I have a story that I think hits to the center of this.
I worked for ESPN for two months as a temporary PA (left to start my writing career) roughly 11 years ago.
During the interview process, I was asked by a decision maker at the company what I would change about ESPN.
I told him I would want more highlights and more focus on games.
He told me I was wrong and that fans don’t care about games once they go final, they only care about storylines.
I told him that storylines need the context of games (or highlights of them on sportscenter!) and he told me, again, I was wrong.
I think they’ve continued to lose touch with what makes sports fans, sports fans
Still kinda crazy to me that Javier Báez, who hasn't played CF in 40 days, is the All-Star starting CF over a CF who has him beat in *everything*
Trust me, I love clicks/views/engagement, but this isn't the All-Star game I grew up with