Long time Pittsburgh reporter leaves paper to start own site

There are markets where your chances to succeed are a lot better than others. I think in Pittsburgh, he might have a chance to do OK.

What are the instances where people have been successful? I can think of several that are national or niche sites, most of which have been bought/absorbed by bigger companies, and that incluses the Rivals/Scout sites. I can think of local sites that I thought were done very well, but didn't last more than a couple years.

 

The guy who runs this site told me once that a big part of his business model was covering area private schools where there were a lot of boarding students. He was getting a lot of subscriptions from out of town parents and in some cases the schools themselves were buying and sending to parents.

He also filled a void because, as Big Circus knows, the local paper wasn't devoting a ton of resources to high school coverage. The Daily Progress didn't (still doesn't?) even have a full-time preps writer. Its an ACC town where the baseball, lacrosse, tennis and soccer teams are all national championship contenders and nearly as popular as football and basketball, so the paper's four writers had their hands full covering UVa. Scrimmage Play stepped up and offered better high school coverage than the Progress.

Which makes me wonder what he's going to offer in Pittsburgh that's different or significantly better than any of the other papers or sites in town?

 

That's the main difficulty.

What makes him superior to his competition?

And "He has the name! He won awards!!" as his site tries to trumpet, simply won't be enough. I understand trying to promote a brand, but local Sports Writer Guy isn't exactly Walter Cronkite.

Ultimately, his success or lack thereof won't affect any future endeavors by anyone else. But this is certainly worth watching, to at least see what happens.

If I were to guess . . . let's just say that subscribers who go for the "Lunatic level" ($54 for three years of posts) have a very good chance to be in position for a partial refund.

Looks like he had same thought. Site already looks better than it did a couple hours ago. Finding a good design won't be the problem. Sustaining this as a money making operation will be.

 

Hopefully the rationale for starting the site isn't "I don't know what else to do." Have witnessed a few people try their own site and they couldn't provide news better than mainstream competition.

 

I stopped with most of those "local" sites when they had things begging for money so they could send writers on the road to cover the team.

 

Is he going to be credentialed? When people have tried this in the past, that has always been a big hurdle.

 

The friends of mine who did it made sure they could get credentials before they started their sites. One of them got credentials for all of the local NFL, MLB and NBA games but he couldn't get credentialed for the playoffs. He ended up calling the paper in the city of the playoff opponent and offered to string the game for them in exchange for a credential and was able to get in that way.

 

He wrote in the blog post that he got them and he was attending all Steelers games.

I'll be curious to see if it works. I don't know much about that market.

His competition isn't the papers, but all the free sites guys do for fun, or SB Nation runs with mostly low-paid employees or volunteers. He has to be that much better than those sites, which are often enthusiastic and responsive to fans' desire for constant content.

Newspapers all over have frankly given up the game on a lot of fronts. The stuff that's "in" -- stats, deeper, longform analysis, arguments and discourse -- a lot of veteran columnists won't do it, and the beat writers aren't given the freedom/resources to do it. I may rip on Grantland for many things, but if you really, really want to dive into the deep waters of the NBA, you have to make a stop there. They have the staff, the analysis and the enthusiasm for it, and the money to spread around the pieces to multiple writers so the talent doesn't (theoretically) get burned out.

 

Kovacevic also discussed the move with Pittsburgh City Paper: http://www.pghcitypaper.com/Blogh/archives/2014/07/22/trib-sports-writer-dejan-kovacevic-leaves-paper-to-start-website

 

“I looked for the precedents out there for what I’m attempting, and quite simply there are none.”

That whole article is worth reading (and maybe he just doesn't want to tip his hand), but I'm not sure he's aware of how this plan is not exactly original:

1. Leave paper
2. Come up with idea TO TAKE MY BRAND ONLINE OMG OMG I AM WISE!
3. Cover stuff
4. ?
5. Profit

Informed dude who understands the landscape as Mr. Kovacevic claims to says "Whoa! Cannot fathom no one else having thought of this before. Maybe again Google past attempts at this type of thing . . ."

Mr. Kovacevic apparently says, "OK, I checked in and around Pittsburgh, and NO ONE has tried this! In 2014, I managed to come up with an original online media idea! I am THE MAN!"

 

I agree, Meatie.
This ain't Texas Hold 'Em.
Everyone can see your cards, Kovacevic, and you're holding a pair of fours here.

 

Now we'll be labled "haters" as opposed to "The type of people from whom dude should have maybe sought advice."

It's a massive risk, and a gutsy one, to go into work for oneself. I'd never be able to do it. Many of us wouldn't.

Understanding the risks involved, and the likely outcomes, doesn't mean I wouldn't like to see this, and all similar projects, succeed. But in this case, I think dude is banking way too much on the idea that his personal brand is special enough to entice a significant number of subscribers.