Why do news update e-mails insist on putting sports spoilers in the subject line?
Ok, I get it. It’s almost impossible to avoid results of a high-profile Olympic event that takes place early in the morning but gets aired on TV during prime time that same day. And if you are on social media, you’re going to get spoilers.
But why do e-mail news updates, especially just general news updates, have to put the results into the subject line? I am, of course, referring to the dramatic results of this morning’s women’s figure skating finals.
I raised the question on Twitter earlier today on why the Washington Post had to put the results in the subject line of their e-mail and tagged several media reporters in a followup. I heard back from Post news media reporter Paul Farhi:
People have been complaining about this since the invention of emails and news alerts. You can always cancel your alerts (or suspend them for two weeks), I guess.
— Paul Farhi (@farhip) February 17, 2022
Which to me begs the question – Why keep doing it?
Years ago I used to watch a lot of motorcycle racing from around the world (MotoGP and World Superbike) and the United States that typically was on a multiple-day TV delay. Websites, like SuperbikePlanet.com, that gave real-time coverage of the races would send out e-mails with results of qualifying, supporting races, and the main events. And for all the final races they would use a subject line along the lines of “Italian MotoGP Results!” If you wanted to know the results, you clicked on it, if you wanted to wait you ignored it.
I understand that it’s vastly easier to avoid spoilers for obscure sports like motorcycle racing. But news outlets like the Washington Post or New York Times could do better on this. Especially since, “People have been complaining about this since the invention of e-mails and news alerts.”