If Im going to give blogs their props at the expense of mainstream media, then I have to be fair (ok , i dont have to be, this is a blog 🙂 and give newspapers their props when appropriate.
As is usual after a Mavs game, playoffs or not, after I got home from the game I couldnt sleep. So I sat on my PC andgotcaughtup on email, did some work and sometime in the early am checked out various sports sites forcommentary about that nights game.
First stop is Yahoo Sports, where I know I will get the AP report of the game. A very, very simple “here is the score, here is something to fill space, and here is something I think is of note that happened during or after the game” Great for the casual fan. I find out what time the games are the next day.
Next stop, some of the fan forums. Each usually has 1 write up from someone at the game, and another from someone watching the game. Good spots to see a fans perspective and the only place to pick up on things TV announcers said. Interesting stop.
By that point I was toast and went to bed.
This morning, woke up, grabbed the papers at the door. Dallas Morning News, Star Telegram both had great coverage of the game. Multiple columnists, who although I dont think give their topics as much depth as they could, they at least covered different angles and aspects of the game. In addition the reporting of the game, again, although not in depth versus the opportunity, was far, far better and more detailed than the AP reporting. As would be expected. Plus, they provided some basic statistical breakdowns.
About 1pm Dallas time, got on the PC, and checked out ESPN. What a waste of time. AP story. A nice story by Marc Stein, the same kind of sportscenter highlights they have for every game, and that if you watch TV, you already saw. The same stats they have for every game, ok, but nothing unique. Bottom line, not worth the trip. It reminded me why I hardly ever check out the site any more.
The world wide leader in sports, for the NBA semi finals, basically did nothing more than it did for every game of the regular season. Its recap is the same AP recap that the tiniest of tiny newspapers users to fill its sports section. Its stats, the same available to any website from multiple sources. You would think that they could find some value to add beyond the usual.
So if the choice came down to newspapers at the breakfast table, or regurgitation online. Newspapers at breakfast win.
Whats the moral of the story ? Depth and differentiation beat speed and regurgitation. I read the NY Times business section with a grain of salt, knowing it can be less than factual, but I read it every day. I know that they differentiate themselves by finding topics of interest to me that I cant find anywhere else. If they find something I care about, the net, among other tools, allows me to find out more. The NY Times business sectiongets my business because their stories are different from the stories I read anywhere else.
During the playoffs, I make sure to read the local newspapers because they have made the decision to differentiate their coverage to include depth and in some cases differentiated information, far beyond what is available online. If they invested the same effort during the season, I would be sure to read it every day. Im sure fans of other sports and topics would feel the same way.
Its interesting to me how my online reading habits have changed over the past 2 years. It used to be that i had a series of sports sites bookmarked and I would check them out to see if there was anything of relevance. Now, they are all either live bookmarks in mozilla or in an RSS reader and I just glance at the headlines. Which makes it painfully obvious how much they all just reuse the AP feeds. I also use RSS feeds of searches from icerocket.com that I can just glance at to see if there is anything being published from news, blogs or other RSS enabled sites. No need to visit ESPN, Sportsline, etc. If they cover a topic im interested in, and they match the keywords ive chosen, I see it.
Which of course , creates a catch 22. if the sites I no longer visit, or even the newspapers or magazines I no longer read do publish a story i would be interested in, Im going to miss it. Or I should say, they are going to miss me as a reader and consumer.
Which is all the more reason that rather than focusing on speed and breaking stories, I personally think newspapers and websites need to define their brands to heavy readers like myself through depth and differentiation. Brand yourself as the home of unique stories, not for breaking news. We have been trained that the net has all news 15 milliseconds after its “broken ” elsewhere. But if i know that you are the sole home of in depth coverage on things I care about, you got me.
And while Im on the subject, one last suggestion for newspapers. I think internet readers have started to understand news sources. We know that a story with Ap as a source in the paper is going to be the same AP story online. Rather than wasting money on newsprint for a story thats available 20k places on the net as every AP story is, could you please just print a list of the stories you think would be interesting that are sourced outside your paper. In fact, just use any of the memeorandums as a template for each section of the newspaper. That hopefully will open resources for the paper to gives us the depth and differentiation we crave. Syndicated stories dont help you, they hurt you. It kills your brand. It makes you look like an outlet that puts regurgitation over origination. Not the way a paper or website for that matter, wants to be branded
As of today, for today, the newspapers get my business
Make all press free and then we’ll have a level field.
Comment by Marc Mayor -
That is crazy. The players where justgoing for the ball it happens all time in the NBA when a player is on the ground with the ball other players try and tie him up. Finley was just going for the ball his hip barely touched Terry it was just part of the game. Terry threw a punch he should lose a game thats the rules.Quit whinning about it.
Comment by dan griffith -
As the editor and primary video reporter/producer and writer for a major professional sports team’s official Web site, I concur with many of your points. Local newspapers bring a distinct — and necessary — perspective, at least when they deign to cover a team of broad local interest as it properly should be.
The Associated Press actually could provide similar coverage if in possession of the requisite manpower resources, but as I’m sure you’re aware, their complement of sportswriters is limited compared to outlets like the Morning News and Star-Telegram; its sports department in even the largest of markets is comparable in size to a small-city, 15,000-circulation daily.
The optimist within me believes that someday we will have local, Internet-only publications serve the same functions as the local sports section and even television outlets; that may be possible as the medium continues to mature and advertising becomes more viable. (Perhaps their primary mode of reporting would come in blog form.)
Or it may be the local broadcast concerns who seize the moment and take their Web sites to a higher level, incorporating the analysis and scope that print can provide into their on-line offerings — which, in many cases, already utilize video packages to some degree of effectiveness.
Either way, there’s a vacancy and a public demand that simply awaits satiation.
Comment by "Steve Bennett" -
I guess pulling other news sources does make sense if all you visit is one or two online news sites. But for information junkies, seeing the same story over and over gets irritating. It does make them seem irrelevant now that you can just RSS AP or Reuters.
Comment by Abstract Dimension -
I would just like to contribute my Bruce Bowen defense comparison:
http://media.putfile.com/Bowen-Defense
Comment by Mark Jones -
One more game!
One more game!
One more game!
Oh wait — that looks like three.
One more game!
Okay, back to screenwriting.
Comment by MaryAn -
While on the topic of newspapers, I have found it interesting that being a resident of the same state in which you once lived, Pennsylvania, that you still manage to find your way into what seems like every daily sports section. I must admit, I LOVE IT! I live outside of Pittsburgh and am a die hard Pirates fan which, for anyone who reads this, there have been “rumors” that Mr. Cuban was interested in purchasing the team, and just hearing that you have considered buying what at this point in time is a poor excuse for a baseball organization is music to my ears. I have been a Pirates fan since birth and due to their 13 consecutive losing season streak they are currently on, have found myself in quite the predicament. While I want nothing more than to go to every game I can get to, I also know that the only way to rid the organization of its horrendous owners is by not going, which in the end causes me to feel mixed emotions towards the team while I should be focused on nothing more than having a great time watching my favorite sports team play. Basically what I am getting at is that the city of Pittsburgh and the Pirates need you. Please do everything reasonable in your power to help right the ship and get this team back to its winning ways. Thank you very much for not only taking the team to read this but for also instilling hope into a near defeated fans heart.
Comment by Kraig -
I feel really sad for those of you who live their lives exclusively online.
Concerning the article I have to say that a sportsgame has certain dimensions that can be displayed. Others, especially psychological aspects, cannot (in most cases). Neither papers nor the net can immitate the live feeling. So I really do not know what you are expecting Mark
Comment by pat -
Laptop screen is good… but paper is paper. I vote for classic newspaper
Comment by Nina Krause -
Hi,
I’m primarily a Wisconsin Badger fan, but have been a Mavs fan since Michael Finley started playing on your team. I enjoyed watching Devin Harris in college and really have enjoyed watching him during the current Mavs/Spurs series. Way to go Devin!
I never get enough Mavs coverage from the national sports websites so I have bookmarked the local Dallas papers. Everything is local I guess, even for a Mavs fan from Madison, WI.
Go Mavs!
Longtime reader, first time poster.
Comment by Tom McCann -
Completely agree. I would much rather read in depth insightful articles than the latest breaking news and that would be the only way I would keep paying for different papers. Obviously you can’t get the newspaper out as fast and to keep the readers you have to differentiate by doing that in addition to other things.
Comment by Website Design -
Holy Crap, I missed last nights game and just watched the highlights! What an awesome game!! Just amazing. That is exactly why you play basketball. Both teams fighting for their lives to win it, never giving up, and in the process creating one of the most exciting games in history! Great squad you got there Mark, and props to San Antonio too. They fought tooth and nail till the end which proves they have just as much heart as your guys do. I’m one of the very few who have Dallas getting past San Antonio in my pool, so I love my Dallas boys sticking it to the town favorites SA. MARK. You and your team are awesome and deserve a big Cramer Boooooooyah!!!!
Comment by Lo in Austin -
I am a fan of both the newspaper and TV news/sports. Mainly because I work in the field of TV news. I do agree with you that the local angle is much better when it comes to sports. I am a die hard Spurs fan, and I know that is probably blasphemy on your site right now :), but you guys have the upper hand. Your team is amazing and a very close second for my favorite, since I’m from Texas — but I digress. Ever since I moved out of state, I just can’t get the same coverage that I was used to back home.
Comment by Dawn Burbridge -
I personally just like reading various columnists.. as you said mark, all the regular game recaps are mostly AP feeding!
I just go the link below, where they do the news search for me:
http://www.prosportsdaily.com/nba/mavericks/
Comment by mohammad -
I use the internet for news like I watch commercials on TV. I have for several newspapers and many magazines. There’s no free ride in life, but at least I have many sources for investing ideas.
http://compound1000.blogspot.com
Comment by Jake Wolf -
Online journalism is still in its infancy (sort of like TV news in the 1930s and newspapers centuries ago), but as Web staffs grow and a more cohesive bond is formed between them and the news organization the site is associated with, more original content will be made available to the news consumer.
Right now, it is not uncommon for a local news site in the Dallas area to have only four staffers, whose schedules are divided among an 18-hour news coverage day and weekend coverage so that there is only a short time span — maybe two hours in the middle of the day, three days a week — in which there are three people working together. This is on top of the fact that those staffers are not assigned to a particular beat to cover.
It would be interesting to find out how many journalists ESPN, The Sports Network, and other sports media organizations have covering Dallas sports, along with the number of Web editors they have updating the organization’s associated Web site. The number of editors is probably relatively small compared to the number of in-the-field reporters … and the bulk of their job, as of now, is probably to repurpose what was broadcast or printed by their associated media organization.
On a related note, Google’s News search is a great way of finding stories you might not find anywhere else. However, at the same time, it reaffirms your point that online news stories, for the most part, are regurgitated and unoriginal (the take on headlines can be rather unique though … Yahoo! News usually does a decent job).
Comment by Andrea -
Good read. I usually look at the local paper’s news of any team that I look into, because in the local sportswriter’s mind, at least to me, he has to differentiate himself from the ap’s story to keep a job. The ap’s story is usally up on the respective newspaper’s website immediately after the game, but by the next morning, the local columnist will have given his analysis.
So it appears that the Whiner is dissatisfied with online sports media. Is a plan to create your own “Worldwide Leader” in the works?
Comment by Courtney B. Bryant -
Mark some good basketball forum sites are
basketballboards.net and realgm.com
Nice win last night.. by the way I was a little upset you never replied to my email.
Comment by Brian -
This advice can probably also apply to bloggers as well. With over a gazillion websites and blogs out there, there are probably only a handful that provide useful and original information. The rest are quick to slap up some information, call it “fresh content” and hope to make money through ads…
Comment by Maria Palma -
Oh the irony Sui. Thought I had seen that before ;).
I was priviliged enough to see both home games in dallas. I am completely spent; seriously, thought, those games were incredible. Now it’s time for the mavs to close it out (as much as I love home games, I don’t want to see SA in dallas again until next season). Also, I agree with the other users that Manu Flop should be posted online!!!
Comment by Austen Holmes -
I guess it’s just too easy to copycat something quickly than to spend a few mintues and come up with something new and original.
Comment by Sui -
Hey Mark, This site says that you are the proud owner of the NBA!
How did you pull that one off?
Here is the link to the story:
http://sports.crimsonlight.com/2006/05/mark-cuban-has-bought-the-nba/
It is also above.
Comment by Jim -
Mark, how bout this as a news source. I came across is the other day, its pretty simple and aggregates all the news sources in one place and by category.
http://www.bullthink.com
Comment by Michael Moran -
ESPN is horrible. If I was a billionaire(hint hint), I’d go take down their empire. I love football just as much as the next person, but it was ridiculous that they did nothing but talk about the NFL Draft for the month of April…not to mention their Monday Night Football countdown, didn’t they get the memo that MNF has lost it’s appeal? There’s a reason why ABC ditched it.
I used to love ESPN’s afternoon block of TV (JRIB,ATH,and PTI) but more and more those shows are becoming jokes on themselves. JRIB is the only credibile show, because Rome doesn’t really care who or what he offends, he calls them likes he sees them.
ATH never ventures into different topics, it’s always the same garbage of MLB,NFL (even in the off-season), and NBA. Occasionally you’ll get a snip of PGA,NHL,NASCAR. but the writers are such homers and are not objective at all.
PTI used to be my favorite show on TV, but it seems Wilbon and Tony K. now think they are preaching from the pulpit rather than just normal guys talking sports.
It never fails that Wilbon will throw a race card every other show. Tony K’s hard-on for American Idol is ridiculous, I mean how many people actually watch the crap anymore? Five good minutes has become a joke, no hard questions are ever asked like you would see with JRIB, everything is a cake walk. As is with ATH, PTI covers hardly anything outside the realm of NBA,NFL,and MLB.
I always enjoy whenever a hockey topic comes up so we can see how little they know about the sport. Given about 30 seconds of time to speak, take the Red Wings for example, they devote maybe 13 seconds to actual hockey, then go off talking about the town of Detroit, then off to trying to recall the goalie from Anaheim who played so well 2-3 years ago. Then mail it in with Tony trying to say something funny to fill the time. It’s a joke.
ESPN is becoming to sports quite rapidly what MTV has done to music.
Comment by Tyler Yarnell -
Reading a laptop screen at the breakfast table is not the best, newspapers will always have a place in my life for that one reason.
Comment by jimmy steel -
If I am looking to find in depth coverage of my sport teams, Pacers & Colts…I always look at the local newspaper’s website. In this case usually indystar.com. A lot of the content in the local newspapers/sites would never make national news. I never find the articles on espn.com that good. I usually just check out that site when I want the summary of the days sports, stats, & schedules.
Comment by Craig -
Mark:
That was an amazing game and none of the news sources that I saw did it true justice. Like you, I checked out the link on ESPN and was disappointed to only see short clips of (seemingly slanted toward the spurs) the end of the game. NO ONE has clips of Harris’s sick crossovers or footage of the first half when we totally dominated.
Regardless, please hook us up with another thing we won’t find in the mainstream media…that footage of the Manu Flop video…
Fine from the NBA…$200k.
20,000 Mavs fans laughing because its true…priceless.
Keep up the good work!
Comment by Jorin Slaybaugh -
Mark,
That is why I like the Financial Times over other business publications. They have unique photographs. That in a sense say a 1000 words. On Saturday night I went to see the Go’Gos at Taste of Addison. While roaming around pretending to be a “Citizen Journalist” I shot this picture that I put on my server. One of the food booths had a MAVs game on and this was taken during a free throw in the 4th quarter I had no where else to post this figured your fans would enjoy.
Snap is at
http://exit50.com/images/mavstasteaddison.jpg
Comment by Andrew Coffey -
The AP and other big news conglomerates were built for the newspaper world and have no place in a World Wide Web where I can get the same news in fifty newspapers. Don’t blame the medium, or the messanger, though. Blame the lazy people at ESPN, and all over the Web, who don’t want to create original content on the Web. It is far too easy for my local paper, the Observer Dispatch, in Utica New York, to also copy, paste and reprint crap from the AP, Knight Ridder, or where ever. This is ALL pre-Web thinking, not new millennium minds thinking…
Comment by Rob Thrasher -
Another great thing about the internet is that you can post the Manu Flop video played at Saturday’s game. Please?! That was the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time, and definitely worth the $200k fine that’s coming from the NBA.
Comment by Jon Shepherd -
One word for syndicated news:
Google News.
You can simply set a search -subscribe to the feed, and whenever something relevant to your search words appear in the news, it pops up in your newsreader!
Comment by Share Trading -
sorry, i forget to say, i am Chinese,glad to write to you. affter 14urs , i will watch the game and good luck to you and your Mavs.
Comment by jinghua Zhang -
Hi, dear Mark. this is the 2nd time i write letter to you, have you received the first one?
Ok. that is what i want to say: i had read your articles in your blog, which named “where newspaper kick the internets behind” and “blogging vs traditional media-this time its personal”—-i am totally agree with you. i think more and more people use internet in their life and internet can change everything. Will you want to upset the traditional media? That is a good chance for you, really. I will talk to later. By the way, IF the Mav will win the title, can you give me a champion T-shirt?
Comment by jinghua Zhang -
Mark,
You make a good point with the regurgitation factor of the internet. I was at the game (which was probably one of the best games I’ve ever seen) and came home and wanted to read some unique perspectives from the “experts” about the game, just to hear someone else’s opinion. I go and check yahoo, espn, and nba.com and, sure enough, all 3 have the exact same AP feed.
It’s sad, but it seems like espn is getting worse and worse about this, as well as the rest of the internet. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places, but I really don’t want to spend the time to find the right places anymore. I kinda got off on a tangent, but it seems to me like search engines tend to funnel users to a few hundred websites (depending on the topic you are searching for), many of which either use the exact same article or a regurgitation of it. Because of this, the internet is now a boring place to me, so I see myself spending less and less time browsing it. Where is the unique content? I guess it’s just too easy to copycat something quickly than to spend a few mintues and come up with something new and original.
Beau, good point about page 2 on espn. Those are really the only articles I spend time reading as they are at least people’s opinions. Many times they are quite humorous, too.
Nonetheless, go mavs and I’ll be at game 4 loud and proud (assuming I get my voice back after screaming for the entirety of game 3!)
Comment by Austen Holmes -
Mark, local newspapers plus a copy of the WSJ are the best way to go in this current age. ESPN is a fact checker, I go there to see the game lines and occasionally read a Page 2 Article (where their actual writing comes from, but never anything serious).
But anyways, I have a suggestion. Nobody has the same perspective on the game that you get. We all watch it in person (when we can) or on TV and read whatever articles we can get to, but it would be amazing if you could get in there and give us your take post-game. That would be true customer service right there.
Of course that’s assuming you never sleep and have nothing better to do than do a post-game write-up on you blog in the middle of the NBA Playoffs…. 😛
http://www.beautaylor.com/bestpaintedmavsfans.jpg
Only the best mavs fans ever…
Comment by Beau Taylor -
Hello!
I am a Chinese，and I like Dallas Mavericks very much.I am a editor of the newspaper called the world of Sports MVP.
Comment by Guo yuming -
My problem with ESPN specifically is that they are so up the NFL’s ass they can barely give any shine to any other sport for more than a “Sportscenter Update.” I love all sports, NBA being my favorite, with NFL/MLB 2nd, and Hockey and everything falling casually behind. ESPN is so convinced that the NFL is so grand and that it’s value alone is bigger than the other major sports combined that they also must report with that slant. Blah. At least Dan Patrick gives the NBA guys some light…
I only read newspapers if they are around. I think it’s still a viable medium, but they need to find a way to make themselves important again. I think your idea is a step in that direction. They are kinda clunky and a chore to read sometimes, and all the flyers they put in them gets on my nerves a bit too.
Comment by Mark Goodchild -
FYI…I don’t want to alarm anyone, but when my son was 3 years old, every time I had fresh newspaper in the house, the smell of ink would make my son sick! I took him to the doctor and verified that the ink smell in the newspaper was distressing and may even nauseate some small children.
Comment by Mitchell -
If you have good balance you can bring your laptop to the toilet also. Some people sit there awhile anyways 😉
Why limit yourself to a paper on the John when you can design a website at the same time?
Comment by Search Engine Optimization -
>>Brand yourself as the home of unique stories, not for breaking news.
EXACTLY! Mark, I run a site called Sports Central, and that is our motto. You can go to a zillion places to get the dry AP story, scores, and stats, but where do you go for original fan commentary and insights? That’s our whole premise — I have put together about 40 volunteer contributors of the highest quality, and we’re pumping out several original fan commentary columns a day.
The same-old ESPN and AP stuff gets old. That’s why Sports Central serves its purpose: http://www.sports-central.org
Comment by Marc James -
Yeah, ESPN won’t tell you anything new or interesting about the Mavs. The Star Telegram and the Dallas Morning News are printing some great articles right now. As far as the internet goes, dallasbasketball.com is a fun site about the Mavs. It really breaks apart each game.
Comment by Will Guerin -
I worked many years ago for a newspaper. I found it very interesting how a simple news story would come in, and then over the next few days propagate through the different news channels (TV, radio, paper, internet, current affairs, etc).
Often the initial news story was a short paragraph that was then spun, re-written, and retold over and over. Usually with the expected ‘Chinese whispers’ effect.
Unfortunately, most Internet news sites are run as a store and forward fact repository. In the news comes, and out it goes, unmodified. Papers still employ journalists, commentators, and other experts to comment on the facts, rather than just hand out the facts.
For me, if I want to know what the various commentators are saying, or just the facts, I know where to go…
Comment by Michael Vanderdonk -
Mark, you are so right about ESPN. Seriously, if its not Lebron James, albeit a talented guy, then they don’t cover it at all. Mavs/Spurs has been the best of all the playoff series so far, including the Suns/Lakers. To a degree, I think they don’t like to cover the Mavs because they never have controversy. Lebron is getting bounced in Game 5, Suns/Clippers is as boring as Clippers/Nuggets. I just don’t understand why people can’t see how good this series is. Saturday’s game was an instant classic, if Kobe or Lebron was playing in it, we would have seen it all over SportsCenter. I wish CNN/SI could step up their coverage of hoops, so you could find the real in-depth stuff there. BTW, Marc Stein sucks as an analyst, he is the wuss that had never played a game of hoops in his life, I can’t believe I actually prefer Screaming A Smith to him, but if that is the only other option…
Comment by James Askew -
yep, investigative reporting – that’s what I still get from a paper that I can’t get anywhere else. Whether it’s Sports or courts or business, that kind work takes both expertise and cash – things that newspapers have and most bloggers don’t.
I love the idea of segregating the segregating syndication coverage to one area of the page. I disagree, however, that carrying syndicated news dilutes your brand. I want my news outlets to provide me with those stories – I want to be able to read the paper’s analysis, and then quickly get caught up on the facts by reading the ap story.
Comment by Adam Elend -
anohter great advantage of newspapers.. you can read them in the john 🙂 before or after your coffee
Comment by schmoozer -
Cuban et al . I forgot the link in message #6 .IF you want to know who is doing the work for your gov spying on your ph . calls and your financial buisness. These guys also spy on all gov agencies .Make sure and click on all 4 videos(watch)..also scroll for commentary on of each. Amust see..
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7544.htm
Comment by Ron Des Laurier -
Mark, Hopefully after reading all those newspapers and online news, you wished your Mom and wife a Happy Mother’s Day. Oh wait, before you read all the newspapers and online news you wished them well.:)
Comment by Theresa -
Gosh I haven’t visited here in ages! Still at it then, Mark? Good stuff. Oh, and I find that a glass of warm milk along with Yahoo sports seems to do the trick for me!
Comment by Dean -
I am a MAVS fan that lives in NC and lets just say that I am definetly left wanting for MAVS coverage. DallasNews.com has always been one of my favorite sites to view to check on any type of in depth coverage. ESPN just seems to be stretching so broad they cant cover everything, unless your the NY Yankees or Boston Redsox. Ok so what to do? What about a “wikipedia” type website for sports, But using those who are paid to analyze games, the scouts, to write for it. i dont know if its feasable but maybe we could get a good anaylsis for every game.
Comment by Dorman G -
I have always felt quality was better than quantity. I used to read espn.com almost exclusively, but now I have all my different smaller websites that thoroughly cover each area of sports. ESPN isn’t as appealing to me as it used to be. I only read Bill Simmons and Scoop Jackson on a regualr basis anymore, but thats only like one article or so a week.
Comment by Ron Jumper -
you’re right. it’s to the point where i don’t even want to watch espn after a mavs win because it is almost a downer. i even noticed more bias to the spurs, and they lost!! on another note, iet’s go mavs. i can’t stop shaking during games i get so intense. good luck.
Comment by kevin brolan -
People dont want the clutter of a newspaper. Some people are lazy and dont want to dispose of it. Others just would rather have convenience which is the internet. It is soooooo easy to get up to date information online that there is no other use for a newspaper other than nostalgia. A newspaper is something that you see on the table and pick up because you are eating and you dont have your computer with you. Unless you were savvy enough to bring your laptop to the table or couch.
Comment by Brandon Connell -
try information clearing house . com Billionaire
All has been checked out and mostly TRUE.(refreshing)
Regarding the Isarelite general who was afraid of arrest for war crimes upon entering England this week. They haven’t reported yet but will. If you want in depth coverage of your phone calls and financial info ending up with the NSA ..LICE.. search 4 videos from FOX news about and ISraeli company that does all the work .This is at information clearing house.
enjoy!!!!..
OT = Marks a fractal guy…
I’m Still proving Mandelbrot is wrong twice as much as the linear boys daily.LOL.
Comment by Ron Des Laurier -
I’ve got to give some props to the USA Today – a paper I used to dismiss as eye-candy. I too subscribe to the RSS feeds from the major sports sites and USA Today has the most original content, hands down.
But I have to ask, does anybody who’s not staying in a hotel actually read a physical copy of the USA Today?
Comment by MattyP -
ESPN is garbage. For years they owned the “instant” sports reporting. Now with internet, the competition has increased significantly, and ESPN is now scrambling to figure out how to provide us with unique, relevant content. Hearing about Barry Bonds every 14 seconds is not unique to me. Actually, I refuse to watch SportsCenter just so I can get away from all of that. Shows like Real Sports on HBO are so much more worthwhile IMO, because like you said, it’s indepth reporting, not merely jazzing up box scores.
Comment by Clark G -
Hello,
personally I find the news on ESPN or CNN/SI quite interesting.
Alas I am from Germany. Our paper may, or not, give a brief (very brief) note about some mavs games: the final score and Dirks numbers.
So a website that provides basic informations is quite nice…
Right now the hype about LBJ can be a little bit frustrating, seeing those sites, you would never know the defending champions are battling the nr. 3.
See you
Comment by Robert -
i am surprised the large papers printing their little block of generic information about the game (or any story for that matter) havent found a profitable way to link to a local source for much more in-depth coverage.
btw, the officiating last night sucked.
Comment by blb -
I havn’t read the newspapers in awhile but occasionally I peek through it. Mostly because I work and live online 24/7. I own a ton of websites and so does my business partner. It is hard to do anything else really. I live on Yahoo news that I see on their homepage. Also news is easier to publish faster on the internet. Sometimes I see something on Yahoo that I wouldnt see on the news or a newspaper until the next day or two.
Comment by Brandon Connell -
Sean I agree that the league has gotten out of hand with its punishments. The dress code itself is overstepping their own boundaries.
If San Antonio were Waxahachie, Italy, or any other city for that matter, it still wouldnt deserve to be looked down upon and talked about like that by an NBA owner. This isnt varsity blues Mark, you’re an NBA owner. You arent at a pep rally, you’re being heard on national tv.
Perhaps JET shouldnt have been suspended. He shouldnt have thrown a punch either. He wasnt piledrived. Finley didnt intend to hurt him. JET punched him in the balls. Im pretty sure there are some mavs fans out there that have them and understand just how wrong he is for that.
Comment by Lucas -
Even though there hasn’t been a post yet concerning the Jason Terry suspension, if by chance the Mavs lose game 6 and then have to go back to San Antonio for Game 7, can we make shirts that say “David Stern stole my NBA title and all I got was this T-shirt”?
I’m personally very sick of David Stern’s NCAA-esque attitude of knowing whats best for everyone.
Comment by Steve -
Brendan, every fanbase has a few bad apples. Theres a difference between a drunken fan and a childish owner.
Heaven forbid an arena not take your precious credit cards. It must be so hard for you to make it to your seat passing through different colored walls.
Im not going to take shots at your town. You can keep ripping San Antonio if you want. Im a Detroit man myself, I just cant stand to let such stupidity go without comment.
Comment by Lucas -
Lucas, San Antonio is a rat hole. Anyone with a decent head on his/her shoulder would prefer D/FW to San Antonio any day of the week.
Back to the punch. I replay the clip over and over and cannot see a definite swing. If a guys on his back, he cant draw his elbow back, therefore it must be in a hook form.
If the refs would have given the JET the timeout he signaled (while being the undisputed possessioner), said “pile-on” would have never taken place. This league has gone retarded after the Artest Incident. Throwing your mouthpeice in a bit of frustration causes suspension.
Given Mavs loose game 6, expect the JET to have the game of his life game 7. Expect more penetration than a dirty movie, more clutch than Gone in 60 Seconds, and most importantly more games for the Mavs to play.
Comment by Sean Glinski -
You guys want to talk classless? How about the Spurs fan that was leaving the AAC after game 4 and was cussing out a little kid no older than 9. Lets talk about the AT&T Center that doesnt accept credit cards and has every part of the wall painted a different color. That is classless my friends. The riverwalk is disgusting and the Alamo is the most overrated thing in Texas.
Comment by Brendan -
Mark, continuing to remove replies that dont agree with you makes you a bit of a fake doesnt it? Hide behind your saying that posts that are off-topic may be deleted, but you leave up off-topic posts that applaud you. Very childish. Grow up and address them Mark, you arent stupid, you can do it.
My guess is that you’ll take a page out of Sacramento’s book and soon buy a couple of pages in San Antonio’s newspaper to apologize for your potshots at the town. I dont understand how someone so smart can be so stupid. Obviously you’re smart or else you wouldnt have grown into the position that you’re in. You have to be stupid though to say such degrading comments about a classy city such as San Antonio. (No im not from there, I just find it a nice place to visit from time to time)
Once again, for anyone who sees it before you delete this, ill add that i think your persona would fair much better in a wrestling federation.
Comment by Lucas -
Mark,
I know why you do it. I know why you say all those ridiculous things. You want to get people riled up. You want to get people fuming. But, most of all, you want to pump up your players and fans. I understand that. But, taking pot shots at a city (“muddy water”, etc…) was very classless and something that a child would say.
You have done great things with this organization but your mouth and the things you say sometimes go over the edge and tarnish a bit what you have done.
Comment by Ricardo -
I think the league made the right call by suspending Terry, if we allow this kind of activity, then the whole aspect of the ball game changes. We have to stay consistent, in the past during this playoff, the league suspended other players such as Raja bell, and Ron Artest for inappropriate behaviour, in order to stay consistentent we must punish others the way we have in the past.
Comment by Nas -
suspending JT is unbelieveable – no way its not related to someone out to get at Mark Cuban – I hope it serves as extra motivation for the Mavs – and that the Spurs relax just a little too much figuring Dallas is missing a key piece – I hope Avery can come up with some surprise twist that helps us jump out to an early lead – it is a real shame that the league punishes the fans and the players – forcing one of the best series in years to be decided without the superstars on the court
Comment by Dave Alvarez -
Mark I just want to say that this league can be such a joke. You are a great owner, and I love how you back your team 100%. I have alot of respect for you. THis latest move, suspending J.T. is ridiculous. I can only say that I was stunned. It is sad. Nonetheless, I am extremely confident with the team that you have put together and that the SPURS will go down tomorrow night.
Comment by Emmanuel -
Mark,
Newspapers have internet websites as well. The point you bring up, while interesting and important, is not a difference between internet vs. newspaper. Instead, I think it’s more regional vs. national. In other words, I don’t think it’s about speed. It’s about scope of coverage.
A regional internet website (either one sponsored by a newspaper or one written by a local fan) will cover the game in the depth you desire.
By the way, NBA.com does a slightly better job producing in-depth coverage as compared to ESPN.com. Not tough to do, but true.
Thanks!
Ben
Comment by Ben -
Hello,
Ive become a huge mavs fan over the last 4 years, nice job putting such a successul program together.
Comment by nathan -
>Scott Haley
Newspapers ? It’s time to transient for internet news 🙂
ha, in newspapers you can’t watch video or something, so blogs forever.
Comment by AndyG -
I don’t know if this is within your control, but could you please not have Steve Kerr call game 6. All he ever talks about is the Spurs, if you listen to game 5, he repeated the phrase, “This is very unusual for a Spurs team” at least 9 times. This is not hyperbole. He has nothing to say, so he just keeps saying the same thing. I literally watched game 5 in mute. I couldn’t handle it. Please get Hubie Brown, the best caller since Chick Hearn to do the broadcast. He gives insight into plays run and he knows exactly what should be done. I got a question for Steve Wonders, how can you play hoops for so long and not have any idea what the hell is going on?
Comment by James Askew -
So this week you like newspapers? I thought last week print news i.e. newspapers were a dying media….which is it?
Comment by Scott Haley -
I am similar that I read every site I can the next morning after the game. I want other perspective than just mine. ESPN.com has been out of my rotation for 6 months because they just do not get it any more.
I thought the Mavs sucked in the first half, sorry Mark, but were still enough to be tied. I told friends at the beginning of the year, Mavericks will have to ride Devon & Josh to win it all. Dirk is great but those guys are the key to the team. Oh yeah, Avery is the best thing since sliced bread. I LOVE his style, play tough defense and run them out of the gym.
Comment by Kris Rod -
A comment to “blb’s” comment.
“i am surprised the large papers printing their little block of generic information about the game (or any story for that matter) havent found a profitable way to link to a local source for much more in-depth coverage.”
Any news printed in the paper never creates revenues for the printing company. The news is the freebie you get when you pay to cover paper, ink and distribution costs. All of the ads are the money makers. Advertisers are the reason you have a newspaper at all.
Think of the ‘news’ as a public service. Sure, writers could write more and most do. It’s the editor that cuts and chops the story before the print. Less space for news and more space for ads means more money for the circulation.
It’s all about the MONEY!
Comment by Kenneth R Sword Jr -
Given the internet is the “new media,” I think ESPN.com, yahoo/sports and others need to appeal to a more intellectual demographic. Any joe can pick up a used newspaper from the McDonald’s table next to him and get bland coverage about the news; but the internet has a different population and should be exemplary in coverage.
But the underlying factor is that not everyone checks every sports site, so the moderators can get away with spewing out meaningless opinions/stats. Viewers are highly loyal to favorite sites, thus competition is being the first site to appeal to a veiwer, not providing a service above other sites.
We’ll get the Spurs in Game 6.
Comment by Sean Glinski -
good, That was the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time, and definitely worth the $200k fine that’s coming from the NBA.
Comment by PK -
not for nothing, and I know this doesn’t apply, but what is the connection on reunion tower’s animations and game days/wins.
I heard that the ball only animates during home games.
I also heard that it only animates during wins.
What is the truth on the Reunion Tower’s rhyme and reason to animations vs. just being lit?
Comment by darren -
It seems like the Mavs enjoy an advantage when it comes to preparation…I love the idea of their using “moneyball”-type analysis of match-ups and player tendancies. However, I can’t believe that they are so bad with jump balls. Is it just me or do they lose a disproportionate number of these? Does anyone keep stats on this?
Comment by Mike -
I think it is rediculous how biased the commentators and studio crew of TNT is toward the Spurs. It gets ver old listening to them complain about all of the bad calls favoring the Mavs, but not say anything about all of the bad calls favoring the Spurs.
Comment by Stephen Lindsey -
I completely agree with the boring/generic information on the sports sites. I have been going there after games and I am slowly changing my habits to check them out maybe twice a week.
Now I just keep a blog of my own thoughts. Writing this is more entertaining to me than reading recaps of a game I just watched.
check it out at
http://dallasmavericks-mavsfan.blogspot.com/
Comment by Mavsfan -
Mr Cuban,
Laker coverage at latimes.com begins with the standard AP report.
However, ‘in depth’ reporting due to appear in the following day’s print editions is, near always, posted to the dot com by midnight pacific time. This is true even when the game is here on the left coast.
If not already, the Maverick faithful should be so well treated by the Dallas papers. Surely, the Los Angeles Times doesn’t have the fanatical and insomniacs markets cornered.
Best Regards.
Comment by J. Michael -
Hey Mark — Concerning media and writing in general — Why not author a book? Perhaps the book could be titled ‘No Balls, No Babies’ (Insert shameless domain pitch here.)
Alternate title suggestion for the book …A …B …C
A merica’s
B illionaire
C uban
Maybe something along those lines?
Comment by NoBallsNoBabies -
REAL bloggers are mental masturbators TRYING to be entertaining…and if they write a book…plugging their product from time to time.
AT LEAST that’s what i try to do…..
The newspapers do what Fox “news” is supposed to, in theory at least. The most WE bloggers can do is RIFF on events and hope we are entertaining enough for some people to put it on their FAVORITES list and thereby build a following. Blogmiester extrodinaire Matt Drudge is wrong more times than he’s right…but his following is phenomenal!!!
i can only hope that my Stern/Chappelle blog show with its Lenny Bruce overtones help sell a few more copies of my book…Google’s Ad Sense thinks me a bit too raunchy for their tastes…LOL
Comment by EminemsRevenge -
enjoy! :http://www.forestethics.org
Comment by Mitchell -
Depth and differentiation … Media coverage is being stifled by the manic pace of today’s world. We live in a fast-food, fast-news society. Most average folks opt for a ‘microwaved’ version of current events due to daily time constraints. Modern media reflects the modern world.
Comment by NoBallsNoBabies -
“I really prefer my wife’s spaghetti to the same old bland stuff they serve at Olive Garden. Restaurants must be inferior to my wife in terms of depth and differentiation.”
This is what your argument sounds like to me when you say “First stop is Yahoo Sports”, and “checked out ESPN”. Of course the local paper is going to have more in-depth coverage when compared to national news sources, but the internet’s sheer volume of blogs, comments and discussions still provides more depth than a hundred local papers.
How can you say that ESPN and Yahoo or any other national source should have more depth? By definition they cover only a LITTLE of everything. That would be like me saying that your blog should have more discussion of the Mets bullpen situation.
There are plenty of sources on the web to satisfy your taste for diferentiation.
What I’m saying is, go find a hole in the wall Italian joint that suits your taste, because somewhere there is a place where the spaghetti is better than your wife’s…plus she’s probably tired of cooking your dinner.
Comment by Jay Howard -
Mark,
I agree with you when it comes to “Depth and differentiation beat speed and regurgitation” as it relates to content on a site or paper.
I wonder if the same would apply to businesses? I almost want to say the formula is flipped backwards: “speed and regurgitation beats depth and differentiation.” Granted, I may be defining the terms differently than you…in this statement, regurgitation to me would be coming out with Version 2.0 (with improved features, better technology and add-ons) faster than your competitors can create the “deepest” product imaginable. This may be a bad analogy, but an example of this might be Outlook vs. Lotus Notes. When Lotus Notes first came out, there was no doubt it was pretty deep in its features. But Outlook captured the mass market because it’s easier to use, Microsoft came up with upgrades faster than IBM (ironic, given how MS is getting beat to a pulp by Google), and the technology to really bring out the beauty in Lotus Notes didn’t exist (affordably) in the beginning.
Of course, I don’t think this model works all the time…but surprisingly, a lot of businesses experience success by it. I was kind of curious about your thoughts on this.
Good post, by the way.
Phillip Chen
Comment by Phillip -
I would add a couple of more points to your argument.
1) Portability. Websites can be great resources, PROVIDED THAT you are in a position to maintain an internet connection. If you are a professional who is not chained to a desk, this can be problematic. While Broadband access cards seem to solve this problem for many professionals, that access is nullified when you are traveling in an airplane. Commercial airlines are replete with travelers devouring their daily newspapers however.
2) Ease of use. Websites almost always require you to return to some type of “home page” in order to click on a link to take you to another page to read on about another game. If you want to read about the Cavs-Pistons series (after reading about the Mavs of course), you generally have to click back to a home page to access a link to the Cavs-Pistons section. With a newspaper, you don’t have to go back to the front page in order to move on to the next story.
For these reasons (and a few more) we created “XXL NATIONAL Sports Daily”, the only daily sports publication that can be downloaded everyday via a PDF file.
The initial thought for the publication came as I was boarding a plane last Summer and thought about the old “The National” (Frank DeFord’s short-lived sports daily) and how I wished it was still around. I was an avid reader during that publication’s 17-month run.
As I researched the demise of “The National,” I discovered that there were three main reasons why it failed:
1) Timing – The sports landscape was a much different animal in 1990 that it is now. ESPN2 did not even make its debut until 1993.
2) Distribution Challenges – The National was only available at newsstands, and even then only in three cities initially (LA, NY and Chicago). In Los Angeles, this meant that the publication was really only available at convenience stores like 7-11.
3) Inordinate Expenditures – The National was financed by Mexican media mogul, Emilio Azcarraga to the tune of $150 million and DeFord and company went thru that money in less than 17 months.
Where “The National” was ahead of it’s time in 1990, XXL NATIONAL is right on time now in 2006. This year, Americans will spend in excess of $26 Billion dollars attending sporting events here in the US alone. For better or worse, sports has become religion here in United States, where Americans fill modern-day cathedrals (arenas and stadiums) to admire present day icons (like Dirk and LeBron, or Barry and A-Rod).
We have solved the distribution problem by publishing XXL NATIONAL as a daily PDF periodical which can be downloaded at http://www.xxlnational.com. This format allows us to cover every game as if it was the seventh game of the NBA Finals, or the World Series or the Super Bowl. This allows business travelers, college students, and those serving in the armed forces to keep up with their hometown teams regardless of where life’s journeys have taken them.
Additionally, because the internet provides us with an inexpensive distribution vehicle, we are able to eliminate the major expenditures that DeFords publication incurred (namely printing, production, distribution). We are currently focusing on bringing on charter advertisers and sponsors. XXL NATIONAL is also looking to generate additional streams of revenue thru podcasting, cell phone/PDA products and radio broadcasts. XXL NATIONAL is a brand name opportunity that is ready to emerge as a player in the delivery of sports news via up and coming technologies.
All that having been said, we are but a shell of the publication (and brand) that we are destined to become.
As a start-up we are currently limited to the same vanilla AP reports that everybody else uses. I HATE THAT! As you stated in your blog, AP feeds are good for providing the perfunctory “here is the score, here is something to fill space…” We do however feature exclusive color scorecards for our baseball coverage, shot charts for our NHL coverage and drive charts for our football coverage.
Our vision is to supplement the AP game blurbs by creating a network of local writers who are also fans…writers who give a damn about the teams that they cover. A new breed of reporter, not a “homer” per se, but someone who can opine on what they see, and how they feel about what they see. In essence, I want to create a network of bloggers who can publish in XXL NATIONAL.
In your May 13th post you said that traditional media and blogging will never meet. If that is indeed true, then that is exactly why XXL NATIONAL needs to exist…to create a new “anything but traditional” breed of media. I want to create a brand that encompasses depth and breadth in the world of sports that has never been seen before. A publication so broad, bodacious and cool that it could only be produced as a PDF…and such a periodical would have to be XXL-sized (hence the name).
We are in pre-launch phase right now. We currently produce a condensed version everyday that can be downloaded at http://www.xxlnational.com. The site that is currently live during our pre-launch is a rudimentary single page (the purpose of which is to serve only as a delivery mechanism for the PDF for now). When we officially launch, we will cover every game in the NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL as well as major NCAA football and basketball games. As NASCAR has taken its place as the second-most watched sport on television, we will also cover every NASCAR Cup, Busch and Truck race as well. A more thorough website for the official launch has already been developed and is ready to go.
While PDF publishing is not new idea, XXL NATIONAL represents a novel way of presenting sports information on a daily basis that is different.
In 1979, ESPN took an existing form of media (cable television) and dared to ask the question, “if a 24-hour sports network were launched, would sports fans be rabid enough to pay for cable television?” Today, we take an existing form of media (PDF publishing) and ask “if we launch the most expansive sports coverage with more stats, pics and graphics in one publication, will people download?”
I hope that you like what you see when you download your first issue of XXL NATIONAL.
Comment by Ron Aguirre -
ESPN is a joke as far as “covering” a story. They lowered the bar for coverage on a national level. They grab a couple clips from the game and maybe a local media outlet’s post game chat – but why even bother with that. And then they rerun the same SportsCenter package a dozen times during the day.
And now they just run columnists shouting on shows to make up for its barely there journalism. But that’s the nature of the beast. Look at Fox News or even CNN. They’d rather run the same few clips and then have “pundits” go over talking points. It’s not about the story. it’s about the personality of the reporters – as discovered by FoxNews.
And the lazy nature of the AP wire must be addressed. Especially when they post a report that has a lot of mistakes. And since a majority of newspapers have cut back on staffers that might know facts, they just paste up these articles without any sort of double checking.
News now is all about cutting production costs to the bottom line. And the best way to save is to not actually report anything on your own. Just take the feed and insert your reporter.
Comment by Joe Corey -
I am similar that I read every site I can the next morning after the game. I want other perspective than just mine. ESPN.com has been out of my rotation for 6 months because they just do not get it any more.
I thought the Mavs sucked in the first half, sorry Mark, but were still enough to be tied. I told friends at the beginning of the year, Mavericks will have to ride Devon & Josh to win it all. Dirk is great but those guys are the key to the team. Oh yeah, Avery is the best thing since sliced bread. I LOVE his style, play tough defense and run them out of the gym.
Comment by BamBam -
I try not to agree with Mark Cuban, but I kind of agree with him this time. If you just look on the main pages of ESPN’s site, then it’s just a repeat of what everyone else is saying. To get any interesting stories, you have to become an ESPN Insider to get any in depth reporting. I don’t like that they charge you to become an Insider when thet whole point of their site is supposed to be reporting the news.
So, in essence when you go to their site you get copies of AP reports which every other sports site gives. Then, if you pay for a subscription to become an Insider, you get real reporting from ESPN reporters. ANYTHING TO MAKE A BUCK!
Comment by Ron -
here in the philippines where internet is for those privilage and those living at the urban areas, thus by then newspaper trives…theres no question about it. besides figuring out how to use a computer is another minus to filipinos. but mind you where catching up. we filipinos have to wipe the stigma that has plague us all this time… and thats laziness and crab mentallity…then say, we could give a damn on where newspaper kick the internet behined.
Comment by chrys demotica -
I grow up reading newspapers and I will die reading newspapers. Of course the information can be old, but I prefer classical way
Comment by Adm -
Yes, Five good minutes has become a joke, no hard questions are ever asked like you would see with JRIB, everything is a cake walk. As is with ATH, PTI covers hardly anything outside the realm of NBA,NFL,and MLB.
Comment by Car -