Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Media

'Now, everybody in my newsroom is on television'

Traditional media companies are not the only ones threatened by a changing media landscape. The popularity of new apps and digital media companies threaten to disrupt who makes it on air and who does not.

J.P. Finlay (right), CSN Mid-Atlantic manager of content integration, makes an appearance on “SportsTalk Live.”
Photo: COURTESY OF COMCAST SPORTS NETWORK
TV executives increasingly will look at announcers’ social media profiles to help determine if they will be good on television, said Rebecca Schulte, Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic president. The theory is that people who are able to connect with audiences over Facebook and Twitter will be more likely to connect with audiences over television.

“Some of the traditional sportscasters and anchors and reporters are not very good at social media,” Schulte said at the Sports Industry Networking and Career Conference in Washington, D.C., earlier this month. “They’re really seeing now that it’s not an option. They have to do it, they have to do it well, and they have to understand it. In the next year or two, that is going to be a really deciding factor between a lot of talent who continue in this industry.”

Schulte spoke of her network’s strategy to put digital producers on CSN Mid-Atlantic shows — a decision that mortified the RSN’s news director three years ago but is happening much more frequently today.

“Up until three years ago, you went to school, you were a journalist, you got on TV, you paid your dues,” Schulte said. “Now, everybody in my newsroom is on television. Everybody’s contributing. There are certain people who have this ability to really connect with the viewer. They may not be the person who put in their time. They just have a really authentic connection with the people who are watching.”

— John Ourand

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2016/02/29/Media/Social-media-and-airtime.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2016/02/29/Media/Social-media-and-airtime.aspx

CLOSE