toward direct funding of reporting, the common practices of sports journalism appear generally static.

KEYWORDS:

• Sports journalism
• journalism routines
• boundary work
• professional practices
• newspapers
• online news
• media economics
• news audiences

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.