The landscape of sports journalism and its future

The landscape of sports journalism is changing, with more newspapers doing away with their sports sections and creating online sites solely made for sports.

For more on this, we welcomed Paola Boivin, the Director of the Cronkite News Sports Bureau.

“Sports journalism is not dead, it’s just going through a massive overhaul right now,” Boivin said. “Because of this certain need for instant gratification, media companies had to change with it.”

According to Boivin, The Washington Post just hired seven people to run their Instagram.

“Everything is coming off of social media: ‘This was recommended on Twitter,’ ‘this was a top story on Instagram,'” Boivin said. “A lot of companies are finally realizing that this is our audience.”

Newspapers like The New York Times shut down their sports section, doing away with standings and box scores, and publishing all their sports content in The Atlantic.

The reality is newspapers are just not what people want anymore, Boivin said. Most companies will be able to provide their readers with more day-to-day sports coverage online.

“Financial decisions drive everything in the world, so that is no exception with journalism and newspapers,” Boivin said.

Many sports newsrooms, such as Sports Illustrated, have been shrinking, and it’s changing the way newspapers and magazines alike cover sports.

“Students are getting jobs after they graduate, they just look different from the jobs I applied for,” Boivin said.