As professional sports teams around the nation beef up their media departments, we’ve seen more and more journalists switch to team-oriented content.
They aren’t doing PR per se but doing content from a team-focused perspective. It’s not more or less the same thing they did before; there are some similarities but many differences. There may be more human interest stories, access to voices that wouldn’t be so accessible as a non-affiliated journalist, or perhaps some things written from more rose-colored glasses.
Whatever it may be, it seems like a path that more and more journalists are taking.
The latest is Geoff Baker, who announced on Friday that he’s joining the NHL’s Seattle Kraken as their Vice President of Editorial Content. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Baker described his role as enhancing the team’s already strong writing content and developing storytelling strategies for broadcast and other platforms.
Leaving the Seattle Times after nearly two decades was difficult for Baker, but the opportunity to remain in Seattle and work for the Kraken proved too enticing to pass up.
The veteran journalist wore many hats at The Times. After arriving from The Toronto Star, where he covered the Blue Jays from 1998-2006, he assumed a similar role in Seattle. He covered the Seattle Mariners for over seven years before transitioning to sports enterprise and investigative reporter around November 2013. He assumed that role until the Seattle Kraken was founded in 2018 when he added NHL writer and columnist to his duties.
While Baker has excelled in this role since April 2019, he expressed excitement about the “big things ahead” with the Kraken.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.