But it’s not just the depth of coverage that has to change — according to Cook, it’s the whole style of writing that needs a facelift, starting with the column. He called the 600-word, quick-hitting, short-paragraph style that newspaper columnists use “archaic.”

“It’s off-putting, it’s arrogant and it often results in poorly researched, poorly asserted and poorly reasoned columns,” Cook said. “You have 600 words, and you have to try to get your little ‘Jim Rome on paper’ thing, and most of what comes out is just bad.”

Space isn’t an issue on the Internet. If necessary, Cook can write 1,000 words or 10,000 words to get his point across. He can also use links, pictures, diagrams, play-calling breakdowns and bold and italics font

But most important, Cook utilizes his own avid fandom to present a column that newspaper writers can’t.

The Everyman’s sports beat

Cook and other bloggers use the pronoun “we” to talk about the team out of recognition that they are not syndicated sports columnist Mitch Albom, but rather they are regular fans writing to — and to represent — other fans.

“My game columns are written from the perspective of someone experiencing the same emotions you are,” Cook said. “Newspapers don’t do that. They experience games as sportswriters, as objectivity mavens, that sort of thing. They don’t say ‘Fuck.’ No one at a newspaper has ever screamed ‘Fuck’ at a Michigan game, and getting an opinion from someone who has done that is sort of empowering in a way.”

He’s not overly biased — his posts are critical of the Wolverines when necessary — but there’s no doubt that Cook is a fan, and he believes that is one of the blog’s biggest strengths over objective journalism.

Readers can automatically relate to bloggers like Cook, because he’s writing as one of them. With journalism’s rigid, albeit necessary, commitment to objectivity, fans can have a hard time relating to columnists who need to put aside personal preference to scrutinize a game.

Cook himself may have put print journalism’s problems best on his site. In a June 28 post entitled “Why Does Drew Sharp Have A Job?” Cook had this to say about the Detroit Free Press columnist whom he regularly lambasts on his blog: “Sharp’s a dinosaur from the days when readers had a choice of Paper A or Paper B, the prime numero-uno example of why lazy-ass columnists rage against the internet: it exposes how very much they suck and provides alternative sources of attention.”

Losing the tech edge

Newspapers weren’t always struggling to catch up with media technology. Although The Detroit News — along with almost every national paper — can’t quite figure out how to adapt its print coverage to the Internet, it was one of the first papers to embrace other mediums that drastically changed journalism.

On August 20, 1920, when the idea that radio could be used as a household amenity was still in its infancy, the United States Department of Commerce accepted a request by The Detroit News for an amateur radio license. Thus, the paper became the first in the nation to purchase and operate a radio station, buying the 200-meter broadcast channel 8MK, which is now known as WWJ, the only 24-hour commercial news radio station in Michigan.

Experimenting with how broadcast radio could be used in journalism’s future, 8MK became one of the first stations in the country to broadcast news reports, sports broadcasts and religious programming. The paper was less than 50 years old at the time, and the purchase of the station was an attempt to stay ahead of the curve in information accessibility. Obviously, looking toward the future paid off — in the ’20s and ’30s, radio consumption exploded.

The Detroit News made a similar move in 1947, creating the first television station in the state of Michigan, WWJ-TV.

But the Internet is a different story. Sure, the major metro newspapers have their own websites, but the content is no different from what makes the print edition on that particular day. Free Press football writer Snyder hasn’t ever explored the possibility of video stories on the Detroit Free Press’s website, which doesn’t offer much web-only content other than photo galleries and links to non-competitive, related news sources.

Whereas the Detroit-area newspapers have historically been on the cusp of media technology, the Internet simply hasn’t been an asset, yet.

Clinging to the local touch

Associate Athletic Director Bruce Madej said that newspapers need to look back at their own history in order to move forward.