The Complexity of Trading Francisco Mejia
July 17, 2017Avery Bradley: Kyrie is the toughest player to guard in NBA
July 17, 2017When Grantland shut down two years ago, many (including this site) paid very close attention to where their core writers and editors would land. Many were pried away by Bill Simmons to work under Sean Fennessey at The Ringer, a site that would have a little Grantland in its genes, but strived to do more in the way of multimedia be it video or podcasts. Bill was teaming up with HBO to work on some long-form video content1 while Fennessey and Chris Ryan and Mallory Rubin (all masthead members at Grantland) would work on the writing, eventually rolling out their own network of podcasts. The rest of the core Grantland folks would be announced as being new acquisitions of MTV News, a writing-based platform that would work in tandem with the longstanding music video company, covering all things politics and culture.
Roughly a week ago, that MTV News segment announced the layoffs of that entire unit. Much like FOX Sports before it, the moves are being collectively billed as “pivots” to short-form video. What press releases will tout is a change in the way we as consumers are absorbing our content. Younger generations, especially the 18-35 demographic, are becoming more inclined to watch a quick video on a topic than they are to read a story on it. The generation below that is even more inclined, so this is seen as a way to get ahead of the curve, so to speak. When we discuss these changes on Twitter, we’ll see a ton of “I don’t watch video” talk, which is probably true, but it’s also the first sign that whomever is saying that is no longer the target audience for whichever outlet they’re referencing. Websites were established to provide a compliment to the television-based networks, but they were loss leaders. As television demographics get older and older, networks are climbing mountains to make sure their core viewers don’t die off, ultimately leaving them without anyone watching. As it turns out, those mountains aren’t made of rock as much as they are the flesh of those who were brought on to provide written content at some point in the last few years.
The layoffs at FOX Sports were especially troubling as several individuals who were close to WFNY were impacted, but also as they served as a way to further prop up their debate-based television personalities. When Ken Rosenthal tweeted that his heavily reported words were no longer going to welcomed on those pages, and he would report MLB stories on his Facebook page (for free, mind you) instead, it served as a huge wake-up call. This wasn’t just the New Yor Times getting out of blogging, or AOL’s FanHouse getting shut down because of absurd bureaucracy. This was much, much worse. As Brian Curtis said best, “it’s one thing to think of a video replacing a writer; it’s another when the writer is Brian Phillips.”
https://t.co/zOZKNLUI5D has gone all video. That is why I no longer can write on our site.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 12, 2017
Many of you may have noticed additional videos at the top of posts over the last few months. Some of you have voiced some displeasure in this, some of which was rooted in the evil notion of change while others have fallen victim to clicking too close to the video themselves, triggering the sound. It could be worse. Nevertheless, we’ve always strived to be ahead of trends throughout the years, be it in layout, the makeup of our team, the way we cover our topics, or the addition of various production elements. If you recall, one of the reasons we were so excited about last summer’s move was because of the help on the video side. We knew this was the way thing were heading, but didn’t have the infrastructure to jump aboard. What I never saw coming, however, was the extremes in which this direction was going to go. For two major outlets in the world of sports and culture to ditch quality writing for video-only pieces… I mean, I can’t fathom a world in which the written word is no longer valued.
I can’t remember if was 60 minutes or 20/20 or one of the other news shows2 but there was a short segment on how mobile phones were tipping dominoes, changing the way we communicate in what appeared to be irrevocable ways. It wasn’t just emailing or the sending of text messages as it was the way sentences were rife with acronyms and letters replacing words (i.e. how r u?). This was well beyond no longer teaching or needing cursive handwriting; this was a shift in how those words would even be written. And now I can’t help but think of these shifts, or pivots, as another domino in that line.
The difference will be, as it always is, in monetization. The landscapes stubborn inability to earn dollars in a non-click-based environment was frustrating at first, but is now changing the lives of countless individuals. The Grantland model of having sponsorships was the closest we had to an outlet that didn’t have to rely on “traffic” to pay their writers.3 Smaller, more niche outlets who are fortunate enough to have a core readership can leverage things like The Athletic uses subscriptions or we use Patreon4 to help provide things that otherwise could not have been afforded. Unfortunately for the larger platforms who were unable to create a sustainable business model, it appears to be too late. As younger generations are becoming more and more in tune with short-form video vignettes, advertisers are now putting their dollars in a place where they can be assured viewers will see their products before getting to see the content they yearn to view.
There’s incorporating video as a visual aid or additional element to the content therein, and there’s completely abandoning said content. When newspapers fell victim to their own horrible decisions, the web was to serve as the future of housing the written word in a way that would serve as a library of sorts, where we could go back and draw up any piece we wanted to read when we wanted it. On Demand David Foster Wallace or Hunter S. Thompson is an incredible thing. Factor in the writers of today, and what could go wrong? Fast forward to 2017 and any time we hear about new players in the media space (a la Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, or Amazon) it is entirely rooted in video and the broadcasting of sports and their various highlights. It wasn’t that long ago when MTV News was looked at as a beacon of hope, a white knight in the world of journalism. Now, they’re simply the latest to cave in to very, very troubling times.
This Week in #ActualSportswriting:
- “The fun and completely absurd oral history of NBA Jam” by Alex Abnos and Dan Green (Sports Illustrated)
- “Phil Ivey’s Semi Bluff” by David Hill (The Ringer)
- “He Needs to be a Kid” by Jesse Dougherty (Washington Post)5
- “The Exciting Life and Lonely Death of a Basketball Vagabond” by David Waldstein (The New York Times)6
- “The Fairy Tale of Andre Robertson and Russellstilskin” by Shea Serrano (The Ringer)
This Week in #ActualNonsportswriting:
- “The Uninhabitable Earth” by David Wallace-Wells (NY Magazine)7
- “How Fake News Goes Viral” by Madhusree Mukurjee (Scientific American)8
- “The 100 greatest props in movie history in the stories behind them” Thrillist Entertainment (Thrillist)
- “The Netflix Prize: How a $1 million contest changed binge watching forever” by Dan Jackson (Thrillist)
This Week in Announcements:
- Good news: We’re still writing things! You can continue to support WFNY in any way you feel comfortable. Head to our Patreon page to check it out. We have some additional opportunities coming up for Patrons, so please consider jumping in. These dollars are immensely helpful as we’re going to be experiencing even more change in the coming months. We won’t bore you now, but know that we appreciate everything you guys have done.
- Subscribe to our Newsletter and get the occasional blast of original content or items you may have missed during certain stretches of time. Browns season is coming up, so there will be plenty to discuss.
- Subscribe to the WFNY Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, and/or Google Play. Have we mentioned that the best way to move us up the ranks is to subscribe, comment, and share with your friends? It only takes a second and helps us out a ton. Cheers!
- An Andre the Giant documentary is set to release. [↩]
- See? Video isn’t that memorable. [↩]
- They simply had too many of them making industry-leading salaries, but that’s another discussion. [↩]
- THANK YOU!! [↩]
- So well done with various forms of media. Anyone with children who play sports will appreciate this one. [↩]
- Reading stories like this one do nothing but make me angry about the outlets that are moving to “all video”. This is so, so well done and a story that needed to be told. [↩]
- Incredibly researched, extremely well-written. Due to all the discussion it has created, Wallace-Wells has already published an annotated version of the story. [↩]
- Using the same methodology in used to track disease in order to find out how garbage “news” gets disseminated. [↩]
64 Comments
Agreed. And the ones who seem to do well also have other online content and revenue streams – podcasts, YouTube channels, epubs, whatever. Plus, you need to do the free stuff like Twitter and Instagram to maintain a presence and get that extra exposure. Seems like a lot of hustle.
I’m not sure it’s even that complicated. Can it make me rich? Yes, then protect it at all costs. No, then the world needs to have easy access to this immediately.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE
NSFW language
Cross my palm with silver and you can use my essay.
No doubt, but what can make you rich often depends on law and policy. Google (along with other tech companies) do their best to weaken copyright laws so they’re the ones getting rich instead of the creators/copyright holders of said content.
Also, food has a huge market share on a pretty good demographic. Meanwhile, life is not dependent on internet content.
life is not dependent on internet content.
TAKE THAT BACK!
Can a Hollywood blockbuster movie make you rich? What if it was pirated & socially accepted to be norm to be free on day one?
It is quite a tricky area there…
Here are a few of my issues with video that I don’t see going away in the near future:
– People are at work. Unless we are all going to be wearing headphones, video doesn’t work for that.
– I can skim an entire article in under a minute. Most videos are longer than that, and therefore, not worth the time. If it’s worth the time, call me old fashioned, but I’d prefer to read it.
– Video can’t convey A LOT of ideas. There’s a reason we use words instead of pictographs or hieroglyphs. If it’s just going to be a talking head reading his op-ed piece to me like a child’s bedtime story, I’d rather just read it myself (rather than look at his fat stupid face).
– More to the point, if video becomes “radio with fat stupid faces”…does anyone care? Are you going to watch that on the toilet?
– Most video (and media) holds on to this “embrace debate” ideal, which I personally detest. This is a me problem. I recognize that.
Video is definitely better for highlights, recaps, or analysis of plays, etc. Sites should use those, and use them well. But I can’t imagine going all video. It seems impractical.
Thumbs up for felicia day!
I hate that “embrace debate” ideal is basically conjoined with “spew hot takes loudly”
I am all about embracing debate in that having points and counterpoints detailed out allows the reader, viewer, or listener a chance to become educated and develop opinions based on all information available.
That’s a good point. Debate is great! That’s why there are teams of high schoolers doing it.
Screaming baseless word vomit at another is not debate, but television believes it is.