Blogging seems to be picking up more ground in the world of journalism, leaving some journalists to think they are becoming outdated.
However, since journalism moved online, people began writing through blogs more often than print. A place where breaking news and quick internet blurbs reign. They write breaking news stories and prefer quantity over quality. It makes old fashioned journalists cringe because they think the articles contain loud opinions and a lack of research.
An unpaid writer workforce in the sports blog, Bleacher Report, seemed insane, but it seems to be working. People aren’t looking for just stats or the top 10 plays of the night. They want to read things as quickly as possible. If that means producing a 100-word article to do so, then so be it.
Bleacher Report used a formula of coverage and quantity. They pooled a lot of unpaid writers, found the best of the best and rewarded them with pay if they became reliable. It used salary as a motivational tool. Salary is earned not just given right away as part of the job.
However, they are advancing the breaking news age better than ever before. For instance, Bleacher Report started just nine years ago and already gained a reputation of being a quick news outlet. They started off with low quality, inexperienced writers and turned into a trustworthy, profitable company.
They never started as a tv network or newspaper but as a sports blog. They skipped multiple steps and just hired a lot of writers to cover as many cities as possible. Bleacher Report then dominated the social media age, something ESPN wasn’t prepared for. We are talking about the number one sports entity in the world and they couldn’t hold off a nine-year old startup. It proved to be profitable considering a lot of their strategies are now used by other sites.
In an age where sports became over saturated by constant coverage and ESPN. Blogs turned out to be the perfect new angle. Blogging isn’t just writing down the facts its opinion and its not meant to be used as a direct source to a team.
