As Sports News Desks Shrink, the Beat Is Forced to Evolve

Michael Powell, who wrote the New York Times’ “Sports of the Times” column between 2014 and 2020, used to get peppered by regional sports reporters about how to get a job at the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post.

Since then, the New York Times disbanded its sports department, offloading coverage to the Athletic, which it acquired in 2022, and killed the seminal column that also featured star writers like Red Smith, Robert Lipsyte, Selena Roberts and John Branch. The...