ESPN, put simply, does not care about the hardcore sports fan, and haven't for the at least the last 10 years. The wall between editorial and the rest of their business is long gone, replaced with a level of incest that would be prosecutorial if it were real life. Add to that keeping people who have little to know actual knowledge of the game (Joe Morgan is the biggest example) and people who have mailed it in for years (Chris Berman) and you have a recipe of disaster.
But it's like Homer yelling to Moe "YOU JUST LOST YOURSELF A CUSTOMER" during the Flaming Moe craze: they don't care, because they still have the moderate-level fans and the soft-core fans who will always go back. I use SI.com for my sports news and info. The only thing I go to ESPN.com for is Bill Simmons (and using an RSS feed, I can surgically strike that page). But what's even scarier is that ESPN has shifted their focus to local: witness ESPNChicago.com and their plan to expand to at least three other cities: New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas. Dan Shanoff nailed this in his blog earlier this week (http://peek.sn.im/nsm2c) : "Here's an unintentionally funny quote from LA Times sports associate editor Randy Harvey: 'It would be foolish to underestimate ESPN, but it comes down to resources. I don't see them being able to replicate what we do.' "Do what, Randy? Cut your hockey coverage? Let marquee columnists like JA Adande leave for...oh, let's see, ESPN.com? (Um, whose content do you think will be leading ESPNLA? Let's see: You could be reading the leading columnist of LA sports on ESPNLA.com...or you could read the place he USED to work, before he bolted?) How about the way Harvey has let Bill Plaschke become more TV personality than newspaper columnist -- on...ESPN? (Again: ESPNLA will have Plaschke video from Around the Horn. What's LATimes.com got?) "The Trib's editor for digital media, Bill Adee, said this: 'We are looking forward to the local sports turf battle in the weeks and months ahead.' Memo to Adee: The battle seems to have been lost already. On your watch." On Wed, Jul 22, 2009 at 11:30 PM, Bob in Jersey<[email protected]> wrote: > > > Mark J., to John Edwards, in part: >> It's interesting how much the sports blogosphere hates >> ESPN, but ESPN seems to take little note. Are sports >> bloggers all out of the target demo or is Disney just >> making too much money to care? > > They're (from everything I've seen) well into said demo. > > > > -- > BOB > ____________________________________________________________ > Win the battle of the bulge with great liposuction solutions. Click now! > http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTJeOJo7WAbLlnUo986wtw8vwTQ0L5ypol01dgXcAE9q5rZwkcuola/ > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
