Sports journalism is an ever-evolving field. 

 

It began in the late 1800s and was a sporadic form of media that mostly focused on horse racing and boxing. At the time, sports journalism was simply a seed, planted to appeal to the upper class for sporting events that were more about social status than competition. But going into the 20th century, that seed grew into an entire ecosystem as sports journalism expanded its audience. Instead of targeting the wealthy, it targeted the masses, and the growing notoriety of professional sports was the perfect catalyst. A 1933 study estimated that in 1880, American newspapers utilized just .04% of their paper to cover sports. By 1920, newspapers dedicated 12-20% of their paper for sports and nearly every newspaper had some type of sports section. 

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Game recaps became a popular type of article to consume. Sports players and coaches became celebrities, spurred by the extensive media coverage they received. Sports journalist had been a non-existent job just a century earlier. Now it was the dream that every young reporter was chasing. The origins of sports writing came from a demand to know what happened at the games because in the early 20th century, sports weren’t on TV or radio. If you weren’t at the game, you had to read about it to find out how it played out. That drove the initial spike.

 

This era became known as the golden age of sports journalism and the play-by-play recap was invented. Nowadays, practices such as taking notes during the game, interviewing coaches and players, and having a story in before the print deadline that night are commonplace. Early on though, these were pioneering steps that reporters bravely took to carve out a space in a form of writing where the rules were still being written. 

 

At first, the written form of sports coverage was all there was to offer. But over the course of the 20th century, TV and radio began broadcasting games and gave sports fans more of a live experience. So, sports journalists had to adapt and use the changing technology to their own advantage. Reporters began using word-processors and computers to write stories instead of using a typewriter. As the internet expanded and stats and box scores were more easily accessible, sports journalists' roles changed. Stories expanded from a simple play-by-play, now involving more in-depth analysis and unique angles on games and players.

 

Most recently, sports journalism has adjusted to the decline of print journalism and moved more content online. There are now websites like The Athletic which is a web-only, subscription-based sports website that is more popular than most print journalism coverage. There is a perception that as newspapers fade away, the desire for coverage will disappear as well. But people will always want the coverage, they just want to find more easily accessible ways to consume it. 
 

That’s been the case for sports journalism throughout its existence. Constantly changing and finding new ways to fill the sports media landscape.