Interesting career change by friend/colleague Jeff White

Moddy, you talk about trends. I've noticed the trend of using stories by sister papers has been considerably spiked over the last few years. Granted it does save money, and it does give guys at the sister paper hope that their work will be seen in a different market.

 

In that instance, of course it cried for a RTD staffer to be there. However, beancounters only think of beans and miss the big picture.

 

Interesting that this topic comes up, as someone working from the inside of college athletics.

I think this is a great move for UVa - though Virginia Tech beat them to the punch: their Inside Hokie Sports magazine writers produce much of the content on hokiesports.com for football along with men's and women's basketball, and work closely with the SI department.

This is good for a number of reasons:
1. Schools are wise to the fact that they aren't getting the coverage that they were used to, therefore the website is a top source for news and other new media ventures. I think this could (and should) become bigger for mid-major schools, which weren't getting a lot to begin with. Puts a new wrinkle into college athletic official sites, which are generally boring (content-wise).
2. Maybe not the case at the BCS-level schools, but a lot of these SIDs simply can't write: this takes the pressure off. I run across more that can't than can. Some don't have formal writing education, others do (sports management programs are producing people for these jobs that have no journalistic background at all).
3. Many big-time schools (particularly those with sites associated with CBS college sports) don't have any original writing. The AP wire story is automatically posted to their site. This constitutes as another voice in a world where there aren't as many as there once were.
4. Lets the PR people worry about PR (what's left of it) and the stat people worry about the stats.

 

How's the money? Did he have to take a pay cut?

 

Interesting topic, Moddy. Another example of a fascinating concept: When you make a move that looks like it saves you money ... sometimes it ends up costing you more in the long run.

A concept the bean counters will never grasp, I'm afraid. Congrats to your friend.

 

Nothing shocks me anymore.

 

I've heard similar rumblings as Cosmo about what could happen to the UVA beat in Richmond. I certainly don't blame Jeff for making this move.It sounds a lot like what Tim Peeler does for N.C. State. Tim was really happy with the job last I knew and while he wasn't breaking news on scandals, he wasn't writing press releases either.

It's also a good move for UVA.There's a PR/exposure problem there. The Hokies are taking over the state. If you get more than a couple miles from campus you run into just about as many VT fans as UVA, even in Charlottesville.UVA needs to do anything it can to enhance its brand.

 

Ahhhhh. Remember when it was the other way around?

 

I imagine more and more schools will eventually start taking that route, Moddy. I, for one, would have jumped in a heartbeat as well.