The Way I See It
6 years ago
I’m somebody who got into the writing business at about the same time as the Edmonton Oilers were winning their first Stanley Cup. In my journalism school class, we wrote stories using typewriters and carbon paper. Out in the working MSM world, sports writers were banging away on portable computers – they were the size of briefcases in those dial-up days and had less computing capability than my 11-year-old’s wrist watch has today.
I say that not to date myself, because most of you already know I’m old (my next birthday will start with a six), or to wax nostalgic about the good old days, but simply to be honest about my perspective and the era it comes from when I comment about things I see happening around me now in the sports writing game. Suffice to say, there’s been a lot of changes since 1984, when daily newspapers mattered and those who were paid to produce copy had to bust ass and wait their turn to get prime column inches.
It’s been difficult, then, to watch newspapers implode and collapse under their own weight over the last decade because they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, adapt to changing consumer demands and find a way to better deliver what people wanted and monetize it. There are lots of reasons why the business I came up in has withered on the vine, but what’s been most distressing for me has been seeing talented, committed writers and editors lose their jobs and livelihoods as advertising dollars and budgets shrank. I took that bullet in 2007. I’ve seen lots of other people, here in Edmonton and across the continent, get the tap on the shoulder since then. There are, sadly, more pink slips to come.
Framed in that, I’ve been watching with interest as The Athletic, a subscription-based start-up – a bold move, if ever there was one – has been scooping up sports writers and building a roster that gets more impressive by the day in cities across North America. I don’t know if the model they have in place is going to work in the long term, but I’m pulling for them because I like to read good sports writing and they’re hiring people with track records for producing it, people who’ve been delivering the goods for years and years.
A PROVEN ROSTER
Apr 1, 2017; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; The Edmonton Oilers celebrate an overtime goal by forward Leon Draisaitl (29) against the Anaheim Ducks at Rogers Place. Mandatory Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports
Among The Athletic hires that stand out for me on the hockey roster – again, keeping mind the generation I’m from – are Eric Duhatschek, Pierre Lebrun, Mike Russo, Aaron Portzline and Jeremy Rutherford. All of them have been kicking ass in the rink and on the hockey beat with various newspapers and media outlets for decades. Duhatschek, the senior in this bunch, is in the writer’s wing of the HHOF as an Elmer Ferguson Award winner (2001). Russo has been a must-read since his days in Florida, likewise Portzline in Columbus, Rutherford in St. Louis and LeBrun, who vaulted to notoriety with the Canadian Press years ago.
These writers, and a younger generation behind them, will be valuable additions to The Athletic because they’ve spent time in the rink, in the room and on the beat talking to players, coaches, managers, scouts and agents. They’ve developed relationships and well-placed sources over the years. They’re connected to the game-breakers and decision-makers. They can provide insight and information that you can’t get from afar. It’s not necessarily about breaking stories – everybody seems to have everything at about the same time these days with Twitter – it’s about context and nuance, it’s about uncovering information, not just regurgitating it.
There is a big difference between being as inside as an outsider can get – a beat writer who travels with the team, is in the rink every day and who knows the players beyond the scrums and clips that come from them – and writing about players or a team from afar without talking to anybody. I know because I’ve done both. Even having kicked around the NHL every day for years, I’m not nearly as connected now as I was in, say, 2007. Not even close. So, how does a writer who isn’t close to the team now, and never has been, provide that aspect of coverage – especially to an outlet like The Athletic that is, in part, selling “deep dives?”
I’m not saying everybody who contributes to coverage of a team has to be on a first-name basis with the people they cover. There’s lot of quality in-depth work, particularly in the growing analytics field, that can be produced without talking to a single player. You can generate information without living at the rink. Like building a hockey team, it takes all types to make the mix right. You need a bit of everything. The bottom line for me, the reason I’m writing this, is I’m not seeing that diversity in the group The Athletic has put together to cover the Oilers.
AM I MISSING SOMETHING?
Apr 16, 2017; San Jose, CA, USA; Edmonton Oilers right wing Zack Kassian (44) celebrates scoring a goal against the San Jose Sharks in the third period of game three in the first round of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs at SAP Center at San Jose. The Oilers won 1-0. Mandatory Credit: John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports
What’s been announced by The Athletic so far is that Jonathan Willis, Allan Mitchell, Pat McLean, Sunil Agnihotri and Minnia Feng will be providing coverage of the Oilers. Each one of them, I’m sure, will bring something to the table. Willis has written about the Oilers at Oilersnation and several other websites from out in B.C. for years. Mitchell is a well-read blogger on his own site and here at ON who has his own show on TSN 1260. Mitchell has an audience and, as a big-plus, he’s old. McLean blends real-life anecdotes with hockey. I think he’s a terrific writer. I mostly know Agnihotri as a guest on Mitchell’s show.
What I’m not seeing is anybody who has spent any significant amount of time in the rink, in the room or on the beat covering the Oilers in the past. How about this coming season? I’m not seeing anybody who can pick up the phone and call or text Peter Chiarelli or Todd McLellan or Connor McDavid and have a chat. I’m not seeing an insider like Duhatschek, Russo or LeBrun. Who will bring the connection, the nuance and the context that comes with being eye-to-eye with the team and the people they write about? I’m not seeing that component.
If The Athletic didn’t at least reach out to some of the writers who have decades of experience in the rink – like Jim Matheson, Rob Tychkowski, Derek van Diest or Dan Barnes – I think they missed the boat in terms of putting together a well-rounded group that can provide the best coverage on all aspects of the Oilers and that “deep dive.” With the group assembled, The Athletic certainly has the analytics angle covered, but what about the rest of the story you can’t get from afar? Who will be in the rink and in the room? I think having that person in the mix matters. Maybe that’s coming.
The way my old eyes see it a decade removed from being in the middle of the mix in the rink, in the room and on the beat, the Oilers and that Connor McDavid kid look like they’ll be one of the best stories in the NHL for years to come. That’s a story that needs to be told fully and completely from every angle.
RECENTLY BY ROBIN BROWNLEE
Recent articles from Robin Brownlee
