This article has been a long time coming.

Not that you don't already know about the newspaper industry. Quite the contrary I'm sure. I won't be the first to tell you that newspapers are all but dead. Honestly, I'm probably not the 1000th person to tell you either.

But it still kind of bums me out.

Like you I'm sure, I grew up reading the newspaper every day as a kid. It's where my favorite teams and players came to life, a kind of "live journal," of my youth as a sports fan if you will. And loving sports the way I do, I always assumed that I'd spend my adult years in a newsroom, arguing with co-workers like Wilbon and Kornheiser. Only hopefully with a little more hair.

Like so many things in life though, the way you dream things up as a kid are rarely how they turn out to be as an adult. Don't get me wrong, I'm ok with it. I've found a nice place for myself here online, while many overqualified newspaper writers are be given pink slips every day nationwide. Believe me, I'm not bitter or angry that I never got to work at a newspaper, just thankful that I came along when I did, and not five years earlier or later.

But here's the most frustrating part about the situation with newspapers: Everyone's given up. The old guard running the industry believes that a younger audience no longer wants the news. And that's the farthest thing from the truth. The news as we know it has just changed.

Incidentally, in the new age, digital world we live in, where the internet literally makes us one, big, worldwide community, newspapers, and the news business, in principle, should be thriving. Especially sports. Because let's be honest, when else in history has a kid from Boston attending college in Texas had access to the day-to-day information that makes him feel like he's following his team from home? When has an overburdened father of four on vacation at Disneyland ever been able to get real time updates while waiting in line for a rollercoaster?

If anything, newspaper audiences are bigger then they ever have been. And as hard as it is for the old guard running the papers to believe, young people (you know that core demographic that every marketer needs), still want the news, they just want it immediately, and packaged differently than it ever has been. Unfortunately, most of them won't realize how to do that until it's too late.

I've given this a lot of thought, and there are plenty of ways to save newspapers and bring back a bigger, younger, audience. Now I understand that because of contracts, unions and a bunch of other legal mumbo-jumbo that's over my head, not all of this is possible. And my plan doesn't really help the Business section of the paper, or the Arts and Entertainment either. I just know sports.

But as a relatively young person, with what I like to think of as a bright mind, I know I can help. Here are a few ideas on how to better your local sports section, and hopefully keep it around for awhile.

1. The Game Recap: Ten or 15 years ago, the game recap was the staple of the sports section. Now I'm not so sure we need it all, or at least nothing more than a watered down version of what it once was.

Because here's the reality of the world we live in, in 2010: We are able to see every single game our team plays through satellite cable or the internet, regardless of what corner of the globe we live in. During the games, we e-mail and text friends about every missed dunk, dropped third strike, and awful touchdown dance.

Afterward, we go on message boards with a bunch of other anonymous weirdos, that like ourselves, care about the team a little too much. We break down everything that happened in alarming proportions, spending hours with other seemingly normal, grown, adults, wondering things like, "Was Manny drunk during his at bat in seventh inning ," and "Maybe if Shaq didn't have the same cup size as Scarlett Johannson, he would have been able to guard Dwight Howard in the fourth quarter."

After especially great wins and losses, we might even fire up the TiVo and watch the game again before bed, in the process, verifying to ourselves, that yes, Manny was drunk in the seventh inning.

By the time we get up in the morning, do we really need a game recap? What can a newspaper tell us that we haven't already figured out on our own, and discussed at length on the message board with SoxDuude11?

Instead, how about we limit the game recap to 500 words or less? Who, what, when, where, why, with a few snazzy quotes thrown in for good measure. That's it, and honestly that still might be too much.

Sure maybe we can get an extended recap if there's a big playoff game, or our team wins a championship, but that's it. Again, this is called a "newspaper," and quite frankly, by the morning, the game recap is no longer really news.

However, just because the game recap is shorter, doesn't mean that we're eliminating our beat writers...

2. The Changing Role of Beat Writers: Again, just because the game recap has been condensed doesn't mean beat writers are gone. Just that their job responsibilities have changed.

To reiterate, this is 2010. We can watch every game even if we're 5000 miles away. Hell, the biggest Laker fan I know lives in Japan. Yet he knows more about his team than Kobe Bryant's babysitter.

In 2010, what we as readers want is a "scoop." Something we can't get anywhere else.

It's no longer enough just to write about the game itself. Instead, we want to know what it's like in the arena before the game, and after it too. We want good quotes we've never heard before. We want to know who looked loose before the game, and who looked like they were about to lose their lunch.

We want to know who's the team clown. Who's the prick that everybody secretly hates? What was the locker room like after the big win? Are the players happy? Disinterested? Have they turned on the coach? Has the coach turned on them? How many groupies are waiting in the parking lot?

This is the stuff we consume as fans. Again, we care about our teams a little too much. We stress about everything. But by the end of the season, we think that we have a real relationship with these guys, that after 16 or 82 or 162 games that we know them. Sure we may have never even been in the same state as them. And sure they wouldn't give us a second look on the street, unless it was to hit on our girlfriend.

Regardless, this is the information we want. The stuff we can't get by watching on TV, or even being in the stands.

You've got a press pass. Now use it!

3. The Changing Voice of the Columnist: This is the single most fascinating part of the newspaper industry.

To my understanding, the columnist is supposed to be the most desired job at a newspaper. He or she is supposed to be the voice that speaks for everyone.

But here's the thing, it seems like in every sports section, every columnist is exactly the same: 60-years-old, with a bad hairpiece, probable halitosis, and Rosie O'Donnell's waistline. I'm sorry, but I'm 25-years-old, I don't want that guy speaking for me!

Yet at every newspaper, it's seemingly the same thing. A news story breaks, we collect the facts, then crusty, 60-year-old columnist guy weighs in, everyone gets mad, it causes an uproar for a day or two, and then we start the process all over again.

Now, I don't blame the crusty 60-year-old guy. When I get to be his age, I'll probably be mad about everything too. And as long as he's saying something insightful or thought provoking, I have no problem keeping him around.

But at the same time I want somebody with a fresh, younger voice as well, preferably under the age of 40. Somebody who speaks to my younger readers, understands them, and maybe gives them a different perspective.

To give you an example, let's take the recent Tiger Woods situation. By now you all know what happened, I don't need to go into details here.

After it did happen, we were hit from all directions, with a wave of crusty old guys, condemning Tiger Woods and ripping him apart.

But here's the thing. How can these guys give a proper perspective? Maybe they're married or maybe they're divorced. But when's the last time they were in a bar? When's the last time they talked to a beautiful 22-year-old blonde? When's the last time they even had the opportunity to commit infidelity whether they wanted to or not? Because my guess is that whenever it was, they were probably wearing skin-tight plaid pants with Diana Ross music blaring in the background.

Look, I'm not saying that I condone what Tiger Woods did, because I don't.

At the same time, don't you think that as a 25-year-old, as a guy who goes to bars, as a guy who may or may not have made bad decisions with questionable females this decade, that I might have a different opinion? Then why isn't anyone hearing that?

And if you're a newspaper, and you're trying to bring back that young audience, the 18-35-year-old male, don't you thnk they want a columnist to speak to them, rather than yell at them?

Again, I'm not saying that crusty old guy doesn't have a place, and doesn't have his audience, because he does. But that doesn't mean that his opinion is the only valid one, and his audience is the only one that needs to be spoken to.

It's time to reach out to everyone.

4. Features That Actually Suck Me In: So the other day I sat down, opened the paper and a feature actually caught my eye (I know with all this complaining, it's hard to believe, but yes, I actually still read the newspaper). Then I read the first few paragraphs, learned nothing and stopped reading. Just another day in the life of the newspaper industry, right?

Like everything else, features need a complete, total, makeover. Someone get me Ty Pennington on the phone!

Once again, let me reiterate for the 73rd, and hopefully final time: This is 2010. We have every nugget of information we could ever want at our fingertips on the internet. Why do we want to read something that isn't going to teach us anything?

Instead give us fresh angles and funny and insightful stories.

For me, I live in the Hartford area. UConn basketball, and the Yankees and Red Sox, have and always will be king. That's just reality.

So let's take UConn basketball player Jerome Dyson for example. I've read a lot of stories on Jerome, and they're all the same. Most center on his offseason workouts, or how his game has developed over time. Again, stop feeding me the same crap! I don't need to read about him shooting 500 jump shots a day. He's a basketball player, what else would he be doing?!?!?

Give me something new on the guy.

Apparently, Jerome Dyson, was not only a good basketball player, but a really good high school baseball player as well. Kind of an interesting story, right? So why haven't I heard anything about this? What position did he play? Was he a switch-hitter? Could he bunt? Did he ever charge the mound in a fit of rage? Somebody get his high school baseball coach on the phone, because that's a feature I'd want to read.

Want a Yankees angle? Sure, why not. Just please don't give me the same, "Derek Jeter is killing himself this offseason," story. Because I've already read that one every winter for the past 15 years. Why not just do us all a favor, and instead of trying to pass it off as fresh information, just pull the same piece you wrote in 1999 out of the archives. Then put a bullet in the back of my head. Please, I insist.

How about something new?

There have been rumors flying around all offseason that Jeter has a wedding planned in November at a place called the Oheka Castle on Long Island.

Now, I know you'll never be able to get Jeter, or anyone from the Oheka Castle to talk about the wedding on the record. Honestly the wedding might not be happening, and even if it does nobody is saying a word. Your consumers understand that.

But why not send a reporter to the place, and find out what their wedding accomodations include. What can a guy like Jeter get with an unlimited credit line, because I know he's got more choices than fish and steak.

Sure it's not sports, but again, the line is between an athlete's public life and private is getting smaller by the day. We as sports fans want to know Jeter the person, not just the ballplayer. Again, that's just the world we live in.

Speaking of athletes, money and too much information, let's get back to Woods for a second.

If I'm running a major newspaper, I'm sending a reporter to dig up the dirt on what kind of V.I.P. packages athletes and other celebrities can get at these swanky clubs in New York City, Las Vegas, Miami wherever. How much is a private room? What does it include? Are there escorts? Where do they come from? How does it get charged so that curious wives and girlfriends can't follow a paper trail? How much money do you need to have?

Why did not a single newspaper look into this? If I was an editor, I would have been a running a five-part expose the week after the Woods story broke, even if I couldn't get anybody on the record. Use, anonymous sources, who cares? This is the information your readers want. Remember, know your audience.

Of course this information is a little smutty, and not totally sports related. But it's also giving you "news," and "information," without breaking any of journalism's ethics. And it's going to sell newspapers.

5. Increased High School Coverage: This is basically how weekly newspapers have made money since the beginning of time. You know why? Because every parent wants to see their kid's name in the newspaper. Even though I don't have any kids that I know of, I have to imagine it's a pretty awesome feeling.

Not only that, but when you were a kid growing up, did you ever have your name in the newspaper? How cool is that? It might even score some attention from that girl in Biology class with a lazy eye. And we're all winners when that happens.

Plus, think about it from the other angle. Every time your name was in the newspaper as a kid, how'd your parents react? Because mine went out and bought every copy of that paper in a 40 mile radius. Honestly, it's never enough to just have one. You need to get a copy for the grandparents down the street, and the other set of grandparents that are living in Florida. There needs to be a copy for Uncle Tony in jail and Aunt Betty in rehab. And another 15 copies too, just incase the first 14 get lost.

Also, this is the cheapest beat to cover. Nobody really cares about the writing in the high school sports section. Honestly, everyone's just happy that somebody from the newspaper is actually at the state high school field hockey game at all. Meaning, that you can hire two or three kids right out of college to blanket the area and cover every major, and minor thing happening. Baseball, football, swimming, rowing, whatever.

Again, the parents will be happy just to have someone there, and the college kids will just be happy to have a job period. Even if you are paying them like sweatshop workers at a Nike factory.

6. Bring in Blogging Elements: Love them or hate them, in the new media world we live in, bloggers have a voice. And a lot of people are listening.

While some of it is garbage, a lot is well thought out, intelligent, quality writing (which is hopefully what you think of this piece). Even when the topics aren't journalism in the truest form, that doesn't mean it won't intrigue readers.

Just the other day, prior to the NFC Championship game, I saw a post on some blog, titled, "10 Reasons Why I Hate Brett Favre." Yes it was a little crass, but it was also thoughtful, well written, factually correct and funny. You mean to tell me if you ran that on the back page of the sports section, people wouldn't be entertained?

Again, it's not exactly the old journalism motto, "Seek the truth and report it," but it doesn't mean that it's not newsworthy.

As a matter of fact, just think of it as a modern day form of an op-ed piece.

7. More Fantasy Sports: Yes, I understand that 10 years ago, fantasy sports were a weird cult phenomenon, kind of like a Dungeons and Dragons for sports dorks.

Now, it's a billion dollar industry that, according to recent reports is played by 22 percent of all males between the ages of 18 and 49. Guys plan their whole lives around drafts, often times turning them into an event and an excuse to catch up with old friends they haven't seen in awhile. Once the season starts, they spend hours browsing box scores and the waiver wire, doing anything they can to one up the competition.

Yet how many papers actually run a regular fantasy sports column? Tony Reali (you know him better as Stat Boy on Pardon the Interruption) writes one in one of the Philadelphia papers, but from what I know, that's really it.

Why not let that 23-year-old college grad off the high school beat for one day, and onto the back with a fantasy sports column? It's got to be better than that column on yesterday's fly fishing expo that you were planning to run. Right?

8. More Gambling: Similar to Fantasy Sports. And just because you can count on one hand the number of states where sports gambling is legal (I believe the last count was four), doesn't mean that wagers on games are only being placed in Vegas.

Quite the contrary. Because of the internet, online gambling has turned into one of the most thriving industries out there. And you know why? Because every dumb guy under 40 who watches football thinks he's an expert. Hell, the other day I was buying a coat at Men's Wearhouse, and when the Jets-Chargers game came up, my salesman knew the point spread off the top of his head. To hear him talk about it, you'd have thought he was some weird combination of Chris Mortensen and Jimmy the Greek.

Again, if fantasy sports is a billion dollar industry, I can't even imagine how much money is being wagered and lost online gambling.

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Wow. Ok, well that went a lot longer than I though it would. But what can I say, I had a lot on my mind, and this is a subject I obviously care about.

I'm sure some of these ideas are more concievable than others, and I'm relying on you my readers to tell me why.

Either way, they're worth a shot. Because honestly, when it comes to newspapers, the only way it can get worse, is if they don't exist at all.


(Love the article? Hate it? Let Aaron know by commenting below, or e-mailing him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Also, to get his opinion on all things sports, follow him on Twitter @Aaron_Torres and Facebook at facebook.com/aarontorressports)

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