It’s Friday and with no international rugby this weekend to talk about I thought I’d take a chance to discuss a subject that is often raised on the forum — the state of the rugby print media.
I have spent the past two seasons covering the Waratahs from the press box. It has been a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how the job works. I have come to know a few journos and see things from their perspective. So when someone on the forum starts talking about the ‘horrible state of our rugby media’, and how there is ‘no meaningful analysis’ or ‘the ARU and Wallabies aren’t properly held to account’ (amongst other criticisms) my ears prick up. In short, I think we should cut these guys a bit of slack. And here are a few reasons why:
1. They can’t bite the hand that feeds them. The bread and butter of newspaper rugby journalism comes from the teams themselves — selections, injuries, results, and other thoughts from Camp Wallaby/Waratah/Force etc. Not to mention interviews with players. For this they need access to the relevant team. They need to be inside the tent to do their job. They need to have a working relationship with coaches and players. So when the time comes to criticise a player, team or body they need to be careful, because if they go too far they could seriously inhibit their ability to do this job. Now obviously this is not to say they should shy away from criticising; however, it does mean that they need to balance the good with the bad. An all-out negative assault on the Waratahs or Wallabies may be deserved, but the consequences of doing so may be devastating for both the journalist and the publication.
This is an issue that we don’t have to worry about at G&GR. Whilst we have a tentative relationship with the teams and bodies, nothing is really set in stone. We don’t need access to players/coaches/information to survive. It doesn’t really bother us if we piss off the ARU with our writing — if we think it’s justified then we can afford to go with it and damn the consequences, as this is an unpaid side hobby for every single one of us. The stakes are low.
2. It’s not that great being a rugby journalist. Yesterday Josh Rakic announced he was leaving Fairfax. Today it was revealed that Greg Growden is also moving on. The spectre of budget cuts is hanging over the journalistic profession at the moment, and uncertainty rules the day. It’s fair to say most journos aren’t in a great place at the moment, and the rugby guys are no exception. And it does affect the quality of their work — often they are unable to go on tour with the side they cover due to budgetary restraints. Where in the past a Northern Hemisphere tour would be accompanied by a merry band of journalists, the numbers are getting lower and lower- to put it in 1980s music terms it could once have been described as Electric Light Orchestra, but now it is veering towards Hall and Oates. Fewer guys are having to do more work. The money isn’t much good and the hours are irregular (say goodbye to your weekends). And spending time around rugby 24/7 may seem like a dream job, but the novelty quickly wears off. It’s still a job at the end of the day — try pumping out a match report in the half hour after a Super Rugby game in a cramped room with drunken idiots pounding the windows and then see how much you still love the game.
Again, at G&GR we don’t have these issues. I write when I feel like it. I write on the subjects I choose, for however long I feel like. If I get a bit sick of rugby (it happens) I can take a few weeks off. So I get all the upside of being a rugby writer, with virtually no downside. Oh, except I don’t get paid. That’s kind of a biggie actually. I’m getting ripped off here now I think about it….
3. You can’t write whatever you want. This is not the same as point 1, although that does fall roughly under this banner. One comment that comes up again and again on G&GR is ‘why aren’t the mainstream media doing this?’ Scott Allen’s long stats and video-based analysis would go down a treat in the SMH, and certainly deserves more eyeballs than it currently gets. Same goes for the #3rdtier stuff, or my whimsical music analogy-based detritus. There is one main reason why this stuff is very hard to find: space. Major metro newspapers simply don’t have that much space for rugby articles, and their responsibility is first and foremost to news — ins and outs, injuries etc. At G&GR I can go off on any tangent I desire, or weave in pointless similes like a Turkish carpet-maker. Metro journos don’t have that luxury. They can’t frolic through the rugby meadows, cherry-picking pet subjects or running month-long investigations into the workings behind the scenes at the ARU.
So what about online, you ask? If you can’t get this expanded and analytical content in the newspaper itself, why not on Rugbyheaven or Rugbygold? This is a fair question, and I think it is an area where they could do a bit better. But remember resources are dwindling, and most of the time these blokes are flat out covering the news. Scott Allen puts hours and hours into his videos, and this is time that journos simply don’t have. So it’s a tricky one.
4. They have to give the people what they want. And by this I mean rugby gossip columns. You may cringe at Growden’s ‘Ruck and Maul’ as it’s filled with unnamed provincial officials and pointless excerpts from the match-day program on Saturday. But it’s one of the most read rugby columns going around. So when you exasperatedly cry out ‘who cares about this shit?’ the answer is a surprising amount of people. Same with Rakic’s ‘Inside Back’ and the less gossip-y column written by Payten and Pandaram in the Tele.
I am not seeking to defend everything rugby journalists do. There are areas where they could certainly do better. I don’t think we are brilliantly served by our rugby media, especially the TV guys (who aren’t the subject of this post). But my point is that the problem is not the fault of the journalists, by and large. In an ideal world we would have whole sections of the paper devoted to rugby statistics, analysis and considered opinion written by a cast of highly qualified journos with an unlimited budget. But this is not the world in which we live.
So next time you start a rant about the quality of rugby journalism, just take a second to step in the shoes of a journalist. Whilst it may seem like an easy job — a dream job, no less — remember that appearances can be deceiving. These guys are just trying to make a living in an increasingly uncertain environment and I think we should cut them a bit of slack. We G&GRs have many luxuries these guys don’t, which explains why we get it right on such a regular basis.
