Stars of Yesterday Vs. Startups of Today

At lunch recently, Mark Plotkin, the veteran Washington political commentator, and myself were sharing the joys of starting each day with a cup of coffee and spending an hour or more reading a newspaper. A real newspaper. With newsprint.

Not from a computer or iPhone or iPad or other device.

“I will read an email,” admitted Plotkin. “But someone has to print it out for me.”

Every day Plotkin reads his hometown Washington Post, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Politico and one or two other dailies. Another friend, Richard Jacobs, lives in Miami and each day he reads The Miami Herald, Times and Journal.  In the summer, he adds the Berkshire Eagle to his Lenox, MA., breakfast table (I contribute The Boston Globe during my annual spongeweek at his place).

For this, Plotkin, Jacobs and I deserve to have our pictures in a trophy case in the Newseum under the heading:  “Last Men Reading.”  Or, at least in the lobby housing the newspaper circulation dealers of America, if such a trade association still exists.

A requirement for 17 bright students in my Merrill College sportswriting class last  fall  included reading two sports sections a day. How many of the students read an actual paper over an online version? None, I’m sad to report, for about the fifth consecutive year.

Hopefully, after our students leave College Park, in their time here they will have absorbed in handout and book-form a taste of late greats such as Shirley Povich, Red Smith, Jim Murray, Wendell Smith, Sam Lacy,  Stan Isaacs, Jimmy Cannon, Mary Garber, Dan Daniel, Dick Young, Jack Murphy, Stanley Woodward and Furman Bisher.  By doing that, we hope their appetite is whetted to  read the media  “stars”  of  today’s sports world, in-print and online.

Such a nationwide list would include more than 100 first-rate sports columnists, feature writers, beat reporters, investigative reporters and magazine writers. Call them stars, if you like, as Dan Shanoff did in a interesting, provocative piece posted recently on the Nieman Foundation’s  “Journalism Lab” website.

Shanoff, a student of the news business and its future, is director of digital development for USA Today’s sports media group.   He doesn’t believe “stars” are the future, writing about what he calls the star system:

An excerpt of his view of the future regarding “stars” appears below:

“The strategy is largely reserved for a handful of deep-pocketed media monoliths that can afford what effectively becomes a marketing expense. What about everyone else? Forgo the star and invest in the starter.

“The starter system is built on recruiting talent to work entrepreneurially… and building startup (or startup-ish) franchises and products around their strategy and ability to execute.

“If media companies are going to make bets under more restrictive and realistic conditions, they should recognize the inefficiency of conflating expensive star power with enterprising starter savvy.

“In the end, innovation   in the news-media industry in 2014 and beyond will be driven by people who are earnestly entrepreneurial about opportunities to build something beyond their personal brand. Starters don’t generate the headlines of the stars, but they will make up many of the true stars of your organization in 2014.”

Shanoff’s assessment of the business and suggestions for its future on the surface appears to have merit, but likely would have caused the Shirley Poviches and Red Smiths of the “lodge” to shake their heads in dismay. Young and Cannon would have been more verbal in their responses.

To me, the “stars”  Shanoff refers to are the very few  journalists whose  writing  skills,   coupled with television exposure,  have resulted in  salaries near or above the seven figure mark. If Bill Simmons and his “Grantland Gang” rattle the accountants, it should be reported that young readers love them and provide the “page views” the Shanoffs of the world look for.

In the day, the “stars” of the newspaper business were local sports columnists, followed by  beat reporters, feature writers and investigative reporters  telling you something you  didn’t know. Someone who could turn a game story into art was a star in my eyes,  as was a reporter who could break a story.

Stars? I call them good sportswriters.

I’m not going to provide a complete list of favorites, since exclusion from such a group likely would anger friends. But I still rub my hands together every time I see a column by Sally Jenkins, Dave Kindred, Bill Rhoden, Tom Boswell, Richard Justice, Christine Brennan, Bill Plaschke, Mike Wilbon or Bob Ryan; and a feature by Wright Thompson, Rick Maese or Dave Sheinin; and a baseball story by Adam Kilgore or Tyler Kepner; and anything by Peter King, Scott Price  and the Fainaru brothers. Apologies for such a short, incomplete list of “stars,” admittedly favoring former staffers. What the sportswriters mentioned here – and so many others — have in common is a love of what they do.

I begin 2014 with the hope that newspaper and website staffs become more diversified. But I feel that most of the best sportswriters of today – like yesterday – also have a dedication to their work, care deeply about good writing, understand games and the people who play and coach them,  crave reporting, breaking news, appreciate the talent of their competition   and know the history of their  craft.  That’s why I’m interested in the recently profiled (New York Times, Washington Post) 18-year-old high school senior from the Boston suburbs, Chris Cotillo, who broke national stories at the recent baseball meetings.

My advice to him: Stay on the phone, read and keep asking questions.

Editor’s note:  A  telephone call of protest from Dr. William Shaw of Boca Raton, FL.,  who claims he also has multiple newspapers  (SunSentinel, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Del Boca Vista Breeze) delivered to his house  each day.