Following the announced closure of Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and dwindling jobs in media overall, I realized there’s probably more to come.
Coming to Iola felt like finding a life preserver floating in the water after jumping from a sinking ship. The Register has a relevance to this community that no longer exists in most towns I’ve worked in. While many newspapers dropped their publications to weeklies due to revenue and relevance, Iola remains a rare, strong daily publication.
It’s not just local newspapers taking it on the chin as far as dwindling revenues, but also local television and radio. Even live events rarely fill stadiums or venues. There is a palpable malaise for anything live or local and as a sports reporter I feel it every time I enter a half-filled gymnasium or stadium across the country.
I’m often the only reporter at games I cover. I used to hate competition, but now I gleefully approach any person I perceive as media, not for career advancement or networking, but in the manner one would approach a fellow survivor of war or national disaster.
Most of the people holding cameras on sidelines are not media, but students, parents or teachers posting on social media or for their high school yearbook. My thought has always been the more art, the more artists, the better for the community.
Sports reporters are paid to be there, to do an artisan’s work, so if someone takes better photos for free, it’s a reminder I need to up my game.
I frequently bring up Indiana and Illinois Hall of Fame sports reporter Pete Swanson because I learned a lot from reading his work.
He was either ahead of his time or so old school it lapped around and seemed like new ideas again. Like covering both sides of an issue, he covered both teams. He interviewed both coaches and if time permitted interviewed players from both teams. In the end, he told a better story.
Pete didn’t have a social media team. In his prime newspaper days, photography required developing film and was a full-time job even at small-town newspapers. Most of his interviews were done with pen and pad, resulting in a notepad of scribblings only he could decipher.
When I tried Pete’s technique as editor of the Richmond Daily Journal, I doubled my audience. What Pete knew long ago was the visiting teams often no longer had professionals to cover them.
It was worth his time, and that’s why he’s in the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame — just down the hall from Michael Jordan.
