Earlier this week, two pioneers of new media and blogging, Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post and Mr. Irrelevant’s Jamie Mottram (the creator of For The Win and FanHouse), held a podcast about one of the more fascinating developments in sports journalism.
The Athletic, a successful subscription-based site started last year, has raised $5.8 million in funding and is expanding into new markets. The Athletic first began in Chicago, offering quality coverage of its pro sports teams. The model has since been applied to Toronto, Cleveland, and Detroit, and will be expanding into the San Francisco and Philadelphia markets. It’s also going to cover college football and basketball nationally.
In part one of Steinberg and Mottram’s talk, they reference flavors of Cheez-Its and Guns N’ Roses albums from 1991. They also discuss how a subscription-based service like The Athletic would translate in DC.
In part two, they conduct a media fantasy draft to pick the best writers for this regional site. You’re going to hear a couple familiar names and no, one of them is not me, so, Mom, don’t get your hopes up.
Via Mr. Irrelvant, here are the picks.
The draft goes six rounds, with Dan picking first, and each squad has a salary cap within the general vicinity of $500,000.
Team Steinz
1. Mike Jones, The Washington Post (Skins)
2. Thomas Boswell, The Washington Post (General)
3. Grant Paulsen, 106.7 The Fan and CSNMA (General)
4. Chelsea Janes, The Washington Post (Nats)
5. Peter Hassett, RMNB (Caps)
6. Andrew Sharp, Sports Illustrated and formerly Grantland (Wiz/Terps/Hoyas)Team Mottram
1. Barry Svrluga, The Washington Post (General)
2. Ian Oland, RMNB (Caps)
3. Master Tesfatsion, The Washington Post (Skins)
4. Adam Kilgore, The Washington Post (Nats/General)
5. @recordsandradio, Twitter (Social)
6. Mike Prada, SB Nation (Wiz)
A few observations from your pal CFTC.
- Firstly, this was a great discussion. If you scrolled past the Podcast players, trust me, go up and listen.
- Jamie immediately won the draft when he selected Ian Oland as his number two overall selection. That site would have ten Capitals posts up by noon on the first day of operation. There isn’t a more hard-working hockey writer than Ian. He is literally an embodiment of the site’s moniker without the whole Russian part.
- Dan grabbed Peter Hassett with his 5th overall selection and in my eyes took the most intelligent, eloquent, and hilarious man that Caps coverage has ever seen. I try my best with the game recaps I do to be an eighth as good as Big Pete and I think he perfectly fits Dan’s vision of having game recaps not feel like inane play-by-play nonsense.
- Both men make a point to talk about how Ian and Peter have been able to create a culture around the site where people become not only Caps fans, but also RMNB fans. They couldn’t be more right and the two would probably make it work again with this new prospective “fantasy” site.
- Jamie talks about how RMNB would be decimated by the loss of Peter and Ian. I personally think the arrival of Queen news writer Cara Bahniuk, the long-form genius of Chris Gordon, and the quick analytical wit of one Patrick Holden would keep us afloat.
- This is the first and only draft involving professional sports that I was ever eligible to be taken in. Mottram and Steinberg making memes into dreams.
Time for bit of a PSA.
Mottram: “I don’t know that I would pay for a DC sports site, because I just don’t need that in my life, like I said, I’m already paying for the Post, there’s a lot of stuff out there freely available. But, I’d wanna support a DC sports site. It’s almost like a philanthropic thing to support journalism, especially right now even if it’s about sports.”
Steinberg: “Can I put you on the spot then? Have you given money to Russian Machine, which has held various fundraising drives over the years to pay their writers?”
Mottram: “I haven’t given a dime and that wasn’t a conscious choice, like ‘I’m not paying those bastards’ or whatever. I just never really thought to make that decision one way or the other.”
This is the right time for a small reminder of sorts. If you were wondering how to financially support RMNB (which will never be a requirement), we do have a Patreon where you can receive exclusive content, participate in a rousing group chat, and other stuff in exchange for your fiscal generosity.
[adinserter name=”patreon”]Lastly, we’d like to thank Dan and Jamie for their kind words about the Caps coverage that we do on RMNB. Very much appreciated, gents, and it means a lot coming from you two.
