“It’s incredibly important to shine a light on minor sports”, says Rod Gilmour, an experienced freelance sports journalist and founder and editor of The Hockey Paper.
“I guarantee there wasn’t one British media correspondent covering (the All England Badminton Championships),” he says, “Fifteen years ago, there would have been five or ten.” This is in contrast to sports media coverage in Asia and Europe, which often celebrate more ‘minor’ sports such as badminton, table tennis and handball.
Rod tells me that “that part of the sports media (in the UK) has completely died. It’s a bit of a shame.” That has consequences for the sports journalism industry as a whole, as well as in sports participation figures at a grassroots level.
The decline of minor sports coverage
Gilmour’s extensive career has also seen him have stints at The Daily Telegraph as well as cover the Olympic Games, and he has seen firsthand the decline of minor sports coverage in the British media.
It started with the 2008 financial crash, which resulted in many job losses across sports desks with minor sports bearing the brunt.
“So in the last 15 years, those sports have not been covered properly in the UK press, and as a result, there’s very little coverage of those sports.”
This is reflected in participation data from Sport England, which shows a decline in the numbers of people playing some of the sports that suffered cuts in coverage immediately after 2008. There were likely bigger factors at play of course, but it shows the correlation between eyeballs and activity.
From 2007–08 and 2012–13, weekly adult participation in swimming dropped from 7.83% to 6.65%, badminton dropped from 1.29% to 1.15% and squash from 0.71% to 0.59%. There was also a slight drop in the percentage of those playing hockey, while table tennis bucked the trend and had a small uptake in numbers.
In terms of what’s changed in the British media landscape since then, Gilmour says: “Clearly, football, rugby, cricket, golf, F1 rule the roost. You’ll see very little general sports coverage.”
“Whereas if you go to the continent, or Europe, those sports have a shining beacon if someone does well. Here we’re less inclined to do so.”
An ever-changing industry
Gilmour began his career in 2000, just as digital journalism was starting to reshape the industry. I asked him about some of the transformative changes that have taken place in newsrooms across that time.
“Well, since starting work in 2000, obviously print to digital, first across the industry in terms of newspapers. 2008 to 2010 was when social media was kicking in and the internet was becoming more commercially savvy.”
The rise of social media led to a desire for clicks over all else as media organisations adapted to the new technological, as well as financial, climate. There was still limited knowledge around SEO (search engine optimisation) best practices and how to boost the visibility of stories.
“Then it was quality over quantity, anything goes. And that sort of went for newspapers like The Daily Telegraph, where it was more the merrier, without any sort of SEO knowledge or anything like that, which might hamper it.”
“That’s completely switched around, perhaps to do with paywalls and subscriptions, and it’s now quality over quantity for the better”, says Rod.
That recent shift back towards in-depth quality journalism is undoubtedly a positive, but it still hasn’t brought minor sports back into focus, despite a rise in popularity of sports such as padel.
“You just don’t get those sports covered unless it’s the Olympics.”
21,800 – biggest hockey crowd I’ve reported on. India v England at Rourkela. Special night. pic.twitter.com/FTMWft7QI7
— Rod Gilmour (@_rodgilmour) January 15, 2023
Finding a niche
Gilmour didn’t always set out to become a hockey specialist, but once the opportunity arose, he threw himself into it.
“I always knew what I wanted to do when I began journalism, i.e. sport, but I think you’ve got to be open to possibilities”, Rod says.
He constantly emphasises the importance of finding a niche in a crowded field. Indeed, it’s advice he gave to me when I was starting out in this industry, and words that I still carry with me.
“Especially with freelance work, you’ve just got to say pretty much yes to everything. And find your niche, really.”
“If I was to give someone advice, especially in somewhere like sports, it’s to find your niche, whether that’s gardening or whatever, and roll with it.”
He believes that kind of focus is even more valuable now than when he started, particularly with the rise of subscription-driven models and even more significantly, the emergence of AI.
“Today in the media landscape, where subscriptions are becoming more prevalent, I think if you’ve got a skill or knowledge in a certain area and you’re the go-to for that, it plays a huge part.”
“Especially with the rise of AI, who knows where it may pan out. But I think having your niche is absolutely key.”
Finding a niche and becoming the go-to guy for ‘minor sports’ has enabled Rod Gilmour to cover the Olympics and set up his own publication.
It’s a reminder that sport is so much more beyond football, and that millions of people play and watch the sports that don’t get as much mainstream media coverage.
As Rod says: “You just have to find ways to keep going and keep telling the stories that aren’t being told.”
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