If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em — or something like that. Or whatever the media equivalent might be.
In this case, it’s former Tennessean beat writer Jim Wyatt going from covering the Tennessee Titans for the newspaper to working directly for the team’s official website. He’ll be the senior writer and editor for TitansOnline.com.
Wyatt had been with the Tennessean since 1990, beginning as a part-time writer covering prep sports. Four years later, he became a full-time staffer and began covering the Titans beat in 1999. At the paper, the Associated Press Sports Editors twice named him as one of the top 10 beat reporters in the country. He was also named Tennessee’s top sportswriter six times by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.
I am looking forward — and thankful — for this opportunity with the @Titans. Promise to do my best to keep fans informed.
— Jim Wyatt (@jwyattsports) July 21, 2015
“Growing up in Nashville, it was always a dream of mine to work for The Tennessean, and I can’t thank the newspaper enough for the opportunity,” Wyatt said in an official statement.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the paper and treasure the friendships I developed. Now, I’m ready for the next chapter and looking forward to continuing my long history of covering the Titans for TitansOnline.com. I’d like to thank the Titans for giving me this opportunity and am excited about the chance to continue providing insight into the team I’ve covered since the 1999 season.”
Naturally, it seems like a strange transition to go from covering the team as a presumed outsider for a local media outlet to working for that club and playing a role in crafting its official message. Presumably, many of the same sources Wyatt utilized in his reporting can now be used for his new job. Of course, the question becomes whether some of those sources — if they’re affiliated with the team — might have more of a say in what can and can’t be released to the public.
Obviously, the Titans enjoyed the work Wyatt did covering them for the Tennessean, feeling he was fair and persistent in his reporting. From Wyatt’s point of view, working directly for the team might provide a bit more stability than a gig at a newspaper, which has become more of a day-to-day position, in terms of its security, than ever.
Wyatt is hardly the first writer to go from a mainstream media outlet to working directly for the team. Tim Twentyman, who jumped from the Detroit News to writing for the Detroit Lions official site, is just one example that comes to mind. But if you’re keeping score, a prominent, accomplished writer going from a newspaper to a team does seem like a loss.
Titans fans seem like the ultimate winner here, getting the same level of coverage they were accustomed to from Wyatt with perhaps an additional level of access now. Assuming the message isn’t tightly controlled, and Wyatt presumably wouldn’t have taken this position if that was the case, the fanbase should get better coverage than ever directly from the source.
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