If Mark Cuban could change your sports section, here's what he'd do:

http://apse.dallasnews.com/2006/dec2006/120106hoppes.html

Discuss.

 

I find myself agreeing with him. I do think readers won't scroll page after page on the computer, but will unfold the paper and settle into a long read, because large art is more of an attention holder, and makes a long read more palatable.

 

I think the gossip column type idea is good, too. Hey, that crap is out there. Why not provide a spot for that stuff. Doesn't have to be malicious or anything.

 

I said this at work Sunday, when my ME asked how to improve our website. I said, and I quote, "Short and sweet stories should be on the internet. Just the nuts and bolts. Who won, who lost, who scored. And the final line should be: For coaches' reactions and players' thoughts, pick up Monday's paper."

Then, you "upgrade" your print story. Nothing about the who won, who lost, who scored changes. But you add a piece of art (a GOOD piece of art!), great design, a stats box and quotes.

My ME completely pooh-poohed the idea and told me to post my whole story on the net immediately after I was done. So everyone, including those who pay a subscription, get it for free on the net about an hour after the game.

Is Cuban smarter than my ME? I sure think so.

 

I think he's right about a lot of things. The decision-makers in this industry lost confidence in the product, decided to turn everything into McStories because "that's what people want." If they'd have channeled their energies into giving people compelling things to read, the industry wouldn't be in the sad shape that it is.

 

You ME sounds like a dope.

He's hardly alone.

 

We got to read the Mark Cuban newspaper opinion from a forward from our managing editor. Ironically, our ME agrees with Cuban, but on Tuesday we are going to this new platform where we transform ourselves from a newsgathering operation to a community one. For our sports section, we have to have something posted every 15 minutes.

They are also mandating that the newspaper ups its local coverage to 70 percent.

 

To steal a line from Red Smith, Mark Cuban is as right as two martinis at lunch.

 

If this guy is so freaking rich and wants to make these changes, why doesn't he just go out and buy the newspaper I work for? No, seriously. Please Mark, read this.

 

This statement is either incredibly brilliant or incredibly obvious.

 

Not to threadjack, or anything, but the opening line caught me ...
Mark Cuban knows a little something about the journalism business.
Before buying the Dallas Mavericks in 2000, he co-founded Broadcast.com, a leading provider of multimedia and streaming on the internet. He sold that company to Yahoo in 1999.

Maybe smarter people than me can help me understand this, but as far as I can figure:
Cuban is a smart business man. He saw the curve coming, got in, sold high and got out.
Broadcast.com, according to a news story about Cuban and broadcast.com at the time (1998) stated Wagner and Cuban founded their company (originally called AudioNet) in September 1995. Their vision was ambitious: to broadcast live programming (radio talk shows, football games, rock concerts) over the Net.
Thus was born AudioNet (which became broadcast.com in May). Today Wagner and Cuban control the rights to play-by-play Internet broadcasts for more than 350 college and professional sports teams. SportsWorld.com, a member site created by broadcast.com, offers the views of armchair quarterbacks from around the country. It broadcasts content from a Grateful Dead-only radio station and from a Jimmy Buffett-only radio station.

Neither of which exist anymore. He sold the bundle to Yahoo and went on to the Mavericks.
Sure there you can buy streaming video places like MLB.com.
But where are all these great live broadcasting on the net? On Yahoo?

Cuban is an ideas guy.
And he's smart enough that when his ideas don't work to get out before the collapse and move on to the "next big thing."
How that makes him the right person to take journalism advice from is beyond me.

[I do however agree with M_R's line]

 

That concept puts him light-years ahead of the dunderheads who are still marking up design critiques in the faint hope of attracting the huge cross-section of readers who pay attention to those things.

As I said on another thread, Cuban would die of a brain anuerysm if he encountered what passes for strategy in the newsrooms.