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Media Thread

herman said:
https://twitter.com/mike_p_johnson/status/905080201436155904
www.twitter.com/mike_p_johnson/status/905080201436155904

!!!

Does this mean that Patrick O'Sullivan is off Leafs lunch?  That guy was difficult to listen to.
 
Peter D. said:
Zee said:
Are they able to pay all these people?  Seems to be growing quite quickly.

I'm skeptical about The Athletic model.  Cobble a bunch of former writers together who mostly were laid off because people don't want to pay for content these days, to write for a site that forces people to pay for content. 

I'd love to know how The Athletic is able to pay all these people a more than reasonable salary they're accustomed to..
Well, here's my rationale for paying for the Athletic: Most of my favourite writers have either jumped ship or have been laid off from traditional papers. I still want quality content from quality writers (not slagging PPP or MLHS... But I like these writers more - enough more that I'm willing to pay a subscription). As well there's some non Leafs coverage that is also high quality that I can access if I so choose.

Maybe they're all taking a pay cut and their salaries will scale with growth, maybe they're paid a portion in internal share ownership, no idea. But so far the model seems to have enough traction or these people wouldn't jump ship.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

 
Nik the Trik said:
Yeah, I agree. To some extent that's sort of my larger question. You and I, I think it's fair to say, are both pretty big Leafs/Hockey fans. You seem slightly more interested in the X's and O's than I am(although that interests me to a degree) whereas I guess I'm more interested in looking at the larger societal frameworks that it all represents(although I'm sure you have opinions on public stadium financing too).

So I agree that the Athletic seems to be doing a job in speaking to what you want and, to be fair, they have a lot of good writers who I liked reading for free. Moreover I know that if they went out and hired writers who tend to speak more to my side of things like Tommy Craggs or Diana Moskovitz or Don Van Natta Jr. then a lot of people on your side of the fence would see it as an unwelcome intrusion of the serious into what is, for them, largely a recreational pasttime.

So, that, I guess is my larger question. Whether or not the Athletic can be successful long term speaking to a narrow subset of a subset of sports fans. I mean, best of luck to them, I think it's a worthwhile endeavour even if I kind of think it subtly ends up being pro-a lot of the things I don't like.

We've got a lot of overlap, but I'll be first to admit that the investigative journalism of the intersection between sports and the real world are normally low on my priority list (unless it drifts into salacious territory). I'm interested in expanding and learning though.

Would you happen to have a primer list of such writings to whet my (and probably others') appetite?
 
Zee said:
Does this mean that Patrick O'Sullivan is off Leafs lunch?  That guy was difficult to listen to.

I'm trying get through the first 10-15 min to see if they talk at all about the hosting logistics. It sounds like a fairly permanent addition at least to TSN in general, which also opens up the potential for Johnson to double duty as in-game analysis.
 
Nik the Trik said:
Peter D. said:
I'm skeptical about The Athletic model.  Cobble a bunch of former writers together who mostly were laid off because people don't want to pay for content these days, to write for a site that forces people to pay for content. 

I'd love to know how The Athletic is able to pay all these people a more than reasonable salary they're accustomed to..

I guess the thinking is that unlike something like ESPN Insider this is wide ranging while at the same time very focused to sports fans. Also, I imagine that after the layoffs made by newspapers and places like ESPN this is an appeal to a certain kind of fan who really likes a particular type of traditional sports coverage at the same time that sort of coverage is rapidly disappearing.

A lot of sports sites that I have used for many years have evolved. One i can think of that used to produce lots of really good written articles was Cricinfo, a global cricket website. Like baseball cricket is a sport that produces some really good prose.

Over the last few years I have noted that when you see an article headline and click on it there's a good chance you'll get some 4 minute video of a couple of random people talking about it. I barely use that site any more. I miss the great written content.

I've never been tempted to subscribe to a sport website before. The Athletic is certainly the first to really tempt me and especially now more so that they've expanded to several cities.

I hope it works out. There is a space for real proper in depth prose that I don't think you get now broadsheet newspaper have died off and online news is very much video sound bite focused
 
herman said:
We've got a lot of overlap, but I'll be first to admit that the investigative journalism of the intersection between sports and the real world are normally low on my priority list (unless it drifts into salacious territory). I'm interested in expanding and learning though.

Would you happen to have a primer list of such writings to whet my (and probably others') appetite?

As it relates to hockey specifically? Not really. I think there's a real dearth of that out there because there isn't enough American interest to really drive coverage and effectively all of Canadian media is owned by people/companies with vested financial interest in the NHL. To say nothing of certain traditional-suit wearing folk who very much seem wedded to the notion of criticizing hockey being in and of itself to be unpatriotic.
 
Arn said:
I hope it works out. There is a space for real proper in depth prose that I don't think you get now broadsheet newspaper have died off and online news is very much video sound bite focused

I'd like to think so too but, and I may be wrong, but it doesn't really seem like that's this site's focus. They aren't really hiring prose-centered writers or doing long-form stuff, they seem more to be inclined towards "Insider scoops" and, you know, game analysis.
 
Nik the Trik said:
Arn said:
I hope it works out. There is a space for real proper in depth prose that I don't think you get now broadsheet newspaper have died off and online news is very much video sound bite focused

I'd like to think so too but, and I may be wrong, but it doesn't really seem like that's this site's focus. They aren't really hiring prose-centered writers or doing long-form stuff, they seem more to be inclined towards "Insider scoops" and, you know, game analysis.

Yeah as I said I hadn't read it as yet bar the odd free article which is definitely a step up from what you'd see in the Toronto Sun or whatever. The impression I got was that the long prose was what they were aiming for and I do think if they're not someone will or should
 
And today they've announced that they've added a couple of the best U.S. beat reporters around to cover St. Louis and Minnesota:

http://www.theathletic.com/94712/2017/09/06/rutherford-letter/
http://www.theathletic.com/93898/2017/09/06/russo-taking-wild-coverage-to-another-level/

And to be clear, these two left their long-tenured newspaper jobs to take this gig.
 
https://twitter.com/JeffVeillette/status/905412480343711745
www.twitter.com/JeffVeillette/status/905412480343711745
 
herman said:
https://twitter.com/JeffVeillette/status/905412480343711745
www.twitter.com/JeffVeillette/status/905412480343711745

And the 2018 Hart Memorial Trophy goes to... James Mirtle?!?
 
The Athletic does have the standard beat coverage and game day stories, but they get into think piece territory quite often per the writer's specialty.

For examples (from the Toronto side of NHL coverage) of stuff that I like (which you're all probably aware already as I just re-share it here anyway):

Jack Han basically does a long form version of his 1-minute Tactics video breaking down plays from a coaching and strategy perspective, illustrating why a team is doing this and whether or not it is effective.

Tyler Dellow sees something in the video or data, asks a question about it, and then does a deep dive into interesting slices of data pivots. Most recently, his interest was piqued by a coach saying a certain player was good at line changes, so he tracked the plays and shot metrics following line changes and found that Matthews was a cut above the rest.

Justin Bourne gives a coach's perspective on what they look for in players that might make the NHL jump, as well as insight into the human side-effects of asset management. He'll be adding team structural analyses across the league soon as he did before.

Sean Tierney expands on the visuals that he has been putting together, pulling out interesting highlights on passing and zone entry/exit data that's being publicly collected.

Scott Wheeler, formerly of PPP, lends a scouts eye to prospect profiles and now covers the Marlies and the Draft from the Leafs' perspective.

Corey Pronman is basically doing what he did before, but under a different banner, so now I actually get to read it.

Mirtle is also writing much the same that he did before, but without the prescribed formula the newspaper format had. His podcast with Jonas Siegel is still around, but pretty short and occasional.
 
Further to Herman's post, The Athletic features newcomer Karolina Urban (a former player) covering Women's hockey, plus their Toronto assistant managing editor is Sunaya Sapurji, who will also be covering the Leafs occasionally.

As an early subscriber to the Athletic, (I received an extra bit of discount on top of the promo price when I emailed Alex Mather concerning a question about payment plans), I have been looking forward to reading whatever unique content is presented by their very informative writers.

Glad I subscribed, for in the words of Edith Piaf..."Je ne regrette rien!"  :)

Way to go, James!
 
hockeyfan1 said:
Further to Herman's post, The Athletic features newcomer Karolina Urban (a former player) covering Women's hockey, plus their Toronto assistant managing editor is Sunaya Sapurji, who will also be covering the Leafs occasionally.

I'm interested to see where women's hockey goes with the additional coverage. PPP has been making a concerted effort in this regard as well. Unfortunately the league(s) are in a weird state where it's a bit of Betamax vs VHS (or iPod vs Zune? BluRay vs HD-DVD?) situation. The women's game is all speed and skill, without any of that enforcer garbage; I wish it were more accessible (to someone lazy like me) beyond Olympic events.
 
https://twitter.com/jonassiegel/status/905846771250814976
www.twitter.com/jonassiegel/status/905846771250814976

This explains David Alter not being re-upped.
 
herman said:
https://twitter.com/jonassiegel/status/905846771250814976
www.twitter.com/jonassiegel/status/905846771250814976

This explains David Alter not being re-upped.
I had a feeling this was gonna happen eventually. Solidifies my happiness of getting a subscription.

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

 
I seem to lack the skill to show the tweet... but Eric Duhatschek has left the Globe and Mail after 17 years there and is now also with The Athletic.

This is very cool. I signed up when it was just Mirtle. This is all great for hockey coverage.
 
Michael said:
I seem to lack the skill to show the tweet... but Eric Duhatschek has left the Globe and Mail after 17 years there and is now also with The Athletic.

This is very cool. I signed up when it was just Mirtle. This is all great for hockey coverage.

I got you, buddy:

https://twitter.com/TheAthleticNHL/status/906161765448376323
www.twitter.com/TheAthleticNHL/status/906161765448376323

Usually, I copy/paste the web link of the tweet and then paste the link again swapping out the https:// for www. so people using apps/browsers that doesn't show the auto-embed have a shot at opening the link.
 
herman said:
Usually, I copy/paste the web link of the tweet and then paste the link again swapping out the https:// for www. so people using apps/browsers that doesn't show the auto-embed have a shot at opening the link.

Thanks.

And now I have learned something new so my day is complete.  ;)
 

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