Day 324

Fresh Start_324: All Video
July 12th 2017 must just be the day that I get mad at the sports world. I’ve already done a podcast today about my disagreement with what has been broadcast across the New York airways on New York Sports Radio, and when I get home I see a new bombshell.

Scrolling down my Twitter feed when I got home I saw a tweet from Ken Rosenthal reading “I still am working TV for Fox and MLB Network.” Confused and intrigued I clicked on Rosenthal’s Twitter and saw in amazement that Foxsports.com had completely gone digital. The headline on the tweet that Rosenthal put out was “Foxsports.com has gone all video. That is why I no longer can write on our site.”

I’m honestly still trying to wrap my head around this because I just don’t get it. Yes, you absolutely need video on a website if you are going to build one. But, you also need reporting from print journalist to make that video content happen. If you looked at Fox Sports website last night or ESPN’s site, or Bleacher Reports site today—there will be video on the site but there are also a lot of written content that are the core to those videos. There has to be something written down to break news on TV or to run a segment on something.

Twenty sports writers will wake up tomorrow morning and they won’t have a job. Just like the “ESPN three-day massacre” there are people who are losing their jobs that shouldn’t be. Ken Rosenthal is arguably the best baseball writer that sports writing has today, he should still be writing and not just be a “talking head.” It’s a complete waste of talent.

And again, YOU NEED PRINT TO MAKE VIDEO! There is no way around it, and I don’t think that Fox Sports gets that. Social Media is an incredible tool to push video, and in a lot of ways is the reason why it exists. If Fox Sports just invested more money into Social Media instead of just laying off the writers, that is the way they “beat ESPN.” ESPN is continuing to lay off incredible writers that will be a hot commodity at the right institution.

A splash page of video is not a website, it’s just a ton of links put on a webpage, and oh by the way it doesn’t really work that well. If you go to Fox’s website it is well put together but it won’t last. Well put together written articles are something that companies like Fox and ESPN are looking for in all forms of the medium. If you want to own the sports media empire, the key that nobody can really answer is: good written articles, short-medium/good video, and audio content. That’s the layout, but putting that together is just hard. When someone gets it right—it’ll be a fantastic website and we as sports fans will all love it.

The want and need for video is at an all-time high, but you cannot overload an audience with it. Video content might be the hot date right now that everyone wants to get with, but are people forgetting that one of the best video apps “Vine” went out of business earlier this year. So, if a company that is solely video falls (yes, the money didn’t add up), why would you go all video? Fox Sports will reap benefits of this move, but they will be short term.

If this move is to “one up” ESPN, it might be a good move short term, but you cannot compete with ESPN if you have NO written content. Not to mention that you are putting the entire spotlight on TV personalities that aren’t always journalists. You are a sports network, you need journalists, that’s just the lay of the land. In the biggest downward spiral that ESPN has had in its companies’ history, they just a huge favor from Fox Sports. honestly, what is wrong with the sports media landscape?
Sources:(twitter.com/ken_rosenthal, foxsports.com, Bloomberg.com)

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