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islanders.nhl.com
Credentialed bloggers will be covering games from the New York Islander's new Blog Box. |
The
National Hockey League may not have been the very first professional sports organization to allow female journalists in the locker room, but it was one of the first -- and the friendliest. I can remember working alongside the New York Times'
Lawrie Mifflin during the
New York Islanders' run of four Stanley Cup championships in the early '80s and the graciousness and respect that the organization and players showed her. (The players all wore blue terrycloth bathrobes when she entered.)
Well, the Islanders are once again exhibiting graciousness and respect, this time for bloggers. They're creating a workplace for bloggers -- the Blog Box at the Nassau Coliseum.
"This is fan interactivity and a recognition of a new medium," said Chris Botta, vice president of media relations for the Islanders, in an interview with editor Will Leitch's blog Deadspin.com. (Yeah, I'm quoting from a blog, NOT mainstream media!).
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Botta continued, "What we determined is the blogosphere can no longer be ignored. We believe it is a significant new avenue to grow the popularity not just of the Islanders, but of the game of hockey."
Kinda like permitting women in the locker room a quarter century earlier.
Now, it's probably no accident that the two teams taking the lead in blogger coverage -- Botta with the Islanders and Nate Ewell, director of media relations for the Washington Capitals (which are owned by AOL pioneer Ted Leonsis) -- were 27th and 28th out of the 30 NHL teams in attendance this past season. There's room for a Blog Box in both arenas.
Neither media director is giving up on mainstream media. "We want them to know they're still loved, appreciated, respected, welcomed and needed," says Botta. "That said, sure, I've gotten a few e-mails from members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) nominating the Blog Box for this week's 'Sign That the Apocalypse is Among Us' [a Sports Illustrated feature]. This is about the growth of the new medium, not the dropoff of coverage in the traditional media."
But it's probably about both.
Earlier this week, George McPhee, the Capitals' vice president and general manager, met with the media to preview the 2007 NHL Entry Draft June 22-23 in Columbus, Ohio. Ewell sent out an e-mail advisory that included the 15 bloggers he credentialed over the course of this past season. (One, Eric McErlain of Off Wing Opinion, holds a season credential -- perhaps the first ever issued to a blogger.) Seven members of the mainstream media showed up. Eight bloggers showed up. "And give those eight [bloggers] credit," says Ewell. "They all have other jobs."
NHL media directors will meet during the amateur draft, and Ewell expects blogger credentialing to be discussed. "I think the approach to blogs has to be different for every market," Ewell says. "For ours, it works to embrace legitimate bloggers as legitimate media. The bloggers that we've credentialed take themselves seriously enough and expect to be taken seriously. Their approach is professional, so we treat them professionally."
How does Leonsis feel about credentialing bloggers? "He's thrilled," says Ewell. "The more the merrier. I think it's great that another team would do it. But it's not something we would do (treat bloggers as an entity separate from the media) because we have moved beyond it."
As for the Islanders, more than 100 bloggers contacted Botta "in the first 22 hours ...My initial reaction to them is that we'd like to see them update their blogs, at least in-season, at least once a week."
As for live-blogging games, which came up this past week during the NCAA baseball tournament, Botta kids, "I'd like to think our friends at FoxSports New York would not have a cow if some guy from Valley Stream wrote in his blog that the Islanders just scored. But I guess I'd better talk to them before I give you an unqualified yes. That, and our techies need to start installing power lines and wireless in the Blog Box."
Related note: Today the Future Tense podcast posted an interview with Tidbits contributor
Rich Gordon:
Tension between sports organizations, bloggers growing
