Newspapers are dying, and baseball fans are suffering
Another great service beat writers provide fans is humanizing the players, telling us about their personalities and their backstories. They make the players more than simply numbers on the field.
Could bloggers provide the same information if given proper access? Yes, certainly. But the more important question is whether they could afford the financial demands of daily access. It would be challenging enough for bloggers just to carve out the necessary eight-hour time slot to use that access at home games. Could they also pay the staggering lodging, travel and food expenses for 81 road games plus spring training?
about 3 years ago
The Cheat
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Are we?
I have more fun following baseball now than at any point im my life. I’ll go buy a magazine or book if I want something more in-depth than is provided through The Tubes.
And, as some of you have occasionally pointed out, I ain’t no little kid.
Sweet, I better start upping the suck.
by homesickalien on Mar 24, 2009 4:52 PM EDT
You mean, who do we (you are the lead - see your response to Gonzo yesterday) make fun of 15 x/day?
We’d survive. All the damn "Twitter"ing and such might fill whatever information gaps there are. You’d have a lot more stringers out there sending information to the dispatch office. Verification would be an issue, but so be it.
It’ll work. There will be disruption, but new relationships will evolve to replace the old ones if the information is highly sought (which it is).
Sweet, I better start upping the suck.
by homesickalien on Mar 24, 2009 4:52 PM EDT
Agreed, we're parasites on the beat writers content
If our 4 beats (Trib, S-T, Herald, and MLB.com) disappeared this site as we know it would die as well; or it would have to prove it could survive on its own…
If I knew I could get access, which isn’t something I crave or am even actively seeking, I would attempt to raise capital to make a go of it as a new type of beat writer for a year, online only obviously.
I can’t say for sure even what I’d do different… some thoughts.
- I’d kill the inverted pyramid game story.
- There would be no space limit, obviously
- I’d develop a monthly SI-type (5,000 words) type piece
- I’d skip many of the road trips (cost savings) Are quotes really necessary for a recap? Most of the time, no.
- I’d add a couple of trips to visit the minor leagues, gathering video, scouting reports and personal pieces on minor leaguers of interest
The overall idea would be to leverage the ease of publishing online, the unlimited space, to provide a deeper coverage to the fans.
I don’t follow every team, and hardly pay attention to the non-chicago NL clubs, so I can’t say for sure that nobody has stepped up their coverage in this way (or others that I haven’t thought of/listed above), but I have yet to see it, Ringolsby included.
As important as the more in-depth coverage would be a rethinking of the way the content is delivered. An attractive, user friendly portal is essential.
And maybe most important would be the advertising. I’ve recently begun to think that the most effective ad style is the Hulu or Salon model. Obviously, large sites like Yahoo can’t get away with interstitial video, but if you’re offering the type of coverage I’m proposing (or even just your standard newspaper fare) I think it’s the best model.
You’d obviously still have the regular CPM ads on the site, embedded within and next to your content, but there would be a once-a-day type ad that you have to watch/sit through to get to your content.
Twitter: @SouthSideCheat
SouthSideSox on Facebook
and that's what i wonder.
would a site that is online only get enough revenue to support a full-time beat writer type? i suspect it’s possible, given the evolution of things, but would there be as many writers covering a team? and, if i’m a current blog, why would i want to expand into beat coverage – why not just let someone else do that stuff for me and i just continue to steal their content? things would obviously have to change in how things are delivered etc. i note that you’re talking about skipping road trips. seems like that would cause the quality of coverage to decline overall. not necessary for recaps, of course, to have quotes but lots of shit goes down on 10 day road trips.
I was just thinking out loud
I actually thought about it this very subject while working out this weekend.
I don’t want to expand into beat coverage. I don’t like that stuff, and I’d probably want to kill myself if I had to churn some of that stuff out.
But what I was was thinking about the other day was the type of coverage offered and the way that coverage is provided and the way it probably should be… And I can’t picture newspapers being the ones to break the mold…
Somebody has to do it right, demonstrate proof of concept, until we get it from newspapers. That was my little thinking outloud exercise, which you quickly found holes in. I’m not sure what it would cost, what the revenues would be…
And truth is, you shouldn’t do your proof-of-concept with any other franchise than the Cubs, Red Sox or Yankees. Red Sox might be the best, since the Globe is one of the oft-speculated victims, and the Yankees have like 18 beat guys.
Twitter: @SouthSideCheat
SouthSideSox on Facebook
which is also why I said "i'd raise capital"
Somebody, not necessarily me, has to do a one-season experiment to prove it’ll work
Twitter: @SouthSideCheat
SouthSideSox on Facebook
There's no offense taken
I’m not deluded enough to think that I have the answer. I think as a fan and as a blogger I have better insight than most into what fans want and how to best provide that content, but I still have more questions than answers
Twitter: @SouthSideCheat
SouthSideSox on Facebook
That is a great conversation
that I will peruse more intensely at a later time. Thanks.
Sweet, I better start upping the suck.
by homesickalien on Mar 24, 2009 4:52 PM EDT
if the money ever comes and you need a lackey to run around the minors for you
i’m in.
I can lead you to 4 Wisdom, but I can't free your brain from the evil of Punto.
I’ll go buy a magazine or book if I want something more in-depth than is provided through The Tubes.
does BP/THT/BTB/FanGraphs/Sickels publish a daily paper and I don’t know it?
The greatest trick the White Sox ever pulled was convincing their fan base that "Ozzieball" ever existed.
My point was perhaps a daily print publication is unnecessary.
And you guys are catastrophizing. Why reinvent the wheel? Why would Cheat need to be “the guy” to do it all? Why not employ stringers in various cities who love, love, love the Sox (you can take indications of interest from folks and have them submit pieces in order to evaluate talent).
Get creative! Fer Chrissakes, the old way of doing business is dead, and it’s because it hasn’t been priced properly AND because much of it is redundant and inane. There’s a reason sportswriters are marginalized as lazy, inefficient, free-loading slobs. You want information? Go get it. And get creative about it. But use the on-line community you’ve built – that is your greatest asset.
Sweet, I better start upping the suck.
by homesickalien on Mar 24, 2009 4:52 PM EDT
Let's see your business plan.
Sweet, I better start upping the suck.
by homesickalien on Mar 24, 2009 4:52 PM EDT
Which would mean you would need tto come up with answers
to the questions you and Cheat have posed. When you answer them to the tune of “here’s how we can make money” I’ll listen. Emphasis on “we”.
Sweet, I better start upping the suck.
by homesickalien on Mar 24, 2009 4:52 PM EDT
Interstitial ads
You can land on the portal page without having to view something, but to venture inside, it’ll cost you time/eyeballs. The problem being a site like this is too small to generate interest from advertisers, and even when you got them, at our current readership, it wouldn’t be but $20K/yr
When you scale it though, and I’m assuming access increases scale immediately, there’s 6-figure potential very easily, which is why I suggest any experiment start with Sawx or Cubs
Twitter: @SouthSideCheat
SouthSideSox on Facebook
Good idea, though it's a large assumption.
Now come up with a business plan. larry can do one with you, I’m sure, as you are all right brain creative and he is left brain-ruthlessly efficient.
Sweet, I better start upping the suck.
by homesickalien on Mar 24, 2009 4:52 PM EDT
so none of us has done any research into the kind of hits that Sox related posts on S-T get?
I can lead you to 4 Wisdom, but I can't free your brain from the evil of Punto.
If 13 random people are doing it, then one person may as well be doing it.
The amount of information those 13 random people will get is virtually zero.
All stringers can do is write the gamer most people seem to think is already past its time.
EVERYBODY PICK US FOR 3RD OR 4TH SO I DINK WE DOIN POOTY GOO
Sox Machine
If you have "a port in every storm" stringer
would you not save on overhead costs (travel, time, etc.)? That was my only thought. I do believe the converse of your statement, that one (overpaid, expensive) beat writer can have job divvied up amongst 30 piranhas (who, I’d hope, would be cheaper, hungrier, and more creative).
I don’t know your business – just thinking out loud.
Sweet, I better start upping the suck.
by homesickalien on Mar 24, 2009 4:52 PM EDT
What do you want me to say?
Maybe the locals would work for MLB and every team would be covered by a couple of folks locally. Fer Chrissakes, somehow people manage other people who are not in the same office. My wife is managed out of NYC and somehow makes it work.
Sweet, I better start upping the suck.
by homesickalien on Mar 24, 2009 4:52 PM EDT
by winningugly on Mar 27, 2009 10:40 AM CDT up reply actions
mlb already does that. you know, scott merkin?
we already have people who question the independence of merkin and the other mlb reporters. doesn’t seem like a good idea to just rely on them.
managing 30 people v. managing one or two is a lot different.
Well, somehow these Merkins came from somewhere,
and if you are going to expect folks to pay for content, either via advertising or subscription, 30 trusted independent contractors (and, yes, there would be a lag time in finding qualified, motivated, talented people to staff – like the local papers that are going BK?) you might expect to do a little more work.
(Lobs it back to The Shark.)
Sweet, I better start upping the suck.
by homesickalien on Mar 24, 2009 4:52 PM EDT
by winningugly on Mar 27, 2009 10:57 AM CDT up reply actions
i'll simply incorporate by reference what i've written previously on this topic.
one person doing the job ensures quality, a better depth of knowledge about the team, and relationships with the players/management. some guy walking into the clubhouse to cover the white sox 6 games a year simply isn’t going to do the job well enough. is rick hahn going to talk to this guy? is the pitcher who got shelled going to talk to this guy? you’re in a job where the relationship matters. most jobs where you have to deal with people ain’t much different.
It's brainstorming. Work with me here.
Not all of us have the philosophical bent/interest to consider such topics with great care. And you don’t dis your potential angel investor.
Sweet, I better start upping the suck.
by homesickalien on Mar 24, 2009 4:52 PM EDT
by winningugly on Mar 27, 2009 10:41 AM CDT up reply actions
i will gladly take all investments
But Frank Thomas was always his own guy, he always lived by some sort of code that wasn’t especially clear to anyone but him.
"Humanizing the players"
I find that kind of funny. It seems like as often as they humanize the players, they also build up these players and hold them to (ridiculous) standards only to tear them down when they make a mistake (the whole steroids era being a prime example).
Thinking about it further, I’d imagine that the ‘humanizing’ pieces/stories take place much more often but because those aren’t anything out of the ordinary, I don’t make much of it. But when I see one of those “CRUCIFY HIM!” pieces from a writer who sat back said diddly-squat during the 90s (sticking with the steroids example), it tends to land on my radar.
hasn't deadspin made a killing off the fact that the newsfolk have let so many
“human interest” stories slip through the cracks?
I can lead you to 4 Wisdom, but I can't free your brain from the evil of Punto.
also, isn't beat reporting for the young?
it’s rigorous and low paying. or probably should be.
I can lead you to 4 Wisdom, but I can't free your brain from the evil of Punto.
Joe Pods weighs in:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/joe_posnanski/03/27/future.sportswriting/index.html
Sweet, I better start upping the suck.
by homesickalien on Mar 24, 2009 4:52 PM EDT
The new Washington Post reporter covering the Nationals baseball team would rather be writing about something else. Food, preferably.
"I don’t like sports—I am embarrassed that I cover them," Chico Harlan says. "I can’t wait to stop. It is a means to an end and a paycheck."
http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/people/capitalcomment/11866.html
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