Jun 09 2008
Overview
Old Style Sports Goal
To provide as much insight, depth, and analysis on Chicago sports as possible, while still remaining entertaining. I just wrote that, but it’s almost a spitting image of my original mission statement:
As a news source, it is my duty to point out poignant things that matter on the Chicago sports scene. As a New England sports fan, it is also my duty to make fun of them, while still providing insightful analysis and content… if I have to.
The deviation however is to lose the cynical tone I brought to many of my posts. It’s obvious that I am a Boston sports fan, born and raised, but I would be damned if I took anything some Chicago sports fan had to say about Boston sports seriously. If given a legitimate budget, most of my changes would be content-driven. I will address these changes in my “plan” section, which can be found below. To the point however, taking my readers’ comments into consideration, I would definitely like to make my blog much more interactive, and James’ suggestion of hyper-localism will be the driving force behind this.
In essence, this guy here would be wearing a Cubbies hat:
Photo Courtesy of Jennifer Marr
Old Style Sports Community
It would be really easy to just come out and say “Chicago sports fans.” But in looking at my responses from the survey I posted on my site, I can narrow this down significantly. My current readers are generally live in Chicagoland, are in their early twenties to thirties and it is no surprise that they are mostly friends of mine from the graduate program at Medill. They generally find my website via links in my Facebook and Myspace profiles (as well as our class blog), however some traffic does come search engines.
I went out this past weekend to Wrigleyville and talked to a few guys at the Goose Island Brewery. They told me they mostly got their sports news from ESPN, WGN and chicagosports.com, which is run by the Tribune company. They were in the target age group I mentioned previously, and were young professionals. While they were tantalized by the Cubs game, neither said they really read sports blogs. It would then be my goal to get them to read mine.
In asking them what they would want to see, they said what many of my survey responses said: content and analysis. People who visit sports blogs already know what’s going on, and they look to the blogs to provide unique analysis, or information that the news sources didn’t have.
So while the obvious answer is “Chicago sports fans”, I would go out and say my target audience is males, age 13-40, who would be considered avid Chicago sports fans. Offensive as it may be, for my “of age” audience, their interests would include the four B’s: Beer, broads, ball, and beer. With that said, my plan to lure them to my site would be easy.
Old Style Sports Plan
Readers’ Interests in a sports blog:
“The thing I’d like to see from a Chicago sports blog is credible analysis. I don’t care about scores, wins, or losses. I can go elsewhere for that. But I’m immensely interested in the evaluation and comparison of athletes as well as social/political issues that seep into sports a la Outside the Lines… I think if a Chicago blog could work as a Chicago sports news aggregator, then I would visit it often.” – Justin Amoah
So here it is. If I was to obtain funding for this Web Site, I would completely overhaul the existing format. Tags would be changed to the sports teams the blog posts are about, and each team would have its own page.
On that page would be:
• Team blog posts
• A calendar for upcoming games
• The current roster & transactions
• Statistics
• A unique blogroll for each individual sport
Instead of coming to the page every day and seeing a random post on a random team, content will be filed away neatly on each page, and readers will be able to find it with ease. And in line with this, content will also change. Instead of just responding to the news of the day, I would like to be able to break news, or provide information that most readers can’t get from the major news sources.
Now the home page will still contain the most recent posts, driven by new content ideas. In order to make each post more interactive, there will be questions posed to the reader - something I tried to do toward the end of blogging. Additionally, I’d like to add polls to more of the posts to stimulate interaction, create a mailbag where Old Style Sports contributors would respond to readers’ questions. There will also be moderated chat rooms and message boards, about different topics in the Chicago sports scene. This will effectively create a user portal to the Website.
Something I tried to do with every one of my posts was to have a visual element. Visuals are still needed for every post, be it a picture or video. With that said, I’d like to do a daily video podcast for what’s going on in the Chicago sports scene. Old Style Sports will commonly elicit analysis and commentary from leading sports journalists who will contract with the site.
This would go hand-in-hand with my readers’ comments from Brian McCabe and Benjamin Miraski, who contribute to/run their own blogs. Having multiple voices is key to success – unless you’re just a genius like Bill James.
Other content changes as mentioned earlier will focus on hyperlocalism and shameless pandering. So here is the easy part:
• Old Style Sports Girl of the Month
o Back in Boston we have a publication called Bar Stool Sports. On the cover of every issue is a very attractive woman, generally clad in skimpy clothing – something to attract a man to pick up a copy. Pandering to the interest of my male audience, I would definitely have to have another page solely dedicated to the local talent who would grace the Website with their lovely presence.
• Old Style Sports Athlete of the Month
o This, and the following idea will touch upon the introduction of hyperlocalism into my blog. Every issue, Sports Illustrated salutes athletes nationwide who have done something very impressive in their sport. This would be along those lines. Sure, we can tip our caps to the sports figures we write about every day, but that would just be too contrived. So I turn to the readers. Did you bowl a perfect game? Did you beat the hell out of your buddy in a game of 501 playing darts at the bar? Did your softball team win the park district championship? Old Style Sports wants to hear about it!
• The addition of local sports coverage
o In line with the previous post, local sports coverage would be a unique take on the Chicago sports scene. Content would come mostly from our readers, but Old Style Sports would definitely be checking out what’s going on in the local scene as well. High school sports, the park district and bar sports would all be covered. This would also serve as a meeting place for people who want to join a sports league, or inform others about theirs.
Last but not least, I have to go with merchandising. Old Style Sports will develop a logo & use its new adopted motto of the 4 B’s to further its readership. T-shirts, beer steins, shot glasses – you name it, I can have Old Style Sports branded on it. Plus, it will also create an opportunity for me to have giveaways. Everyone loves free stuff, and we see radio stations get people listening in all the time to win concert tickets, etc.
These are just some of the ways Old Style Sports can increase its readership. With this in mind, I think the audience I identified will be well served, and with the addition of merchandising and the Old Style Girl of the Month will bring in a larger readership.
