"Golf Channel: Orlando-based network in the swing of things"

The Orlando Sentinel's Laura Newberry looks at the Golf Channel's expansion from 180 staffers to nearly 500 "Central Floridians" working out of 119,000 square feet of offices and studios. And there is the post-NBC merger mission of the channel that bodes well for its once uncertain future. This was interesting:

But the channel rebounded last year with record viewership, noted Mike McCarley, Golf Channel's president, an indication, he said, that its growth hadn't been permanently hampered by Woods' sudden and high-profile fall from grace.

Woods appeared in 10 events on the Golf Channel last year, the network said, compared with 17 appearances in 2009.

"As this engine that can drive the growth of golf, we have a very real responsibility to the game to make sure we're focused on the bigger picture," McCarley said. "You can't focus on any one tour or any one player or any one event too much."

Does that mean we can cut back on the Tavistock Cup coverage?

Comments

[rb]

McCarley said. "You can't focus on any one tour or any one player or any one event too much."

Coming from the guy who runs the "All Tiger, All the Time" channel, that's pretty funny.

[dsl]

To me, it seems pretty simple. The reason they haven't been 'hampered' by Tiger's fall from grace is because they are actively covering the fall from grace. This has been the best thing for them. Tiger is now newsworthy on and OFF the course and there are so many more layers exposed and ripe for speculation.

We saw something similar with Golf Digest. After the scandal hit, they stopped working 'with' him (vanilla high level puff pieces and instructional stuff) and started writing 'about' him. It was funny to watch how quickly they changed their tune.

I know now that all journalism works this way - keep the gloves on for 'access' and take them off when access is no longer the most valuable commodity. Still, it was funny to see it in action with the way Woods has been covered over the years.

[rb]

@dsl...on the money...and it turns out the "Bad Boy" Tiger gets just as much media attention as the "good" Tiger...especially those all-important page views, site visits, discussion board posts, blog comments, tweets, chirps, hits...you know, all the real important stuff.