Inside the Sports Pages: Work Routines, Professional Ideologies, and the Manufacture of Sports News

Janet Money, a former sports editor of the Woodstock Daily
Sentinel-Review, is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

The thesis of this book is that coverage of major-league spectator
sports dominates the sports sections of newspapers in order to deliver
the male readership demanded by advertisers. The author examines the
sports department of a newspaper (not identified by name) based in a
midsized Canadian city with a National Hockey League team, a Canadian
Football league team, and a AAA baseball team. Lowes, who interviewed
writers, editors, and media relations personnel for teams, discusses the
beat system, how reporters use sources to get information, and how
relations with these sources can turn sour.

Lowes raises the issue of advertisers demanding a static demographic,
but unfortunately fails to consider the subject in depth. Although one
of his listed interview questions for sports editors concerns the
demands of advertisers, he either didn’t ask the question or has
declined to include any responses in his text.

Despite the unsatisfying treatment of its thesis, Inside the Sports
Pages provides some insight into how sports journalism works in a
midsized urban market.