Punked by Baseball America: An MLN Anniversary Tribute
Continued from page one...
It starts at the cover, like any of our print cousins. When you load up our magazine from what webbies call the "index" page, you get our magazine cover. Not 100 stories, fourteen branding offers, a flashing "You are a Winner" ad, or six thousand text links to buy tickets.
Click on the cover story. Read away. Or jump to any of our sports sections. When you get there, you'll see something different too: No lemming takes. We publish our own takes and lists, like the FAB50, that rattle the conventional wisdoms that the guys at BA would like to maintain as their own turf.
To Mr. Manuel's credit, he finally got back to me after about a month, writing:
"We see a lot of other prospect lists out there, and I frankly question the validity of just about all of them. I know how hard it is to put those kinds of lists together, and it’s just too hard, I think, for someone to do that when you don’t focus on a single sport (Sports Weekly, for example, is adding NASCAR and already has added football, so it’s not a single-sport pub like we are).
So nothing personal, and good luck surviving in a very difficult business."
While we appreciate his good wishes, Baseball America, dedicated little list makers that they are, can still be... wrong. Our FAB50 Baseball 2005 list is developing into one of the most accurate bellwethers of minor league because of how thorough we are. We're also willing, unlike some pubs, to stand up and take on an opinion of BA and say that we think different. After all, all of this list-making is the subjective stuff of spirited fan discussions and bar fights. Papa doesn't always know best.
Redefining Web Sports Publications
MLN rails at web conventions as well. The web publication biz likes to cram a hundred stories down your throat shotgun-style, to make sure that you'll find something that you like before you get bored and 'surf' away. There are a billion blogs with takes great and awful, if you can find them.
A lot of readers don't want to wade through a universe of information to find a story. The print guys' websites do it, in part, I think, to drive people back to reading the fishwrap and the magazine stand clutter until they rip up another few million acres of virgin forests.
Not that we need a chorus of celebrities out there holding hands and singing "We Are The Future," but the days of print are numbered as the speed of the internet allows us to offer the kind of content that fishwrap just can't do. The web has become Times Square of the 1970s: Loud, tacky, a bit dangerous. For us to fulfill our mission of being your go-to news source, we need to generate the simplicity and elegance that you've come to expect from your print pubs.
What's in a Name?
A web magazine is distinct from a 'website'. Unlike our competitors we're not a soulless search engine firing you off to every publication in the digital universe, opening up so many web windows that information just flaps past you in the digital breeze.
MLN operates like a print magazine in look and feel, with the searching power of the web. In our sections , you come to three to five articles each month. Big photos and great graphics from award winning designers. MLN has its own style. A personality. A take on the world that it covers that is fresh and unique. This is why you come back and read it again and again.
Like our friends at the print side of SI® or ESPN®, the magazine, we pick out the stories above the noise of the news that you might miss, or want to know more about. We showcase the mighty rising stars, and the compelling tales of players who are big fish in our smaller minor league ponds.
We take pride in bringing you selected writing from great writers that has our distinct tone and flavor.
Doin' Da Daily Grind
If you want to know about the day to day world, click on MLN - The Raw Feed. We make it a separate publication that filters down 1100 daily press releases from 685 teams and dozens of leagues in four sports to a satisfying news digest in RSS-format for the hard-core news junkies.
Freaking Out the Sports News Power Brokers
Now if venerable old Baseball America doesn't find our new age lists to be valid, we'll be freaking them out, along with a good percentage of the old line baseball establishment, with our latest publication, the Open Source Sports Directory (OSSD).
There are seven things in the world guarded with ruthless efficiency: The Constitution, the U.S. President, the U.S. Mints, the Pope, nuclear weapons, biological warfare agents, and player stats.
We decided to throw open the doors to that control-freaks' fiefdom. With the OSSD we put you, the fans and readers, in the drivers' seat to add, amend, and contribute to any record or bio of any player. Your work appears live after you change it. Of course, we verify any and all changes, and correct anything that isn't right, but our goal is to have the people who watch these players, past and present, work with us to create the most massive sports player catalog ever devised of every athlete, male or female, active or retired, who has played a professional game in the minors or the indies.
Celebrating Our Fifth Year as a Voice of the Rest of Pro Sports
We continue to find ways to serve the other 86% of the country where minor and indy, not major sports, rule. It's a great way to celebrate a fifth anniversary through the rocky birth of the commercial internet.
The Final Word
To BA, or any publication that wants to punk us, remember that the internet is our home court. The future is on our turf. Deal with it.
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