A few weeks ago Mark Cuban suggested it was time that professional sports league pay for local beatwriters.
It’s actually one of the more interesting reads in the category of “people coming up with crazy ideas to save the newspaper industry” (in part because Cuban actually owns a pro sports team and theoretically has the influence to help make something like this happen). Anyway, Cuban basically argues that pro sports can’t afford to lost newspapers because it’s the only inexpensive way to reach the casual fan. “The cost to reach those fans in a newspaperless world over the next 5to 7 years will cost us far more than working with newspapers today to try to help them,” he explains. (Not quite MediaisThriving material, but still nice to see new ideas.)
February 3, 2009
Wherever you stand in the Twitter debate (love or hate), I have contested for some time that you at least have to find it interesting that so many people are into communicating in this new way. Anyway, I quite enjoyed this story of how Twitter came to be from @Dom. (The original nugget was super simple: “a service that uses SMS to tell small groups what you are doing”.)
As a side note, my (kinda) bold prediction for 2009 is that Facebook will buy Twitter and Microsoft will buy Facebook (or at least put the wheels in motion). While I think both can be profitable services, I don’t think either will ever be massively so (especially if they rely on business models that are about interpersonal interactions). At the end of the day, I’m not sure how either will live up to the large investments they already have (and rumor has it both are looking to add to, Twitter with $20 million). Sure, I understand Fred’s point about looking at costs when thinking about revenues, but surely all the investors in these two companies are going to want to see returns that match the scale of their investments, right? (Just my two cents.)
February 1, 2009
I was having trouble articulating why I wanted the Cardinals to lost the Super Bowl so bad and then Jeff summed it up for me: “If the Arizona Cardinals were to win the Super Bowl on Sunday…then what becomes of the beloved Super Bowl? Some teams simply don’t belong as the last ones standing. The Cardinals are one. So are the Detroit Lions. The Los Angeles Clippers. The New York University men’s basketball team. Me playing Golden Tee. Some folks do the game more justice by continuing to lose. It keeps the universe in balance. Keeps the vocals in harmony.”
Let’s go Steelers. (Oh, and here’s to a Chicago Bears Super Bowl in 2010.)
February 1, 2009
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