Running’s Media Rules Keep Its Fan Base Small

Last month, the upstart running media brand New Generation Track and Field posted a 12-minute video on its YouTube channel featuring sprint phenom Abby Steiner, who was in New York City for the 2023 Millrose Games. Most of the footage shows Steiner in the days and hours before the meet: We see her doing a shakeout workout at the Armory, ordering a salad at Sweetgreen, and cataloging the contents of her race-day bag. As YouTube content goes, it’s pretty tame stuff, but it’s easy to imagine running geeks getting a kick out of details like the fact that Steiner brings beet juice to every race. (“If you know, you know—that’s all I’m gonna say.”) As part of its “manifesto,” New Generation aspires to “shrink the distance between the sport’s top athletes and the people who follow them.” Ben Crawford, the brand’s founder and primary cameraman, has a talent for livening up the mundane routines of the best runners in the country by offering a window into their lives that for the most part eschews the banalities of boilerplate post-race interviews. The vibe is Stars —They’re Just Like Us! for…