Is it time to rethink your sports coverage?

It's that time of year.

The boys of fall are sweating it out on the gridiron. 

The girls of fall are hard at work on the volleyball court. And you are hard at work making sure they all get the newspaper coverage they deserve. 

By Austin Lewter, director, Texas Center for Community Journalism

Traditionally, this means you are preparing to write the weekly “gamer.” We community journalists have long prided ourselves on comprehensive game coverage that gives our readers a play-by-play account of how the contest unfolded. 

I can remember late Friday nights, holding the press for the Sunday edition. 

I can remember hitting a pay phone on the way home from away games to call in the box score. 

I remember when readers actually picked up a newspaper to read a half-page story about a game that happened six days prior. 

More and more, I think it’s safe to say these days are over. 

Most newspapers in Texas are weeklies, and most of those weeklies publish mid-week or later. Why expect our readers to wait five or six days to read about the previous Friday’s game? 

Good, bad or indifferent— we live in the era of social media, Max Preps, Dave Campbell’s High School Football App, the list goes on. 

It’s safe to assume those who want to know how the game went already do— in great detail— by the time your paper hits the street. 

So why not rethink the process? 

More and more, we are seeing weeklies across the state that are lessening their efforts on full-length, play-by-play gamers and focusing more on sports feature stories. 

Player profiles, game predictions, coaching highlights, whatever.

It is time to get creative with how we cover sports at the weekly newspaper. 

Good sports feature stories go beyond the facts and stats to weave in a fleshed-out narrative and tell a compelling story. 

They differ from the traditional gamer because they offer an in-depth look at a particular player, the teams’ current run, or future potential. 

A good sports feature provides a new angle. 

There’s creative use of language. It’s more detailed and often longer. 

It can be educational or entertaining. It can be emotional. 

Features combine facts and opinions and, if done well, they don’t expire. 

Sport features should contain depth of characters and/or issue.

And, studies show that our readers like features.

One such recent study found that feature stories increased overall reading by 520% and total readers by 300%. 

Features appeal to the web as well. 

Research from the Reuters Institute shows that features go viral more often than regular news or sports reporting. 

Does this all mean we abandon game reporting all together? Obviously not. 

That’s what your box score, “Sport Shorts,” “Around the Field” (or whatever you call it at your place) is for. 

Break the game final on your website, keep the print game recaps short and lean in on the features. 

Our role as community journalists is a very personal one. No one knows our community like us. No one knows our athletes like us. No one is better suited to tell their stories than us. 

Invest time and energy in sports features. Your readers will take note.