Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
A couple of weeks ago, I asked readers to send me their ideas about how IBJ should be approaching its beats. And I’m pleased to say I’ve received some smart, thoughtful and interesting suggestions about what you’d like to see us do more and less of.
I would love to hear more from you. Send your thoughts to [email protected]. I’m compiling all the suggestions into a larger report that I’m going to share with our staff—and I’ll report back to you in this column, as well.
But this week, I thought I’d address one thing that has come up several times: Why does IBJ spend so much time on sports?
It’s certainly a fair question. Five of our last seven front pages have included a sports-related story (and I’m not counting the promotion on the bottom of page 1A that sometimes references the sports column).
In the last several weeks, we’ve had stories about the Indiana Pacers, Indianapolis Colts and the Indianapolis 500. And at IBJ.com, we’ve had many more sports-related stories, including some about the Indiana Fever, the upcoming WNBA All-Star Game and college sports.
And I expect there will be many more sports stories, especially as the WNBA All-Star Weekend approaches.
The reason is that sports is big business. Other than our sports columnists—Mark Montieth and Derek Schultz—IBJ’s stories are rarely about games or players. They’re about sports as tourism and entertainment and economic drivers. They’re about development and advertising, about how sports can help attract a company’s headquarters or create opportunities for business leaders to connect.
And certainly, big sports events are about filling hotels and restaurants that employ thousands of central Indiana residents.
On May 16, IBJ’s front page included a story about how IndyCar teams were embracing new opportunities for sponsorships—and how the companies that sponsored the teams had expanded expectations about what they get for their investments.
On May 30, reporter Mickey Shuey wrote a front-page story about Colts ownership in the wake of Jim Irsay’s death and the preparation his daughters had been doing in anticipation of taking over the team someday.
And last week, a front-page story explored the opportunities for marketing, branding, sponsorships and more that the Pacers’ trip to the NBA Finals creates for its parent company, Pacers Sports & Entertainment.
Each of these is a business story rooted in sports.
Of course, we sometimes post online stories—usually written by the Associated Press or another partner—about games. During the NBA playoffs, you’ve probably received breaking news emails from us announcing the results of games.
Do you need IBJ to send you those alerts? Probably not. But when everyone in town is talking about something—be it Caitlin Clark or the NBA Finals or whether Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson is hurt—we’re probably going to be talking about it, too.
And so you will continue to see us covering sports—mostly from a business perspective but not always.
You can look for emails this weekend about the NBA Finals games. And you bet we’ll be covering WNBA All-Star Weekend. And in three years, when USA Swimming brings the Olympic Trials back to Indianapolis, we’ll be all over it.
Sports is a part of Indy’s DNA. We know many of our readers care passionately about it. And so do we.
In the meantime, I’m always open to hearing about whether you think we’re covering sports stories well and what else you think we need to tackle. I’d love to hear from you.•
__________
Weidenbener is editor and assistant publisher of IBJ and assistant publisher of The Indiana Lawyer. Reach her at [email protected].
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
