Re: NCAA championship weekend coverage
http://www.d3westhockey.com/FFPathsWeTake032611.html
An article on Fogarty's old man.
http://www.d3westhockey.com/FFPathsWeTake032611.html
An article on Fogarty's old man.
The original championships live blog is up and running over at D3WH.
You can find the only live blog not in danger of being shut down because its operator is violating his NCAA press credentials by running it right here.
I have the championship coverage up. The semifinal recaps and photos would have been posted sooner, but with Michigan-UNO going to OT, it made it a lot more difficult last night. And while I am the DIII AND Women's editor, I started with USCHO as a lowly beat writer for DI (Denver, and later also CC and AFA), and I still do a lot of recap writing and shooting for DI.
On another note, I would love to get more DIII recap writers for next season. I do want to continue to build the DIII coverage, and this season was spent mostly learning about it. If anybody is interested in writing DIII recaps next year, get in touch with me over the summer and send me some clips, and we'll see what happens.
You're sayin' what the rest of us are thinking'...You have to absolutely be kidding me.
I have the championship coverage up. The semifinal recaps and photos would have been posted sooner, but with Michigan-UNO going to OT, it made it a lot more difficult last night. And while I am the DIII AND Women's editor, I started with USCHO as a lowly beat writer for DI (Denver, and later also CC and AFA), and I still do a lot of recap writing and shooting for DI.
On another note, I would love to get more DIII recap writers for next season. I do want to continue to build the DIII coverage, and this season was spent mostly learning about it. If anybody is interested in writing DIII recaps next year, get in touch with me over the summer and send me some clips, and we'll see what happens.
Unfortunately as I fight for more resources for D-III, I have been presented with the cold, hard facts that over the last couple of years, D-III interest has plateaued, while the other three areas (D-I men, D-I women, D-III Women) are still growing. Is this a checken-or-the-egg thing?
Reaching a mature state is no excuse for abandoning the D-!!! men's category...I would argue that its a valuable niche you can own and exploit...and since many of the D-III leading women's programs also have the men's programs we all follow, the rise of the ladies should help, not hurt the men...local resources (see below) can cover bothWe, as Matt can attest, are stretched thin especially when the D-III finals are held in the West. Unfortunately as I fight for more resources for D-III, I have been presented with the cold, hard facts that over the last couple of years, D-III interest has plateaued, while the other three areas (D-I men, D-I women, D-III Women) are still growing.I will skip the cheap joke that "It's all RIT's fault"...its a self fulfilling prophecy - less coverage on your site with new coverage on other sites equals less traffic on your site...Is this a checken-or-the-egg thing? Does my ego suggest that after I had to stop putting my heart and soul into D-III coverage things stopped growing? Was it when all the RIT fans left? No, I would be giving myself and them too much credit.Depends upon how you enjoy retirement, I guess - at least there are some facts that can be collected, measured and compared - I would think that debate alone would create more traffic.For whatever reason I think there are external forces that have caused interest in D-III to plateau. Attendance is down at many of the big schools compared to 5 years ago. That's an area for investigation I'd like to explore. Maybe I'll come out of retirement to do it.
There are plenty of responsible student journalists at these fine institutions that are more than capable of writing unbiased re-caps...a formal relationship with the Comm Depts or SID offices should be able to sort some of this out, I would think.But in the meantime, yes, we are always looking for recappers. We have a heck of a time finding them at D-III schools.I don't understand your business model enough to appreciate why this would be a fight... but again, you need compelling content to draw and build an audience...Jaslow and most of our writers drive a ridiculous amount of miles to cover games when they can. Despite the fact that the number of page views on D-III recaps is well below their D-I counterparts, we still want more. If we get more writers, I can guarantee you that I will fight for another recap editing position on the weekends.Well that does sound a bit like an internal chicken/egg discussion you all should sort out...But we have to have the writers lined up and committed, or we're not going spend the resources, especially on something with a smaller nucleus of interest.
I am happy to take this discussion off-line...you have my email address if you want to reach out. I know I am new around here compared to most, so some of my views may be off base, but I have spent my entire career in media and content - some things matter regardless of the format or platform. I am happy to help.
You can find the only live blog not in danger of being shut down because its operator is violating his NCAA press credentials by running it right here.
I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I'm not feeling the love from some disgruntled former employees. I have allowed links to competing sites because I think this sport needs all the coverage it can get. And because I like you guys. But ripping on USCHO, which extends this courtesy to you, and has led the charge for more exposure to this sport for over a decade, is bush. We, as Matt can attest, are stretched thin especially when the D-III finals are held in the West.
I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I'm not feeling the love from some disgruntled former employees. I have allowed links to competing sites because I think this sport needs all the coverage it can get. And because I like you guys. But ripping on USCHO, which extends this courtesy to you, and has led the charge for more exposure to this sport for over a decade, is bush. We, as Matt can attest, are stretched thin especially when the D-III finals are held in the West.
Unfortunately as I fight for more resources for D-III, I have been presented with the cold, hard facts that over the last couple of years, D-III interest has plateaued, while the other three areas (D-I men, D-I women, D-III Women) are still growing. Is this a checken-or-the-egg thing? Does my ego suggest that after I had to stop putting my heart and soul into D-III coverage things stopped growing? Was it when all the RIT fans left? No, I would be giving myself and them too much credit. For whatever reason I think there are external forces that have caused interest in D-III to plateau. Attendance is down at many of the big schools compared to 5 years ago. That's an area for investigation I'd like to explore. Maybe I'll come out of retirement to do it.
But in the meantime, yes, we are always looking for recappers. We have a heck of a time finding them at D-III schools. Jaslow and most of our writers drive a ridiculous amount of miles to cover games when they can. Despite the fact that the number of page views on D-III recaps is well below their D-I counterparts, we still want more. If we get more writers, I can guarantee you that I will fight for another recap editing position on the weekends. But we have to have the writers lined up and committed, or we're not going spend the resources, especially on something with a smaller nucleus of interest.
This was the second year in a row I failed to see a D-III game and that sucked. As it is, I have three games left this year to see, and I hope they're good. For those out West, maybe I'll see you in St. Paul.
Chris, one of the problems is that when there is less to see, there will be fewer views. Some of us who are veterans of this site can remember when there was much more coverage. This year when the NCAAs came around and (apparently) there were stories written that could only be found by clicking on a link to the scoreboard and then clicking on a recap link from the scoreboard. Those stories aren't going to get many views for the simple reason that people don't look at the scoreboard to find links to recaps because there are very few (if any) such links during the season. I'm a passionate fan of DIII hockey (and a contributor to one of your competitors), and I wish there were more support here. It seems like the way we get most of our news (especially in the East) is through the rumors/facts/ what have you that get tossed around in here. There are growing fan bases here - particularly Oswego fans and Adrian fans.
I'm voting for the egg - without more coverage views will go down, which will cause less coverage, which will make views go down, etc.
Quite frankly in the last three years the USCHO D-3 coverage has been very subpar, and I say that not only as a fan but as the SID of one of the division's most prominent programs. I'm 99.98 percent certain I did not speak/hear to/from anyone from USCHO this season.
You know, I don't understand the comment about "stories can only be found by going to the scoreboard."
You do understand that with the site redesign, that is universal. There are only two places to find links to game recaps: scoreboard, and the recaps page. Regardless of what type of game it is (women's, D-III, women's D-III, or D-I), that is where you get to find recaps. Very occasionally, for special games, we might link right off the home page for that particular game, but for the most part, we don't.