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ted.aol.com
Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis offers a frank rebuke of the Washington Post. |
How can I say this nicely? Oh, what the heck. If
Ted Leonsis is going to be candid and bash mainstream media, then why can't I? It's not like I need a job. At this point in my career, I'd only be bought out at best or downsized in a restructuring at worst.
I like the Washington Post. Really I do. If I pick on it sometimes, it's simply because it's my hometown newspaper. Some of my closest friends in the industry work for the Post, and many of them are industry leaders when it comes to cross-platform, multimedia journalism. (Hi Rob Curley.)
However, the cash cow print product continues to rule the roost (chew its cud?) and make the decisions that dominate coverage decisions. That's because we all know that print journalists know best, as they've demonstrated in their business decision over the past decade or so. And that's fine; the Post knows its readers, right? It just doesn't care, however, that I don't want to read about the Washington Redskins at the expense of -- it seems at times -- everything else.
Now, am I just a cranky hockey and cycling fan who wants the Post to cater to me?
Well, yeah, I'm a cranky hockey and cycling fan -- but the Post doesn't cater to me and isn't about to. That's fine. I go elsewhere (as do other cranky readers who aren't getting what they want in print). And if the circulation department continues to throw my morning print delivery everywhere except in my driveway (I just found a week-old edition I thought I hadn't received in a bush!), I can read the Post online or even -- perish the thought -- not at all.
And I can easily find the niche coverage I want with the timeliness and depth the Post doesn't deliver in print or even online in blogs. (Again, the Redskins and political coverage is great.)
I first set up a blog about nine years ago without knowing it was a blog at USAToday.com when Craig Calonica reported by satellite phone during his climbing ascent and skiing descent of Mt. Everest in 1998. Today, blogs provide timely, credible information that mainstream media is either unable or unwilling to provide.
Hockey is a good example here in the D.C. metro area, where more than a dozen have been credentialed by Nate Ewell of the Washington Capitals. Although Post beat writer Tarik El Bashir does an admirable job in his limited (by his newspaper) coverage of the Capitals, there is plenty of coverage online -- especially on some excellent blogs like Off Wing Opinion. Hockey is just one coverage example in which mainstream media has abdicated its dominance.
To better understand this trend, here's what former AOL executive and Caps owner Leonsis has to say on his terrific blog, Ted's Take:
"This fact of life [the lack of mainstream media coverage] is exactly why we have helped to jump-start a blogosphere around our team; why we have developed a great Web site; and why we will talk and cooperate with every source of news out there. I believe that big city newspapers are a dying breed of media. We have to expand our coverage and also help the newspapers to connect with the new consumer. We will do our best, but it isn't for lack of trying. These are trying times for newspapers and we must find viable and alternative means to get all Caps information out there to whoever wants it in the format that they want.
"The Washington Post is pretty supportive of all sports teams in town, but is struggling as a mainstream media property. Its ad sales are down; its circulation is down; its costs are up; and it is struggling with its business model. Based on present course and speed, the paper will soon be a money loser and by their own admission, the Post Company is really an educational software concern now. The paper is cutting resources and even newsprint and it believes -- I think misguidedly -- that it doesn't need to cover the Washington Capitals as much as other news stories because our audience isn't big enough to warrant the coverage.
"I find this ironic in that the New York Times is a sponsor of the Caps and is selling subscriptions to their paper at every Caps home game. They find our audience desirable because of their educational levels; their income levels; their familiarity with the Web; and their passion for all things Caps-related."
The Post may not take some blogs any more seriously than sports talk radio (a medium it recently failed in locally when it couldn't put Tony Kornheiser on the air 24.7), but Ted Leonsis does. (He takes sports talk radio pretty seriously, too.) What Leonsis doesn't take seriously are the complaints by dying industries like newspapers that continually abdicate their traditional role in our lives, then complain that nobody reads them.
