| Northern Illinois Sports Beat http://www.northernillinoissportsbeat.com |
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| Those Who Know Northern Illinois High School Sports Know about NISB! |
The state of the site is very strong. Last year we made improvements to the design of the
website – which made the site look cleaner. A clean site is easy to navigate, and when a
site is easy to navigate, they'll come back for more. The current domain name may be
long, but it is much shorter than the old ones we've had in the past.
There were more changes from a year ago. We started to keep old stories intact. They
won't be lost again, and you can even view stories from the 2008-09 small school Boys
Basketball State Tournament. That couldn't be said two years ago. One of the things we
changed in the stories are the inclusion of box scores. During the past football season, I
asked members of the Message Board if it was a good idea to start including them with
our stories. We hadn't done that before. It took me a while to find out how to construct one
(I hadn't personally done one in five years), but I think we got it.
The question of whether or not to include box scores was part of a plan to increase
summer action on the Message Board. I asked an open-ended question about the area's
high school sports each week. When the summer was over, I felt like I didn't ask enough
questions. You can probably guess what I'll do this summer about that.
One of the year's biggest improvements has been the Message Board itself. With the
shutdown of Illinois Hoops, the Northern Illinois Sports Beat Message Board has received
an increased presence in the Big Northern Conference and the Northwest Upstate Illini
Conference. Over 100 new members have registered since January 1. With the increase
of posters comes and increase of bad posts. Ging and I showed our admin skills at times
during the basketball season. While we welcome new people, we want them to abide by
the rules of the Board, and to respect each other.
I always had a hard time trying to spread the word about Northern Illinois Sports Beat.
Some of it is my inability to verbally communicate effectively. Some of it is because this
website is a concept that hasn't been seen in certain corners of the Northern Illinois
universe. I remember when I tried the All-School Mailing to the area's athletics directors. I
heard back from only two. Maybe it's because I don't realize just how “impressive” this
website is. I'm not the judge of that. Those who go here are the ones who judge it, and
they can effectively tell others about it. The way I do PR isn't all that great, and that will be
changing soon (more about this later).
Therefore, I want to thank those who have brought people here, especially Mr. High
School Guru, who I met up with a couple of times during the basketball season, and
introduced me to several other posters.
These aren't the only guys I can thank for helping to make Northern Illinois Sports Beat
look good. Another new initiative was started during the winter season that has really
helped NISB cover different ground: having more writers.
Brian Hoxsey, Bill Lidinsky, Rick Nausner and Steve Nemeth are four guys who may not
know just how they really mean a lot to me – regardless of how much they have
contributed. These four have written articles at times during the year, with Bill being in his
second stint in helping out. This was a very difficult and challenging time for me so far in
2010. When I asked for help, these four stepped up. I can't thank them enough for
chipping in when I couldn't do it. Their work helped bring a continuity flow to the website,
one which we never had before.
And of course, Matt Gingrich, who, as mentioned, has helped me out with posts on the
Message Board. I spent a great deal of time away from my own board this winter and
spring. If Ging wasn't there to help stop some of the bleeding when I was gone, some
topics would be real lethal.
Thank you Bill, Brian, Matt, Rick and Steve for your help this year. It really means a lot.
As mentioned, this year has been an up-and-down one for me personally. A lot of work
has been spent in the classroom, trying to pass my classes. In addition to school, I had to
get used to a new boss at work. She's a bit more active than my former boss, so more
times has been spent on helping at the Shell station. The schoolwork wasn't easy, but it
paid off.
On May 14, I received my Associate's Degree in Mass Communication from Sauk Valley
Community College. It took me five years to get my two-year, but it's all done now. I will be
taking a year off from classes. In that time, I would like to know how to get off on my own
two feet. That, as well as finding a newspaper job. I had to pass on seven opportunities
because of school. I won't be passing on opportunities anymore.
Who knows where the job will take me. I could end up somewhere small, or somewhere
prolific. If I do get that job, I will try to persuade my boss that I would like to keep running
Northern Illinois Sports Beat. However, most times a task like that is not successful. In the
event of a conflict of competition, I have drafted an NISB Transition Plan to ensure the
survival of the website in case I am gone. I won't reveal it, however, until the time arises.
The NISB Transition Plan is one of two plans I have. The other is the NISB Restructuring
Plan. This plan is composed of three different areas of improvement: Content, PR, and
Coverage (with a Special Comment on that). Such changes were needed in order to
either cut time I spend on the website, improve on my journalism ethic and skill, and to
ensure the survival of the website (going hand-in-hand with the Transition Plan).
Hence, the Restructuring Plan:
CONTENT
Each year in the Address, I take all of the site's features and put them all on the chopping
block. Not all get chopped and put into the vault. Some do. In addition, all of the features
in the vault are lined up with the possibility of freedom.
Here are this year's results:
Cyberstats listing will be cut – This was pretty much updated before each week of the
football season. I couldn't keep up with the weekly grind once the season was in full swing,
and they weren't updated a whole lot. You can search on the Links Page for the radio
stations and websites that do cybercasts. If I do get around to it, it will probably be through
the Football Forum.
“Welcome” and “About NISB” pages to merge – This is more of a housecleaning
thing. It feels better to have these two things put together. Both serve as an intro
message to the website. This will be done sometime soon.
Will we get an Athlete Journal finally? - Three years of this feature, and no one has
stepped up. Maybe I didn't communicate the opportunity effectively. A year ago I was
given a suggestion from a coach about blogs. Maybe a journal is like “1990”, but a blog is
more “2010”. I thought about restructuring this particular feature to make it more like
writing an NISB Blog. But how do I get people interested? I think I got it.
Two features escape the vault – More on this later.
Moving the Story Archive from the Message Boards to the Website – This simply
makes the Board cleaner. Plus, it will be more accessible for those who do not like getting
on message boards. This will be done over the course of the summer.
Moving the Crash Course Forum to a single post – Again, it would make the board
cleaner. The single post would be an announcement on all forums.
New Forums, Deleted Forums – The structure of the boards on the Message Board
hasn't changed in a long, long time, if not ever. The Girls Sports Forum will be eliminated
in favor of three new forums: the Girls Basketball Forum, the Volleyball Forum, and the
Softball Forum. This move is an effort to give girls sports more of an equal platform as the
boys sports. The Underclassmen Forum will be eliminated due to lack of interest – all
typical posts will be moved to their respected sports forum, as should as underclass posts
for now on. The Miscellaneous Forum will include Lacrosse (Belvidere) in addition to the
other minor sports like badminton (DeKalb).
Track and Field Honor Rolls moved to the website – This was a decision that
resulted in the “I don't read message boards” logic, just like the Story Archive.
(Side note: Even though it seems like I'm taking away from the message boards, I will be
trying to get more action on them during the course of the year)
(Another side note: At this time there are still some kinks to be worked out. The
navigation bar and the clock at the bottom of each page is controlled by something called
“Active X.” This prevents the NISB page from opening in some Internet Browsers. I'm
trying to work on a solution for this)
College Bounders system restructured – This became a problem this spring. I
restarted the list for the Class of 2011 already. Most tips given to me were tips they heard
though a news source. Even newspapers can be wrong. I found that out with one college
bounder. So for now on, when I get a tip regarding a college bounder, I will be verifying
the information with someone at the school, or with the athlete.
The above statement leads to the second point of improvement ...
PR
As I've preached through the years, verbal communication isn't my strong point. This even
goes for telling people verbally about Northern Illinois Sports Beat. I'll never forget my two
appearances on radio – a bunch of “uh ...”'s and we got this and this.
If you heard me on the airwaves these times, you'll know that I didn't make you to to your
computer. I ask myself the question, “How do I change that?”
Mission Statements are one way of summarizing the purpose of Northern Illinois Sports
Beat. Reciting this over and over may help:
“Those in the know about Northern Illinois high school sports know about Northern Illinois
Sports Beat. Through message boards, stories, features and blogs, Northern Illinois
Sports Beat* is all about high school sports.”
*Not affiliated with Northern Illinois University.
The asterisk is included because I get that a lot. No, I'm not affiliated with NIU. Not much I
can do about that.
In addition to reciting the Mission Statement, I plan on having information sheets to hand
out to coaches while doing interviews. That's the mission statement, plus some. I'll try to
make enough copies and put in a basket in my car. The flier idea the past didn't work out
well. The business car thing is okay, but I'm unable to use business car stock with my
printer, so they're rectangular pieces of paper ... for now.
For a short while, I e-mailed links to the stories to school officials to let them know I
covered the game. This was similar to a past policy (no longer used) by the IHSA
regarding State Tournament coverage. I eventually got tired of doing this. However, doing
such a thing may increase notice.
When I try to spread the word, sometimes it becomes too much. E-mails became marked
as spam. So, as mentioned earlier, I did the postal thing, with two responses.
Seems like more of the same. That pretty much exhausts all ideas without choking
anyone. I don't want to overdo it. That makes Northern Illinois Sports Beat look evil. This
along with the new ideas, should help the PR effort somewhat. I'll keep an eye on this
process.
So that's what I can do. There are certain things I can't do. There are over 500 head
coaches in the area. I can't remain in constant contact with them. My phone bill would go
through the roof and I'd have no time for anything else. E-mail works fine so that I can fire
off the thing on my own time, for them to respond on their own time. Still, after sending an
E-mail I get the ol “please call me” message. Most of the time, I couldn't call them because
I didn't have time before a story was supposed to be released. I can't recall how many
story ideas have been scrapped because I didn't have time for phone calls before the
news became old news. At times I would get extremely frustrated: one day I recorded an
audio bit, but never put it up. It went like this: “This is how I sound like. Now please answer
your e-mails.”
That's the whole reason why I stopped doing Team Previews – I just can't do all 200-plus
sports at the same time, and work around 200-plus work schedules. The last time I did
them, the response was seven percent. I'm not trying that again. And no, I don't have a
fax machine. If you can fax, you can e-mail. Common sense. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox.
But I didn't write all that because of simply frustration. I wrote this because maybe you can
find something I'm doing wrong. If you can find it, because I can't, let me know.
More soapbox stumping coming up soon, but next the No. 3 area of improvement ...
COVERAGE
When you cover 92 schools, it's hard to get everywhere, let alone cover everyone. I have
no plans on reducing the coverage area. Refer to my “Seeing the World” column for full
details.
Instead, I will make one addition to the coverage area. Yorkville will be a full member of
the coverage area for the upcoming year. With the Foxes involved, every Northern Illinois
Big 12 school is in the coverage area.
As far as “sport fairness” goes, we made some improvements, although not as much as I
hoped for, up until the start of the freelance opportunities. We covered two soccer games
– and we never did any stories on such before. Now that I'm off class, and as long as the
freelance jive is still kicking, this should improve next year. There may be lumps in the fall,
however, because football is now the top sport in the area (IMHO).
Over the past six years the content schedule has been erratic. Northern Illinois Sports
Beat has not been updated every day, and the updates would just come whenever. Last
spring I started something aimed to be update each week at the same time. That was the
Friday 5. The F5 included bits and pieces of information about the area's high school
sports, which didn't warrant a full story. The F5 brought people to the site before taking in
a Friday game.
If bringing people to the site on one day of the week worked, than doing the same for
other days of the week could too. The way to make this happen is to launch a new blog:
F. Y. I.
This new blog is pretty much the F5; but without waiting to release it on Friday, we do it as
soon as the information reaches us. This makes for interested people to check back daily.
Because this new blog is up, there will be no more Friday 5. It'll go into the vault of past
features.
Before F5, I would put those kinds of things on the Message Board. This blog also falls in
line with the “I don't go to message boards” logic.
The F. Y. I. Blog is nothing like the former NISB blog (the ill-fated “Because I Said So”),
which was my random thoughts about news. Why write these when I could challenge
myself to extend these entries into full-fledged columns? That's why I got rid of it.
F. Y. I. will be just one of the blogs on Northern Illinois Sports Beat. I will be replacing the
NISB Board News forum with a Blog called “Publisher's Desk.”
It should be a fun year exploring all of this (that is, if the site is still running). I can't wait to
see how all of this will all work. With that being said ...
Finally, as promised, a Special Comment on “Print vs. Online.”
With the road to a degree in mass communication had a detour to Freeport, I learned
much more about the profession than I'd already had. The same year I enrolled at
Highland Community College, 2008, there was a schism at the Freeport Journal-Standard.
Those who broke away started a paper of their own called the “Freeport Focus.” It was
founded as a reaction to the long-standing Journal-Standard. One day they needed a
sports hand, and I briefly considered it. It turned out to be a good move – they ceased a
few months later.
It was an all-too-familiar scene for me. A few years ago a couple of writers broke away
from Sauk Valley Newspapers and started an entertainment publication of their own. The
dream was to expand from entertainment to local news. In preparation for this, I was
approached to help with sports. Due to time commitments, I could not do it. That paper
soon ceased.
When alternatives are formed as a reaction to the long-standing institution (take note,
Ottawa Delivered), they don't often succeed. The fighting back from the newspapers
becomes too much. They don't like it when they are rivaled.
The company that gave me the start to my career, Prep Sports Online, was not founded –
as SterlingGoldenWarriors.com in 2001 – to rival the local newspaper. It was founded to
give athletes more recognition through photographs, video, audio, and the occasional
feature story. The whole concept of a high school sports website was a proposed column
for the local newspaper. The idea was scrapped. The newspaper looked as Prep Sports
Online as a rival publication. The newspaper didn't want to see more photos and different
stories – both of which were sometimes provided by yours truly.
That was in 2003. A year later, I had a brief foray in the print world with the same
newspaper. It was, while memorable, brief. When I went back to school for my senior year,
I missed the coverage. So I started Northern Illinois Sports Beat. My website took off
where NCIpreps stopped. Prep Sports Online had moved on outside the area. As the only
link from PSO doing something similar to what they did, Northern Illinois Sports Beat was
labeled as a rival publication. When I would to to the Quad Cities to cover a game, there
were usually two writers, as is the norm. When they noticed a third – me – conduct the
interview, there was confusion and curiosity as to who I was, or where I was from.
For six years, the “rival publication” wrote stories, took picture, recorded interviews,
compiled stats, created lists, and established platforms encompassing Northern Illinois
high school sports. At times I created things that newspapers just couldn't do. This is one
of the advantages of online publications. With the print press in dire straits, the online
advantages are looked at as if is was the Atomic Bomb. The Atomic Bomb that could wipe
out the print press as we know it.
That is the whole point behind “Online vs. Print.” Most online publication are run by minds
of their own. There is no one higher than me at Northern Illinois Sports Beat. The people I
cover games with have a few people above their heads. These people tell the writers how
to write, how many inches, what perspective to write it in, and who to highlight. This is
based on, among other things, coverage quotas and revenue. However, is this wrong?
No. But, I write how I want to write, as long as it's clean, gets the point across, is readable,
and follows the Associated Press Stylebook of news writing. There is no one telling me
how to write. It is influenced by no one. It is more pure. I can even tell a part-time or
freelance writer from a full-timer just by reading the content of their work.
When people want to know the online advantages, this is what I tell them. I communicate
this in various ways. When this message comes across to newspapers, I get a bunch of
anger toward my way. As I was about to write something with pen and paper at work one
day, one reporter glanced over and asked if I was writing my Manifesto.
Another reporter, after seeing something I wrote in my blog about this subject, chewed me
out using a couple of F-words. This exchange took place at an event that we covered
together. The comments made me very irate – so irate that I had to do what no journalist
should ever do – bow under pressure. I left the event. I drove home in disgust. A couple of
tears were going down my cheeks. What did I do to deserve this? I realized my “print vs.
online” comments had gone too far. I took a few days to think about the exchange. When I
had thought it through, I decided that fighting the newspaper was not going to bode well
for my future.
At the same time, however, I'm not going to just roll over and die for the newspaper. They
cannot deny me, or any other online journalist, what I love doing.
Fighting only makes things worse.
So what about the publications that were founded as a reaction to the long-standing
institutions? Fighting only makes things worse.
So how do displaced newspaper journalists, like myself, continue their careers? Not by
fighting, but by helping.
Instead of being a “rival publication,” Northern Illinois Sports Beat will aim to be a
supplemental publication to the print media. The newspaper sports departments have had
their budgets slashed by an estimated 40% or more in the past five years. Instead of
making that shortfall greater, we should make up for these losses.
How exactly? The following will also be a part of the NISB Restructuring Plan:
Emphasis on Non-Conference games – Conference games are more important to
players when it comes to attaining goals and partaking in a rivalry. People will read about
conference games. However, non-conference games are scheduled in an effort to match
teams of similar talent. The non-conference games are, most of the time, far away from
the newspaper's coverage area. Most of the time the two teams are in the Northern Illinois
Sports Beat coverage area.
Emphasis on important road games – The biggest cut in the prep sports coverage
budget is travel. Except for football, a conference game too far away will not be covered –
even if it is an important game. This is the same as the non-conference emphasis.
F/S Results – Just because we are eliminating the Underclassmen Forum on the
Message Boards doesn't mean we won't give a darn about them. We will try to. The
treatment of underclass levels in sports coverage has been a topic for nearly 20 years.
Because the Internet has space, we will try to include the preliminary result (fresh-soph
scores in the box, and capsule at end of story).
Rebirth of Team Spotlight and Q&A – With less of a focus on gamers, to make that up
in the written content, we will bring back two of our original features. Instead of waiting for
a Sunday to see it, It could be seen on any other day.
It is important to know that as we do this, we need to respect the role of newspapers, and
to acknowledge them. One day the print press will catch up and rebound, possibly starting
to do more of what we plan to do. What that time comes, hopefully we can find more
unique ways – not know to us at this particular time – to enhance the coverage of high
school sports in this area.
So no only sit back and enjoy what we are about to do, but read the newspaper while
you're at it. Who knows what the future holds for coverage, but one thing will be certain:
there should be no war between online and print.
Good night, and good luck.
website – which made the site look cleaner. A clean site is easy to navigate, and when a
site is easy to navigate, they'll come back for more. The current domain name may be
long, but it is much shorter than the old ones we've had in the past.
There were more changes from a year ago. We started to keep old stories intact. They
won't be lost again, and you can even view stories from the 2008-09 small school Boys
Basketball State Tournament. That couldn't be said two years ago. One of the things we
changed in the stories are the inclusion of box scores. During the past football season, I
asked members of the Message Board if it was a good idea to start including them with
our stories. We hadn't done that before. It took me a while to find out how to construct one
(I hadn't personally done one in five years), but I think we got it.
The question of whether or not to include box scores was part of a plan to increase
summer action on the Message Board. I asked an open-ended question about the area's
high school sports each week. When the summer was over, I felt like I didn't ask enough
questions. You can probably guess what I'll do this summer about that.
One of the year's biggest improvements has been the Message Board itself. With the
shutdown of Illinois Hoops, the Northern Illinois Sports Beat Message Board has received
an increased presence in the Big Northern Conference and the Northwest Upstate Illini
Conference. Over 100 new members have registered since January 1. With the increase
of posters comes and increase of bad posts. Ging and I showed our admin skills at times
during the basketball season. While we welcome new people, we want them to abide by
the rules of the Board, and to respect each other.
I always had a hard time trying to spread the word about Northern Illinois Sports Beat.
Some of it is my inability to verbally communicate effectively. Some of it is because this
website is a concept that hasn't been seen in certain corners of the Northern Illinois
universe. I remember when I tried the All-School Mailing to the area's athletics directors. I
heard back from only two. Maybe it's because I don't realize just how “impressive” this
website is. I'm not the judge of that. Those who go here are the ones who judge it, and
they can effectively tell others about it. The way I do PR isn't all that great, and that will be
changing soon (more about this later).
Therefore, I want to thank those who have brought people here, especially Mr. High
School Guru, who I met up with a couple of times during the basketball season, and
introduced me to several other posters.
These aren't the only guys I can thank for helping to make Northern Illinois Sports Beat
look good. Another new initiative was started during the winter season that has really
helped NISB cover different ground: having more writers.
Brian Hoxsey, Bill Lidinsky, Rick Nausner and Steve Nemeth are four guys who may not
know just how they really mean a lot to me – regardless of how much they have
contributed. These four have written articles at times during the year, with Bill being in his
second stint in helping out. This was a very difficult and challenging time for me so far in
2010. When I asked for help, these four stepped up. I can't thank them enough for
chipping in when I couldn't do it. Their work helped bring a continuity flow to the website,
one which we never had before.
And of course, Matt Gingrich, who, as mentioned, has helped me out with posts on the
Message Board. I spent a great deal of time away from my own board this winter and
spring. If Ging wasn't there to help stop some of the bleeding when I was gone, some
topics would be real lethal.
Thank you Bill, Brian, Matt, Rick and Steve for your help this year. It really means a lot.
As mentioned, this year has been an up-and-down one for me personally. A lot of work
has been spent in the classroom, trying to pass my classes. In addition to school, I had to
get used to a new boss at work. She's a bit more active than my former boss, so more
times has been spent on helping at the Shell station. The schoolwork wasn't easy, but it
paid off.
On May 14, I received my Associate's Degree in Mass Communication from Sauk Valley
Community College. It took me five years to get my two-year, but it's all done now. I will be
taking a year off from classes. In that time, I would like to know how to get off on my own
two feet. That, as well as finding a newspaper job. I had to pass on seven opportunities
because of school. I won't be passing on opportunities anymore.
Who knows where the job will take me. I could end up somewhere small, or somewhere
prolific. If I do get that job, I will try to persuade my boss that I would like to keep running
Northern Illinois Sports Beat. However, most times a task like that is not successful. In the
event of a conflict of competition, I have drafted an NISB Transition Plan to ensure the
survival of the website in case I am gone. I won't reveal it, however, until the time arises.
The NISB Transition Plan is one of two plans I have. The other is the NISB Restructuring
Plan. This plan is composed of three different areas of improvement: Content, PR, and
Coverage (with a Special Comment on that). Such changes were needed in order to
either cut time I spend on the website, improve on my journalism ethic and skill, and to
ensure the survival of the website (going hand-in-hand with the Transition Plan).
Hence, the Restructuring Plan:
CONTENT
Each year in the Address, I take all of the site's features and put them all on the chopping
block. Not all get chopped and put into the vault. Some do. In addition, all of the features
in the vault are lined up with the possibility of freedom.
Here are this year's results:
Cyberstats listing will be cut – This was pretty much updated before each week of the
football season. I couldn't keep up with the weekly grind once the season was in full swing,
and they weren't updated a whole lot. You can search on the Links Page for the radio
stations and websites that do cybercasts. If I do get around to it, it will probably be through
the Football Forum.
“Welcome” and “About NISB” pages to merge – This is more of a housecleaning
thing. It feels better to have these two things put together. Both serve as an intro
message to the website. This will be done sometime soon.
Will we get an Athlete Journal finally? - Three years of this feature, and no one has
stepped up. Maybe I didn't communicate the opportunity effectively. A year ago I was
given a suggestion from a coach about blogs. Maybe a journal is like “1990”, but a blog is
more “2010”. I thought about restructuring this particular feature to make it more like
writing an NISB Blog. But how do I get people interested? I think I got it.
Two features escape the vault – More on this later.
Moving the Story Archive from the Message Boards to the Website – This simply
makes the Board cleaner. Plus, it will be more accessible for those who do not like getting
on message boards. This will be done over the course of the summer.
Moving the Crash Course Forum to a single post – Again, it would make the board
cleaner. The single post would be an announcement on all forums.
New Forums, Deleted Forums – The structure of the boards on the Message Board
hasn't changed in a long, long time, if not ever. The Girls Sports Forum will be eliminated
in favor of three new forums: the Girls Basketball Forum, the Volleyball Forum, and the
Softball Forum. This move is an effort to give girls sports more of an equal platform as the
boys sports. The Underclassmen Forum will be eliminated due to lack of interest – all
typical posts will be moved to their respected sports forum, as should as underclass posts
for now on. The Miscellaneous Forum will include Lacrosse (Belvidere) in addition to the
other minor sports like badminton (DeKalb).
Track and Field Honor Rolls moved to the website – This was a decision that
resulted in the “I don't read message boards” logic, just like the Story Archive.
(Side note: Even though it seems like I'm taking away from the message boards, I will be
trying to get more action on them during the course of the year)
(Another side note: At this time there are still some kinks to be worked out. The
navigation bar and the clock at the bottom of each page is controlled by something called
“Active X.” This prevents the NISB page from opening in some Internet Browsers. I'm
trying to work on a solution for this)
College Bounders system restructured – This became a problem this spring. I
restarted the list for the Class of 2011 already. Most tips given to me were tips they heard
though a news source. Even newspapers can be wrong. I found that out with one college
bounder. So for now on, when I get a tip regarding a college bounder, I will be verifying
the information with someone at the school, or with the athlete.
The above statement leads to the second point of improvement ...
PR
As I've preached through the years, verbal communication isn't my strong point. This even
goes for telling people verbally about Northern Illinois Sports Beat. I'll never forget my two
appearances on radio – a bunch of “uh ...”'s and we got this and this.
If you heard me on the airwaves these times, you'll know that I didn't make you to to your
computer. I ask myself the question, “How do I change that?”
Mission Statements are one way of summarizing the purpose of Northern Illinois Sports
Beat. Reciting this over and over may help:
“Those in the know about Northern Illinois high school sports know about Northern Illinois
Sports Beat. Through message boards, stories, features and blogs, Northern Illinois
Sports Beat* is all about high school sports.”
*Not affiliated with Northern Illinois University.
The asterisk is included because I get that a lot. No, I'm not affiliated with NIU. Not much I
can do about that.
In addition to reciting the Mission Statement, I plan on having information sheets to hand
out to coaches while doing interviews. That's the mission statement, plus some. I'll try to
make enough copies and put in a basket in my car. The flier idea the past didn't work out
well. The business car thing is okay, but I'm unable to use business car stock with my
printer, so they're rectangular pieces of paper ... for now.
For a short while, I e-mailed links to the stories to school officials to let them know I
covered the game. This was similar to a past policy (no longer used) by the IHSA
regarding State Tournament coverage. I eventually got tired of doing this. However, doing
such a thing may increase notice.
When I try to spread the word, sometimes it becomes too much. E-mails became marked
as spam. So, as mentioned earlier, I did the postal thing, with two responses.
Seems like more of the same. That pretty much exhausts all ideas without choking
anyone. I don't want to overdo it. That makes Northern Illinois Sports Beat look evil. This
along with the new ideas, should help the PR effort somewhat. I'll keep an eye on this
process.
So that's what I can do. There are certain things I can't do. There are over 500 head
coaches in the area. I can't remain in constant contact with them. My phone bill would go
through the roof and I'd have no time for anything else. E-mail works fine so that I can fire
off the thing on my own time, for them to respond on their own time. Still, after sending an
E-mail I get the ol “please call me” message. Most of the time, I couldn't call them because
I didn't have time before a story was supposed to be released. I can't recall how many
story ideas have been scrapped because I didn't have time for phone calls before the
news became old news. At times I would get extremely frustrated: one day I recorded an
audio bit, but never put it up. It went like this: “This is how I sound like. Now please answer
your e-mails.”
That's the whole reason why I stopped doing Team Previews – I just can't do all 200-plus
sports at the same time, and work around 200-plus work schedules. The last time I did
them, the response was seven percent. I'm not trying that again. And no, I don't have a
fax machine. If you can fax, you can e-mail. Common sense. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox.
But I didn't write all that because of simply frustration. I wrote this because maybe you can
find something I'm doing wrong. If you can find it, because I can't, let me know.
More soapbox stumping coming up soon, but next the No. 3 area of improvement ...
COVERAGE
When you cover 92 schools, it's hard to get everywhere, let alone cover everyone. I have
no plans on reducing the coverage area. Refer to my “Seeing the World” column for full
details.
Instead, I will make one addition to the coverage area. Yorkville will be a full member of
the coverage area for the upcoming year. With the Foxes involved, every Northern Illinois
Big 12 school is in the coverage area.
As far as “sport fairness” goes, we made some improvements, although not as much as I
hoped for, up until the start of the freelance opportunities. We covered two soccer games
– and we never did any stories on such before. Now that I'm off class, and as long as the
freelance jive is still kicking, this should improve next year. There may be lumps in the fall,
however, because football is now the top sport in the area (IMHO).
Over the past six years the content schedule has been erratic. Northern Illinois Sports
Beat has not been updated every day, and the updates would just come whenever. Last
spring I started something aimed to be update each week at the same time. That was the
Friday 5. The F5 included bits and pieces of information about the area's high school
sports, which didn't warrant a full story. The F5 brought people to the site before taking in
a Friday game.
If bringing people to the site on one day of the week worked, than doing the same for
other days of the week could too. The way to make this happen is to launch a new blog:
F. Y. I.
This new blog is pretty much the F5; but without waiting to release it on Friday, we do it as
soon as the information reaches us. This makes for interested people to check back daily.
Because this new blog is up, there will be no more Friday 5. It'll go into the vault of past
features.
Before F5, I would put those kinds of things on the Message Board. This blog also falls in
line with the “I don't go to message boards” logic.
The F. Y. I. Blog is nothing like the former NISB blog (the ill-fated “Because I Said So”),
which was my random thoughts about news. Why write these when I could challenge
myself to extend these entries into full-fledged columns? That's why I got rid of it.
F. Y. I. will be just one of the blogs on Northern Illinois Sports Beat. I will be replacing the
NISB Board News forum with a Blog called “Publisher's Desk.”
It should be a fun year exploring all of this (that is, if the site is still running). I can't wait to
see how all of this will all work. With that being said ...
Finally, as promised, a Special Comment on “Print vs. Online.”
With the road to a degree in mass communication had a detour to Freeport, I learned
much more about the profession than I'd already had. The same year I enrolled at
Highland Community College, 2008, there was a schism at the Freeport Journal-Standard.
Those who broke away started a paper of their own called the “Freeport Focus.” It was
founded as a reaction to the long-standing Journal-Standard. One day they needed a
sports hand, and I briefly considered it. It turned out to be a good move – they ceased a
few months later.
It was an all-too-familiar scene for me. A few years ago a couple of writers broke away
from Sauk Valley Newspapers and started an entertainment publication of their own. The
dream was to expand from entertainment to local news. In preparation for this, I was
approached to help with sports. Due to time commitments, I could not do it. That paper
soon ceased.
When alternatives are formed as a reaction to the long-standing institution (take note,
Ottawa Delivered), they don't often succeed. The fighting back from the newspapers
becomes too much. They don't like it when they are rivaled.
The company that gave me the start to my career, Prep Sports Online, was not founded –
as SterlingGoldenWarriors.com in 2001 – to rival the local newspaper. It was founded to
give athletes more recognition through photographs, video, audio, and the occasional
feature story. The whole concept of a high school sports website was a proposed column
for the local newspaper. The idea was scrapped. The newspaper looked as Prep Sports
Online as a rival publication. The newspaper didn't want to see more photos and different
stories – both of which were sometimes provided by yours truly.
That was in 2003. A year later, I had a brief foray in the print world with the same
newspaper. It was, while memorable, brief. When I went back to school for my senior year,
I missed the coverage. So I started Northern Illinois Sports Beat. My website took off
where NCIpreps stopped. Prep Sports Online had moved on outside the area. As the only
link from PSO doing something similar to what they did, Northern Illinois Sports Beat was
labeled as a rival publication. When I would to to the Quad Cities to cover a game, there
were usually two writers, as is the norm. When they noticed a third – me – conduct the
interview, there was confusion and curiosity as to who I was, or where I was from.
For six years, the “rival publication” wrote stories, took picture, recorded interviews,
compiled stats, created lists, and established platforms encompassing Northern Illinois
high school sports. At times I created things that newspapers just couldn't do. This is one
of the advantages of online publications. With the print press in dire straits, the online
advantages are looked at as if is was the Atomic Bomb. The Atomic Bomb that could wipe
out the print press as we know it.
That is the whole point behind “Online vs. Print.” Most online publication are run by minds
of their own. There is no one higher than me at Northern Illinois Sports Beat. The people I
cover games with have a few people above their heads. These people tell the writers how
to write, how many inches, what perspective to write it in, and who to highlight. This is
based on, among other things, coverage quotas and revenue. However, is this wrong?
No. But, I write how I want to write, as long as it's clean, gets the point across, is readable,
and follows the Associated Press Stylebook of news writing. There is no one telling me
how to write. It is influenced by no one. It is more pure. I can even tell a part-time or
freelance writer from a full-timer just by reading the content of their work.
When people want to know the online advantages, this is what I tell them. I communicate
this in various ways. When this message comes across to newspapers, I get a bunch of
anger toward my way. As I was about to write something with pen and paper at work one
day, one reporter glanced over and asked if I was writing my Manifesto.
Another reporter, after seeing something I wrote in my blog about this subject, chewed me
out using a couple of F-words. This exchange took place at an event that we covered
together. The comments made me very irate – so irate that I had to do what no journalist
should ever do – bow under pressure. I left the event. I drove home in disgust. A couple of
tears were going down my cheeks. What did I do to deserve this? I realized my “print vs.
online” comments had gone too far. I took a few days to think about the exchange. When I
had thought it through, I decided that fighting the newspaper was not going to bode well
for my future.
At the same time, however, I'm not going to just roll over and die for the newspaper. They
cannot deny me, or any other online journalist, what I love doing.
Fighting only makes things worse.
So what about the publications that were founded as a reaction to the long-standing
institutions? Fighting only makes things worse.
So how do displaced newspaper journalists, like myself, continue their careers? Not by
fighting, but by helping.
Instead of being a “rival publication,” Northern Illinois Sports Beat will aim to be a
supplemental publication to the print media. The newspaper sports departments have had
their budgets slashed by an estimated 40% or more in the past five years. Instead of
making that shortfall greater, we should make up for these losses.
How exactly? The following will also be a part of the NISB Restructuring Plan:
Emphasis on Non-Conference games – Conference games are more important to
players when it comes to attaining goals and partaking in a rivalry. People will read about
conference games. However, non-conference games are scheduled in an effort to match
teams of similar talent. The non-conference games are, most of the time, far away from
the newspaper's coverage area. Most of the time the two teams are in the Northern Illinois
Sports Beat coverage area.
Emphasis on important road games – The biggest cut in the prep sports coverage
budget is travel. Except for football, a conference game too far away will not be covered –
even if it is an important game. This is the same as the non-conference emphasis.
F/S Results – Just because we are eliminating the Underclassmen Forum on the
Message Boards doesn't mean we won't give a darn about them. We will try to. The
treatment of underclass levels in sports coverage has been a topic for nearly 20 years.
Because the Internet has space, we will try to include the preliminary result (fresh-soph
scores in the box, and capsule at end of story).
Rebirth of Team Spotlight and Q&A – With less of a focus on gamers, to make that up
in the written content, we will bring back two of our original features. Instead of waiting for
a Sunday to see it, It could be seen on any other day.
It is important to know that as we do this, we need to respect the role of newspapers, and
to acknowledge them. One day the print press will catch up and rebound, possibly starting
to do more of what we plan to do. What that time comes, hopefully we can find more
unique ways – not know to us at this particular time – to enhance the coverage of high
school sports in this area.
So no only sit back and enjoy what we are about to do, but read the newspaper while
you're at it. Who knows what the future holds for coverage, but one thing will be certain:
there should be no war between online and print.
Good night, and good luck.
| 2010 NISB State of the Site Address |