Washington Post Sports is dead (HTTR)

[HalfSmokes]

Pride or arrogance is the innocent answer. The nefarious answer is that buying media is the easiest way to prevent it from doing its job. There isn’t much left that isn’t a billionaire’s hobby

[Natsinpwc]

Pride or arrogance is the innocent answer. The nefarious answer is that buying media is the easiest way to prevent it from doing its job. There isn’t much left that isn’t a billionaire’s hobby

Amen.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Pride or arrogance is the innocent answer. The nefarious answer is that buying media is the easiest way to prevent it from doing its job. There isn’t much left that isn’t a billionaire’s hobby

the one thing to say positive about Bezos's new emphasis is that the news room still turns out good investigative articles that require legwork.

[varoadking]

the one thing to say positive about Bezos's new emphasis is that the news room still turns out good investigative articles that require legwork.

Any examples?

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Any examples?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/08/nihilistic-violence-emerges/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/02/08/dr-mehmet-oz-delay-retirement/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/02/07/ai-spending-economy-shortages/

That's just today. Rise of nihilism and it's connection to recent political violence, Oz's tone-deaf advice on postponing retirement  and working longer to help the economy (without acknowledging the difficulties for blue collar workers), and a business article on how the growth of data center construction is squeezing non-AI portions of the economy from getting workers

[HalfSmokes]

No reason to subscribe over NYT or WSJ now that it’s not a local paper.

[varoadking]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/08/nihilistic-violence-emerges/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/02/08/dr-mehmet-oz-delay-retirement/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/02/07/ai-spending-economy-shortages/

That's just today. Rise of nihilism and it's connection to recent political violence, Oz's tone-deaf advice on postponing retirement  and working longer to help the economy (without acknowledging the difficulties for blue collar workers), and a business article on how the growth of data center construction is squeezing non-AI portions of the economy from getting workers

Sorry...I don't have keys to the paywall...but do you consider the bulk of "reporting" like this to be truly investigative or more opinion based editorializing?

I tend to think of what Nick Shirley has done in Minnesota as investigative reporting...boots on the ground doing the grunt work...like back in the old days.

IE...discovering the facts instead of simply interpreting them in some fashion...

[Slateman]

Mark Zuckerman started a blog: https://natsjournal.com/

[imref]

Adam Kilgore survived but is now a features writer.

[welch]

the one thing to say positive about Bezos's new emphasis is that the news room still turns out good investigative articles that require legwork.

The news room seems part of a different paper from the editorial pages. Almost like a cold war between the reporting and the Editorial Board. I still like the reporting, although it has gotten thin. Right now, on-line edition:

- "Trump leaves Republicans guessing on midterms plan as outlook darkens"
- "GOP lawmaker embarks on his biggest showdown yet with Trump" (a Long Island Representative will chair the Homeland Security meeting)
- "President plans to keep Democratic governors out of traditionally bipartisan meeting"

- "Trump set off a surge of AI in the federal government. See what happened"

There is less, but it is still rational.

Of course, the Times is glorious, more and more.

But this is the day pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training.

And not a hint in the Post.

[Slateman]

the one thing to say positive about Bezos's new emphasis is that the news room still turns out good investigative articles that require legwork.

Yo, share your drugs with us

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Yo, share your drugs with us

hey, I also thought Maye would win the Super Bowl

[imref]

Zuck gives a shout out to other local reporters who are now out on their own:

Ben Standig (Commanders) - https://lastmanstandig.substack.com/

Jesse Dougherty (College sports) - https://collegesportsmoney.substack.com/

[Elvir Ovcina]

Zuck gives a shout out to other local reporters who are now out on their own:

Ben Standig (Commanders) - https://lastmanstandig.substack.com/

Jesse Dougherty (College sports) - https://collegesportsmoney.substack.com/

Sounds like an opportunity for them to band together in some way.

[Smithian]

Sounds like an opportunity for them to band together in some way.

The local sports reporters should band up and also find a reporter who covered local crime, a reporter who covered local entertainment, etc., then produce daily hard or digital pages with local news.

[imref]

Heard on WTOP this morning (and reported by The Verge - https://www.theverge.com/policy/876834/bezos-washington-post-sports-local-reporters) that Mark Ein of the Commanders' ownership group had offered to spin out the Post sports team into a new entity, hosted by The City Paper (owned by Ein)
 but was rebuffed. He had posted on x after the news broke that he wanted to organize something new. I've read that it would take about $80 million a year to fund Post sports as it existed before the cuts last week.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

https://www.theringer.com/2026/02/04/media/washington-post-sports-department-death

Good read.

tl;dr version: Lewis was a sports fan but would not discuss how to draw more clicks on the sports section with the writers. There were plenty of ideas for changes, including ways to trim as well as to add. Cut down on standard-form gamers, add podcasts, etc... After 2021, when overall traffic declined with the chang eof administrations and the mediocre performance of the Commies (and I'll add the Nats destruction), much of sports couldn't draw clicks.

Last year, with the Commanders stuck at 5-12, the section found it difficult to get readers to click on stories about local teams. (In 2024—the Year of Jayden Daniels—Commanders stories had far more traffic.) One Postie who looked at traffic data pointed to a story from last summer about Trump demanding that the Commanders go back to their old, racist nickname. It was one of the most popular Commanders stories in recent months, yet it got the traffic of an average Post political story.

Why are  they down to cultural/societal sports stories?

If Post sportswriters often felt like outsiders at their own paper, they had ways of getting attention. You forgot you had a sports section, huh? According to writers, enterprise stories and investigations were popular. Sports columns—by Jenkins and Candace Buckner—did well. So did Dougherty’s college sports stories and Strauss’s media stories. Stubbs’s features were big hits. “That guy just did bangers,” said one admiring colleague. Nearly all of these stories attacked sports as a “cultural and societal phenomenon.”

Kudos to Jesse.

The article pounds on the failure to add podcasts featuring the in-house talent. It's not like the limited podcasts by writers weren't massive successes. They even made people want to hear about the Wizzies:

A case in point: Last year, a pitch for a Wizards podcast hosted by beat writer Varun Shankar was deemed a nonstarter. So with the paper’s blessing, Shankar produced the podcast himself and distributed it through Blue Wire.

In January, Shankar, who was raised in the D.C. suburbs, left the paper to cover the Rockets for the Houston Chronicle. In what should have been a sign of things to come, the Post didn’t match the Chronicle’s offer.

Worth a read beyond my excerpts.

[imref]

Baltimore Banner announces Washington sports coverage:

https://www.thebanner.com/banner-pr/banner-dc-sports-XEQP3W3IEBGRXCRA4PLNJMNAPI/

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Dumb question: what's the difference between "bear reporting " for the Commies and Nats and "enterprise reporting " for Caps, Wizards, and Terps? Is it one person with all the by lines for thr first two and a rotation on the others?

Trinity is pictured with Ovie, Woods, and Daniels but I don't see mention of the Spirit, United, or the Mystics.

[imref]

Dumb question: what's the difference between "bear reporting " for the Commies and Nats and "enterprise reporting " for Caps, Wizards, and Terps? Is it one person with all the by lines for thr first two and a rotation on the others?

Trinity is pictured with Ovie, Woods, and Daniels but I don't see mention of the Spirit, United, or the Mystics.

did you mean "beat" reporting (bears do beat battlestar gallactica).

I think you have it right assuming that's what you meant.

It's frustrating now that what little sports coverage does exist is almost all behind paywalls now.

[blue911]

Growing up all sports reporting was behind a paywall.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Growing up all sports reporting was behind a paywall.

yabut all you paid was a quarter if your folks didn't have a subscription

[nfotiu]

It's a tough spot now.   You can't pay reporters without some revenue.   Ad revenue isn't going to pay these guys a reasonable salary.   

It's a problem for the teams though.   If Nationals.tv was to stick around long term, it would be good if they paid some local writers to have articles on their site.  Even it it's not the long term plan, they should include that aspect now and migrate it to wherever they end up.

These teams need to figure out something or they are going to drop out of everyone's consciousness pretty quickly.

[imref]

the challenges is that there are so many different outlets and independents now. I'll probably end up subscribing to zuck for $8 a month.

BTW, Chelsea Janes has joined SNY as a MLB insider.

[nfotiu]

the challenges is that there are so many different outlets and independents now. I'll probably end up subscribing to zuck for $8 a month.

BTW, Chelsea Janes has joined SNY as a MLB insider.

I signed up for Zuck's journal too.   I don't know if it's a business model that can pay him a living wage, but I'm happy to support his effort.  He seems like a good guy and does a good job at covering the Nats.