With This Army We Push Into Crimea Comment Count

Brian

Hi. MGoBlog was a one man show, and then a guy I didn't know emailed me a bunch of stuff about how he was pretty sure Bryce McNeal was going to decommit given his Facebook status updates and wall posts. As per standard policy, I noted the information and didn't say anything about it since the tipster in question hadn't proven his mettle. Bryce McNeal proceeded to decommit, and Tom VanHaaren proposed he function as an MGoBlog recruiting correspondent using the magic of the internets (and, soon after, his phone).

I'd been thinking that social media was an untapped source of information and agreed, and soon started posting things like Anthony Fera chillin' with JoePa based on Tom's sleuthin' and talkin'. Tom set to providing a ton of valuable content and being the main force behind much of the news this site has managed to break in the last seven or eight months. It's surpassed all my expectations, and just goes to show that if you find someone with the right skill set and put them in the right spot, Good Things result.

So.

MGoBlog is absorbing Varsity Blue, and intends to deploy Tim Sullivan as an internet-aware beat writer this fall. We've talked with the athletic department—which has been shockingly open and helpful with all this—and Tim is good to go. Paul will also join up in a capacity we'll work out as we go along—he's got a "job" that requires him to "go to work". Formerly Anonymous' outstanding baseball content will be imported 99% untouched. Important: I will not be writing any less.

This represents quite a reversal from MGoBlog's previous position on being a primary source and requires some explanation. So:

I don't plan on being the guy. One: I'm bad at it. Two: I'm good at other stuff. I've spent four years developing an expertise that has nothing to do with the tasks commonly associated with sports journalism. That expertise has propelled this blog to a living and represents a nigh-insurmountable hurdle for any other organization to clear. Spending my time doing something other than that's pretty dumb. So I won't.

I'd like to remain insulated from the corrupting influences of access*, and this arrangement will allow me to do that, mostly. The threat of losing access for your content is unavoidable once you start to benefit from it, but this site has already positioned itself as a site that's usually in Michigan's corner. I know they monitor this site and others, closely. They have not mentioned any issues.

The Varsity Blue guys all bring valuable expertise to the table. Paul and Tim were longtime WOLV stalwarts and have a four-plus-years head start on me in the stuff I'm bad at. As you might imagine, they also can do stuff with video that is extremely helpful on the web. And FA has encyclopedic knowledge of Michigan baseball, again something I lack. They all can use bigger platforms, and by joining up they can use some of the institutional cred I've accumulated over the past four years.

I think it can work. I'm not sure if twentysomething beatwriter with an internet orientation who might ask questions like "what's the deal with that formation where Greg Mathews is covered up in the slot?" will bring a ton of value to the table but it's at least worth an experiment. I'm going into this with the expectation it will be a two-year trial on both the part of the AD and MGoBlog, one that might not work. But think it will be valuable.

Offloading a portion of the daily burden should allow me to focus on some other stuff. Mostly this refers to recruiting, which VB already covers with aplomb. I plan on handing off a significant chunk of it to them, which will give me some extra time to work on research-heavy posts and more columns and whatnot.

-----

This will also necessitate some changes as far as the presentation of information goes. Right now there's just a front page that gets updated 1-4 times daily and then the diaries and message board. More stuff will be hitting the front page now and we'll have to work to make that make sense for readers. I've always tried to avoid bombarding readers with way too much stuff to grok; that's going to be tougher now.

As always, try to bear with us—and it's now an actual us!—as we feel our way through this… undiscovered country. Spock.

Tim's first foray here is a trip to the Big Ten Media Days, where he will hopefully end up less pwned than I did.

*(I don't want to write something critical in UFR and have to worry about whether the player in question will give me the evil eye. And I don't want to get all friendly with another guy and pull my punches. Sportswriter bravado about facing down the subjects of your pieces is just testosterone.)

Comments

Flood

July 24th, 2009 at 3:34 PM ^

I'm extremely happy with this, as long as Unverified Voracity comes as often as usual. I'm also looking forward to more prose-heavy posts with intricate titles.

ggoodness56

July 24th, 2009 at 3:35 PM ^

I have spent years in sports forums, especially since moving out of state. I just can't hang at the bar with my buddies and other fans and talk Michigan football. This website has been the best find for me since leaving the state in 2000. It has only been a few months and I would say that the chat forum is my go to sports update center.

Thanks for all of your hard work guys...and for perhaps laying down your own specific desires to meet the needs of the fans. I'm forever grateful.

As a sidenote, I hope that you make a lot of money from ads and sponsors, etc...

Go Blue

mspeters

July 24th, 2009 at 3:49 PM ^

Glad to see your continued success. Mgoblog growing into an "organization" and having a somewhat working relationship w/ the AD must still be surreal. Kudos on insulating yourself from too much access; I concur on its effects.

God bless.

Don

July 24th, 2009 at 4:04 PM ^

This isn't about Spock and Kirk and the undiscovered country, it's about the Borg assimilating everything in their path.

Resistance is futile.

And silly, too... MGoBlog 3.0 will be great.

Rizzo

July 24th, 2009 at 4:34 PM ^

This is either extremely awesome, or we are witnesses to the birth of a cartel intent on crushing all other Michigan-related blogs.

wolverine1987

July 24th, 2009 at 4:34 PM ^

What does Brian mean about not being "the guy" and not wanting access to corrupt him? I never really read VB, but are they connected to the athletic dept? Sorry, My reading comprehension may be off today.

chitownblue2

July 24th, 2009 at 4:40 PM ^

"The Guy" refers to "being a primary source". That won't be Brian, it will be Tim. He's not "connected", aside from the fact that it sounds like the AD will give him press credentials.

Rush N Attack

July 24th, 2009 at 4:50 PM ^

Did you ever come up with a name for your US Soccer blog?

Suggestions:

1. Red, White, and MGoBlue
2. Much Adu About Nothing
3. We Will Always Have Bloemfontein
4. Alway Outfanned, Never Outblogged
5. You Can't Spell "Ten Jackals" Without Sacha Kljestan

fatman_do

July 24th, 2009 at 4:56 PM ^

Golf applause..

Blogging bitches, Blogging!
(Anxiously awaiting the "Blogging excellence" commercial with space capsules and The Victors background muzak).

El Jeffe

July 24th, 2009 at 6:37 PM ^

I'm starting a paper and ink 'zine that will cover formerly paper and ink small town newspapers' online coverage of sports blogs' mergers and acquisitions. I will use a rotary phone and a 3-hole punch.

Also, I will bend space and time.

MechEng97

July 25th, 2009 at 9:50 AM ^

Have my 2 football preview magazines in front of me and this just made my day (along with a Tiger's sweep last night). Looking forward to the improvements that will come. Should be interesting to see how it all works out with the increased "access".

Ike

July 24th, 2009 at 7:51 PM ^

You guys might not know this, but I consider myself a bit of a loner. I tend to think of myself as a one-man wolf pack. But when my sister brought TomVH home, I knew he was one of my own. And my wolf pack... it grew by one. So there... there were two of us in the wolf pack... I was alone first in the pack, and then TomVH joined in later. And six months ago, when the internet introduced me to you guys, I thought, "Wait a second, could it be?" And now I know for sure, I just added three more guys to my wolf pack. Five of us wolves, running around the desert together, in Las Vegas, looking for strippers and cocaine. So tonight, I make a toast!

Congrats to all, looks to be a great move.

jabberwock

July 24th, 2009 at 8:58 PM ^

Annexing the culturally compatible Varsity Blue in a bloodless appeal for blog unity.
May I next suggest a nighttime blitzkrieg into the soft underbelly of Maize 'n' Brew with the WLA guarding your Eastern flank.
Follow it up by a 2-pronged envelopment of GBMW (when they predictably counter attack) in a classic pincer maneuver!