Extreme Fighting A Sport?

wfw, fof

 

So I guess we should give up.

 

No, be a product intelligent young people will readily read, and be a product others will see as a sign of maturity once they get past their MMA phase

 

No, we're just telling you what the dynamic is. It's always been that dynamic. You will make your money in the print business in the 31-50 demographic.

And believe me, a lot of the hand-wringing right now is from bean-counters who are used to a 20% profit margin. A 15% profit margin scares them.

 

Didn't say that.

Newpapers have survived without young people buying them, and that will continue.

 

I'm absolutely shocked how many supposedly legit sportswriters, like Wilbon, trash MMA while they're clearly completely ignorant of the way the sport is currently run.
They're not beating each other to death anymore -- hell, today's MMA fights are usually stopped every bit as quickly as boxing fights are.

Sports sections that ignore MMA are making an unbelieably bone-headed (and short-sighted) decision. It gains reader interest -- and, in a time when circulations are circling the drain, I'm not sure what other argument you would need for giving MMA its due.
If you're disgusted by pictures of Colossus Thompson's cauliflower ear, then don't run those pictures, BUT DON"T TELL READERS WHAT THEY LIKE -- INSTEAD, RESPOND TO IT!

PS: It should be noted, that numerous bigwigs in UFC, like those from the Bettendorf, Iowa, area, were former sportswriters! Obviously, they wouldn't be working in this sport if it weren't at least a little legit.

 

Isn't that exactly what we have been?

Plenty of intelligent people enjoy violence.

Why does having an occasional MMA story make us a dumb publication all of a sudden?

 

Repped for real talk.

 

So we can't do both?

Young people may not read now, but they develop interests now. If MMA grows in legitimacy and is still around by the time they do reach the age they choose to read newspapers, who's to say MMA coverage won't hold some appeal? Or are we saying with maturity comes conformity? Some automatic predisposition to gravitate toward the currently popular sports? You get old, you like NFL and baseball and NBA? I ain't buying that.

 

Click around every major national sports Web site, fellas. They're all covering it. All the major sites have reporters specifically assigned to MMA and Yahoo practically gives MMA and boxing a "Big 4" level of coverage. Whether or not your paper in Bumblestump covers it no longer matters.

 

Survival is great. I'd rather our business prosper by trying ideas other than cutting back coverage and purtying up pages.

 

MMA hasn't been around long enough to know whether this breathless fanboi crap has any roots in reality, regarding staying power.

And Bruce, the Internet also had Pets.com. Just sayin'