Death Of Sports Journalism?

There has been an immense amount of talk lately about the increasingly large number of newspapers and media outlets that have cut staff in order to downsize their budgets. I never though, however, that I would see the day where a sports franchise has to hire their own beat writer in order to get press because they are no longer being covered by a local newspaper.

I came across this story yesterday in the sports section of the New York Times. It deals with the Los Angeles Kings, an NHL franchise based out of California. The Kings are no longer being covered by any of the several Los Angeles dailies, so as to not disappear entirely from the public’s eyes, they have a writer to cover the team and post stories on the team’s website.

In all fairness, the Kings are not a major franchise, and most of the country could care less if this Pacific Division hockey team gets coverage. Luc Robitaille and Wayne Gretzky are really the only two household names in the history of the franchise, and the team has reached the Stanley Cup championships only once. However, this could be the start of a disturbing trend towards the disappearance of beat writers that cover individual teams with their own distinctive style.

Ethical questions also come to mind, including whether writers that are employed by a sports franchise will be exceedingly biased in its favor?

I have included a link to the story below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/business/media/28kings.html?_r=1&ref=sports

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