In recent years, professional sports teams "have moved to exploit the shifting media landscape by limiting access and using their own platforms to control -- and tailor -- messages they then deliver through team-approved media channels," according to Sam Borden of the N.Y. TIMES. League One side Swindon Town "has taken some of the most extreme measures yet: In effect, the team has eliminated non-game-day news media access." Reporters, photographers and videographers "are largely barred from interviewing any member of the team, the coaching staff or the club’s management." Swindon Owner Lee Power, who put the policy in place, defended the policy because, he said, "At the end of the day, the local paper needs the football club more than the football club needs the local paper." Power added that "he had been displeased about coverage of the club’s activities." Power: "As the owner, I didn’t think they were very supportive of the club, and I’m not here to sell newspapers; I’m here to do what I believe is best for the club." The move "prompted outrage from journalists, in Swindon and around England, as well as from some fans." But Swindon Town’s decision "is, in many ways, an unsurprising progression in a larger trend." Most European football clubs "do at least one news conference ahead of each weekend’s match; Swindon Town will not." Most football clubs "have a big media day near the end of the preseason so that various outlets can put together preview packages; Swindon Town will not." Power said the club would still allow a reporter from the local BBC Radio affiliate to ask tactical questions of the manager ahead of matches, “which means the difficult issues will still be covered.” But Tom Bassam, who covers the team for The Swindon Advertiser, said, “They want to engineer the coverage that they want without any accountability." Power said that his discussions with other execs in football had led him to believe that "the number of clubs curating their own content would increase." In England, there are no significant requirements for clubs to provide news media access -- at least not in comparison with major leagues in the U.S. -- "and there is no strong union or association of journalists that has been able to push for more availability." From the journalists’ side, the trend is alarming, though Henry Winter, perhaps the country’s "most respected" football writer, said that "he sensed that it could also be motivating." He said, “Banning papers is invariably counterproductive as reporters tend to double their efforts" (N.Y. TIMES, 8/4).
