Few industries were changed more by the advent of the Internet than the media. Particularly the sports media, where the tradition of wizened sports writers ascending to the position of columnist after years on the beat has been replaced by Twitter, blogs and endless voices seeking commentary stardom.
While the Internet might have opened up the opportunity for people to get their voices out, distinguishing between those voices has proven to be difficult for the majority of would-be sportswriters. One of the few people to emerge from the endlessness of the blogosphere is Bill Simmons who has achieved national acclaim as “The Sports Guy.” As a featured ESPN columnist and former Jimmy Kimmel show writer, Simmons took the path less traveled to success. Even though the Holy Cross grad had some newspaper writing experience, he failed to latch on at a major daily.
He bartended and toiled away until the growth of online readership offered him the opportunity to reach an audience. Simmons recognized that the internet would be the future of journalism and built a significant online audience as “The Boston Sports Guy.” He pushed his columns through e-mail and a local Boston site before being discovered. Simmons dropped the Boston part when he moved to Los Angeles.
As a featured columnist for ESPN, Simmons expanded his audience by incorporating pop-culture references into nearly every line of his columns and providing a voice of the fan that previously was not featured in the mainstream press. Simmons was not on the beat. He did not have to answer to the players or coaches he called out. This allowed him to be as critical as he wanted, and it got him into a feud with NBA great Isaiah Thomas. While this might have created problems at a newspaper, it created followers on the internet.
Simmons is a tale of success that was created entirely due to the power of digital media.