OPINION: In quick hit era, a good story still sells

A commentary in the current edition of Sports Illustrated speaks to the changes in the modern media landscape, and how sports figures are more accessible than ever before because of social media exchanges, streamed podcasts, etc.

Fans don’t have to rely on the traditions of mainstream media providers to get information and online content about their favorite teams and athletes. “We” are less essential and not as prominent in the big picture of the teams and their followers.

The change, however, provides brief snippets and superficial looks at these people via Tik-Tok, Instagram or Snapchat posts. It matches the shortened attention span of the cell phone generation.

I get it. Nobody you see in airports or seated on park benches is holding a newspaper or magazine anymore, unless they’re in my demographic. If you’re not engaging with people digitally, you’re left behind.

Most of the complaints I’ve heard from people not liking our change from three days printed a week to two have been baby boomer peers. Anyone under 50 has already naturally morphed toward a paperless society. Heck, I’m probably a bit of dinosaur because I still like to take notes with a pen on paper during coverage of a game. Not everyone does anymore.

To each his own. We all have our own system for recall, I suppose, but mine has worked for 45 years so I’ll probably carry on with my trusty notebook until I totally step aside.

However, from the days of manual typewriters and learning to develop film in darkrooms, I’ve always tried to adjust and adapt to the ever-changing ways of disseminating information. We’re certainly in the midst of a major transformation now.

Media leaders have been talking for some time now about giving shorter snippets of news, nuggets of basic information, to better fit the attention span of the digital generation always scrolling for something new.

It’s been explained to me like the smaller agate type summaries at the end of many sports stories over the years. All the hours spent typing placewinners of every track meet event, or championship and third place match results from wrestling tournaments, wasn’t for naught. Some folks just went to those sections for what they needed. I always hoped it would spurn interest in reading the actual story, but realistically I knew it wasn’t always the case.

I get it. People are digesting information on the go, like their drive-through stop for their favorite coffee.

Yet, the Sports Illustrated commentary noted that their current edition strayed from that formula for some thoughtful conversations with sports news makers, in longer, unfiltered question and answer format.

There’s still entertainment and value to pieces that show subjects in something different than the quick hitter that fits the algorithms of your search history. A deeper conversation can reveal who the person is, what makes them able to achieve something special, or the doubts and fears they face along the way.

For example, things like Tuesday’s profile of Creston native Kelsey Fields on her senior day for the Northwest Missouri State University women’s basketball team. I enjoy the challenge of taking readers behind the scenes to gain an understanding of someone’s journey to success.

When our resources and available space was more ample, I did a weekly profile of Creston athletes. A feature on a different kid every week. It was well received, just as the “World of Work” series I did in my early news years here, following people around in their job for several hours one day to write a feature about it.

I get the shift to quicker, shorter and more convenient. But there’s a place for a longer personal profile that shows what drives that person, or their reflective thoughts in leaving the spotlight.

So, I’ll enjoy doing them as long as it’s still part of our system. Based on the feedback I’ve gotten, I don’t think people have given up on a good story.

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Email: malachy.lp@gmail.com

X: @larrypeterson