Mark and I differ just a bit in our approach regarding this one. I am for total open access to all that support a basic bloggers bill of rights. I believe that we need to jumpstart the next generation of sports coverage and help activate as much online Web 2.0 coverage for teams as possible. This benefits our web savvy consumer and fan base. I believe there are now close to 2,000 blogs and sites dedicated to the NHL. The NHL is growing in popularity and its ratings are up as are its revenues. Perhaps there is a coincidence here?
Mark and I differ just a bit in our approach regarding this one. I am for total open access to all that support a basic bloggers bill of rights. I believe that we need to jumpstart the next generation of sports coverage and help activate as much online Web 2.0 coverage for teams as possible. This benefits our web savvy consumer and fan base. I believe there are now close to 2,000 blogs and sites dedicated to the NHL. The NHL is growing in popularity and its ratings are up as are its revenues. Perhaps there is a coincidence here? We must balance our respect for mainstream media. The Washington Post and Washington Times each dedicate a full-time, well-liked and respected professional reporter to our team with expanding our universe of keystrokes dedicated to the franchise. We have only two shrinking newspapers in town and four broadcast networks with declining ratings that dedicate less than five minutes per night to all local sports. And now we have dozens and dozens of dedicated bloggers with sites that are booming in terms of unique visitors and page views to the team and the league. The new is overwhelming the old. As I said in 1986 – 22 years ago – "New Rules. New Media." I also encourage the mainstream media to consider all of their journalists as bloggers with the print property just being one of the many outlets for the bloggers work. I also encourage the newspapers to have more people work on stories regarding our team. It is also interesting to see some of the independent bloggers starting out on the internet and now seeing their work expand into print and onto TV and radio. They are becoming "kings of all media". Also, the newspaper reporters that are blogging have their work on the internet distributed much deeper and farther than within the confines of the print property. It is real time. It is interactive and it is global. The blogs are just better products than the confines within the newspaper as far as I am concerned. Our goal is to collectively feed that algorithm in the sky and make information available far and wide regarding our team. There is dedicated professional journalism which is vitally important and respected. There are bloggers that are becoming more and more of a force to be reckoned with and respected and there is user-generated content on message boards and via email. Bring it all on. The more the merrier!
I’ve written a blog for four years that focuses on a particular university’s major sports, and during that entire time we have been treated with a personna non grata attitude by the sports information department of the school we cover. We’re independent, and not particularly confrontational (never calling for coaches to be fired, for example) but it seems like we’re not taken seriously despite over a million unique visits a year.
Interestingly, I have been told by some mainstream journos (print and broadcast) that they read us every day and that we’re more than fair and that our accuracy is at a professional level. Nice compliments those are, but at the same time, they have no effect on getting us access to pressers and to cover games. We don’t do the former and pay for the latter.
Its curious to me that effectively the school is shunning free publicity for the price of a signature and a placard.
Perhaps their fear revolves around the fact that there are blogs, and then there are blogs. Some blogs are responsible and only report the truth as they know, and then there are others that simply make stuff up as they go along. Those are the ones that gives the good blogs a bad name. Fortunately, they usually wither and go away pretty quickly, but unfortunately, there seems to be a steady supply of them polluting the conversation-space.
I buy part of Cuban’s argument of “fairness” to all bloggers. What he’s saying is “what makes this one blogger special?” The paper wants their blogger to have access, and you can’t blame them for that. He’s saying that the blogger would certainly be allowed if he could accommodate all bloggers who want access.
What he is ultimately saying is that bloggers aren’t as important as classic mainstream media forms. Obviously, if he felt they were as important, he’d find a way to allow bloggers in the locker room on a “first come” basis. I understand the need to limit access in order to have space, but there should be limits accross the board.
I would however have a bigger problem if he allowed access to this one blogger but no others.
Just like with AOL, you’re light years ahead of the curve – I’d love to re-read this post in 2018. Meanwhile, can you imagine how popular the Caps would be if located in San Fran / Silicon Valley? (not that I hope you’ll move the team).
Ted-
You mention how newspapers should consider their jornalists as bloggers and the perfect example of that is when Jason LaCanfora was reporting on the death of Sean Taylor. You said in your blog around that time that his blogging during the ordeal could be a “Watershed moment” in the blogosphere. His blog was THE PLACE TO BE for the most updated information regarding Sean Taylor’s death.
So, all in all, I agree with you 100%.