Dan Connolly Out At The Athletic

[Just Regular]

Creative destruction and rising tide (not the FARM one), etc.      As a big baseball fan, I enjoy and appreciate the content that Eno Sarris and Brian Kenny and Tony Pente produce, but take it as a given the marketplace landscape will be ever changing.

I hope I never ever ever have to cross that bridge, and believe we're good in this respect, but if heaven forbid Nashville were to happen, it would be a meta moment whether in the 2030's brand loyalty to the Orioles is even inextricably associated with the city of Baltimore where I grew up.     If Kenny Chesney can pay Gunnar Henderson to be a forever bird....

[Can_of_corn]

I hope they'd change the name if that did happen.

How about the Nashville Egrets? 

[amdcpus]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

From The Washington Post two days ago:

The Athletic, the subscription sports website owned by the New York Times, announced Monday that it was laying off nearly 20 reporters, or about 4 percent of its journalistic staff. The news was delivered in an email to staffers from publisher David Perpich and executive editor Steven Ginsberg.

The note said an additional 20 reporters would be moved from their current team beats to new ones, including regional coverage or general assignment roles.

* * *
“The Athletic has generally viewed every league in a similar manner, with similar beats and offerings. But our growing body of research and our own understanding of the sports we cover compel a more nuanced approach,” the note said. “There is no perfect formula for determining which teams to cover, but we are committing dedicated beat reporters to the ones that most consistently produce stories that appeal to both large and news-hungry fan bases, as well as leaguewide audiences.”

===

Translation: not enough people were following Orioles coverage on The Athletic.

Count me in that group.  I did a trial subscription of The Athletic last season, but did not find Dan Connolly’s coverage of the team very compelling.  Simply put, I could get better and more interesting coverage of the team elsewhere.  So when the trial period expired, I cancelled my subscription. 

The best journalistic coverage of the Orioles now is in the Baltimore Banner.  I’m doing a trial subscription with them and their coverage of both the O’s (Peter Kostka) and their farm system (Jon Meoli) is excellent.  But, when my trial expires after 6 months, I doubt I’ll renew, because their non-promo price point is too high.  If I was local to Baltimore, I’d consider it, because they cover local issues extremely thoroughly.   

Journalism is a tough business these days. 


 

I have an Athletic sub and agree, I basically never read his articles, preferring masnsports for coverage. However, many of his human interest stories were excellent, such as his profile of John Means: https://theathletic.com/2488704/2021/04/01/orioles-john-means-losing-father-gaining-son/

[ThomasTomasz]

4 hours ago, SteveA said:

I cancelled the Athletic a few months ago when they made the same decision with Andy Bitter, who was covering Virginia Tech football and basketball for them for the past 4 years.   My subscription was already paid through next week, so have still been reading Connolly and some of their Ravens coverage.   But that is due to end next week because I turned off the annual autorenewal several months ago.

Yes, they had some very good writing and very good national coverage.   But that isn't enough to warrant paying for, at least for most people.   It was the ability to get the day to day coverage of all your teams (in my case Ravens, Orioles, Virginia Tech sports) by quality beat writers.   90% of what I read on the Athletic was those teams.   The other 10% was often very well written articles from a non local perspective, and I got a lot out of them.   But what I was paying for, the in depth coverage of the teams I care about, is what they are going away from.

You could tell with the subscription price going up and up that it was coming.  

It is a shame that they are doubling down on their national coverage at the expense of local beats.  Those guys made their initial company and what drove a lot of people to it.  They should have doubled down on the local beats, but instead, they won’t have someone covering them at all, or in the case of some, that coverage is split by someone doing multiple sports.  

That is why I paid for The Athletic.  Someone on the ground watching my teams, attending all of the games, not some national writer’s opinion based off scanning the box score.  

If they don’t replace Dan with someone else of comparable quality, I’m probably out on them.  

[interloper]

4 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Britt managed to turn herself into more of a national reporter than a local beat writer.

She always was smarter than all the other beat reporters. Savvy career maneuvering by her.

Edited June 15, 2023 by interloper

[interloper]

If I were Dan, I would pivot to doing a very professional, polished podcast. The O's podcasts that are out there are fine but relatively amateur, and they can't get national guests like Dan probably could. I think there's a wide open space as far as a professional-level, radio-quality Baltimore sports podcast.

[SteveA]

3 minutes ago, interloper said:

If I were Dan, I would pivot to doing a very professional, polished podcast. The O's podcasts that are out there are fine but relatively amateur, and they can't get national guests like Dan probably could. I think there's a wide open space as far as a professional-level, radio-quality Baltimore sports podcast.

Can he make a living doing it that way, though?

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, interloper said:

If I were Dan, I would pivot to doing a very professional, polished podcast. The O's podcasts that are out there are fine but relatively amateur, and they can't get national guests like Dan probably could. I think there's a wide open space as far as a professional-level, radio-quality Baltimore sports podcast.

I'm not disagreeing but I think the Podcast market has pretty much peaked and will start declining soon so I'm not sure how good a long term play that will be.

[RVAOsFan]

16 minutes ago, interloper said:

If I were Dan, I would pivot to doing a very professional, polished podcast. The O's podcasts that are out there are fine but relatively amateur, and they can't get national guests like Dan probably could. I think there's a wide open space as far as a professional-level, radio-quality Baltimore sports podcast.

I agree, I haven't found an O's podcast I stick with.  For example I am unfortunately a Redskins/WFT/Commanders fan and they have some great options for podcasts.  I wish the O's had someone similar to the Commanders JP Finlay who does radio/TV/podcast.

[Tony-OH]

It's a tough field to be in over the last 5-10 years because of the changes that social media brought to journalism. I feel bad for professionals like Dan who have done this their whole professional lives and now have to constantly look for the next place to make their living. 

Teams have also changed how they deal with the press as well, and that has not helped the local journalist. They now have their own corporate media to push out the message they want so you get through places like MASN.com and baltimoreravens.com along with their tweets, Instagram, and Facebook posts.

Obviously you can see that they cut press passes away from people they could not control or knew their "livelihood" would be at stake if they pushed out any narrative they did not like. It's just the way things are done now. Dan pushed a major league owner to "open his books" and now he's one of the 20 writers let go by the The Athletic? Coincidence? I don't believe in a lot of coincidence. 

I don't make my livelihood from the Hangout, so I was not "controllable." At the same time, I've written several pieces on previous front offices due to my contacts at the time in the organization that ultimately saw changes with the FO's shortly after being published. Perhaps I was viewed as a threat? I don't know. Mike Elias has always been accommodating and cordial when we had met or texted prior to my press passes being revoked by Jennifer Grondahl's new press policy that clearly ensured I would not be eligible. 

But even prior to that I would be sent to the PR department by Ciolek for simple questions on minor league players that I typically would be able to get a text reply from the Farm Director. What does that mean to you? It means we all stay in the dark about prospects' injuries and the approximate length of the IL stint. For some reason, that's close hold information to Ciolek and the Elias front office. 

But I think all of this is just a changing of the times of how sports teams want their message delivered. They don't need to rely on the local papers to push out the game scores, recaps and box scores to inform their fans because fans have that information instantaneously now. In the past, local reporters had more access to players, coaches, and scouts as well as front office folks, but now it's very organized into very controllable media segments.

I don't even know if it really matters to most fans anymore? At a click on their phones or computers, fans can get a lot of information about the game and I think fans care less about a quote from a player or manager after a game because most fans know they are 98% clichés that really give them no additional insights. Managers nowadays understand this corporate structure and are not going to say anything that would rock the boat. That's not a knock on Hyde or any other manager, it's just the way things are now. They are playing within the rules of the game now. 

Thankfully for all of us, we have a great news and opinion aggregator with the Hangout community here where nary a bit of Orioles information is not posted and analyzed by all. 

We have become the place where news and opinion are aggregating and a place where it allows you to have your say. Gone are the days of going out to the front lawn to get the Morning Sun to read the game recap by the local beat writer so I knew what happened. Now if I missed the game, there are 10 different sites where I can get a quick recap, I can go on YouTube and see the actual highlights in less then 10 minutes, or I can come here and read the game thread or quick game recap by Chuck.  

It's just a changed world and it's hard world to make it as a true journalist covering a sports team at a local level.

 

 

 

[Tony-OH]

13 minutes ago, RVAOsFan said:

I agree, I haven't found an O's podcast I stick with.  For example I am unfortunately a Redskins/WFT/Commanders fan and they have some great options for podcasts.  I wish the O's had someone similar to the Commanders JP Finlay who does radio/TV/podcast.

The problem with podcasts are unless you get syndicated or are able to get a local sponsor, it's very hard to make any real money for your time. I've been asked or suggested to be part of so many podcast opportunities I can't count any longer, but the reality is you are basically dedicated your time to prepare and perform the podcast for free. 

Now some young people who want a voice may be certainly happy to do so, and everyone has to start somewhere. I do dedicate my time to do a quick 105.7 weekly piece every Wednesday with Bob and Vinnie, but that's free advertising for the site so well worth the time due to the audience. 

 

[Guest]

Makes me remember the old mlb.com forums on each teams respective team sites back in the early 2000s. The orioles forum was always fun, same with the Florida Marlins forum who I grew up supporting as a kid because I liked their jerseys. Times change, things change, just the nature of life.

Edited June 15, 2023 by MDS29

[HandsomeQuack]

Really too bad for Dan. The Athletic must really be hemorrhaging money if they are cutting people who are their only voices for individual big 4 sports teams. Years ago they made local coverage one of their big selling points. I wonder to what extent the site/platform will exist in a few years. How much appeal do they have when their only investment is in national writers? I like Stark and have some level of respect for Law's and Bowden's expertise but I wouldn't subscribe just for them.

The two people that made the subscription worth it to me were Andy Bitter (VT) and Dan and now they are both gone.

[Guest]

Its hit or miss with the athletic. Their premier league and European soccer coverage is great and is what drives their clicks I believe. Always found Bowden's articles very low brow. 

[RVAOsFan]

57 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

The problem with podcasts are unless you get syndicated or are able to get a local sponsor, it's very hard to make any real money for your time. I've been asked or suggested to be part of so many podcast opportunities I can't count any longer, but the reality is you are basically dedicated your time to prepare and perform the podcast for free. 

Now some young people who want a voice may be certainly happy to do so, and everyone has to start somewhere. I do dedicate my time to do a quick 105.7 weekly piece every Wednesday with Bob and Vinnie, but that's free advertising for the site so well worth the time due to the audience. 

 

Yea, I think its more for someone to expand or build their personal brand more than make money.  Like someone who already has a local sports talk radio show in free time does a podcast dedicated specific to the O's to gain more followers.