I decided to check out the latimes sports section. Catch up on whats going on in LA since Im on my way there right now for business. So i click on an old link i hadnt used in a while.
Now Im sure this isnt a huge traffic driving url for LA Times, but did you guys sell off your 404s (incorrect webaddress by user) ?
I had to go to your home page to get to the sports page on this http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/lakers/
Now this is not a big deal in the big scheme of newpapers future. Nor is it going to add a penny per share to the bottom line, but sometimes why in the world would you allow your sports page to be redirected to a 3rd party site rather than your own sports page ?
Up, yes. To the LA Times, no. Running from PA, yes. Looks tacky. Quite.
The headline is about hockey. No one really cares anyway.
Comment by R Hawk: Diary of a Newspaper Hawk -
Mark, dude, I have to ask again, what\’s with the space before a question mark or exclamation point ? (ha) You do it all the time, so I know it\’s not a one time fluke. You did it 16 times in one short post a few weeks ago. Question marks and exclamation points are no different than periods at the end of a sentence, no space. Get it? Yea!
I really enjoy your blog, I\’m just a stickler for details. Thanks!
Comment by article-auto -
Yo Mark! Ahhh…there are few links on your blogpage that redirects to a 3rd party site as well. I guess Yahoo! decided not to renew AudioNet.com.
Comment by Norton -
Dear Mr. Cuban
We are doing a technology report on you and your yearly advancements dealing with technology. it would be wonderful if you could send us some information to make things less difficult. You can get in touch with us through emails, if you don\’t mind. Thank you for you time.
r&c
Comment by Rylee And Colie -
yeh David Geffin needs that!
Comment by blog me -
Most of the posters think you, Oprah, or you and Oprah together, should buy the Cubs. Not a bad idea. 🙂
http://blogs.suntimes.com/fullcourtpress/2007/04/who_do_you_want_to_see_buy_the.html
(Since this is somewhat offtopic, I was going to email you instead by clicking \’Contact\’ – and ended up at the audionet site. Glass, stone, houses – rearrange as appropriate.)
Comment by Tom J -
Maybe if the Times sale goes through, they\’ll change their approach to the Web. It can\’t hurt to have a new owner, new management, and a new attitude come in the door and shake things up a little bit.
Comment by basketball -
Dear Mark Cuban,
The Chicago Tribune just announced it will sell the Cubs at year\’s end. Please do me a personal favor and buy them. You don\’t even have to win the whole thing. You could just make the team not suck. And you could hire a scout or two with actual talent. Or better yet, you could hire a trainer that is actually accredited in the state of Illinois (unlike our guy from \’04 who let sneezes turn into months on the DL)
But most importantly, you could just show that you care. That losing is not an acceptable outcome. And that you want wins as much as the fans do. (plus it would give you something to do in the summer after your mavericks\’ parades.)
thanks,
nick
Comment by nick lloyd -
http://www.angelfire.com/planet/cashloan/fastcashloan/
Comment by ncausibviy2d -
waha.
Comment by Matthew Brown -
The bottom line is that a company like the Times is a newspaper. So they think through that old-line lense. They don\’t think like a Web 2.0 company. It will take a lot for old-line companies to \”get it\”.
Comment by wailea -
This is totally unrelated to this topic, but I did get a hearty laugh when reading Sports Illustrated\’s NBA player poll this week for the league\’s best \”ball handler.\” Surprisingly, Reggie Evans was the only non-guard to receive votes. I wonder if it was Chris Kaman would voted for him.
Comment by B Hadley -
#4, Do you REALLY care? Go and count the leaves on a tree or something….
Comment by G -
We have an investment in the local content space and its the same story around the country. Most local papers simply have not come up with a business model to sufficiently staff local writers to effectively cover a local market. So there is this big drought of local content and the majority of local papers is new wire content. People care about whats in their backyard and/or relates to them. Our mantra is Sport is Local! Good news for us, no one still has effectively attacked the space.
Comment by midosm.com -
wow you would think they would at least co-brand it or something
Comment by Vietnam travel -
wow you would think they would at least co-brand it or something
Comment by Vietnam travel -
In response to psc, I couldn\’t agree more that most newspaper sports sections are horrible. I do a lot of traveling and there are two sports sections that are good: The Dallas Morning News Sports Day and the San Francisco Chronicle\’s Sporting Green.
Comment by Pierce -
Hey Mark,
I couldn\’t find anyway to hit you up with an email so maybe your comments will work.
We just recently pushed http://www.switchplanet.com out of private beta and are now available for anyone to join.
Trade stuff you have to get stuff you want all for free…and support charities/non-profits!
Right now new members can get 25 free switchbucs when they join so they can start switching instantly.
Members can trade Video Games, DVDs and CDs for free. Kind of like Netflix meets eBay meets Craigslist meets MySpace…for free.
Some recent coverage…
http://kotaku.com/gaming/trading/switchplanet-+-swap-games-free-online-245648.php
I would love to hear what your readers have to say.
Thanks,
Chris
PS: I hope the Dirks ankle is not too bad…you guys are on fire and it would be a shame to have something like a fluke injury slow things down.
PS PS: I\’m looking for Angel Investors!
Comment by Chris Samarin -
If they paid attention to their future – they would be leading the world online and this stuff would never happen.
Comment by Derrick Daye -
Mark,
We have been doing this for a while (me since 94, i remember listening to AudioNet.com).. but every single day I am amazed at the cluelessness of businesses.. and this is a prime example.. good discovery..
Comment by paisley -
The LA Times online until very recenlty had a staff of exactly 18 people. This would explain why they might have originally sent the sports section to a third party. In general, LAT has not been very forward thinking and in the light of the current crisis atmosphere and management shake-ups, the online LAT will probably not get straightened until the fate of the paper is settled and new management takes over. At least, I certainly hope that is the case.
Comment by JS Media -
Hey Mark,
Since this is blogmaverick.com, where are the blogs about the Mavericks? They are having the best season ever and there\’s nothing on the first page about them!! Ther\’s nothing about basketball at all! Come on, we want to hear your thoughts!!
🙂
#41 for MVP!
Comment by Ali -
That is very weird, but I agree with all the people here that are annoyed by your website\’s inability to goto past posts without being redirected to audionet.com….
Comment by Fractals -
In fairness to the LA Times, they don\’t really need their own sports section since they only have basketball in the city and a Brooklyn outcast.
Comment by Ayal Rosenthal -
As a subscriber to the LA Times for the last 20 years, I rarely check out their online edition for sports updates. I\’m an ESPN addict and once in a while travel over to Yahoo sports. So why would people outside of Los Angeles need to check out the Times website when there are better options for sports fans?
For the guys who dislike the Los Angeles Times sports section, why is it so terrible? What is it missing? Fantasy Sports, give me a break. There are niche sites that specialize in Fantasy.
Another point a bit off topic. For the younger crowd, online sports is the future. However for old dogs like me, I love getting up in the morning, making a big pot of coffee, walking outside to grab the paper and chill before I begin the day. The feeling of actually opening, scanning, folding and reading is a part of the beauty when it comes to a newspaper. Do I go to ESPN multiple times a day? Yes, but it\’ll never replace the \”real thing\”.
Comment by Ed -
ditto what the others said. i was actually going to write you the other day about the search on your blog taking you to audionet generic page. I also get that when i click the contact link.
Comment by pb -
so what did you do in LA?
Comment by toni -
MrDelaney –
I used the search functionality on this web site (blogmaverick) as well and I was never redirected to audionet.com. Though, when entering nothing into the text box, there was a long delay on a server response. I didn\’t wait long enough to see what the response was though. 🙂
Mark –
That\’s curious about latimes.com redirecting sports.latimes.com to sportsnetwork.com. I\’m sure they have their reasons. *shrug*
Comment by StevenR -
Yesterday was doomsday for Genarlow WIlson. Mark, please comment. Republican opposition in the legislature has won through inaction and a bill that would have made him eligible for review will die.
I\’m sorry to comment off topic, I couldn\’t make the contact link work.
Mark, your statements were so very, very important to the nation picking up on the travesty of this young man\’s unjust prison sentence. Georgia needs to be held accountable for this. Please, please, please speak out now. Today. Again and loudly.
\”Crossover day\” makes is almost certainly too late (my post is linked above). I hope against hope that it\’s not.
Thank you.
Comment by Joe -
Hey Mark,One less sports writer to pay. Thanks for the thoughts
Comment by Frankie from lawnside -
Weird! I think it was a sneaky inside job!
Comment by Barz&Tone(TheWaterSong) -
I don\’t think that latimes sell traffic (404 error). Other subdomains work ok.
Comment by Pinologic -
Not only does the \’next page\’ button do it – I just tried using the search function on Blog Maverick and was redirected to http://www.audionet.com
Might want to take care of that before slamming the LA Times.
🙂
Comment by MrDelaney -
Wow, lol how did that happen? Yea it might be a good idea for them to fix that
Comment by Phenom -
Mark – heh; I know its no big deal, but – you just called these folks out hard core! heh
– Its fun watching you tear thing up; break the \’\’rich\’\’ rules.
Comment by pallet jack -
See thats why David Geffin needs to buy them!
Comment by Andrew Coffey -
And what was the purpose of posting this.
Why not just send them an email to correct the problem or inquire why it is pointing to another site? I do remember you complaining about some reporter writing something about you or the Mavs without emailing you to verify a point their facts in their story or get your opinion on the topic. I would expect you to do the same.
Comment by Vaughn -
Nothing quite beats the thrill of being called out in public
Comment by Vet -
Mark…ironic topic considering when you scroll down and click on your \”Next Page\” it redirects you to audionet.com.
This site is the best though!
Comment by Sammy -
Looking at the view source – the site is in two FRAMES and is currently going to Sports Network (dot) com
Comment by security -
Love your blog…but you could have just typed in latimes.com/sports. That takes you right there. Perhaps they didn\’t lock down that original site soon enough and don\’t want to pay to rebuy it?
Comment by Dan -
Mark –
Check out http://www.buzztracker.com/category/nba , http://www.buzztracker.com/category/dallas_mavericks , etc. We\’re still tweaking — but in one shot you can basically get what the top 90,000 content sources out there think is important about your favorite team. As a Cubs fan here in Chicago — one of the things I love about is picking up all the opposing teams\’ newspaper stories about us — after all these years of missing them.
Check it out. We even have a Mark Cuban category you should enjoy: http://www.buzztracker.com/category/mark_cuban …
BTW — you going to buy the Cubs? I think there is a ton of money to be made with the team, and real estate they own but have not yet developed — so it would be awesome.
Comment by AlFromChicago -
Joe,
Most of the newspapers sports sections are horrible. It comes down to the AP license they have. Usually it allows them to print something but not use stats and things on the web sites. That\’s true for a small paper but one would think the LA-la land times would have the funding.
Some people succeed despite themselves..
Comment by psc -
The LA Times sports section is horrible. They are way behind the times. I proposed writing a fantasy sports column in there paper and online about 6 years ago. I had no real credentials and didn\’t expect to even get emailed back. I just noticed they didn\’t have anything about it. The editor emailed me back and said how much he hated fantasy sports and how the LA Times would never be apart of it. This was a perfect example why newspapers across the country are losing tons of money or not making as much as they should. They have a bunch of old fossils asleep at the wheel.
Comment by Joe -
Unless of course LA Times is getting paid big bucks for that redirect. Then, it makes good business sense.
Comment by John Lynn -
tsn has a \”ton\” of sports related content — recent and archived. seems like it might be one of the concessions that la times has to give up in order to get the tsn content.
Comment by Jordan Blum -
nice.
Stuff like that makes my job easier.
: )
djc
Comment by david -
Mark, dude, I have to ask again, what\’s with the space before a question mark or exclamation point ? (ha) You do it all the time, so I know it\’s not a one time fluke. You did it 16 times in one short post a few weeks ago. Question marks and exclamation points are no different than periods at the end of a sentence, no space. Get it? Yea!
I really enjoy your blog, I\’m just a stickler for details. Thanks!
Comment by Nancy -
Wow. Interesting idea to monetize your 404s or at least redirect to a site map. Hmmm.
Comment by Jim Dorey -
wow you would think they would at least co-brand it or something
Comment by Todd -
TSN provides quite a bit of sports news data to LA Times, Boston Globe, and many others. Since TSN is providing a lot of the news data, I bet they intentionally set things up so that Page Not Found (error 404) errors kick to their home page. Url still stays under latimes.com, but the TSN site appears. Might be just a compromise between the two parties, or something a clever sys admin slipped in under the radar outside the scope of the overall licensing agreement.
Comment by Jordan Blum -