SMG: An interview with Kevin Iole

The question isn't whether MMA is a sport, it's whether people who read newspapers are interested in reading about MMA as a sport.

It's the same thing as extreme sports coverage. Does it really serve our purpose to centerpiece a 45 inch profile of a professional wake-boarder? Or are we driving away our target audience by attempting to reach out to an audience that simply isn't going to subscribe to newspapers?

These aren't rhetorical questions. I can see both sides of the argument.

 

45-inch profile of a wakeboarder!?! Hell, I don't think readers are finish a 45-inch profile of State U's starting QB.

We don't run much national boxing coverage. A story here or there. We'll pick up 5-6 inches of a championship fight gamer from the AP. Given the interest in UFC, we'd like to be able to do the same for it. It's not like I'm wanting Dahlberg or Litke to attend each PPV.

 

Is it really though? This is a "sport" that has garnered almost all of is publicity via the Internet. If you like extreme fighting, and you've got several bookmarks you already check on a daily basis, why are you going to pick up the local paper for coverage of the "sport"--other than to pick it apart and find reasons why the writer is a poseur who doesn't really know what he's talking about?

That ship has sailed. Better to maintain the readers you've got than try to lure those who have no interest in your product anyway.

 

It is my personal opinion and that only that mixed martial arts is a fad that is now as popular as it will ever be. All those 2004 poker columns are gone, and MMA coverage will follow the same path.
If the sport, which I agree isn't very exciting to watch, and which I also bet is crookeder than Blinky Palermo ever dreaming boxing could be, proves me wrong, more power to its octagonal self.

 

For posterity.

 

We cover MMA. We cover the main fights. Profiles leading up.
And, we get pretty good response. Both letters to the editor, and traffic.

I understand your "fruitless" debate. But, I would rather try than ramp up our shuffleboard, lawn bowling and duckpin coverage.

 

Damn. Didn't expect to see a year-and-a-half thread on MMA coverage bumped.

FW (and Playthrough), I respect your viewpoints. But I still say--ESPECIALLY in this day and age--that you forget the niche sports and try to hang on by your friggin fingernails to provide decent coverage of the sports your readership (which is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay beyond the MMA target demos) enjoys...before the bastardly beancounters cut those beats, too.

And with the way the industry is, here's betting any newspaper coverage of MMA is gone in 12 months. At the very, very most.

 

the leznar-couture 'ko' had an awful odor.

no clean power punch.

couture went down on a phantom kick.

leznar knelt down and pounded with the side of his fist.

ref stopped it instantly.

it's pro wrestling, all over again.

 

Is anybody having luck with this link?

 

It's telling me I need to log in.