What IS the sports news lobby, and why weren’t you invited?

Busy week at Unofficial Partner.

This week’s podcast is with Martyn Ziegler of The Times and Martha Kelner of Sky News
The recording took place before the sports news lobby annual get together, where journalists covering the sport business and politics beat invite famous or interesting people to the Thames Yacht Club bar in Knightsbridge and pour cheap wine down them. It’s been going since the mid-noughties, the brain child of Charlie Sale and David Bond, who is now Brexit Editor at the FT but was at that time the sports bloke for the BBC.
THE PODCAST IS HERE https://www.unofficialpartner.com/podcast

Who is The Secret Strategist?
We’re getting asked this a lot these days, after the first two columns dropped. Two things to say: It’s not me and we’re not telling you who it is but there’s more on the way - ok, that’s technically three things. But it’s good, have a look. (Five things).
Read The Secret Strategist HERE https://www.unofficialpartner.com/home

Are pubs priced out of Amazon’s football strategy?
The Unofficial Partner Christmas do corresponded with Man Utd v Spurs on Amazon. Our venue was the best pub in London, The Ship on New Cavendish Street, which not only lets us have the upstairs bar for podcast recordings, it’s run by a proper Spurs fan.
Long story short, we got one of the guests to stream the match on a laptop while the big screens were blank, because Amazon wanted £600 for a couple of nights of their Premier League deal, which on top of the landlord’s Sky and BT costs is a sub too far #TheShipvAmazon.

Martha Kelner on the two Nikes
We started the conversation on the podcast by getting Martyn and Martha to define how their respective platforms defined sports news.
To get a sports story on Sky News it has to talk to people who aren’t necessarily interested in sport. In the list of such stories recently, Martha Kelner listed Caster Semanya, the BOA’s Rule 40 stance as two which ‘get people outraged’.
Then we talked about Nike’s relationship with its women athletes, which is a pristine example of the fundamental difference between the approach of the sports news lobby and that of the marketing press. It talks to brand purpose and the women’s apparel market.

Martha Kelner: “We’ve followed the story about Nike and whether they do actually take their responsibilities toward women athletes seriously…some of whom had their pay docked when they announced they were pregnant. Jo Pavey said the same thing to happen to her when she had her son and then her daughter. These are the stories that really get people outraged, those are the sort of stories Sky News is interested in".

So, there are two Nikes. That version and the one that’s covered in the marketing press and wins awards for brand purpose campaigns.

MK: "They are brilliant marketers, if you look at what they do with Serena Williams, they traded off the fact that she was coming back after having her baby. But this is Serena Williams, they can afford to trade off that because she’s an International star who transcends tennis. But they have responsibilities to athletes who don’t make them as much money as Serena Williams. You can’t deny Nike are hugely successful, I own Nike trainers and Nike leggings, but I’m starting to question whether they take their social responsibilities seriously and whether we need to look at the money we are giving to certain companies".

From Shoot to Proust: Why Personal Bests are the best bests
We started this slot as an homage to the old player Q&As in Shoot (backstory: Sean was Shoot publisher in the 1990s when magazines were popular. Now they’ve all but disappeared. People blame the internet, but Sean must surely take some responsibility).
The Unofficial PB is a chance for anyone in the sports business* (*or associated industries) to answer the Q&A that’s based extremely loosely on Proust’s Questionnaire (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proust_Questionnaire), so nobody can accuse us of lacking pretension. Get in touch if you fancy a go.
READ THE PBs HERE: https://www.unofficialpartner.com/that-s-a-pb

Do something Unofficial in 2020
Unofficial Partner is owned and run by Richard Gillis and Sean Singleton. You can contact us via email on Richard@UnofficialPartner.co.uk or Sean@UnofficialPartner.co.uk.
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