Video: Tristan Thompson reacts to his new deal with the Cavs
October 21, 2015Tristan Thompson is in and Matt Moore talks about it – WFNY Podcast – 2015-10-22
October 22, 2015I only occupy this While We’re Waiting space once a month. So while I’m at it today, I thought I’d take a step back and invite you to a conversation about sports media habits in today’s society. How do you typically consume your sports news? Let’s review some possible options that are on my mind and I’ll share how I typically do so.
Print: When was the last time you read some sports news story, for the very first time with no prior knowledge of the developing situation, in a print publication? Perhaps I’m in the minority here — which could be the conclusion of this whole topic. I don’t currently have a newspaper subscription of any kind. I’ve occasionally had ESPN The Magazine, Sports Business Journal, and the like delivered to my house as a graduate student. Back home in Akron, I’d always read the Akron Beacon Journal over breakfast or snacks. But over the years, I just never really discovered some super new story in print. It was always late. Despite the local scores or stories, sure. More and more though, I’d see those scroll across on the Internet before the paper was in my hands.
Podcasts: This might be surprising to you: But I’m not really a podcast person. Not really at all. This is despite the fact that I’m always on Twitter, always reading quick news blurbs, and have lots of friends who run podcasts. I’ve joined them before! But to me, I just haven’t gotten into a rhythm of consuming podcasts in a regular routine. I listen to the radio quite a lot whenever I’m driving, although sports radio often can frustrate the hell out of me. I’ve never really listened to the radio often when I’m working on something. I’ll sometimes have music or the TV in the background. It’s just a bit too difficult for me to focus on multiple things at once and really pay attention to the words being spoken.
RSS Readers: I used Google Reader a ton back in the day for While We’re Waiting. I used it pretty infrequently for personal usage, though. Aren’t these somewhat antiquated, though? Obviously, Google Reader died a sudden death. Are there any other solutions that have really stuck with folks since then?
Home Pages: This is something I really wanted to discuss with folks. How often in your daily routine do you go out of your way to click on a bookmark or visit a specific website? I’ll do this often with ESPN.com, personally. It’s the only website thumbnail that exists on my iPhone home screen. It’s super easy to just jump over to ESPN, catch the few top headlines, see the scores, and then move on with whatever I might be doing. Besides ESPN? I can’t really recall the last time I really went out of my way to a website unless I was looking for something. I know many others might do this with Deadspin. Perhaps you do it with WFNY. Any other home page you visit very regularly?
Social Media: To me, this is how society has evolved. Maybe this is just a millennial thing. For me though, I feel that we’ve greatly evolved into content whores. We’ll see something scroll across Facebook or Twitter or Instagram and then we’ll click on it if it’s interesting or highly recommended. We have little allegiance to any particular site. Sure, we’ll be more intrigued by a recognizable URL than something completely sketchy. I’d almost lump Reddit, a pure aggregator, into the social media bucket as opposed to a home page, too. When things go viral, we’ll often catch them because they’re flying all over social media.
I’m curious about these topics for many reasons. One, I’m a sports business MBA student and the evolution of the way people consume media will be at the forefront of my future career. There’s a non-zero possibility that along with just news and information, we could be in the middle of a gigantic TV bubble that could massively disrupt the professional sports landscape as we know it. Who knows concretely. Two, I did a marketing research project during the spring with MBA classmates from Spain and India. Of course, I realized I’m a bit of an outlier with the way that I consume media and blog so constantly. So I’m personally curious to see what the average person might be doing and what might be normal behavior. And a third such reason is for the future of WaitingForNextYear and other websites where I write, for purely selfish reasons, to see how we all can improve our behavior.
I’m by no means one of the editors here so this isn’t any type of formal survey or manifesto. But I just thought this was an interesting random topic to explore with our readers here in the While We’re Waiting space. So tell me a bit about how you consume media based on some of the prompts above. I’m really curious to see how we might be similar, how we might be different, and how your patterns have changed over the years.
Now, on to some assorted Cleveland sports stories that have interested me lately:
- Bartolo Colon’s relief appearance helped the New York Mets clinch the National League pennant yesterday. So I was curious about Colon’s Cleveland career and his MLB debut. He debuted way back on April 7, 1997. The rosters from that game are pretty amusing to look back upon. Oh, and the Montreal Expos trade was over 13 years ago. We’re officially getting old.
- Did you check out Kirk Goldsberry’s interview with Kevin Love? I’ve been thinking lately about the best way to use Love. I’m still stuck on Seth Partnow’s post from back in January. Yes, the Cavs offense hummed right along for the rest of the regular season after Partnow’s post. But Love certainly wasn’t a huge part of those successes, not to the extent of his Minnesota days. Maybe he’ll never play exactly that way in Cleveland. For as long as Kyrie Irving might be out though, this is probably his best chance.
- Oh boy, this is depressing. At least we can cheer for reversion to the mean in 2016, right?!
Another fact: 2015 Indians were 1-69 when trailing after seven innings. That's worst AL record in such games dating back to at least 2005.
— Jacob L. Rosen (@JacobLRosen) October 21, 2015
- A judge ruled against Dyshawn Pierre in his case against the University of Dayton this week. The senior starter, likely the best returning player on the Flyers basketball team after the graduation of Jordan Sibert, sued the school for his fall semester suspension reportedly linked to a sexual assault case. Concrete details have been pretty sparse, as is typical since Dayton is a private institution. Without Pierre, the Flyers were still voted to be the A-10 favorites. And yet, they only received one vote in the USA Today Coaches Poll? How does that make any sense? Is the A-10 that down this year or are people still accounting for Pierre in some fashion? That really confused me.
- I’m pretty pumped about Canton’s long-shot bid for the 2019 or 2020 NFL Draft. Don’t forget: The Cavaliers are still vying for the 2018 or 2019 NBA All-Star Game.1 The Indians have expressed interest in the 2019 or 2010 MLB All-Star Game. So good golly, if the Cavs are still a title contender in this time period, there’s a chance for an absolute ton of national sporting events in Northeast Ohio. It’s hard not to be a fan about news developments like this. I’d doubt Canton gets the game anytime soon … but it’s hard to know before the new Hall of Fame Village is completed. It’d be really cool for that city.
- There were tons and tons of #BackToTheFuture tweets yesterday from brands and sports teams. Some were good! Others, not so much. Such as this one that annoyed me so very much…
Another Marty that doesn't need roads… #BackToTheFuture pic.twitter.com/q5nontCZi6
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) October 21, 2015
… and this one just plainly made me sad as a Browns fan, as usual.
#AqibTalib #BackToTheFuture pic.twitter.com/6jv69ZYDKB
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) October 22, 2015
- Ed’s Note: Dan Gilbert said at Wednesday’s Wine and Gold United meeting that the All-Star Game is certainly on the Cavs’ radar. [↩]
43 Comments
My Sports sources…WFNY, DBN, TBL, Plain Dealer, Detroit Free Press, MLive, The Four Letter.
NO FREEP!
WFNY, MGoBlog, CBS Sportsline (I have a Fantasy team on CBS), and at night, when Im at the park, in the yard, with my son, cooking dinner, what have you I listen to the SVP& Russillo (well, SVP’s gone unfortunately) and PTI podcasts, and whatever Simmons puts out (the Cousin Sal “Guess the lines” podcasts are great)
Please note i do not put headphones in and interact with other people. I use my phone as a “radio” and just have it in my pocket. I despise people who go out in public with their earbuds in/ earmuffs on, oblivious to the world around them, banging their shopping cart into mine. Theres a special section in hell for those people.
Sharp is pretty much a dbag.
the stench of Rosenberg hangs in the air
I need to add MGoBlog to the rotation.
I have 0 patience for podcasts (and news videos). I only read stories, I have no desire at all to hear a story or see one.
it is the best Michigan blog out there, and one of the best College sports blogs in existence (EDSBS, 11w, BHGP to name a few others)
I am with you sir. I can read quickly and I also remember things better through the visual lens.
since Jacob asked:
I am apparently old now and hate random content, so I still stick to the basics of websites. tough to do as Y!Sports and SI pages are a mess but have good content if you know where to look. ESPN is a much cleaner design. still hold true here at WFNY and utilize some longform filters to root out the best of the longer narratives as well.
social media is a mere “suggestion for possible misc.” material along with a newsfeed ticker to me.
11w gives me a rash.
Every 5 min on the 5 min I click the WFNY bookmark on my bookmark bar to see if there are any new Cleveland stories/headlines. Maybe once or twice an hour once I’m done with WFNY I head over to the other 4-letter site. And maybe once every day or so during the offseason, daily during the season I check out CtB. But that’s it.
Oh and my Yahoo sports app notifications occasionally break news, such as TT’s deal last night, and then I immediately head to WFNY for the full story.
High-fives!
yeah but the guy who writes Michigan Mondays is actually quite level headed and objective, and Ramzy’s a helluva writer, even if he does root for the wrong team
You sir are the example all should follow.
Old people celebration!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-h2BtQzbUQ
Print: I subscribe to ESPN The Magazine, Esquire and GQ. Was getting Golf Digest for a bit, but have no idea why. I typically read all of them cover to cover, with many of the stories being completely new to me. Reading a Mag story before I get the print edition has happened, but its rare.
Podcasts: I listen to Longform.org, Richard Deitsch, Bill Simmons, TED Radio Hour, and A to Z on the regular. Occasionally if I come across a topic on another ‘cast, I’ll listen in. I stream these all over the iTunes podcast app and a Bluetooth speaker either in my car or office.
Radio: Rarely listen to AM/FM anymore. I’ll listen to Howard on Sirius, but even my music consumption is now done entirely over Apple Music (both of which are obviously paid subscriptions).
Home pages: The only homepages I visit outside of WFNY (which I do just to make sure the deliverable looks as intended) are ESPN.com and Grantland. Everything else I read is either via an aggregating app like Nuzzel or Longform or through…
Social: I know there’s some begrudging about the downfall of RSS and Google reader (I was initially bummed), but Twitter and Facebook have become the new RSS. But instead of having to see every post produced by an outlet (which you *can* get if you follow said outlet), you get content curated by those you choose to follow. Those who dislike Twitter either aren’t maximizing the capabilities or need to work on their list of people they follow.
Social (mostly through mobile and tablets, by the way) is undoubtedly the future. I’ve said it before: Sharing is the new search. Folks who aren’t embracing can feel free to do so, but they’re just going to get blown past like when Spaceball 1 went into Ludicrous Speed. This isn’t just with content—bank branches are closing, I order and pay for my Chipotle with an app. It’s not just some fad. I will add, however, that I’ve been very reluctant to use Reddit for anything—I prefer my curation be done by non-anonymous folks. Preference.
Yeah!
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-effyFsRcFfk/UFCv19Y0ZHI/AAAAAAAAB5U/_QWeGDi9Iac/s1600/getthefoffmylawn.jpg
Brian does great work over there. Been able to maintain his independence and still draw in millions per month. 11W does great work as well. As a fan of neither team, I love their respective followings, hard work and willingness to be on location for nearly every event while cultivating sources.
I recommend this story if you’ve yet to read it: http://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/races-sports/one-bloggers-fight-to-make-michigan-football-good-again-20150106
Print: Only really look through Handyman magazine. Don’t have time much even when I subscribe to them. Handyman i can go through quickly and get tips about various fix it stuff I would not otherwise see.
Homepages: WFNY and Yahoo. Occasionally ESPN.
Radio: Sirius either Mike and Mike, or Morning Men in the am on way to work when not listening to music. Occasionally listen to ESPN radio or Mad Dawg on the way home. Sometimes annoying though. If the indians are on, I btooth them with MLB.com app to my radio and listen to them while in car.
Social: Facebook, or honestly just setting up ESPN app which sends out any new CLE headlines to my phone/watch which I will then go to WFNY to check out the post, and maybe comment so that I can conversate with those that have been on here for a while.
My sports sources:
Print: Used to subscribe to ESPN the Mag, but got to the point of rarely even opening it up. On rare occasions I might browse through the Sports section of the Tampa Bay Times, but I don’t subscribe.
Podcasts: Nope. I have this vision of myself finding some good pods and using them as listening material on my work commute, but I have yet to ever do so. Listening as I’m sitting at my computer just doesn’t have much appeal to me–I’d rather read than watch/listen.
RSS: I treat a RSS feed like 7-Up: I never have, I never will.
Home Pages: I’ve got WFNY, ESPN AFCN Blog (really the only non-fantasy football ESPN I bother with anymore besides live games on tv), PFT, and 11W, and I’m clicking on most of them numerous times a day to see if anything has updated. I may occasionally glance at Cleveland.com, but only briefly and with great hesitation.
Social Media: big Twitter follower–my go-to for sports news. FB occasionally inform where/what I’ll look at.
Ramzy is a must-read guy for me. Entertaining Twitter follow as well.
I repeatedly check Deadspin, SI, and WFNY. Part of it is because I have a job where I am tethered to the a computer 80% of the time.
I’ll occasionally rock a podcast if I see there’s something interesting going on. But it’s mostly background noise. You can’t really get news from a podcast, right?
I don’t twitter because I detest it.
Like most of us I’m sure, I know several people who have podcasts (including a few close friends), but I could barely stomach to listen for more than a few minutes.
Most are poorly produced and organized, which is fine if you are fantastic off the cuff. If you are the rest of the world who are not amazing entertainers off the cuff (i.e. 99.5% of us) and don’t have any interesting facts or material to drive the podcast, you shouldn’t be “on air.”
Democratization of the media is good and all, but…
I think it may have been that filthy Ann Arbor who gave you that rash.
I do enjoy parts of Grantland quite a bit, but really only head there via Twitter. And Simmons is far better to consume in print than pod/tv in my experience, which is unfortunate these past several months. One day he might unblock me on Twitter for what apparently was unwelcome criticism of Paul Pierce back in 2009, but until then I guess my exposure to him will be limited.
WFNY, Deadspin, Grantland, 538 (in order)
1hr 20min round trip drive everyday, semi-background noise while working, great when doing projects around the house; listen to lots of pods.
Breaking news via pod is rare, but Craig broke the TT news to me this morning on this here podcast.
I get if a podcast is not appealing. What I don’t get is why people still listen to the radio, when podcasts are available.
It’s like my own personal AM radio that I get to choose exactly who I listen too and exactly when I want to listen to them.
I must be the only person keeping terrestrial radio in business.
Clearly kissing up still matters!
Twitter kills everything mentioned, period. Sure a lot of times it’s pure speculation but more times then not it breaks the news first. You just have to be paying attention is all.
I guess my thought is that if your podcast was that good you’d have broad distribution… aka TV or radio.
Not picking on you, but this is the exact same logic that newspaper folks had regarding web content.
In this space, it’s a matter of on-demand listening and cost benefits.
Cream always rises to the top.
“I treat a RSS feed like 7-Up: I never have, I never will.”
Fantastic reference.
Yeah, it’s true, podcasts aren’t really a news-breaking platform. I’m more curious about the general “media and information,” but with respect to print, I just bored with a lot of it because nothing really felt new or original and it was just what I had read online 12 hours ago.
Or, maybe it’s like going to a comedy club vs only watching HBO’s specials.
Sure, you have to dig through the weeds, but there is a chance you find something that resonates. Instead of consuming what someone else decided was best for you (or is going to make them the most money).
Could you seriously look someone in the eye, and say any football pre-game/post-game show is presenting original ideas or represents the best on-air talent? (to cherry pick a low hanging fruit example)
Print: I have ESPN The Mag and Esquire subscriptions.
Podcasts: I love podcasts. I use the built in iPhone podcasts app and my phone connects to my car via bluetooth allowing me to easily and seamlessly stream podcasts while I commute to and from work. I listen to a ton of podcasts. WFNY (of course), This American Life, Serial, Bill Simmons, Radiolab, Planet Destiny, Men In Blazers, WTF, All Songs Considered, Sound Opinions, Jennings Basement (shoutout to Dave Sterling and his wife), Nerdist, Invisibilia. Yeah, I listen to a lot of podcasts.
RSS Readers: I still use Feedly and I quite enjoy it. Nothing will ever be as good as Google Reader was with its ability to share content and comment directly on the shares. But I like Feedly because it rounds up content from the sites I like to frequent and it puts them all in one place. I’m lazy and I prefer this over having to separate out content shares from the white noise of social media.
Homepages: I still go to Stereogum, I Rock Cleveland, and Pitchfork directly every day. Obviously I still use the WFNY homepage. That’s about it.
Social Media: I have FB, Twitter, Instagram, etc. But I don’t particularly enjoy them. Not even in a curmudgeonly “get off my lawn” type of way. I don’t resent that people love them. I don’t hate that they exist. I just personally don’t prefer to spend my time glued to my phone screen checking social media constantly. I have a personal list set up of the accounts I care about the most, and that’s what I usually check the most. Although I will say I am actually really enjoying the new Twitter “Moments” feature. It’s an excellent way to get caught up on what’s happening.
Apps: I enjoy reading things on apps. I get my news almost exclusively from the iPhone’s News app, which I have tailored to my tastes and interests. ESPN, Reddit, Feedly, etc. In general, I prefer apps over mobile sites.
Summary: Honestly, my preferred way of getting news, particularly sports news, is via alerts on my phone. Whether from Twitter accounts that I have alert notifications set up for, or apps like ESPN, or whatever the case…..like I said, I’m lazy. I don’t like having to wade through tons of content to decide what is valuable. I want it curated and delivered to me. And then from there I can decide how I want to approach diving in deeper and getting more info.
Hop, but you are here at WFNY. If we were any good, then we’d be on a MSM site 😉
Most of the credit belongs to the shuffle function on my iPod during my morning commute today
Oh so now you are going to pretend you aren’t part of the liberal media and/or vast right-wing conspiracy? Too late, that ship has sailed! We are on to you…
Ha, we just might be exact opposites, Andrew. I’m glad you mentioned apps as a separate category, though. Although I’m actually anti-apps for news things. For me, that’s going out of my way from my usual routine. I have a decent number of apps on my phone — but they all fit into folders on one screen and none are really from news/sports outlets.
On my phone, I’m on my Gmail, text messages, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, and Spotify accounts all a decent amount. As I mentioned, I have the ESPN mobile site bookmarked, but that’s the only real other thing I do out of that usual rotation of apps. Occasionally, when I see a link from Twitter or Facebook, I’ll open it in Safari so I can check it later or consume it while flipping back and forth.
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