By Rick Morris
Anyone participating in New Media, especially any projects that are sports-oriented (or partially sports-oriented, as this one is) has to take notice of something that happened Friday. It was something that would inaccurately be called the end of an era -- because it was just the end of the beginning.
Will Leitch, who piloted the biggest sports blog of all time (by a wide margin, I might add), Deadspin.com, moved on this past week to pursue other opportunities at New York Magazine and The Sporting News. Over the past three years, Deadspin has been a revolutionary force in sports media and also in New Media as a whole. It operated from a very basic premise, one that was sadly a revolutionary one in this pre-packaged fake world we live in: that sports coverage should be packaged in a way that entertains the average fan.
Under Leitch's leadership, Deadspin hammered away at the pomposities that flow from blowhard institutions like "The Worldwide Leader" and delivered material on a daily basis that made you laugh and, at the same time, did enlighten about different parts of the sporting universe. And they also helped change the rules of engagement for athletes and sports-oriented celebrities once and for all -- get hammered in a bar and make a fool of yourself, and you WILL end up with your pictures on Deadspin, courtesy of a dude with a camera phone who then shoots the goods to Leitch's inbox. Jock enablers in the media are especially incensed about this development.
But Deadspin is about more than goofy pictures of this sort or salacious posts about hoops players and their baby mamas or anything like that -- it is about helping fans to be able to laugh at (and thus enjoy) the absurdities of the sports world in this crazy new millennium. It helps us be able to deal with the big-money circus that our sports have devolved into and for that we owe all the contributors to the site many thanks. I'm not ashamed to count Deadspin as an influence for what we do at FDH, much as I have previously cited Tony Bruno. Life is too short to look at sports without a healthy amount of laughter and for that reason, Deadspin will live on. As I stated above, Leitch's departure (as he himself noted) will not be the end of the site by any stretch of the imagination. Having said that, I hope that he is granted a "Tom Brokaw role" which would entitle him to pop back in as a contributor as circumstances warrant.
I should add on a personal note that, for one of the most accomplished writers anywhere on the Internet, Leitch is also one heck of a nice guy. I had the pleasure of interviewing him once on The SportsTalk Network and I found him to be such a nice and respectful guy. With everything that he has done already and everything that he has left in front of him, I would sure love the opportunity to interview him in The FDH Lounge. I wish him all the best in his future endeavors and I look forward to the opportunity to read him in other venues.
Showing posts with label New Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Media. Show all posts
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Friday, September 7, 2007
FDH Lounge Show #15: September 9, 2007
By Rick Morris
After listing the agendas for the previous 14 shows on the main FDH blog, it's a pleasure to be able to do so for the first time on the blog based on this program itself, which of course airs from 8-11 PM EDT Sundays on SportsTalkNetwork.com. We have a loaded show as always -- and due to our August vacation hiatus, we are breaking the every-other-week format for bringing you a live show and delivering Show #16 next Sunday, September 16!
But for this week, after the Dignitaries of The FDH Lounge deliver their opening statements, we will delve right into an interview with the man who could fairly be described right now as the most influential person in new media. Rick Calvert, who will be bringing Blog World Expo to Las Vegas November 8-9, will discuss it with us. It is a blog/new media convention, the world's first of his kind, and it will be an absolutely epic event.
When we get into Hour Two, we will examine Fred Thompson's long-awaited entry into the 2008 presidential race in the context of where the Republican and Democrat races are at the moment. And in a summer full of big-time musical reunion tours, which was the biggest one? We'll figure it out for you.
In Hour Three, we debut The FDH Lounge Pigskin Report as we break down the weekend's worth of college and pro football. And from there, we'll analyze the MTV Video Music Awards and tell you the parallels between the political pushes at MTV and in the WWE (i.e. "Nickelback is the John Cena of MTV because ..."). All that and much more and we welcome your input as always, either by email at studio@sportstalkcleveland.com or by phone at (866) 453-4782 or (216) 881-9600. Join us yet again on The FDH Lounge, the show where nothing is off-topic!
After listing the agendas for the previous 14 shows on the main FDH blog, it's a pleasure to be able to do so for the first time on the blog based on this program itself, which of course airs from 8-11 PM EDT Sundays on SportsTalkNetwork.com. We have a loaded show as always -- and due to our August vacation hiatus, we are breaking the every-other-week format for bringing you a live show and delivering Show #16 next Sunday, September 16!
But for this week, after the Dignitaries of The FDH Lounge deliver their opening statements, we will delve right into an interview with the man who could fairly be described right now as the most influential person in new media. Rick Calvert, who will be bringing Blog World Expo to Las Vegas November 8-9, will discuss it with us. It is a blog/new media convention, the world's first of his kind, and it will be an absolutely epic event.
When we get into Hour Two, we will examine Fred Thompson's long-awaited entry into the 2008 presidential race in the context of where the Republican and Democrat races are at the moment. And in a summer full of big-time musical reunion tours, which was the biggest one? We'll figure it out for you.
In Hour Three, we debut The FDH Lounge Pigskin Report as we break down the weekend's worth of college and pro football. And from there, we'll analyze the MTV Video Music Awards and tell you the parallels between the political pushes at MTV and in the WWE (i.e. "Nickelback is the John Cena of MTV because ..."). All that and much more and we welcome your input as always, either by email at studio@sportstalkcleveland.com or by phone at (866) 453-4782 or (216) 881-9600. Join us yet again on The FDH Lounge, the show where nothing is off-topic!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
New Media's first big industry gathering
By Rick Morris
As I have stated numerous times on The FDH Lounge program, I am a huge fan of, and believer in, new media. It's where our organization has most of its focus at the moment (with the exception of our forthcoming fantasy sports instructional DVD -- Paul Belfi is right, I never miss a chance to shill!).
Being a growing, but still relatively small fish, we are always looking around to see what others in all forms of new media (whether that be blogs, podcasting, Internet TV shows like the Lounge, etc.) are doing. As such, I'm very excited to call to your attention the Blog World Expo in Las Vegas November 7-9: the first new media conference ever to be attempted on such a massive scale.
One of the Dignitaries of The FDH Lounge, Raymond Smalley, will be attending the conference, and thanks to his efforts, we're going to have Expo head honcho Rick Calvert on the Lounge show to explain what it is all about -- probably more than once. We'll be exploring the Expo here on the blog also in the months to come as this event promises to harness the divergent possibilities of this new reality in the media universe like nothing that has come before.
As I have stated numerous times on The FDH Lounge program, I am a huge fan of, and believer in, new media. It's where our organization has most of its focus at the moment (with the exception of our forthcoming fantasy sports instructional DVD -- Paul Belfi is right, I never miss a chance to shill!).
Being a growing, but still relatively small fish, we are always looking around to see what others in all forms of new media (whether that be blogs, podcasting, Internet TV shows like the Lounge, etc.) are doing. As such, I'm very excited to call to your attention the Blog World Expo in Las Vegas November 7-9: the first new media conference ever to be attempted on such a massive scale.
One of the Dignitaries of The FDH Lounge, Raymond Smalley, will be attending the conference, and thanks to his efforts, we're going to have Expo head honcho Rick Calvert on the Lounge show to explain what it is all about -- probably more than once. We'll be exploring the Expo here on the blog also in the months to come as this event promises to harness the divergent possibilities of this new reality in the media universe like nothing that has come before.
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