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Editorial chief: ‘Football journalists can still be credible without going to matches’

HiggersonA regional publishing director says sports journalists can still be “credible sources of information” about football clubs without attending matches.

David Higgerson, digital editorial strategy director at Reach plc, has waded into a debate about his company’s football coverage, which was prompted by a fanzine article written by former Birmingham Mail and Coventry Telegraph news editor Jim Levack criticising a lack of local media presence at Brentford FC games.

HTFP’s regular blogger Steve Dyson has since had his say, claiming it is “indefensible” for publishers claiming to cover big local clubs to not send reporters to home matches.

In a response to Steve and Jim on his personal blog, David said he could see where Jim’s “frustrations come from, even if his analysis of digital journalism is somewhat off the mark”, adding he was “not advocating that anyone would choose not to be at a game week in, week out”.

David, pictured, wrote: “Where I disagree with Steve is that being in the press box week in, week out is the only way to be a credible source of information about a club. Plenty of national journalists have proven time and again that they don’t need to be in the press box on a Saturday to break big stories, and plenty of digital only sites too.

“I also work with a lot of football journalists who don’t go to the game every week, but do go regularly. This is because some of the football desks I work with have more football journalists than they have had for a number of years, and it’s simply impractical to expect to send everyone (and also not what fans want, based on audience data).

“I also know journalists who break brilliant club news – as opposed to team news – by being fans of clubs, or building contacts up in the same way you might if you were a crime reporter. Good stories and contacts come from many locations. And I also know plenty of football journalists whose integrity is regularly attacked by football fans on fan forums despite being at games week in, week out.

“Given the choice, you’d always put someone in the press box, but sometimes business realities prevent the ideal choice from being what happens. When the business reality is directly linked to audience volume – and by extension, appreciation – of what you do, that’s something journalism can’t afford to ignore.”

David went on to quote Reach head of digital sport Jon Birchall, who posted on Twitter that the company’s journalists had been present at 20 of the 22 matches in England’s top two divisions at the weekend, as well as seven third tier and eight fourth tier fixtures.

He added: “In my experience, no two football clubs are the same. Size of audience is driven by many factors: Competition, how well tuned in journalists are to what fans are thinking, how well tuned in newsrooms are to what fans want, size of non-attending fan base and, of course, how well or otherwise the club is doing.

“Hand-wringing about losing credibility because we’re not doing things the way we always have done might be cathartic, but it doesn’t change the realities: for any local journalism to survive, it needs to be sustainable. It doesn’t matter if you’re a plc, or an independent family company: If you can’t cover your costs, journalism suffers, as fans of Oldham Athletic would surely tell you following the collapse of their daily paper last year.

“My conclusion is that local journalism’s challenge is simple: How do we make sure enough people read what we do to continue to be able to do it the way we think is best? As widely noted on Twitter, for some institutions, we’re maybe too late.

“That’s the discussion which needs to be had, and we should probably thank Steve Dyson for finessing a debate along those lines. I may not agree with his view that credibility only becomes possible if you’re in the press box, based on what I see and hear, but nobody would deny being familiar in the press box is an essential part of covering sport credibly. But even essentials need to be paid for. And as journalists, we need to play our part in making that happen in a way we are happy with.”

12 comments

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  • August 24, 2018 at 8:39 am
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    Anyone Htfp readers interested in this debate can take part in a two-second, one-click survey pinned to my Twitter account @stevedyson. It’s open all weekend, with results to be declared early next week.

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  • August 24, 2018 at 9:41 am
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    Presumably in just the same way I can be a TV critic while only ever listening to the radio …

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  • August 24, 2018 at 11:23 am
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    My mum used to say ‘why do you go to games when you can see them on the telly?’ Any football fan knows the answer to that question.

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  • August 24, 2018 at 11:26 am
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    This executive viewpoint explains why Trinity Mirror circulations stats are at an all-time low.

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  • August 24, 2018 at 1:03 pm
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    I think the point of the original Brentford blogger is being lost somewhat, If a newspaper can only be bothered to properly cover teams when they are in the Premier League for a fan they lose credibility.

    Most supporters follow clubs through thick and think, is it too much to expect their local paper to do so to?

    Supporters want to believe their local paper cares about as much about the club as they do – if all you see local supporters and the local community as are ‘clicks’ and ‘page views’ then you’ve lost already – make room for the hyperlocals and the fan forums who can be bothered – indeed should the clubs continue to offer press spaces for newspapers who don’t take them up?

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  • August 24, 2018 at 2:45 pm
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    We can already see the impact of attitudes like TM’s – newspaper websites filled with transfer speculation and recycled press conferences, that could be produced by any amateur blogger in their bedroom. Newspapers used to be about more than that – the fact they are no longer delivering it is one reason why they are losing readers.

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  • August 24, 2018 at 6:42 pm
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    But ‘breakfast’ we aren’t losing readers, we are gaining loyal readers online rapidly. People see what they want to see when it comes to journalism, but I don’t think your summary of the sports journalism produced on Reach sites stands up to any scrutiny.

    @webmonkey we don’t see local communities as click or page views, we see them as people. Audience data, segmented into groups such as local people, overseas people etc lets us understand what people want. It’s easy to dismiss ‘clicks’ or ‘page views’ but, monitored correctly, they tell us a lot about what people like, or don’t like. We ignore that at our peril.

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  • August 25, 2018 at 12:23 am
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    So, if you take his “logic” to other aspects, I can write a review about a play, film, TV without seeing it. What a prat. No wonder newspapers are in more dire straits than they should be when they have people like him running them.

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  • August 25, 2018 at 8:44 am
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    Super weak David. Less fans have been blessed by a number of dedicated journalists who sacrifice a lot to give their best possible view of what’s really happening. Im sad that perhaps not everyone gets the same. If you think the modern digital era is an excuse to leave the values that makes your industry strong then you have misunderstood why you were appreciated initially.

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  • August 26, 2018 at 3:23 am
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    In other words reports on the antics of players and managers off the field draws more attention and ‘clicks’ than the game itself. Probably true in this sad world, but a classic case of the tail wagging the dog.

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