JonDMiller
Publisher/Founder
There is Rivals, Scout and ESPN, and soon to be 247sports.com.
They are going to be in the premium subscription line of work. I know that Shannon Terry is a part of it, formerly of Rivals (sold it to Yahoo) and the publisher of the Alabama Rivals site, which was the biggest site on Rivals, at least before the OrangeBloods.com month of June...
Terry sent me a message through facebook last month asking me if I would be interested in their network, but I declined, just as I did when ESPN contacted me a year ago to become a part of their network. I am committed to the free model, and it's working, as each of the past four months has been the busiest specific month (best March, best April, etc) we have had in the decade I have been doing this.
It will be interesting to watch it play out, as I feel the subscription genre/model is overcrowded to begin with and also feel that it's halcyon days are behind it.
And today's events underscore it; you have football coaches tweeting about commitments...you just can't monetize that sort of breaking news any longer, and I wonder how long people will be interested to pay for info on Jimmy Two Star's list of 10 schools and what his bench press is. That's not all it is, as guy's like Rob Howe put out some excellent feature work and introduce people to kids that might be Hawkeyes.
But you also have newspaper beat writers that are covering the recruiting 'beat' now too...it's a crowded street.
It also sounds like some properties owned by Landmark Publishing may wind up with 247sports, as some folks I used to work with when I was with Rivals/Landmark told me that the current Rivals has cut ties or will be cutting ties with the Landmark properties. Voice of the Hawkeyes is one of those properties, but I don't now how that will impact the current rivals site, or if they are a part of the new arrangement.
They are going to be in the premium subscription line of work. I know that Shannon Terry is a part of it, formerly of Rivals (sold it to Yahoo) and the publisher of the Alabama Rivals site, which was the biggest site on Rivals, at least before the OrangeBloods.com month of June...
Terry sent me a message through facebook last month asking me if I would be interested in their network, but I declined, just as I did when ESPN contacted me a year ago to become a part of their network. I am committed to the free model, and it's working, as each of the past four months has been the busiest specific month (best March, best April, etc) we have had in the decade I have been doing this.
It will be interesting to watch it play out, as I feel the subscription genre/model is overcrowded to begin with and also feel that it's halcyon days are behind it.
And today's events underscore it; you have football coaches tweeting about commitments...you just can't monetize that sort of breaking news any longer, and I wonder how long people will be interested to pay for info on Jimmy Two Star's list of 10 schools and what his bench press is. That's not all it is, as guy's like Rob Howe put out some excellent feature work and introduce people to kids that might be Hawkeyes.
But you also have newspaper beat writers that are covering the recruiting 'beat' now too...it's a crowded street.
It also sounds like some properties owned by Landmark Publishing may wind up with 247sports, as some folks I used to work with when I was with Rivals/Landmark told me that the current Rivals has cut ties or will be cutting ties with the Landmark properties. Voice of the Hawkeyes is one of those properties, but I don't now how that will impact the current rivals site, or if they are a part of the new arrangement.
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