A Life Reset

A few weeks back, the news came out that Mike Mulhern, a sports reporter who focused on the Nascar scene, was released from that position by the Winston-Salem Journal as the Nascar season came to an end. Jon Lowder over his personal blog covered this pretty well. Then last week, Dave Goren was released by the local NBC affliate, WXII, from his sports announcing position. His contract was not supposed to end until the end of January but he was told not to return to the station when he came back from his Thanksgiving vacation. Goren did more than just gave out the latest scores; he was prominent in the local high school sports scene with the Friday night location pieces at various schools around the Triad.

There were probably valid economic reasons why these two men were let go from positions where their job performance was never questioned. But in retrospect, it seems more of a penny wise, pound foolish decision. With the internet able to give me information nearly instantaneously from anywhere in the world, I do not need a local paper or television station to give information I already know. Whether I get the latest basketball score from Yahoo or some ticker applet, it matters not to me. If I want to read the paper or see the local newscast, it is because the local media can give me something that the large news sites can not give me: context and locality.

For locality, I like to know more than that Wake Forest basketball team beat a college somewhere in New Jersey. I would like to know what the players or the coaches thoughts on the game, I like to see or read about local fan reactions to the game. I need to know more behind the score.

Sometimes, though I need to know more about something behind the sport. Mulhern was quite good at that in covering Nascar. He provided in depth articles about the sport, the drivers and the business behind the sport. He provided context for the readers who had only a passing interest in the sport, people like myself, as well as for the hard core fans or insiders. But that sort of writing comes only from being with the sport for years, cultivating relationships and connections that trust you in writing stories that were at least fair if not necessarily flattering all of the time.

It may be cost effective to go with younger talent or wire copy in the short run but in the end it will prove to be a poor substitute and lead to diminishing returns. As it is now, I find it increasingly difficult to justify subscribing to the local paper. I skip over most of the international and national news as I already read it the day before. No, what I am interested is the local news and local personalities who have a connection to the city I live in. Same with local sports coverage. If there is less of that, then there is not much point to keep buying the daily paper.

With WXII, local sports coverage should be the only material that needs to be broadcasted. I do not need to watch clips showing highlights from various games across the country. ESPN’s Sports center does that much better. But ESPN will not seek out the students from Parkland High on their reaction to the tragic death of the freshman basketball player. Only local media can do that.

There is a saying attributed to Tip O’Neil, legendary Speaker of the House, who said that all politics are local. In a way, the best sports coverage for local media outlets is also local.