Out: ESPN, In: FOXSPORTS
Commercialism at its best. To all who thought reading the news over the Internet is absolutely free. Think again.
I have made it official that I am switching to Foxsports in my NBA coverages over the Internet. Chronologically it was NBA.com that was my choice way, way before (after all virtually no one else is in sight). Later, I got attracted to ESPN's layout, quality newswriting and in-your-face photos and Flash informercials. What made me stick to it was the live NBA scoring page which even got better recently without the need for page refresh. Chad Ford's articles are well read, the frankness of Marc Stein, the influential Dr Jack Ramsay, David Aldridge, Peter May and Marc J Spears, whose outtakes are feasted by my hungry eyes. Of course there's Eric Neel and the Sportoon which never fail to make me smile. Simply the best.
But ESPN was simply too popular that its executives and creative directors would be a fool to let quality content pass without getting back in return for the excellent by-product of their team. Little by little the NBA pages became pockmarked with tiny orange images: premium content that could only be accessed if you pay $4.95 a month. If you do, you become an Insider, which enables you to read content not only in NBA but NFL, MLB and several other disciplines. Well, I subscribed in late 2002 but had to give up after six months; I can read them through public newsgroups from fellow "Insiders".
Ford's take on international basketball players is often a public knowledge. He personally went to Eastern Europe to scout some of the most difficult names to mention whose talent ranges from flashy to flamboyant. Yet talents back in America still are prominent. In 2002, when Houston picked Yao Ming, it was a vindication on Ford's part; he is sometimes tabbed as pro-internationalist who raves talents from Italian, Spanish, Yugoslavian and Russian leagues. But at the end of the season Amare Stoudemire had a bigger smile after coveting the Rookie of the Year Awards.
With the fact that ESPN is more about that subscription based, pay-per-read scheme, I had to find something new. Then hoopshype.com came. It's a nice compilation of basketball stories from across the US and the world, all packed in one page for your enjoyment. Free. I still do read that. But that too became -- no, not paid subscription type -- emrboiled with sites requiring people to register for free to gain access to the articles. I don't do that. So then I came across CNN's Sports Illustrated site. Quite nice, large font text by default yet less flashy as ESPN (with those ORBITZ ads in the horizon). Then came AZRepublic, but that's more focused on Phoenix Suns, my favorite team, and a few other big news around the league.
But when I came to FoxSports to read more on the coverage on the Suns-Mavs series I guessed I found what I was looking for. A decent lineup of writers although Charley Rosen becomes a favorite writer. The site's content is free for everyone to read, plus photos and videos too. That made me think to abandon loyalty to ESPN. I need content, man.
Hopefully, ESPN would give up that selfish Insider idea; we deserve all to be informed, even if a writer spent three hours to a full day scouring information from Elias Sports Bureau to come up with a noteworthy article. CNN used to have paid content in its video galleries. Now it's gone and everyone should see interesting videos from there. They did it because BBC can do it, without asking for money.
Foxsports though is not as well-written as ESPN's articles. With the arrival of John Hollinger in ESPN, the future of sports journalism has been shaping. Full of interesting stuff, from stats, compiled data you'd never think they did it. Foxsports article was read Joe Johnson as an unrestricted free agent and Amare Stoudemire was spelled Stoudamire (maybe the writer was thinking of Damon or Salim).
Anyway, I think it's worth switching the allegiance. It does not prevent me from sneaking to ESPN's pages somehow.
I have made it official that I am switching to Foxsports in my NBA coverages over the Internet. Chronologically it was NBA.com that was my choice way, way before (after all virtually no one else is in sight). Later, I got attracted to ESPN's layout, quality newswriting and in-your-face photos and Flash informercials. What made me stick to it was the live NBA scoring page which even got better recently without the need for page refresh. Chad Ford's articles are well read, the frankness of Marc Stein, the influential Dr Jack Ramsay, David Aldridge, Peter May and Marc J Spears, whose outtakes are feasted by my hungry eyes. Of course there's Eric Neel and the Sportoon which never fail to make me smile. Simply the best.
But ESPN was simply too popular that its executives and creative directors would be a fool to let quality content pass without getting back in return for the excellent by-product of their team. Little by little the NBA pages became pockmarked with tiny orange images: premium content that could only be accessed if you pay $4.95 a month. If you do, you become an Insider, which enables you to read content not only in NBA but NFL, MLB and several other disciplines. Well, I subscribed in late 2002 but had to give up after six months; I can read them through public newsgroups from fellow "Insiders".
Ford's take on international basketball players is often a public knowledge. He personally went to Eastern Europe to scout some of the most difficult names to mention whose talent ranges from flashy to flamboyant. Yet talents back in America still are prominent. In 2002, when Houston picked Yao Ming, it was a vindication on Ford's part; he is sometimes tabbed as pro-internationalist who raves talents from Italian, Spanish, Yugoslavian and Russian leagues. But at the end of the season Amare Stoudemire had a bigger smile after coveting the Rookie of the Year Awards.
With the fact that ESPN is more about that subscription based, pay-per-read scheme, I had to find something new. Then hoopshype.com came. It's a nice compilation of basketball stories from across the US and the world, all packed in one page for your enjoyment. Free. I still do read that. But that too became -- no, not paid subscription type -- emrboiled with sites requiring people to register for free to gain access to the articles. I don't do that. So then I came across CNN's Sports Illustrated site. Quite nice, large font text by default yet less flashy as ESPN (with those ORBITZ ads in the horizon). Then came AZRepublic, but that's more focused on Phoenix Suns, my favorite team, and a few other big news around the league.
But when I came to FoxSports to read more on the coverage on the Suns-Mavs series I guessed I found what I was looking for. A decent lineup of writers although Charley Rosen becomes a favorite writer. The site's content is free for everyone to read, plus photos and videos too. That made me think to abandon loyalty to ESPN. I need content, man.
Hopefully, ESPN would give up that selfish Insider idea; we deserve all to be informed, even if a writer spent three hours to a full day scouring information from Elias Sports Bureau to come up with a noteworthy article. CNN used to have paid content in its video galleries. Now it's gone and everyone should see interesting videos from there. They did it because BBC can do it, without asking for money.
Foxsports though is not as well-written as ESPN's articles. With the arrival of John Hollinger in ESPN, the future of sports journalism has been shaping. Full of interesting stuff, from stats, compiled data you'd never think they did it. Foxsports article was read Joe Johnson as an unrestricted free agent and Amare Stoudemire was spelled Stoudamire (maybe the writer was thinking of Damon or Salim).
Anyway, I think it's worth switching the allegiance. It does not prevent me from sneaking to ESPN's pages somehow.
posted by Unknown at
8:42 PM
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