National Access

As Alex French and Howie Kahn write in their oral history of The National Sports Dailyfor Grantland, “The paper is emblematic of the parts of culture and media that were not yet ready to converge.  Typewriters and satellites.”  That was in the early 1990’s.  Now, a decade into the 21^st century, that is no longer true, and readers regularly consume sports through technology more advanced than typewriters and satellites.  And while sports fans have measureless access to sports journalism now, the lack of access to The National was what ultimately ruined the paper.

“Distribution was almost impossible” – Peter Price

While The National succeeded in developing a variety of intelligent, cutting-edge content, its inability to reach potential customers crippled its readership and thus its advertising profits too.  Avid sports fans ordered the paper, never found it on their doorstep, and eventually cancelled their order.  Eventually The National couldn’t withstand this terminal flaw and folded.  But as Peter Price (editor for The National) said to Grantland, “Maybe with Broadband, it would not have gone away. It would simply have been reconfigured into a more sensible form of distribution that didn’t require men in trucks.”

With a reliable distributor in the form of the Internet, The National could easily dispose of its biggest problem.  That is not to say that a current day National would succeed with out any hiccups, but it would have a real chance.  Most importantly today, there are many more competitors that a startup sports website would face.  There are still the sports sections of respected papers that cover local, semi-local, and occasionally national sports stories with relative ease.  There are still magazine juggernauts like Sports Illustratedthat now simultaneously release their content online.  And finally The National would have to compete against the likes of Grantland, The Big Lead, and click grabbers likeBleacher Report. And Deadspin.

While Grantland certainly fills the niche most similar to The National Sports Daily, it would not necessarily be the only threatening competitor.  Websites like Deadspin, and specifically Deadspin, could also pose serious threats to a startup sports website. Deadspin may be the most polarizing entity in sports journalism today.  Fans praiseDeadspin for its progressiveness in supporting gay rights and willingness to call out ESPN (and other sports sites—but mostly ESPN).  While others despise the site’s questionable ethics and insistence on calling out ESPN on every tiny misstep the company takes.

With celebrated writers and editors, The National Sports Daily would receive similar criticism from websites scratching and clawing for page views and fewer competitors.  Ultimately, these detractors would not have a large enough affect on The National Sports Daily.  It would succeed.  As proved with Grantland, there will always be room for new and different types sports journalism.  There always be accessible distribution online.  There will always be room for capable, thought-provoking writers.  And the idea of innovation will always push writers to try.  As Rob Fleder romanticized, “This was as close to the frontier as we had.”