My latest column for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana University is on one of the bigger sports journalism stories of the summer: ESPN hiring away several NFL beat writers from newspapers for its major initiative to cover all 32 teams.
From the post:
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There is an element of the big-fish-little-pond tale as it relates to Rob Demovsky. He lives and works in Green Bay, a town that happens to have a football team named the Packers.
Green Bay may be the smallest market by far in the NFL, but when it comes to the Packers, breathing ranks second on the importance meter. For more than 15 years, most of those fans woke up every morning to breathlessly read Demovsky’s reports on the team in the Green Bay Press Gazette.
It would be hard to ask for a better situation as a beat writer. Yet in July, Demovsky left the newspaper to become the Packers reporter for ESPN, a really big pond that has a staff almost large enough to fill Lambeau Field.
“I had a great job at the Press Gazette,” Demovsky said. “I always said it would take something extraordinary to change. This qualifies as extraordinary.”
Demovsky is part of one of the biggest developments occurring in sports journalism this summer. Seizing on the infinite popularity of the NFL, ESPN is going to have a dedicated reporter for each of the 32 teams. Their work mainly will appear on the NFL Nation page of ESPN.com, and they also will be featured on ESPN’s other TV and radio platforms.
“The expansion of NFL Nation represents one of ESPN Digital’s most ambitious projects in our continuing effort to provide the ultimate personalized experience for fans,” said ESPN.com Editor-in-Chief Patrick Stiegman.
ESPN’s staffing targets have been established beat writers from the city’s top newspapers. Besides Demovsky, Jeff Legwold (Denver Post), Mike Wells (Indianapolis Star), Ben Goessling (St. Paul Pioneer-Press), Adam Teicher (Kansas City Star), Scott Brown (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) and Phil Sheridan (Philadelphia Inquirer) are among the writers making the jump to ESPN.
Why? Legwold, who will cover the Denver Broncos for ESPN, explained his children (ages 10 and 12) influenced his decision on two key levels.
“I saw their reading habits,” Legwold said. “They read tons of books, but not actual books. They always are on their devices. It’s not like how we did it.”
And that brings up reason No. 2 for Legwold. He is worried about the future of newspapers, and with good reason. He was part of the staff when the Rocky Mountain News folded in 2009.
“That definitely affected me,” Legwold said. “I love newspapers. It’s been my whole adult life. If a newspaper that good closed, it really is a testament to what’s going on within the industry. I had to think of my family. When I was offered the ESPN job, it really was an easy decision.”
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And there’s more at NSJC.