The New York Times Sports Magazine
"A magazine that presents the big, rich human stories that emerge from the world of sports."
But only big, rich men stories. No stories in the debut issue on women athletes except for a few pics of some members of the U.S. Ski team. The editor wrote that he's "eager to hear what you think" about this new mag, which will be published three more times this year. So drop him a line playmagazine@nytimes.com.
Womenshoops blog sent an e-mail to the NYTimes sports section to complain about the poor coverage of women's sports - particulary women's college basketball - read their post here. It's important for people to voice their dissatisfaction - feedback to sports sections is key - hopefully someone on the other end is listening.
But I also want to point out a great story that the NYTimes did on Sunday about football players getting into colleges they would not have otherwise by getting a diploma from a nonexistent highschool - this is the type of enterprise reporting that we need more of in sports journalism. I've been looking at a lot of NCAA numbers/reports for a story I'm working on about the three women head coaches here at Northeastern - - the $$$ devoted to and earned by football programs alone in this country is astonishing. And where there is lots of $$$, there is going to be corruption, cutting corners, cheating, etc. The sports media need to do a better job at peeling back the many layers of the business of sports.
I wish more sports section would do what the Dayton Daily News in Ohio did - hold a round-table with local coaches and other interested parties on what people think of the paper's coverage of women's sports. They wrote about the results here - "Roundtable offers chance to discuss media coverage of women's sports"
I was just perusing the New York Times sports section online and noticed much to my dismay that the sports columnists are also now part of this awful Times Select program - meaning you have to pay to read these columns. I thought this misguided attempt to make some cash was only going to apply to the op-ed page of the New York Times, but I was wrong. So this means no more linking to Selena Roberts or George Vecsey, etc. The New York Times is facing some $$$ problems - 500 layoffs were announced yesterday. But these paid content plans are not going to be the solution. These plans also make the media even more removed from the general public - making it more elitist than it's already accused of being. I'm fortunate to have access to Lexis-Nexis through my university and could still read these columns and sum them up for readers - but without the option of linking so readers can read the piece themselves, I'm relucant to do even to this. There is lots of other good sports writing out there that not's behind walls.
According to the New York Observer, the New York Times is planning a monthly sports magazine. The story also reports that Sports Illustrated is planning a "lifestyle" spin-off magazine.
Here is a letter (scroll down to last one) from a New York Times reader about unequal coverage of womens' sports on the Time's sports pages. I hope the editors are listening. Because the link to this page will disappear in a day or two, I'm reprinting the letter below ...
June 19, 2005
To the Sports Editor:
Having a teenage daughter who has participated in team sports since age 5, I am aware of the efforts being made locally to keep the playing options level for schoolgirls. But I have been conducting an informal poll of your coverage of women's sports and I am disappointed.
Coverage of Annika Sorenstam's solid victory in the L.P.G.A. Championship is illustrative. The opening paragraphs of the Sorenstam article focused more on the challenge by the runner-up than on her achievement. Her photo on the cover was minute, while one of Payne Stewart was huge.
Day after day, The Times gives unequal coverage to women's sports. If you are truly in support of Title IX, why not devote a special page to women's sports and give equal representation to women on the front page for significant tournaments?
Suzanne Whitney Smith
Carlisle, Mass.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
