presentation videos

http://deadspin.com/sports/baseball/random-youtube-finding-of-the-week-169722.php
http://deadspin.com/sports/baseball/random-youtube-finding-of-the-week-171308.php

"You're With Me, Leather."

Never has a quote, albeit so nonsensical and innocuous on the surface, grasped the relationship between sports blogs and the major media outlets that they are competing with.
As the story goes, ESPN’s fountain of cheesy one liners and nicknames, Chris Berman, while in Scottsdale, Az, walked past a man trying his hardest to convince the woman at the bar to go home with him. In one fell swoop, Berman saunters over, says “you’re with me leather,” the woman grabs her leather jacket and the rest is history.
Deadspin, an independent sports blog run by former Sporting News writer Will Leitch, first broke the “story” thanks to reader accounts of the tale via email, and was the only website to post anything about it. No sooner than 48 hours later, ABC Monday Night Football announcer Tony Kornheiser, employed by ESPN, was joking that the phrase would become his new touchdown call, and just a week later, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, who left ESPN on less than amicable terms, used the line on his “Countdown” show.
ESPN of course, has not addressed the supposed Berman incident, but the story’s development from an ordinary blog entry to national catchphrase emphasized that blogs are quickly becoming a major information source for sports fans, forcing traditional sports news sources like ESPN and The Sporting News to evolve their content and online presence and engage their readers.
“Everyone is going to figure out how to attract readers, whether it’s drawing them to the print publications, the web, or getting them to sign up for news updates through mobile devices. And that means constantly paying attention to the latest trends and technology in the industry, and being versatile enough to adapt to those trends,” Benson Taylor, managing editor for The Sporting News, said.
In a world with 24 hour sports news access and real time results with just a couple of clicks of a mouse, newspapers like The Kansas City Star and The St. Louis Post Dispatch are also making bids to be found more places than the plastic bag in the driveway.
But even as the familiar faces in the sports journalism business undergo some plastic surgery to protect their market share, they are counting on their reputations as well.
“Young readers consume the media differently than I did 25 years ago. We must react to that. The key here is that although there are some very clever and well-written pure blogs -- those not connected to major media outlets -- the reality is those bloggers are not as well-informed as the most experienced and connected professional journalists,” Mike DeCourcy, The Sporting News senior writer, said.
“They might close that gap on a particular story here or there, but there's no way they're going to do it 52 weeks a year. I believe a less informed opinion is not as valuable.”
However, sports blogs like Deadspin, which thrives on stories like Berman’s escapades, feel that their appeal is because they are not affiliated with any major corporation. That, Leitch says, allows him to say almost anything he wants.
“I think there was just such a yearning for something that wasn't canned and corporate that people were waiting for SOMETHING to take off,” Leitch said.
It’s Leitch’s educated but outside observer view that has drawn readers to Deadspin, which received 2 million hits in February. However, even as Deadspin becomes more mainstream, Leitch doesn’t believe that he will be taking over ESPN and the like for the majority of America’s sports news anytime soon.
“I think (major media) still has the market share. As long as they have TV, they're not in any danger of losing it,” Leitch said.
But that doesn’t mean that the major media outlets haven’t taken notice of the blogging craze. At The Sporting News, every sport that the magazine covers has at least one blog, and there is even a blog for advice on who to start and sit for fantasy sports junkies.
Sites like The Sports Frog, a sports blog started by a group of sports crazed fans got so popular that it spawned off “The Swamp” a discussion board where anyone registered can discuss the topics of the day. That type of interaction played a key role in The Sporting News’ decision to advance their online presence.
“We wanted to create an environment in which our readers were not just passive participants but would become part of the discussion. Sports obviously are one of those areas in which readers have strong opinions. By actively engaging them through the blogs, they become part of the site,” Taylor, said.
“We’ve touted the best reader blogs and comments by putting them on our main pages, next to our Sporting News staff blogs. Besides the benefit this provide the readers – in essence the chance to become a personality on a national sports website – this provides an obvious benefit to us: The longer they write and spend time on our site, the higher our engagement metrics are. Since launching the blogs last year, we’ve been No. 1 in sports sites among every key engagement metric (time spent on site per user).”
The Post Dispatch has also placed blogs on their website, where the beat writers for of the city’s major sports franchises and interests post their thoughts on the website and the Columbia Missourian’s MyMissourian feature allows readers to post their own thoughts in a blog hosted by the paper.
The Star does not have writers’ blogs on the website, but instead focuses its efforts in three “Question and Answer” columns; the Chiefs, college sports and high school sports.
Because there are no popular high school sports blogs in the Kansas City area, the popularity of the high school forum has given The Star a possible way to keep its niche as the go to player in the Kansas City sports market.
“I thought it would be a decent way to reach more people and make the newspaper more interactive with readers, which is something I absolutely think we need more of,” Sam Mellinger, high school columnist for The Star, said.
“I thought we could supplement our coverage a bit and highlight a few kids or teams we wouldn't have room for in the paper. It's been way more popular than I imagined, especially during football season.”

Nick Bromberg

Click here for an analysis of this issue.

How Missouri is Responding

With more readers turning to blogs and other independent online sources for their sports news, traditional media sources are trying to keep up by making their own online presence felt.




Five major Missouri-based news outlets have launched websites with varying degrees of detail. By far, the leader in online presence is the Sporting News magazine at www.sportingnews.com. This is to be expected, however, as they don’t have ties to any one market. The magazine covers all sports from all over the world, and their website reflects that as well.
Of the local papers, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s STLToday.com is the most extensive in terms of sports coverage. STLToday features blogs with comments from two of their top columnists, Bernie Miklasz and Jeff Gordon, as well as blogs on local teams, such as the Cardinals, Rams, and Mizzou. Miklasz also has his own discussion forum for readers to give feedback on what they’ve read. The Post is also the only local outlet to provide fantasy sports analysis. Representatives from STLToday were unavailable for comment.
The outlet most lacking in content is the Columbia Daily Tribune. The Trib’s website consists of reprints of the stories printed in the newspaper, along with one general sports message board. The message board gets virtually no traffic, with only five total topics since the board’s opening in January.
Newspapers need to continue moving into the internet realm or they risk being left behind, according to Columbia Missourian Sports Editor Greg Bowers. “Obviously, a lot of people get their sports news off the internet, creating a competitive situation that a lot of newspapers haven’t responded to yet”, Bowers said. “At one time, and I’m talking about in the ‘50s here, newspapers were the number one source of information for people. Now, newspapers aren’t that high on the food chain anymore. I think newspapers need to figure out where they fit in and what people want.”

John Howe

For the Love of the Game

After time sports journalist start to resemble the athletes they cover. So, if web sports journalists are the major leaguers, then web sports bloggers are the minor leaguers of our time. They both have the same goal: to inform the public. Yet the bloggers have to learn to play by the same rules of accuracy, fairness, & truth. If they ever forget that and their audience catches them, then they become the next Delmon Young.
Young was the Tampa Bay Devil Rays minor league prospect, who is now forever tainted for throwing his bat at an umpire after striking out.



If bloggers’ lose their principles like Young did, it then will not matter what they ever go on to do, the public has lost trust in them. Another thing these writers carry with them like the ballplayers they cover: is the pay scale. At first they play for the love of the game, and one day if they make it to the big time there is a possible pay day, and bigger audience.
One of the things that these citizen journalist or sports bloggers have more than anyone in the more traditional journalist roles is there higher access of freedom of speech. Traditional writers must answer not only to editors, but newspaper owners, the public, and advertisers. Where as Will Leitch, a paid blogger/ reporter for deadspin.com
“No matter whom I offend, it’s not going to hurt me or the site. As long as I stay true to the fans, I’ don’t have to worry about watching what I say,” said Leitch.
At the other end of the spectrum is Senior Sports Writer Mike DeCourcy for sporting news .com.
“I don't think whether one is paid necessarily defines if one is a journalist. I think the better distinction is between the person who is a reporter and the one who is not. Unfortunately, I know some
columnists who work for newspaper who don't bother much with reporting. That makes it really hard to decide who is and who is not a ‘journalist’,” said DeCourcy.
Paid or not, these writers are using the internet as tool never scene before to get up a close and personal to their audience or fan bases.
“Our system allows readers to make public comments about our material -- to bog on the bogs, so to speak. I most often will respond and continue to engage the reader’s in a debate. In that sense, the blog is much more alive than a column in a magazine or newspaper. I'm able to go back and expand upon or refine my point,” said DeCourcy.
Many decisions about blogging need to be made in the industry in the up coming years. Blogging has taken off to the point that the late new comers are willing and able to keep their day jobs, while spending hours pushing their new side stories. Noah Parker is one of the few part time bloggers at sportsfrog.com. Locally in Missouri, Papers like the Kansas City Star and Columbia Tribune are making strides towards get more local news of their online stores. It’s even better when one of the small timers gets called up to write for the big league.
I think it's great he's (Leitch Deadspin editor) able to make a living off blogging…he's good at what he does. I'd bet he hooks on to a major site before too long,” said Parker.

Josh Gilmore