US sports journalist Grant Wahl, at the World Cup last night. Only 48, I worked with him on a few American radio football-related things, though never met him, it was always over the phone. I do think there’s been a quite harmful burnout problem with some freelance journalists in the digital age, particularly with sports stuff, with them wanting to be seen everywhere on social, podcasting, and then obviously having to juggle deadlines for writing, sometimes daily. He was a bit intense about everything, in that very American competitive way, but seemed a very nice bloke and sadly I can see this happening a lot, perhaps not as tragically as this, but stress and wellbeing problems kicking in… best stick to old school print and leisurely lunches (yeah right).
