The crux of this issue is money, not photographic quality. If what your, "sports photos", are going to be, consists of sending some hottie to the locker room, to grab a couple of snaps of the local, "franchise player", modeling his jock strap, then you're good to go with a cell phone.
Using an all digital image path will negate some of the losses in the reproduction process. So, add a small bit on the plus side for the phone.
But basically, newspapers are too broke to afford photographers, and would like you to buy into this spin on photojournalism.
I say this because my two "home town rags", (The Philadelphia Inquirer, and it sister publication, The Philadelphia Daily News), have sailed through some really rough waters, in the "Red Sea". The "
Sea of Red Ink", that is.
Anyway, a picture is worth a thousand words, or so they say.
Here's one of my personal favorites:
And the attending article:
https://static.techspot.com/images2/news/bigimage/2014/02/2014-02-07-image-6.jpg
BTW, to whom to may concern, I have an AAS in photography which included a semester of photojournalism, to back up what I've said.
Now, I've showed you mine, please feel free to show me yours...
Ive played that 3 times and easily got the D5100 each time (~80%)....what are you getting at?
I'm sure you've noticed that the first photo, is an, "apples to oranges" comparison. It asks you to draws a comparison between a warm, incandescent light portrait of an "fascinating character", and "winter's wrath". (?s he an "engineer for the railroad)?, Who knows right? But he is an appealing character, for sure. The photo you're supposed to judge it against, is a winter landscape, cold, bleak, & depressing, taken with a wide angle lens. There's virtually no "center of interest" and even less "human interest".
So, which photo do to LIKE better?
My point being, the "test", started out as psychological survey, and if my life comes down to needing my head shrunk with an iPhone version of, "Siri Freud ", I would be better to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge.
And "brave sir guest poster", I actually never tire of being right, and I surely never get tired of arguing with you! Until we meet again....(n), (or not).