Mark Coddington

For virtually every other American old-media company, this decade has been one of collapse, of downsizing, of a steady chipping away of authority. The theme of this decade in news media could easily be Yeats’ line, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.”

Yet for ESPN, this has been the decade of expansion, of hegemony, of steadily mounting authority.

I’m going to be hitting the road for a week today, so I won’t be able to post my weekly media roundup this weekend. But rather than leave you empty-handed, I thought I’d give you a few of my all-time favorite long-form journalism articles (at least the ones available for free online). As you’ll see, [...]

We’re a little top-heavy this week, but hang in there — you should find some interesting stuff inside. (As always, explanation is here.)
— I’m about a week and a half late by now on the Washington Post’s new social media guidelines, but it dominated discussion this week and commentary is still trickling out about it, [...]

Last week, a familiar sports media storyline played itself out in Michigan. Detroit Free Press columnist Mike Rosenberg and reporter Mark Snyder wrote an investigative piece with details from a half-dozen current and former Michigan football players about practices that (most likely) violated NCAA rules.
A predictable firestorm erupted, with national media taking notice, Michigan coach [...]