Abstract

In a media landscape characterized by fierce competition, accelerated production cycles, and the impact of social media, the expansion of a counter-genre such as digital long-form journalism, is of growing interest. Both legacy outlets and native online platforms have invested resources in products that embrace technological innovation and storytelling techniques dissociated from the fast consumption of information. The field of sports is one of the areas where this phenomenon, intertwined with slow journalism, has had a stronger impact. Bearing this context in mind, this article examines the entire collection of long-form stories developed by two prestigious websites: L’équipe explore (France) and Sports illustrated longform (United States). This analysis allows for the classification of the salient features that these websites present in terms of agenda, news sources, multimedia architecture, and brand-building strategies.