Barstool sports (YouTube print outs) vs. Journalists (degrees)

[BB28403]

I will chime in, I think what everyone should look for in a golf journalist is to hold these players feet to the fire. They need to find out what Rory is thinking. What Tiger is planning. When DJ might click and go on a winning streak .

Augusta National always had a press room and they sent out passes so the world had journalists to report what happened there .

There is an important need for educated journalists who have respect for golf.

and it’s not about being bro’s with the pros , it’s about holding them accountable. Otherwise they would never take interviews ever. I promise you that. These players would barricade themselves if they could.

just like anyone in power, and in the history of the world who has had it, they hate criticism.

 

[GeorgeHWB]

I don't like to see Barstool and NLU lumped into the same category. Barstool is a group of knuckleheads who like to stir things up and are immature. I find the NLU guys to be very passionate and knowledgeable about golf and who don't try to make a spectacle of themselves.

[Zlax45]

From someone that is a member of the sports media (not golf related), the Barstool guys should have been ejected from the event for crossing the media line of “cheering in the press box.” Yes, there is no press box in golf but you can’t be interacting with golfers when out there on the course as a media member.

[imakaveli]

Barstool guys think they are really cool... is this thing famous in the US?

[bladehunter]

I don’t think so. I never heard of them until this thread.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t known on twitter. But that hardly qualifies as famous.

[Sixcat]

I see this as much more than just a generational difference. Traditional journalism isn't limited to print and TV media anymore. Anyone with an iPhone and social media can "report" anything as they choose. Traditional journalism is searching for an identity in the 21st century. Nobody reads newspapers or magazines anymore. Traditional golf journalists aren't going to become Colin Cowherd, Skip Bayless or Stephen A. Smith and shout at clouds. To gain an audience in today's social media driven society, you have to capture attention in quick, catchy, 30 second segments. Traditional journalists aren't adept at doing this and they are being left behind. No better example out there right now than Peter Kessler and his pathetic attempt at maintaining an audience.

I'm not necessarily a fan of Barstool. Too much "machismo", false bravado and low brow humor for me. I'm not a fan of Cowherd, Bayless and Stephen A. either. I enjoy some of the pieces written by those still in traditional golf print media but I'm an avid reader. Most people aren't these days. To each their own!

[Hawkeye77]

Here are some interesting numbers and facts regarding print and digital subscribers/viewers/etc.

Trends and Facts on Newspapers | State of the News MediaIt's not "nobody" that reads newspapers, not even in relative terms. But yes it's been pretty obvious hard copy print subscriptions have declined significantly. Lots of changes. Plenty of "traditional" journalists have adapted and are adapting to the so called "digital age" and lots of new journalists out there. Let's not paint with too wide a brush.

 

Then there are things like Barstool - which isn't really "journalism" - IMO simply sports entertainment and if people find them entertaining they'll watch.

 

I are not entertained, lol.

 

 

[Vindog]

But they're total Bros, bro.

[Sixcat]

Please allow me to rephrase! Very few people seek their golf related news from traditional print media. Which has led to the rise of entities such as Barstool, NLU, The Fried Egg and The Shotgun Start. As others have said, Barstool is more of a frat-house style of entertainment that isn't appealing to me.

[Holy Moses]

They are popular with a younger audience and only getting more popular

[Holy Moses]

Very few? Traditional golf media still

is more popular for now.

[Hawkeye77]

You may very well be right, and I have nothing to back it up, but I disagree a little bit. I think the rise of these entities (but Barstool isn't as much golf as NLU and The Fried Egg by a long shot) is a product of Internet, Youtube, etc. and people may be moving away from some traditional sources because of it - but I don't think they came into being because there was a large pool of people who were adrift, so to speak, having abandoned print media. They are capturing folks who may have never been in to begin with and different kinds of folks. Again, I think Barstool is apart from "golf media" in a lot of ways.

 

Just an opinion and I find the discussion interesting!

[capking]

I subscribe to it but I can’t listen to every episode, it gets very cringey at times. The episodes with lurch are usually good though

[dcmidnight]

I'm no Barstool fan but the idea that this started because of some stupid fist bump is ridiculous. Steve Sands has given Tiger a million fist bumps after interviews. The one that I remember most was Roger Maltby after he won the TOC. So its OK when "old media" does it? Get out of here with that nonsense, the Golf Digest guys need to seriously get over themselves. Same with the above quote that "you can’t be interacting with golfers when out there on the course as a media member". This happens - literally - every single event. Its OK if Peter Kostis walks/talks with a guy up the fairway or if Maltby or Dottie Pepper are smoking and joking with a guy walking off the tee box? Honestly this kind of thing has never bothered me - not once.

Bottom line is that I think there's something for everyone in most of these outlets. I dont listen to the NLU podcasts but the Tourist Sauce series on Ireland that they did is one of the best shot/produced golf productions you will watch. If they ran it as a ten part piece on the Golf Channel, people would fall all over themselves talking about how good it was. Oh - and its free. I'm not going to apologize for liking free stuff more than pay stuff - sorry/not sorry.

But I dont mind paying for good product either. I think Golf Digest and Golf Magazine are mostly complete trash now, its the same tips/ads/Tiger interviews and virtually no real journalism. More importantly - by the time I read it - I've read the same "news" or WITB updates a month earlier on WRX. However - I am also a very happy Golfers Journal subscriber and I think that runs $140/2 years/8 total mags. But cover to cover it is high quality stuff, I have no problem paying for it.

 

[mocokid]

I don't mind barstool fist pumpers and flat hat wearers, good for waking up the old school chummy guys. That said my idea of golf journalism is Herbert Warren WInd's great stories in the New Yorker in the 1950s, after the Masters and the US Open. He was the best. D. Jenkins writing is great for its time, and often funny, but now seems very dated. Charles Price is underrated. Also Al Barkow was a great golf writer. Nuff said.

[Holy Moses]

Those are good points. I forgot about Sandsy and Maltby doing that stuff. Golf.com and Golf Digest and Golf Week are good for non-equipment stories, but their equipments reviews are TERRIBLE. Due to ad revenue, they will give every club at least a decent review.

[MtlJeff]

People who are different ages will like different things. This is no different than many other arguments in the entertainment space. The irony as it always is, is that in 10yrs the people saying "ok boomer" and other dumb stuff will be lamenting how young people act themselves . It's a constant cycle . Someone who is 22 reading this and thinking the "old guard" just doesnt get it....that will be you one day. And sooner than you think

I am 38....I understand the new media and why its successful with younger population, also understand why someone older might not like the new "burn and call-out" takes of the younger crowd and want to read more "traditional " takes

We're different, shocker I know.

Theres room for both types of media or it wouldn't exist

[munichop]

I haven’t followed this that closely but it seems like a generational thing as much as anything else. This is similar to getting paired with guys who have to have their music with them when they play but don’t realize they make things called ear buds so you don’t ruin the round for others.

Todays media wants too much to “be” the story vs. reporting the story.

[bladehunter]

This is the truth Jeff. As much as I hate to admit it. And you my friend , get ready. 40 does a number on your mind.

And before someone jumps on that. I’m certain 50 60 70 does another number. I just mean that overnight I went from feeling like I fit in with the 25-35 crowd on course to being the old guy who’s out of the conversation. It literally seemed to happen in a months time ( this month ) . Sucks out loud. And again. Yes I know it’s relative.

 

20 somethings. Enjoy it , every day of it. It’s not going to last.

[J13]

I see a lot of comments about the rules for how the media is supposed to act. Please realize these "rules" were created by men and will constantly change and evolve. There is a place for journalists and sport entertainment and in this case the journalists were immature and petty. Pretty exposing. Those who can adapt and learn the new ways of the world will do well. Those who can't will become more and more irrelevant unless they are left with nothing more than a personal blog that no one reads.

[J13]

Stop pointing out the hypocrisy of the "professional journalists" you might be bringing too much logic into the conversation.

[MtlJeff]

Oh it's already happening man, I have a team of 23-25yr olds that work for me. I have no idea what they are talking about half the time LOL

Thing is they are nice guys and girls. They just like different stuff

It gets really weird when you tell them about a movie that came out before they were born

[Sixcat]

I'm not suggesting Barstool isn't or shouldn't be considered golf media. The point I was attempting to make was, given modern technology such as Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc., they are just as relevant as traditional print media. And I don't think the older, traditional media folks like that very much. Given how modern technology has altered the way we receive information, the new wave may be more relevant. But that's strictly speculation. My overall point is, it's not a "millennial" problem and it's certainly not "okay boomer" worthy either. It's just the changing times!

Personally, I'm not a fan of the Barstool brand, regardless of which sport they are covering. I have made that point clear. But I'm not always a fan of traditional golf journalism either. They often "toe the company line" a bit too much for my taste. But that doesn't mean both entities don't produce quality content from time to time.

[capking]

the Foreplay guys are definitely not journalists, at best they are small time bloggers with a moderately popular podcast. I only ever found out about them from listening to spittin chiclets which is a hockey podcast lol. They have their place and clearly didn’t know how to handle breaking news well

[Sixcat]

Twitter and Youtube are the most common outlets for the consumption of golf content.

[QuigleyDU]

They are big enough to have access to pretty much anything they want. i think they have more say than you think. I am not a twitter guy, I did listen to their podcast for a while but I don't really like their fratboy'esque style so I stopped. But, I think they are immensely popular with the millennial crowd.

[bscinstnct]

Good take

 

 

Can ‘fanboys’ and traditional golf journalists coexist on the golf beat?

Can 'fanboys' and traditional golf journalists coexist on the golf beat?

 

We all know that Craigslist and free Web content killed the newspaper business. Fifteen years ago there were dozens of newspaper scribes in every PGA Tour press room but now there are maybe two: USA Today and the NYT. The cuts went even deeper on the golf beat, with the respected print weeklies Golf World and SI Golf+ being shuttered. (Golfweek would eventually make its name an oxymoron, going monthly.) The contraction was due to large-scale structural causes that any one individual was powerless to stop but the reporters who survived the downsizing were slow to evolve, basically doing the same thing they had always done: bang out one story and call it a day.No Laying Up was the first platform to exploit this market inefficiency, with a flood of podcasts, videos and social engagement … basically much of the stuff the so-called Old Man Media was ignoring, or didn’t do well, and what younger generations of golf fans craved. NLU billed themselves (and still do) as “fanalysts” and the players responded to this fun, fresh perspective. It certainly helped that the NLU gang — Soly, Tron, Neil and Randy (and later D.J.) — was a similar age as the lads they were covering.

 

 

 

"And so it is Barstool that is now earning all the side-eye, in press rooms and on Old Man social media feeds. They’ve taken the early-NLU approach to the illogical extreme: The Barstool guys are the stars of their videos, not the actual Tour players. Their coverage is intensely experiential. It’s not about what happened at the Presidents Cup, it’s about what happened to their personalities at the Presidents Cup. This is fingernails-on-a-chalkboard for traditional reporters, who have always been told to never make themselves the story. Barstool is the story, with the players and venue adding additional color along the way. But the protagonists are fun-loving guys and the nation of Stoolies has a blast tagging along for all the hijinks. Old Man Media tells the reader what happened; hopefully they add broader context like why it happened and what it all means. Barstool tells its viewers and listeners how it felt to be there. They are two entirely different missions, but they should be complementary.

The Barstool audience is too vast to ignore, especially for the USGA and PGA of America, which have only one or two big tournaments a year and lack media operations as advanced as the PGA Tour’s. It’s why they were the first folks to credential Barstool. For years the Tour tried to ignore Barstool, but at this most recent Presidents Cup, the Barstool guys were all over Royal Melbourne. It will be interesting to see how much access they get going forward. If history is a guide, it will be a lot, and Old Man Media will have to endure it."

[Zlax45]

If they want to high five players and cheer for them? Buy a ticket instead if getting a media pass.

[pilot25]

Why? They are producing golf content that some of us rather consume then the same boring old crap that has been played over and over for decades.

Why can’t they do their thing and allow people, who like them, to enjoy golf how ever they want? Them being inside the ropes Is essential to how they report golf. Not hiding in the media tent getting ready to ask every player off the course how they feel.

[MilkyButterCuts]

I don't understand all the hate on Barstool. Yes its a much different presentation and target demographic.... but media is like food, you can consume what you like as you please.