brucester001 wrote:
And Away We Go!
Nike whiffs again, ESPN doesn't know women watch baseball, and OJ Simpson is still screwing the Goldman Family
Author
Julie DiCaro
April 14, 2024
Hello and welcome to the first edition of Losing My Perspicacity. I’m coming to you from the western Chicago suburbs, where it’s currently sunny and 83 degrees on April 13, for some reason. Global warming aside, I’m thrilled to see you!
How Did It Come to This?
Before we get into the news, I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for taking a moment to check my newsletter out. This will be the last day you’ll be able to access the newsletter without signing up for a premium subscription, and I want to address why. I’m well aware that people (generally) hate paying for content and, anyway, who the hell am I to suggest my writing and opinions are worth $9.99 a month? And don’t think that thought doesn’t keep me awake at night.
But there are a couple of reasons I’m doing it this way. One, the number of jobs available to journalists has shrunk dramatically over the last several years. And with mass layoffs taking place just about every week, the market is flooded with out-of-work journalists competing for the same small number of jobs. Beyond that, as private equity has dug its grubby little claws into media across the board, there seem to be more and more outlets that are focused on “shedding resources” than hiring journalists.
So many job listings these days seek “content creators” rather than reporters or columnists, and so much focus is on bringing in clicks: writing to Google algorithms, turning everything into a slide show, and aggregating news that’s already been reported multiple times elsewhere. I interviewed for one job where I would have been reporting to a “content manager” rather than someone with training and experience in journalism. In the slashing and burning of journalism jobs, editors, you see, were the first to go. Writing for clicks and social media likes is not why anyone I know became a journalist. And in sports journalism, with the death of investigative stalwarts like Real Sports and Outside the Lines, there is almost nowhere to go for journalists who want to practice… well, journalism. So trying to make a go of it on my own seems at least as risky as working for another outlet that may or may not be here a few years down the road. I mean, if Sports Illustrated is teetering, what hope doe the rest of us have?
Finally, if you’ve known me for a while, you know that I’ve been dealing with some pretty toxic online harassment since 2015, and that my trolls are unusually dedicated. They follow me from platform to platform, downvoting and review-bombing every new venture I take up. I suppose if that’s how they want to spend their free time, it’s their decision, but I don’t have the time or the energy to moderate everything in my life. So if they want to insult and harass me in the comments, they’re going to pay $9.99 a month for the privilege.
After today, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid subscription to keep receiving this newsletter, and I hope you’ll consider doing so, though I’ll continue to have free access now and then, I’m just not certain what that will look like. But I did leave Deadspin with a fair amount of open investigations and FOIA requests, and it’s important to me to fill the void of feminist sports coverage. As more and more outlets team up with pro sports leagues, speaking truth to power and calling out leagues on their bullshit is more important than ever. I’m also thrilled that I can write about things outside of the realm of sports, which is something I’ve been hoping to do for the last several years.
So I hope you’ll stick with me while I figure this whole newsletter thing out and we get to know each other. These are dark days indeed, but as Shelby told Miss Clairee, there are still good times to be had!
Here we go.
I'm not reading all that. Someone cliff note the typos please.
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LTG wrote:
Trae Young will be a bust. Book It!
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