The N.Y. Times' approach to sports, in which "features and analysis often trump news and routine game stories," is a "defining philosophy" of the paper's coverage, according to N.Y. TIMES Public Editor Liz Spayd, who examined the editorial decision-making in her Sunday column. N.Y. Times Sports Editor Jason Stallman said that the aim is to "produce a general-interest sports section for a sophisticated global audience, with a report that includes internationally popular sports." Fans who "love the theater that surrounds sports fare well." Those who "want a reliable venue to follow a favorite player or the arc of a team’s season may need to look elsewhere." Stallman: "We’re aimed at fans that don’t live in the X’s and O’s of locker rooms. We don’t want to turn our backs on those straight-up sports stories, but we’re always looking for what people wouldn’t get elsewhere, for what’s not being done." Some readers may say that they "do not like the shift away from hard-core sports coverage, but plenty of others are clearly reading." Times audience data last year shows that sports "consistently punched above its weight, drawing more traffic than many sections with larger staffs." Roughly 15% is outside the U.S., a number "meant to grow." Of the domestic audience, only 20% is "in the tristate area." Thus, it is "not surprising that only four reporters are assigned to cover local teams full time, with others dropping in." The remaining writers are a "mix of national beat reporters, feature writers, columnists and investigative reporters" (N.Y. TIMES, 4/9).
