June 19, 2006
The Question of Blogger Access
Thanks once again to the tireless Paul Kukla for finding this reference to Off Wing in the Sports Business Journal (paid subscription required):
Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Capitals, discovered offwingopinion.com, a hockey Web log, while searching for information on his team last November. He was so impressed with the writer’s hockey knowledge that he invited him to a game two days later.
NHL policy denies independent bloggers — people who write Web logs — media credentials providing access to the locker room, pressroom and other areas, but Leonsis’ invitation gave the offwingopinion.com writer access to the owner’s suite and the owner himself. In other words, more access than any other blogger leaguewide could hope for, and enough to turn the heads of some traditional media stalwarts.
That visit became the subject of a Web log on offwingopinion.com, and it highlighted what Leonsis believes will be the next way for teams to use the ever-expanding world of new media.
“Traditional media is being marginalized with shrinking circulation and tough ad-sales climates at the same time blogs are growing in importance and reach,” Leonsis said. “It makes good business sense to welcome in new media.”
...While not every team or league has been as progressive as Leonsis when it comes to acknowledging bloggers, organizations are increasingly recognizing their importance and drafting policies to address requests for press credentials from bloggers.
...To date, bloggers have not ambitiously pursued credentials. In the last five years, the NHL has received two annual credential requests from bloggers for the Stanley Cup Finals.
For those of you who haven't read those posts before, click here, here and here.
The author of the piece, Tripp Mickle, initially contacted me in May for the piece, and I talked to him on the phone pretty extensively, but after his initial deadline, so he couldn't include any of my comments -- which explains why Off Wing gets mentioned, but I don't.
In any case, I sympathize with the league when it comes to giving press credentials to bloggers. Unless you follow blogs very closely, it's almost impossible to know at first glance who updates on a regular basis. Then again, it doesn't take much to figure out who's in it for the long haul -- all it takes is a quick look at somebody's archives and a perusal of Technorati and you ought to be able to figure things out.
Over time, I don't doubt that a number of bloggers are going to get credentialed on a regular basis. The NHL is a league that needs all the help it can get on the promotions side, and it just makes sense for them to reach out to people who cover the sport out of devotion to a particular team or the game in general. Here in Washington, the local paper, the Post didn't even send its Caps beat writer to cover the Finals. Here's Caps beat writer Tarik el-Bashir from an online chat that ran last week:
Rockville, Md.: So why aren't you or anyone from the Post actually covering the Stanley Cup finals? Raleigh isn't even that far away--less than five hours by car. The paper couldn't send anyone down there for games one and two?
Tarik El-Bashir: My editors made the decision that the interest in the DC market simply did not justify the expense. The teams involved are from small markets and T.V. ratings -- a major indicator of public interest in a sport -- have been smaller than usual.
But don't think that our not covering the finals means we have given up on hockey.
Oh really? Can you imagine how that would sound if it were said about any other sport? How about, "Just because we're not covering the finals doesn't mean we have given up on covering the NBA."
The fact is a steady diet of hockey blogs is going to give you a better look at the league on a daily basis than most U.S.-based newspapers, and that's the case even in markets where the NHL has a devoted following. So whether the Post or any other paper has given up on the NHL, it doesn't matter to many hard core fans who have already moved on, perhaps for good.
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The odd thing is that the Post sent El-Bashir down for the NJ-Carolina second round matchup. What was the point there, if they were just going to abandon the league entirely during the Finals? I didn't think the Devils were *that* high-profile.
The Examiner has done better work than the Post, just by printing the AP stories every day. Amazing.
Posted by:
at June 19, 2006 07:48 PM
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