What fans crave: Including sports audiences in the reporting process through engagement journalism

Even as local news organizations and their sports sections dwindle, Rivals.com, a subscription-based recruiting news site within the local sports news ecosystem is thriving. This study takes the intersection of Rivals’ success and the struggles of local sports journalism as its starting point. Using in-depth, long interviews with 21 Rivals subscribers, this research focuses on understanding the motivations behind users’ engagement (uses and gratifications) with the site, and, importantly, their willingness to contribute to the sustainability of the site through their paid subscription. The authors draw from the concept of engaged journalism to contextualize Rivals’ practices, and offer suggestions for how other local sports journalism organizations might capitalize from what draws users to Rivals.