New Post-Dispatch sports columnist ...

Oh, and I really don't need you tweet about EVERY play. If I cared that much, I'd watch or listen to it.

 

I always have felt that a fan forum is a place where a very small number of people engage with a sportswriter but that it really does not attract a very broad audience. Does anyone know of any empirical data?

 

My guess would be that in most cases it's like a fan message board in that it only attracts hardcore fans. But I'd also guess that Alma is correct that it would attract a ton of Cards fans in St. Louis. There are a lot who are hardcore. Most of the city, it would seem.

 

God I love this post. It damn well gave me an erection.

 

Should it be the No. 1 home for your content? Of course not, but it should probably be No. 3/4. If all you're doing on Twitter is posting links and photos, then you're not worth a follow because you're no better than an RSS feed. I can get the same stuff and more in a Google news alert. But you can't just not exist there, especially in a large market where there are 100 other places to get insight on the local sports scene. I don't care how loyal your paper's readership is, the potential new readers out there aren't seeking you out; you have to go to where they are, and that's Facebook (by far No. 1 for social referrals) and then Twitter. You be active, engage with your audience, grow that audience, then bring them back to your site after they're hooked by giving them links to your stuff. Do you just mouth off most of your opinions on social media? Again, of course not, because what point is there to read your columns? But you have to be interesting, and Ben definitely is.

Diving into the message boards on STLtoday.com helps grow a rapport with your subscriber base, which is absolutely important, but it does nothing to grow an audience and draw a new crowd in.

 

I'm just going to agree to disagree here.

 

At the core of it, whether you're active on Twitter, Snapchat, Periscope, Facebook, forums, whatever, you have to have compelling content. I have yet to read something from Ben that makes me think he's a must-read and makes me want to click on the site tomorrow to see what he has to say. If you go back and read what he's put out there since arriving, I don't think any impartial reader would argue that he's had a successful start.

Re: the forums, the P-D's forums are very well-trafficked. As of right now, there are 84 threads just in the Cards Talk section that have been active in the last 24 hours. The numbers are similar for the Rams Talk, and a little slower for Mizzou and the Blues. In the Hoch Corner, which was set up solely for him, there are 6 that have seen postings in the last 24 hours. He hasn't posted in the last three days-plus.

Obviously he and his bosses don't think it's a priority, otherwise he would be on there more. But they set up that portion of the forums just for him, and he's seen fit to post 11 times in the last three weeks, including a "Let's talk" that's more along the lines of "Talk about me." That's a pretty poor decision, IMO, given that readers who go to that portion of the forums are a captive audience, there to interact with him (with ad content, BTW), and he is basically saying it's not worth his time to engage with readers there. Shoot, there are as many posts on the forums linking to and talking about Bernie's columns at his new place as there are total posts from Ben.

But I guess it's more important for Ben to work through his standup routine on Twitter.

 

Feel the need to defend Hochman here, considering he's professionally new to the area and, like Matt pointed out, should not be expected to do the job the same way Bernie did. That's ridiculous and unfair. His introductory column posted Sept. 3. That's a little more than two weeks ago. If you're still having these criticisms in three months, then okay. But less than a month into the job? Come on.

Also, the Rams are playing at Washington this week. A column about the team name seems appropriate, especially considering Benjamin often waded into social issues in Denver. And finally, the intro said he had a "connection" with Kroenke, not a relationship. Right? Did I miss something? He does have a connection, since Hochman covered the Nuggets for a long time and the Nuggets are owned by the Kroenkes. Meaning (I assume) Benjamin interacted with and covered them; maybe he does have a relationship or even a friendship with Stan Kroenke, but I haven't read that anywhere.

I don't read the P-D often, so I can't say how important the interaction on the site's message boards are, though at my paper that's neither an expectation nor overly encouraged. Just because Bernie did it, doesn't signal that Benjamin necessarily should, though I may be dead wrong on that. I'm a pretty big fan of Benjamin's (and, full disclosure, a pal), so I'm a little surprised to read all this. Feels a little personal, or maybe Hochman just isn't your taste, which is fine. I'm personally glad he is taking on the job his own way rather than trying to be Bernie. That'd be a mistake. Anyway. I just think we should give the guy at least a month before saying it ain't working.

 

Great post, michael. Thanks for the insight. I would imagine it's more a matter of people being fond of Bernie and his institutional knowledge.

 

One thing about Bernie was, he was prolific, sometimes having three or four columns a day, Ryan Adams in print.

 

Good post. I wish the last four sentences weren't a part of it.

As my first on this thread would indicate, I, too, agree that early judgment is wrong and unwise. I think it takes a columnist many years to root into a community, even one they know well. But critiques of approach and work do not appear to have been personal. Perhaps too harsh in the initial post. But not personal.

 

As a frequent consumer of STL media, I like Hochman. I'm in what he would probably consider his target demographic, but I like him.

That being said, dude's trying WAY too hard. I listen to him on his podcast with Goold and the twice-weekly radio hits, and it feels like the information and opinion is buried in 10 minutes of standup. He grew up watching the Cardinals of the 1980s, as did I. But every other sentence seems to have a Tom Nieto reference, or a Jeff Lahti shoutout, almost like he's reading a roster.

If Benjamin can slow his roll a little on that stuff, he's got some great chops and will eventually settle into the role.