The Sweeper: The Decline of SoccerAmerica

Big Story
It won’t surprise you to learn that newsstand circulation and subscriptions of American magazines declined 9.1% in the second half of 2009, after a 12.36% decline in the first half of the year. Double digit declines were previously recorded in 2008. Newsweek’s circulation fell 41.3%.

I don’t know what SoccerAmerica’s decline was, but we can presume they were hit hard as well, based solely off their recent announcement that they are ending their monthly print issues, instead offering special print guides to events like the World Cup and the MLS season.

Their next issue will be their “Complete Guide to MLS 2010″, which promises the following:

In-Depth Previews of
All 16 MLS Teams
Features on MLS’s Top Stars
Profiles of MLS’s
10 Best Young Players
All-New Fresh & Dynamic Look
Brilliant Photography

Will you be buying a copy? At $12.95, I won’t be, and that’s not meant as a slap to SoccerAmerica. It will probably feature some fine writing. The problem is, my google news reader will be chock full of “in-depth previews” and “features on MLS’s Top Stars” before the magazine drops in mid-March. I’ll already be saturated, for free.

The question Steve Davis asks on his Daily Fix column is whether we are losing quality with the decline of a respected print magazine and its replacement by the plethora of bellicose voices on the internet and television.

Ridge [Mahoney], Mike Woitalla and Paul Kennedy at Soccer America have long been the leaders in providing smart, moderated voices in domestic soccer. It was always a shining example of how specialized media can work exactly as it should, with intelligent people using their access to influencers to help readers (and the outside media at large) develop a better understanding of it all.

They’re still doing the same good work, but their influence has waned. Their diluted voice has nothing to do with diminished skill or desire. Rather, it’s about their platform. Soccer America, like so many other print platforms, has simply struggled to keep pace in a rapidly changing media world. The words and wisdom still exist – but it gets short shrift, frequently obscured among the everyday tsunami of quasi-informed opinions.

In all honesty, I truly don’t know of anyone who gets the magazine anymore. Ridge’s excellent MLS Confidential is known and respected inside the industry, but I don’t know how many fans/readers it reaches. Same for Woitalla’s good work. (If you’re interested to any degree in youth soccer, you absolutely must check out his ongoing work on kiddoes in soccer. It is truly terrific and essential reading.)

There are other good sources of information and opinion on the U.S. soccer scene out there. But only a precious few have the ability and inclination to layer it all with context, perspective and supporting data. It’s much easier, after all, to fire off a few sentences, sprinkle in some outrage in the appropriate places (but with no consideration for offering alternatives) and then head out to lunch.

SoccerAmerica has tried to make the move to the internet, with their daily email subscription service. But their website’s never been compelling, and doesn’t appear to generate more than minimal revenue itself. Taking a glance at it today, the headline piece is “Rooney ranks among the greats” by Paul Kennedy, a 314 word recap of the Madrid-Man Utd game from yesterday that offers absolutely zero new information or any insight not available at dozens of other outlets I’d visit before SoccerAmerica to read about European football. It’s a completely pointless piece.

Buried below, Paul Kennedy has another brief piece that’s interesting and well-done because it offers me some information on something I haven’t seen a million times already, covering the latest recruitment by Virginia in college soccer. Digging through the site, there’s obviously a ton of unique and interesting content on parts of the American soccer scene going under-reported everywhere else, especially on youth soccer.

So why is SoccerAmerica wasting Paul Kennedy’s time having him write a wrap-up of yesterday’s Champions League action when he’s obviously capable of so much more? The magazine, with a core staff of quality reporters, should focus 100% on their niche to stay relevant: they have to adapt to the new platform of the internet, and part of that is recognising there is little point covering what’s already covered everywhere else now we all have access to so many information sources.

Quick Hits

Futebol Finance has a list of Europe’s top paid players; interesting to note no Premier League players in the top five there.
Down the Byline expresses some concern about the apparently ever-shrinking capacity of Kansas City’s new stadium, now under construction.
Michael Lewis remembers a real American soccer riot from a decade ago.
Portsmouth’s former owner and still chairman Sulaiman Al Fahim is facing an arrest warrant for debts over a property deal. And this guy was deemed a fit-and-proper person? Meanwhile, Portsmouth have hours left to prove their solvency as their accountants prepare their statement of affairs for the court, facing a winding up order with debts over 60 million pounds.
The hopes of West Ham’s owners for the club to move to London’s Olympic Stadium were dealt a serious blow, as the Olympics Minister reminded everyone its legacy was supposed to be for athletics, not football.
Asian Football Confederation boss Mohammed Bin Hammam unsurprisingly leans towards Qatar as he discusses the Asian continent’s 2018/22 World Cup bids, making a rather hyperbolic claim: “The Middle East also has the legitimate right to seek peace through football and an event like the World Cup can replace the sorry story of wars.”
Darren Bent discusses his decision to quit Twitter.

The Sweeper appears every weekday, and once at the weekend. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

9 Responses to "The Sweeper: The Decline of SoccerAmerica"

KT says:

February 17, 2010 at 10:30 am

As a magazine editor, I have a little bit I can add to the discussion at least:

It’s REALLY tough out there. Newspapers are in a death spiral, but they still have some amount of tradition and broad appeal and some habits die hard. But we’re not far behind. In fact, many of us may go first, because most of us aren’t backed by huge corporations.

While it has always amazed me that something like Cat Fancy can get 233,500 circulation per issue while Soccer America (I’m guessing here) can’t get close to that, but I guess I shouldn’t be that amazed. Lots and lots of people have cats in this country, and those people are REALLY fanatical about their cats.

Part of the problem is the actual number of soccer fans in this country who potentially WOULD purchase a magazine may not be large enough to actually sustain a magazine.

The other part of the problem, as you rightly point out, is why would you? You’re not going to find information there that you can’t get somewhere else (for free, and in a more timely manner). The quality’s not what it would have to be to attract large numbers, and without large numbers, the quality’s not going to improve (sounds like MLS’ play on the field, doesn’t it?).

I love FourFourTwo. Even though I only peripherally pay attention to the English game, I think as a magazine, it’s fantastic. The photography, the editorial, the ideas, the depth of coverage. Even though I don’t have a horse in the race when it comes to Division Two or Scotland, their content is so compelling that I find myself reading it whenever I can (my local Barnes & Noble no longer carries it, so I haven’t seen it in a while).

No American soccer magazine has ever approached that level of quality. Maybe it can’t, because that level of quality requires a substantial capital investment. Hell, Japan has more than a dozen DAILY sports newspapers, and the only one that’s ever really been tried here went belly-up after 18 months and $100 million lost. Maybe it can’t be done.

While I still love a good magazine, still love seeing one arrive in my mailbox, I know that I’m in the minority and that the future is online – even for the magazine I’m in charge of. Still, as newspapers are finding out, there continues to be a need for information – there always will be, IMHO.

Unfortunately, the vacuum created by the relative lack of good information about American soccer, combined with the dropping of many of the barriers to entry gives us morons and pseudo-journalists who only serve to bring down the level of discussion while raising the level of hysteria.

I don’t know what the answer is. Find people you feel you can trust and read them. Have a discerning eye. Avoid people who seek pageviews first and the truth somewhere down the line.
merwin says:

February 17, 2010 at 10:58 am

KT wrote:

Unfortunately, the vacuum created by the relative lack of good information about American soccer, combined with the dropping of many of the barriers to entry gives us morons and pseudo-journalists who only serve to bring down the level of discussion while raising the level of hysteria.

I would argue that morons and pseudo-journalists have occupied a part of American Sports Journalism for a long, long time. Ask a die hard NBA fan what its like to listen to mainstream NBA scribes talk about potential trades who have absolutely no understanding of how the salary cap or NBA trade rules work. Instead you can go to a good message board and discover things like “hey the Bucks can’t trade for Malik Allen since it is against NBA rules to reacquire a player via trade after you traded him in the same season” after a paid sportswriter in Denver says “Denver shopping Malik Allen to the Bucks”. Ignorance and stupidity is rampant in paid sports media. Ives is a prime example of this in the world of paid soccer journalists.

KT wrote:

I don’t know what the answer is. Find people you feel you can trust and read them. Have a discerning eye. Avoid people who seek pageviews first and the truth somewhere down the line.

This is how you have to view all media. Stupidity, ignorance, fear mongering, and pageview pandering have always been a problem. I read Pitch Invasion because it is smart, thoughtful and focused even if I don’t always agree. I read Fake Sigi for the same reasons. I don’t read Dirty Tackle because I find it stupid, pandering, and not funny (which seems to be a goal of theirs).
Jay Hipps says:

February 17, 2010 at 11:37 am

I agree that SA has provided some great writing over the years; I’m particularly a big fan of Ridge Mahoney’s work. It’s disappointing that they find themselves in dire financial straits after serving the country’s soccer community so well for so many years.

A couple comments on your piece:

- I’ll defend, though not too strenuously, Paul Kennedy’s item on yesterday’s Milan/ManU piece by saying that people who use SA as their primary soccer news source might appreciate seeing a brief recap of European action there. Kennedy may also be providing pieces like that, brief though they may be, as a way of keeping his existing audience from straying to other outlets.

- That said, I agree that SA should capitalize on their strengths as a niche publication. It may be counter-intuitive to narrow the focus as the audience decreases, but there are a lot of things that SA does that are simply unmatched by other sources, either in print or online. When times are tough, go with your strengths.
Tom Dunmore says:

February 17, 2010 at 11:49 am

Jay — there can be a place for a brief recap, I’d agree to that. Obviously, in terms of winning page-views as well, that may actually be a winning strategy if you broaden everything out and become a one-stop shop: see SBI (which has in the process sacrificed what little quality journalism it had for the most part).

But part of the issue I also mentioned was that this was the leading article on the site: that’s the first thing any site is judged by. An interview with Sunil Gulati is buried in the sidebar next to it. I just don’t think that makes sense for SA editorially, as indeed, they need to be a must-read niche publication, not a one-stop-shop, or even more awkwardly in the internet era, trying to be a hybrid between the two.
KT says:

February 17, 2010 at 1:43 pm

“I would argue that morons and pseudo-journalists have occupied a part of American Sports Journalism for a long, long time.”

Fair enough. But for every Jay Marriotti, it seems as though there are ten MLS Rumors (or people with that level of braindeadedness).

But I have long argued that you don’t want soccer covered by “the mainstream media” (no matter how much you think it would be cool or validate your soccer fandom or whatever) because, by and large, “the mainstream media” knows eff-all about soccer. Sportscenter “covering” MLS would be lowest-common-denominator bullshit with a lot of catch phrases and auditions for the local chuckle hut thrown in. I’d just as soon they left it alone.

At least you can avoid the total crackpots online by just not going to their sites or clicking on links.
dokool says:

February 17, 2010 at 4:39 pm

If I can make a digression,

KT wrote:
“Hell, Japan has more than a dozen DAILY sports newspapers, and the only one that’s ever really been tried here went belly-up after 18 months and $100 million lost. Maybe it can’t be done.”

Some weeks I spend upwards of 1000+ yen/week on soccer publications: Weekly Soccer Digest, Weekly Soccer Magazine, and El Golazo (a thrice-weekly newspaper). And those just cover Japanese soccer! Nevermind all the mags that cover the European scene.

The catch is that Japanese media almost steadfastly refuse to use the Internet. Tiny photos, rarely does anything behind a “in this week’s issue” preview, few archives on newspaper sites longer than 2 weeks, etc. One newspaper whose site I always go to for my team’s news now charges 350y/month for access to its mobile site. And this is the norm.

It’s certainly a fair statement to make that Japan is far ahead of the US in terms of print soccer journalism, but bear in mind that a major reason for this is that Japan’s net media is still in the dark ages, relatively speaking.
dokool says:

February 17, 2010 at 4:41 pm

Err, that “behind” should be a “beyond.”
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