This past summer I interviewed for an intern position at NESN. I didn’t get the position due to a lack of experience, but one thing that struck me that builds off of a previous post is what they were looking for on their website. Even though NESN is a sports blog, they specifically told me they would put up whatever would attract the most traffic, no matter what. So they told me I should be prepared to write more stories on Gisele Bundchan and her comments after the Superbowl than the actual Superbowl itself. I remember being completely shocked about this startling revelation.
But it made sense. Everyone is looking at the viewership and that’s what it comes down to. I was shocked about how open NESN was about it, willing to sacrifice everything they stood for just to get the popular story, but I get it. I hate it though. It feels completely wrong to me. If you’re a sports blog, blog about sports. Blog about the games, the players, the match-ups, the strategies. Not about the celebrities. I hope this changes, I hope we can limit our obsession on the numbers, and focus more on the stories. Truth be told, I was glad I didn’t get that internship because I would have hated reporting celebrity news on a sports blog. Call yourself a celebrity blog then.
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