What’s cracking, sports media, consumers! Your favourite Aussie sports media reporter is back for some of the things he wasn’t able to fit into Wednesday’s briefing, as well as some interesting tidbits.
Let’s dive in, shall we!
Sports Gossip Show leaves The Athletic
The ladies of The Sports Gossip Show, Charlotte Wilder and Madeline Hill, announced on the latest episode of the podcast that they are leaving The Athletic after one year.
If you haven’t heard the show, or know who Wilder and Hill are, consider this your introduction. Wilder is a former Sports Illustrated reporter and has also worked at SB Nation, USA Today, and Boston Globe Media. She has also been a host for Meadowlark Media and produced Fox Sports Ultimate College Football Road Trip, which won an Emmy. She also has a Substack newsletter called Wilder Things.
The other half of the podcast, Hill, formerly worked with Entertainment Weekly and also worked for Hello Sunshine, overseeing social media strategy. She also started a Substack newsletter called Impersonal Foul, which she describes on her website as if ‘ESPN and Bravo had a baby.’
The duo have yet to announce where they will end up, but for now the show will continue, and so will their Substack.
If you love sports and gossip, you should check out The Sports Gossip Show wherever you get your podcasts.
Outside, all around us
Speaking of The Sports Gossip Show, Wilder and Hill filmed their most recent podcast outdoors on Thursday. With the time difference – we Aussies don’t get it until Friday – some unwanted guests stopped by. Or, rather, flew past.
Filming from a picturesque harbour in Maine, around the 9:30 mark of the podcast, some seagulls fly over Hill and Wilder, interrupting the show. The ladies were discussing a golf ad which was a collaboration between Good Good Golf and Callaway. In my opinion, it is a truly horrible ad, and I’m not sure how it was approved.
Since I was listening to the podcast while driving, I thought the pair were laughing for no real reason. I could hear the seagulls, but since I live by the sea, I thought there might have been seagulls above me; Wilder said the birds were above them, which made a lot more sense.
Anyway, check it out in the video below.
Traina runs early!
Now, as much as I love New York, I have actually never been. But if the New York Subway is like any other public transport in the world, I’m sure it can run late. One train in New York City that I know was early was Jimmy Traina.
Traina couldn’t wait until September to debut his podcast, Traina Thoughts, with fellow New York media guru Sal Licata. When Traina was at Sports Illustrated, Traina Thoughts was just a segment on the SI Media Podcast. Now he’s moved to Underscore Media, and Traina and Licata have their own full podcast. Traina also mentioned that he’ll continue his regular interview podcast and write newsletters for Underscore.
What I’m most looking forward to is having Traina, Licata, and John ‘JJ’ Jastremski get together and talk about the Yankees or Mets at the back end of the season, previewing the Giants and Jets, and also the Knicks. Maybe they will throw in the Rangers and Islanders as well. But I’m mostly just looking forward to them shooting the breeze with each other.
One enjoyable part of the first Traina’s Thoughts podcast was the story Licata told about buying his daughter something he shouldn’t have. I won’t spoil it; watch to hear the full story. And be sure to show some love to Traina, Licata and Jastremski and subscribe to their podcasts.
Buzz returns
With Nine sports reporter Danny Weidler unavailable to do The Journos podcast on Triple M, producers decided to bring one of the most decorated journos out of retirement, Phil ‘Buzz’ Rothfield.
Rothfield was a journalist and editor for the Daily Telegraph, where he mostly reported on rugby league, and had his own Sunday sports column in the Sunday Telegraph. He was the Telegraph’s Olympic Editor for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. And Rothfield was also a regular on Fox League’s NRL 360.
The journo has famously had several different feuds with several coaches and personalities such as Phil ‘Gus’ Gould, Peter Sterling, and Michael Maguire, just to name a few. Rothfield actually sued Sterling and ended up buying a boat with the money he won, naming it after the former Parramatta Eels halfback.
Rothfield joined his good friend, and the former coach of his beloved Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Shane Flanagan. Rothfield said he still has several contacts who reach out to him with stories, and he will pass them along to former colleagues like Dean ‘Bulldog’ Ritchie.
It was good to see Rothfield back in the media, but he told us not to get used to it as he is very happy in retirement. But you know what they say, old habits die hard.
That brings another edition of The Coverage: Better Late Than Never to an end. I will be back with next week’s Wednesday Briefing.
Until next time, take care.
– Merce
