According to Cage Writer mixed martial arts just received its first newspaper beat reporter. The Las Vegas Review-Journal just named Adam Hill as their official MMA beat reporter. 

The LVRJ is planning on three MMA stories per week during non-event weeks and is having Hill travel to cover every UFC event domestically and internationally.    

While this is fantastic news it also highlights the difficulties that exist within the current media climate. If it took the Las Vegas Review-Journal four years to finally realize the impact of the UFC, whose base of operations is Vegas --approximately half of all UFC events occur in Vegas-- then what does that say about the future of MMA coverage in newspapers around the country? Of course we are not considering newspaper staff reductions and how that affects perceived niche sports, as well as the reality that MMA is banned in New York. 

It is no secret that UFC and Zuffa brass expect to be covered as a major event but that expectation hasn't translated into coverage. One of the factors that is often overlooked is the very conception of the sport.

Luke Thomas recently described the difficulties of covering MMA to the SBN community, 

MMA is a splintered sport. The universe of fighters, fight locations, countries, promoters, fans, camps, businesses, and the myriad other parties all part of this circus interact is often very complicated, tangential, contradictory and other confusing arrangements.  MMA is a moving target both as it grows and fundamentally alters itself. Trying to grab the blade of MMA while it falls is perilous, difficult and even fraught with disaster.

The simple fact of the matter is that the UFC, as a promotion, and MMA as a whole, is perfectly suited for Internet coverage and not newspaper coverage. Part of this simply has to do with age demographics. The UFC is addicted to reminding everyone how well the UFC does with 18-34 demographic. The problem is these people don't buy newspapers and this numbers only reinforce editors decisions to not have consistent coverage.

On the other hand several newspapers have realized that MMA coverage can be an effective part of their Internet product. For instance the Baltimore Sun, USA Today and Houston Chronicle all have MMA blogs. The unfortunate reality is that the very process which helped give birth to the UFC prevents it from obtaining a prominent place within traditional sports media.