Bleacher Report Raises 10.5M, Becomes 5th Largest Sports Website

[cranberry]

@lono

Meanwhile, you're judging an entire group of writers by who they write for, I think that's sad.

You are absolutely, 100 percent dead wrong about that.

I am not judging an entire group of writers by who they write for.

What I am doing is saying that the overwhelming majority of content I've read on your site sucks. Period.

What I've read — and I've read far too much of it already — is written poorly, by people of limited writing skills, limited historical knowledge of the topics they write about and limited access to the subjects they write about.

I've yet to read anything on Bleacher Report that told me anything I didn't already know or gave me any new and fresh insights into the topics.

Sorry, but that's the truth.

This is my experience, too. You get what you pay for ...

 

[Schottey]

@cousinjeffrey fair enough, and that's an opinion held by many. I just know too many people who were in that situation who are writing full-time elsewhere for me to hold that same opinion.

 

[Shaggy]

Sites like Bleacher Report, and pretty much all of the Demand Media properties, have found a crack in Google's algorithm and is exploiting the ever-living **** out of it with terrible content.

What this does is make Google less reliable and less credible. And it's only a matter of time before Google starts losing significant traffic to personalized referrals through Twitter and Facebook (I bet they already are, actually).

Then, Google will determine that these content farms are destroying Google's business model, and that Google is less a search engine that gets users what they want, and more a search engine which has content farms ****ting all over their results.

Google's best and brightest will go to work trying to upgrade their algorithm to reward reputation and quality, and when they do, these sites are going to crash and burn.

I give it 18 months.

 

[Sly]

Actual Bleacher Report article

"Brett Favre: 15 Other Reporters We'd Like To See Him Send Sexts To"

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/488313-brett-favre-15-other-reporters-wed-like-to-see-him-send-sexts-to

Defend that one, Schottey.

 

[Mr. X]

Have they no shame? Have they no sense of decency?

I'm not being sarcastic with that paraphrase from the McCarthy hearings. I think that is simply awful. Hopefully Bleacher Report will be punished in some way for that and never do anything similar.

 

[LongTimeListener]

If karma actually works, somebody will sue them -- maybe Singleton's company that is trolling the Internet for copyright infringements -- and win damages in the amount of, oh, I don't know, just for a nice round number ... $10.5M.

 

[lono]

Actual Bleacher Report article

"Brett Favre: 15 Other Reporters We'd Like To See Him Send Sexts To"

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/488313-brett-favre-15-other-reporters-wed-like-to-see-him-send-sexts-to

Defend that one, Schottey.

Up next: "15 Keyholes Michael Barrett Should Look Through."

 

[Schottey]

Actual Bleacher Report article

"Brett Favre: 15 Other Reporters We'd Like To See Him Send Sexts To"

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/488313-brett-favre-15-other-reporters-wed-like-to-see-him-send-sexts-to

Defend that one, Schottey.

Are you suggesting that I enjoy (or even think well of) every article on a network of hundreds of writers? No. That isn't the case.

I'll go tell the intern who just got hired at the Boston Globe to re-sign because someone else on B/R wrote a sexting article.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Actual Bleacher Report article

"Brett Favre: 15 Other Reporters We'd Like To See Him Send Sexts To"

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/488313-brett-favre-15-other-reporters-wed-like-to-see-him-send-sexts-to

Defend that one, Schottey.

Are you suggesting that I enjoy (or even think well of) every article on a network of hundreds of writers? No. That isn't the case.

I'll go tell the intern who just got hired at the Boston Globe to re-sign because someone else on B/R wrote a sexting article.

You should tell him to re-sign. You certainly shouldn't tell him to resign.

 

[golfnut8924]

It isn't "breaking" news, but B/R has started to get its share of interviews and is (usually) included when PR places/agents are trying to get their client exposure. That is a completely new feature from two years ago and I expect it to grow.

Whoa!! Bleacher Report is now conducting their own interviews!! Who would've thought that a news outlet would go out and actually interview people!? That's ground-breaking!! We should all try this!!

Seriously, who comes on a forum just to blow their own horn about their publication's "accomplishments?" That's pathetic.

BR is a bunch of wannabe "journalists." When you start altering the words of your article just so it shows up in a web search you are sacrificing and diminishing the integrity of your work just to succumb to being Google's *****. That is sad. Go back to your mom's basement. This is sports "journalists".com not sports "bloggers".com.

 

[Schottey]

@golfnut8924 Thank you for being an ass up front, just so I know not to bother.

I've been a member of this forum since before I worked full-time for B/R and I don't plan on stopping because "Golf Nut" told me to.

For the record, I live with my wife and son. Sorry, we're near the beach in Florida, so no basements either.

Also, if by "altering the words," you mean including full names of people, places, and events, then you are correct. Didn't realize it was more valorous to say "Favre" than "Brett Favre."

 

[Shaggy]

It isn't "breaking" news, but B/R has started to get its share of interviews and is (usually) included when PR places/agents are trying to get their client exposure. That is a completely new feature from two years ago and I expect it to grow.

Whoa!! Bleacher Report is now conducting their own interviews!! Who would've thought that a news outlet would go out and actually interview people!? That's ground-breaking!! We should all try this!!

Seriously, who comes on a forum just to blow their own horn about their publication's "accomplishments?" That's pathetic.

BR is a bunch of wannabe "journalists." When you start altering the words of your article just so it shows up in a web search you are sacrificing and diminishing the integrity of your work just to succumb to being Google's *****. That is sad. Go back to your mom's basement. This is sports "journalists".com not sports "bloggers".com.

I hate to interrupt a good rant, but the last paragraph is simple SEO optimization. Online editors often write headlines and h2 and h3 tags with Google in mind. They tweak a word or two and link it to help with Google. I have no problem with this.

To find which keywords are vulnerable, and then write **** content that exploits those keywords, is where I have an issue. And I imagine Google has an issue with it, too.

 

[golfnut8924]

@golfnut8924 Thank you for being an ass up front, just so I know not to bother.

Anytime :)

 

[Schottey]

@Shaggy

I would accept the "vulnerable" and "exploit" language if we started every headline today with "Lunar Eclipse:...." But, no we simply identify what content people are looking for and drive that content to be produced.

Speaking only for the articles I assigned to interns today, we took what people were already searching for/interested in and gave them plenty of content from different angles.

I don't think "writing what people are looking for" is exploiting the system.

 

[Shaggy]

@Shaggy

I would accept the "vulnerable" and "exploit" language if we started every headline today with "Lunar Eclipse:...." But, no we simply identify what content people are looking for and drive that content to be produced.

Speaking only for the articles I assigned to interns today, we took what people were already searching for/interested in and gave them plenty of content from different angles.

I don't think "writing what people are looking for" is exploiting the system.

You're exploiting.

This Rex Ryan story is a good example. You quote two paragraphs from Deadspin, embed the video and it shoots to the top of Google News. It offers nothing for anyone looking for Rex Ryan reaction or anything. You're trying to compete with Deadspin using nothing but Deadspin's information.

On top of that, this is the URL

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/550102-nfl-playoffs-kobe-bryant-brett-favre-and-todays-late-sports-news/entry/36300-rex-ryan-does-his-wife-michelle-have-a-foot-fetish

So you got "NFL Playoffs" and "Kobe Bryant" and "Brett Favre" in the URL for a Rex Ryan re-hash. That's not exploiting the system? Hell, you might as well throw "Lunar Eclipse" in too.

I am not a hater, you do what you got to do to make your money. Money for writing is never a bad thing.

I'm just saying, if I were Google, I would exclude you guys from the Google News feed because your content isn't news.

 

[Schottey]

@Shaggy

Nope, if you click on "all updates" you will see this article
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/550102-nfl-playoffs-kobe-bryant-brett-favre-and-todays-late-sports-news

It's a tool we've created called quickhits for aggregating news (also very nice for game previews and post-game news). The footfetish news was part of that and its web address was just an offshoot of the original (very SEO) headline--adding the section name to the quickhit address.

If you notice, the actual title doesn't follow the same formula. I too would have a problem if the actual title of the Rex Ryan re-hash was "NFL Playoffs...."

 

[Stitch]

Agreed. Nor do they care that any of this content wouldn't exist without Yahoo, Fanhouse or the "legacy" media reporting it first.

Nope, can't have it both ways. Though, it's a great "argument."

B/R purposely cut the "free money" of many of the lower quality writers on the site and raised the bar for new writer applications. In advertising terms, it was a money-losing move. In quality terms, the move was necessary. (P.S. Deadspin reported that as well.)

Meanwhile, many have noted that it is all Top-10's this, Top-20's that. How much of that is "stolen" from the legacy media? Look on the B/R front page right now. As of 1pm EST, I see opinion pieces, YouTube links, speculation, and lists. None of it is re-reported, none of it is content found elsewhere. Most of it is content specifically asked for by partners like CBS, Hearst Publishing, and others.

Quibble about the quality...we're committed to raising the bar. Complain about (past) plagiarism, we've eliminated those writers. Complain about (current) problems, we'll be glad to do the same.

The storyline with 10.5M in investments is that B/R isn't going away. We're committing to making the product better and even more accessible.

As I've suggested elsewhere, some of the unpaid, low-paid people complaining about B/R would be better served submitting a resume. I guarantee we pay our employees (yes, Virginia, even some of our writers) more than many of the positions listed on the job section of this site.

I bet you still have Andy and that says everything we need to know about BR.

 

[BYH]

Infinitely better than the real thing:

http://twitter.com/veryfakeBR

Look at the most recent Tweet. LOL LOL LOL.

 

[Lugnuts]

So many quality posts on this thread that absolutely nail the situation. Their little scam they've got going is a house of cards.

Once somebody at BR stops blowing somebody at Google, it's over.

(Seriously.. Give BR credit for figuring out SEO, and maybe that wherewithall deserves a few million from a VC, but that's about all they got.)

 

[golfnut8924]

There's a fine line between a newspaper editor tweaking a headline for the web version of a story so as to generate more search results and tweaking an entire story.

BR (and many others; I hate to only single out BR but they were the only ones to come on here bragging about themselves) take the SEO stuff to another level in that they craft their entire stories based on SEO. It's SEO writing, not journalism. Forget trying to write a catchy lead, put a unique spin on a phrase or string together some really interesting prose. They are not concerned about that. All they are concerned with is how many SEO friendly terms are in each paragraph. This is where you stop being a writer and start being a Google *****. You aren't writing the words you want to write or the words you think people want to read. You are writing the words that will show up on the first page of Google. It comes out sounding like a Mad Lib. This is why I have a problem with it. You are jeopardizing the integrity of journalism by doing this and then calling yourself a "journalist." As a writer, you should be straining your brain for the perfect word to tie a sentence or paragraph together. But instead, you're straining your brain for the perfect word to generate a search result. Any real writing just goes out the window.

So what we are left with is an internet world watered down with millions of "SEO friendly" articles. It's people like you that are making the rest of us look bad.

The fact that the OP felt the need to come on a forum and brag about his business just goes to show how truly desperate and pathetic they are. Hey Schotty, how many other people do you see here boasting about their publications?