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photo credit: David Doubilet

I may have been too harsh with Frank Dell’Apa. When I criticized his column in Friday’s Barometer, there was an important detail I failed to consider. He’s a columnist, not a reporter. So when I asked, “is not that your job” in regard to his call for “concentrated research,” the answer was no. While he could take it upon himself to do the reporting, he’s a columnist, and by rule, columnists don’t do much reporting. At least not anymore. They’re the veteran professors on tenure, giving lectures, but essentially retired from conducting and publishing research, which is at the heart of the most sought after academic minds.

In a way, you could say columnists were proto-bloggers, holding court in broadsheets before blogs were a glint in the eye of silicon valley. So, Sorry Frank. You’re off the hook. But if not Frank, than who? Who’s going to do the concentrated research?

Headline! Columnists v. Reporters - profit trumps investment

Outside of the wire reports, here were some of our options over the last week, from writers we are all familiar with. At Soccernet, we have the top five things to watch out for at the CONCACAF Confederation Cup. We have things to look for at Copa America. We can even chat with Real Salt Lake-r Jason Kreis. At Sports Illustrated, the options are almost identical, with the addition of the ole onion mail bag that is still lingering from after the Mexican match.

I call on these two outlets because they are the biggest outlets for American soccer news and they often feature my favorite writers with opinions i enjoy and respect. I’m not calling into question the worth of their opinions, just the fact that those opinions are outweighing feature articles.

In the small world of soccer journalism, if any one is going to have the wherewithal to produce solid reporting, you think it would these organizations. While smaller outlets and independent blogs toil with how to create something worthwhile from the confines of their pajamas, it’s not a wild idea to expect the big boys to send out the troops to scour the soccer landscape. But they aren’t. Sure they send writers to matches and tournaments or down to Maryland to welcome the newest Adu to adulthood, but original reporting appearing as in-depth features is largely absent.

This is not a problem particular to these outlets. I can’t recall the last time I read a well-researched feature story on soccer. The most obvious example is likely the Fugees story from the New York Times, and that wasn’t even written by a soccer writer. Grant Wahl, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

For a number of reasons, the journalism industry, and soccer journalism specifically, has a lack of good reporting. Columnists abound, telling you who and what to watch, where to look, and what to think about – all warranted contributions in the dissemination of soccer news and opinions - but very few are out there, hard nose the highway, searching the far reaches from suburbia to slum for the stories you can’t sum up in 500 - even 1000 - words or numbered bullet points.

Soccer Journalism is not excused from the pains of the greater industry, and it is more the industry than any one organization that is to blame. These new journalism troubles can be traced back to two things: the 24-hour news cycle that started with cable news before the World Wide Web joined the fun, and the reduction of editorial budgets. Combine these, and you have a mission set at the feet of editors and producers: Create more content on a smaller budget. That can’t be good.

24-Hour Rubbernecking

Outside Magazine senior editor Dennis Lewon examined a recent example of the masochism. In their March issue, Lewon dissected the media frenzy surrounding the disappearance of three climbers on Mount Hood. He finished his report on the grandiose treatment given to the rather ordinary circumstance – several other more prominent climbers went missing and died while everybody from national to local affiliates covered the Oregon story with barely a mention – by writing, “all we got was alpine rubbernecking, I’d rather pass on by, without staring.”

If you require a soccer example, look no further than Beckham. When the story broke, it was news well beyond the soccer community. AP and Reuters had reports and everybody had a column full of the pros, cons, and best guesses about how the transfer was going to pan out. All that was fair and just, but months have passed, and I’m reading the same words over and over again from blogs to ESPN. Yet nothing new has happened. I’d rather pass on by, without staring.

There’s more space to fill than ever before - on-line, it’s limitless - but instead of well-crafted stories, no matter the topic, all we’re offered is rubbernecking. Customer service isn’t what it used to be. Even if you aren’t the kind of person who wants to read a several thousand word story, you can still support the fact that that kind of reporting create the legs that allow op-eds to run. There was one true feature about the Beckham transfer, by Grant Wahl, a staff writer. That is not a coincidence. Neither is the fact that the story appeared almost a week after the news broke.

Editorial Budgets

In an interview last October, Grant Wahl shared his reality that there is not a demand for fulltime soccer reporters in the United States. Here is a guy at Sports Illustrated who has financial backing, works for a company that has a proven track record of sending writers (including Grant) where they need to be, when they need to be there, costs be damned. Yet, SI still assigns him to other beats, giving credit to Grant’s assessment.

Having all this space to fill should be a good thing, but it costs money to fill it. In an industry in which news organizations are cutting staff and entire regional and international news desks at an alarming rate, a fulltime soccer scribe may be too much to ask. A good reporter needs to stay in touch with sources, storylines, readers, and communities, and it’s a year round job. Grant’s ability to do this in the soccer world, even while concentrating on college basketball, explains how he gets the story, why people like Bruce Arena call him when they have news to share, and why his stories stand head and shoulder above the rest in terms of style, content, and even plot when it comes to examining a given topic.

Translation: time is money, and good reporting is not cheap.

The present environment is forcing it forever farther from the front page. When you trim a staff, work still needs to be done. Enter the freelancer. Staff writing jobs like Grant’s are few and far between in journalism, much less the soccer sector. This puts the onus on freelancers to take up the slack, placing them in a race against each other not just for scoops and original opinions but for more basic things such as paychecks. Most of your favorite writers are not under contract with one company, but instead sell their wares as if street vendors, offering it up to whoever will buy it. I’m simplifying it, but I’ve been there, writing to live, hand to mouth so to speak, and it’s a much different beast that that enjoyed by staffers like Wahl or those working for stalwart publications such as National Geographic or the New Yorker.

Whenever people are racing to deliver content, it doesn’t take a philosopher to suggest the work is going to suffer. Instead of time spent researching, writers are running around looking for the quick fix, which turns into products such as thin player profiles and the top five things you need to know before such and such begins. Hampered by these shackles, writers are forced to stick to projects they can pump out quickly without overtly skimping on quality. And nothing says quick quality like a column. These are expert opinions, after all. Throw in a few quotes from players and coaches, react off of what you’ve been told, read somewhere else, or always known, and Presto! You’ve got yourself a column.

And people eat it up. Add an email address of the author, maybe a place to publish readers’ comments, and everybody is interacting and enjoying themselves. But now, it’s looking a lot like a blog, those things a lot of people do for fun (and free). As blogs begin to become something more professional, the professionals are moving toward blogs, creating a homogenous environment where long features are weeded out.

Just as with reality television, eliminating fulltime professional talent means lower overhead and higher profits. This may be fine for primetime television, recycling Star Search into American Idol, Survivor into Top Chef, but when it affects an institution like journalism, we’re all poorer for the profits, and left just skimming the surface.