Death of the golf beat writer (and how it's an opportunity)

LAS VEGAS, Nev. - The winds of media change are howling like a mild day on a west Texas golf range.

GolfObserver.com, in a well-researched article by Sal Johnson, documents and laments the loss of the golf beat writer.

Welcome to the new media. As Mark Nessmith, editor and COO of the WorldGolf.com Network, wrote in an e-mail alerting me to the story, “My take would be that, as newspapers lay off writers, other outlets (online) will in time pick up the slack.”

He’s right. (But editors are always right.) Golf beat writers will exist. They just won’t write for major dailies that are delivered to your doorstep that you browse over your coffee and bran muffin. You will read about local golf events through the remnants of that old-line newspaper online.

Or you will find that golf beat writer who is entrepreneurial and he has his own website that you have marked as one of your favorites or you see every morning in e-mail in-box. The problem is this entrepreneurial golf writer might not exist right away. Many of us old newspaper folks aren’t business people. Some of the younger ones will be.

You may also find that the golf beat writers will be someone who works for your local golf course or country club. They will speak to you directly. If you want more choices of golfing experiences, you will need to become the most important golf writer in your own life - and dig and find it for yourself. More on that later.

Don’t be surprised if some of the PGA stars become bloggers and get their story out for themselves. Tiger has already done that; he used his web site not long after his surgery to notify folks what he’s doing. These guys may also hire someone (I’m available) to write and post their thoughts, ideas, and excuses after each round. Or the pros may be forced to use the Internet to help drive spectators and help sponsors to pay for their events.

In other words, others will pick up the slack of the golf beat writer. Look at the travel industry. Ask yourself this: on your last trip who was the travel agent that booked your flight? For most of us, the travel agent was you. You went online and you booked the flight, chose the seat, and even printed your boarding pass.

I lecture a lot on the topic The Most Important Journalist Is You. As I write in my book, the paradox of the new century is that we have more information and more technology to deliver the information to us, but we as news consumers have to work harder than ever to decipher the truth or the reality of the news and information we get.

But the death of the beat reporters - and the forced reality of all of us becoming citizen journalists for ourselves - is happening all over the media landscape.

I was at a political and media forum the other night here in Las Vegas on racism and sexism. One of the panelists, an accomplished journalist, quoted a source who said within five years half of the nation’s newspapers won’t exist. Many gasped, but no one disagreed.

The New York Times this week had a number of stories that seemed to yell “fore” to anyone in the old media. I’ve written about them on my web site, www.johndaly.tv.

The first was the use of Twitter.com by people who were either witnesses or victims of the Mumbai attacks.

The second was the death of the local news anchor. TV stations are so strapped due to the economic crisis that the largest salary of the local news anchor is now the first to be cut. And it’s happening in many markets to guys and gals, now in their 40s, 50s, or 60s, who were once icons of their TV markets.

Another eye opener was from Maureen Dowd’s column about outsourcing news to India. A Pasadena newspaper that is now online fired all their reporters and hired reporters from India at $7.50 an article. These reporters live and work in India. They just use the phone and write the stories. The editor reviews all the work, of course, so there won’t be any major news faux pas.

For anyone who worked in newspapers, this is blasphemy. But if you look at it closely, why do you need to pay someone a boat load of money to write a four-inch piece of copy on a local fair or book bazaar?

However, using outsourced journalists also means your publication is not an in-depth piece of journalism. It’s merely a directory of things to do in town, not a beacon of warning. That is frightening to me. Hopefully, we’ll see more investigative Web sites.

But let’s get back to golf. If you’re reading this blog, or anything else here at LasVegasGolf.com or at WorldGolf.com, then you love golf. This new trend is an opportunity for you - especially if you love golf, you know how to write, and you can show local businesses that supporting your online efforts are worth it.

Don’t lament the past; seize the present.