By By: Sandro Angulo Rincón
If you love sports, believe you have a good grasp of journalism techniques even without a university degree, and want to learn how to run a media outlet and publish high-quality content. Then, you likely already have the raw material needed to start a venture in sports journalism.
However, becoming an independent worker with your online media outlet requires both heart, love, and passion, as well as a strategic mindset, planning, and number crunching. This conclusion is in line with what Professor Andrew Billings from the University of Alabama has stated: “The key to success lies in differentiation,” while Doug Smith, the executive director of Table Stakes and a consultant for the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, emphasizes the importance of delivering high-quality service journalism that creates habits and experiences for specific audiences.
Smith’s perspective is particularly relevant in the realm of online sports journalism. Imagine if the journalistic pieces produced by your venture were the first ones people checked on their mobile phones or computers, akin to the old routine of reading the printed newspaper before and during breakfast or the current habit of constantly checking email messages and social media notifications!
This approach, along with others we will discuss later, forms the strategy for tackling the main challenges of journalism as both a business and a public service: market saturation, sustainable monetization, and the balance between commercial needs and editorial independence, according to Christopher Anderson, a professor at the University of Leeds. It is helpful to implement ethical guidelines for sports journalism to achieve this last premise, as proposed by Spanish professors Xavi Ramón and José Luis Rojas.
Balancing public service and business is crucial, and it is essential to consider expert guidance to make the project sustainable and keep the entrepreneur motivated. Professor José Alberto García Avilés and his colleagues assert that innovation can be essential, provided that it involves innovation in content, marketing, distribution, and organization.
Regarding content, it is emphasized that news should be easy to read, adaptable to mobile device design, and incorporate gamification to encourage user interaction. It could be added that content in sports journalism should adopt a different angle, an engaging perspective, to set it apart from media strictly focused on sports entertainment or results presentation. Competing with them in this regard would waste effort and energy, as they have more financial, technological, and personnel resources to cover competitive events immediately.
Thinking that soccer is not the only sport of interest and that, through journalistic, technological, and interactive resources, other sports can be promoted—especially those with many participants and champions in the region or locality where the online media outlet operates—also contributes to differentiation. Another option is to focus on hyperlocal coverage, as it has the potential for monetization with the support of local businesses and residents. Of course, once the media outlet has established itself, a successful strategy could involve publishing articles on universal topics in different languages academically and professionally. Learning other languages with a reasonable level of proficiency, such as English, is already an essential requirement for sports journalists.
Conducting critical analyses of sports and their environment, presenting well-argued points to defend the competitive activities of groups and individuals who want to profit from it through illegal or unethical methods, is an approach users value. Likewise, denouncing actions against fair play is appreciated.
In terms of distribution, José Alberto García Avilés and his colleagues suggest focusing on the user. To achieve this, it is necessary to understand consumer navigation patterns to personalize messages, recommend articles, and automate alerts and notifications using bots. Social media platforms often serve as a complementary distribution method to the main website; however, they should be created if they will indeed be utilized or if the principles of that social network align with the goals of the new online media outlet.
Effective distribution involves forming alliances with companies and institutions that facilitate the sharing of sports journalism pieces, thereby generating traffic. Incorporating Google Analytics statistics into the page’s feed helps gauge the popularity of the content among audiences.
Regarding organization, García Avilés and his colleagues recommend creating newsrooms and workflows that foster innovation. Planning activities through custom methods or using applications such as Trello, Asana, and Notion is crucial. Equally important is scheduling alerts and notifications from other sports media outlets, including academic journals that offer exciting articles, topics, and perspectives on sports and whose authors may be willing to participate in online interviews.
In marketing, the most innovative ideas stem from building a harmonious relationship with users and advertisers, notes García Avilés. This perspective involves listening to them, understanding their needs, and creating content that aligns with their interests while maintaining editorial independence and generating original content. Miguel Carvajal, a professor at “Miguel Hernández” University, identifies three sectors from which to develop appropriate business models for each venture: (1) income from users/readers, (2) income from advertising or substitutes, and (3) income from other services or secondary businesses. An expanded view of these sections is presented in the following infographic.
Indeed, regarding subscriptions, researchers Bartosz Wilczek, Ina Schulte-uentrop, and Neil Thurman conclude—in a study conducted in the United Kingdom—that one argument for the public to choose this payment model is its normative appeal and transparent pricing, along with informing users that their subscription supports independent, inclusive, and watchdog journalism. This approach, combined with stating that a subscription model is implemented due to the dire financial situation of the news industry, can be particularly effective.
In the following two articles, we will analyze the proposal of two successful sports journalism ventures: Deporadictos (Spain) and El Míster (Mexico).”
