Canadiens: some media outlets no longer systematically send a reporter on the road

Since the start of the Canadiens season, Ive often talked about how difficult rebuilding can be for many Habs-related businesses.

TV and radio partners are suffering; when the club was at its lowest point a few weeks ago, less than 400,000 people (average per minute) were watching the games on RDS and TVA Sports.

These two media outlets pay tens of millions of dollars per season to show Habs games, and at 375,000 people per game, its far from profitable.

When you meet with an advertising company or agency, you sell them spots for 500,000 people, lets say...

and when you dont even reach 400,000, you have to reimburse the client or give them equivalent advertising elsewhere in the schedule.

But not on Sundays at 6:12 when no one is listening...

Most print media both traditional and strictly digital on the Web are also experiencing a drop in traffic related to the Canadiens.

The camp was interesting...

and Patrik Laines return is just as interesting right now; except that, in between, its been pretty tough.

Especially since social networks are overflowing with free information for fans these days...

During these more difficult times, I was told that at least two French-language media outlets had decided not to send journalists on the road during a Habs game .

I talked about this this week on the Stanley25 podcast .

Reminder: English-speaking journalists had already begun to desert the press galleries .

10 years ago, such a scenario would simply have been unthinkable...

But here we are in 2024, and the media environment is undergoing a veritable revolution.

Opinion trumps news (and it costs less to produce), and alternative media have eaten up much of the space once occupied strictly by traditional media.

Managers at the various media outlets have to deal with shrinking/survival and much tighter budgets.

Especially when their media receives little or no subsidy...

Sending someone to Columbus for a short one-game trip (plane, two-night hotel stay, journalists salary, per diem , etc.) is sometimes hard to defend financially.

Its also logistically difficult when the club is playing in Montreal the day before.

Thats why some media outlets didnt send anyone to Ohio on November 27, according to my sources...

Theres also the need to reduce our carbon footprint, according to the philosophy of certain Quebecois media companies.

When the opinion or news section of your media constantly pushes this theme to its readers, its normal to see the sports section reduce their trips...

With games being broadcast in high definition on our TVs (notably in 4K on Amazon Prime Video on Monday nights) and press briefings being presented live on the Habs social networks, journalists at certain media outlets need to prepare a big list of arguments to convince their bosses to hit the road.

And that bothers some of them...

On a purely business level, a boss has to figure that spending $4,000 or $5,000 on a one-game trip to Columbus will be profitable before authorizing it.

But if the journalist is only gathering the same information thats available online or refusing to release what he sees or hears when hes close to the team its hard to justify such an expense.

Especially when viewers, listeners and readers are less likely to be there than they used to be...

The other problem is that on November 14, the Canadiens had already planned to sleep in Minnesota after their game, then return to Montreal the following day after practice.

Many journalists therefore spent an extra day in Minnesota and the expenses that go with it only to see the Canadiens cancel the practice AND the media availability afterwards.

Journalists who were there first and foremost to take clips in the locker room had to go back to town empty-handed.

And that bothered a lot of people on the media side.

Extension A former boss of a (very) large media outlet told me on Tuesday that he often sent reporters on the road to follow the Canadiens activities, but that in the end, 98% of the information they were looking for could have come from Montreal.

The media world especially the sports world has become a business .

Revenues, expenses, profits (or losses)...

thats how the big bosses think these days.

And we have to ask ourselves a question as a society: should we really be subsidizing journalism? Yes, especially for investigative journalism...

But on the beat with the Canadiens sports journalism? Im REALLY not so sure.

It seems to me that there are far more important areas to put our collective money into, dont you think? Take BPM Sports, for example: the station just had an impressive fall survey...

and it doesnt send anyone on the road.

They cover the Canadiens on site when theyre in Montreal or Brossard, but on the road, they rely on social networks.

And the people who do (paid for by their #1 employer).

The future is digital.

Actually, no: the present is digital.

Unfortunately or fortunately...

This article first appeared on Dose.ca and was syndicated with permission..

This article has been shared from the original article on yardbarker, here is the link to the original article:

https://www.yardbarker.com/nhl/articles/canadiens_some_media_outlets_no_longer_systematically_send_a_reporter_on_the_road/s1_17387_41354409