What does this mean for Wizards Insider coverage on WashingtonPost.com?

As reported by the Washington City Paper:

The belt keeps tightening around the newsroom budget of the Washington Post. Following a stretch that featured the killing of the Sunday Source and Book World, newsroom administration on Tuesday announced perhaps a bigger no-brainer: Staffers at the paper will no longer get paid extra for doing chats and blogs on washingtonpost.com.

Not to call Ivan Carter (or Michael Lee) out, but we all must wonder what this means to the currently dedicated, and timely, coverage of the Wiz via Wizards Insider.

Us bloggers essentially commit ourselves to the "trade" for nothing. Uhh....you guys' move?

Just saying.

about 3 years ago Kyle Weidie 17 comments 0 recs |

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

This Hurts

A lot of new and inside information about the Wizards comes from Wizards Insider. If Ivan and Michael stop contributing to the blog, then this blog will feature a lot more speculation and a lot less facts.

"It's OK for the Bullets to trade baskets, as long as they can score on their end." -- Words of wisdom from Phil Chenier

by cuppettcj on Feb 4, 2009 7:40 AM EST reply actions

Exclusively Ivan

Ivan Carter gets scoops that nobody else does, and most of the scoops he gets don’t make it into the print edition so without him posting it to Wizards Insider (which he has zero incentive to do going forward) we lose this information. Maybe WashingtonTimes and Mike Jones will compete for the blogosphere and draw the Wizards Insider crowd over to Outlet, and pressure the Post to reconsider.

by morethesamewiz on Feb 4, 2009 11:24 AM EST up reply actions

Sure, But

Can the Times afford to do what the Post can’t?

"It's OK for the Bullets to trade baskets, as long as they can score on their end." -- Words of wisdom from Phil Chenier

by cuppettcj on Feb 4, 2009 11:26 AM EST up reply actions

Sometimes Mike Jones......

Has different scoops….but he just doesn’t post nearly as much as Wizards Insider, so he hasn’t developed a following. (Which also makes me wonder if Jones currently gets paid to blog)

But to stay in tune with the team, for the different perspectives they provide in the least, both MSM blogs are worth following.

Representing DC with Wizards & Stuff - Truth About It Dot Net

by Kyle Weidie on Feb 4, 2009 12:40 PM EST up reply actions

That would suck

I can’t imagine The Washington Post without Wizards and Redskins Insider….

Krem's Sports Blog

by Matt K. on Feb 4, 2009 7:49 AM EST reply actions

I never liked the comments section -

but the postings by Ivan and Michael were (and are) a staple to feed my daily Wizards hunger. Like that cup of Java in the morning…

Let’s hope that the Post penny pinching doesn’t lead to more cuts… And let’s hope that Ivan and Michael keep up the blog, even though they’re not paid.

Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......

by Rook6980 on Feb 4, 2009 9:40 AM EST reply actions

This is so dumb

If the Washington Post wants to stay competitive they should invest more in the blogs and chats. They’re the only reason I’m loyal to washingtonpost.com. If they want to save money, they should get rid of Michael Lee.

by Aldo on Feb 4, 2009 9:47 AM EST reply actions

Smart

I’ll admit up front that I have never run a billion-dollar company or had to budget for a media operation of any major scale, but Aldo’s point is a good one, I think. Newspapers are dying. They are. And one way to make themselves relevant (and perhaps less dying) is to do stuff like blogs and chats. The trick is to figure out how to make money from it.

"Now, obviously individual production does not unilaterally equal better team production, but there's a high level of causation."

by Vanilla Gorilla on Feb 4, 2009 11:17 AM EST up reply actions

Advertising

I happen to notice that Wizards Insider has big advertisements displayed on the right-hand column. Now if they can just do what Google does and figure out what Wizards fans would actually like to buy, and then market this space to companies that make those products, they might actually be able to make the blog into a profitably enterprise.

I do notice some Google ads on the site, and those appear to be the most relevant to Wizards fans in general.

"It's OK for the Bullets to trade baskets, as long as they can score on their end." -- Words of wisdom from Phil Chenier

by cuppettcj on Feb 4, 2009 11:35 AM EST up reply actions

Also....

They do ads in their raw feeds (at least ads show up in my Google Reader)…

In addition, the Wiz Insider feeds have cut-offs, meaning you have to click through to read the whole entry.

You’d think it’d behoove the Post to provide an incentive to blog….I’d be curious in the least to know how many click-throughs they get from feeds.

Representing DC with Wizards & Stuff - Truth About It Dot Net

by Kyle Weidie on Feb 4, 2009 12:44 PM EST up reply actions

I think it makes some sense from the business side

For a while, The Washington Post and washingtonpost.com were separate entities located on different sides of the Potomac River. Now, though, they’ve been consolidated, so the washingtonpost.com stuff is now part of the reporters’ regular duties rather than being an extra thing they have to do for a “different” newsroom.

I would imagine that the editors/higher-ups will emphasize that they don’t want the .com stuff to fall off too much, because it helps drive traffic to the website and is the general direction newspapers are going in anyway. But I do wonder like everyone else how much effort the reporters will put into it. I’d imagine it will vary from reporter to reporter, and I think Ivan might keep it going.

by Jon L on Feb 4, 2009 10:44 AM EST reply actions

Cut Off Some Dead Weight

There are plenty of long time execs and crappy editorial writers that need canned over at WPost. Their whole Neocon editorial page led by Fredd Hiatt is a disgrace to journalism.

Chats and Blogs should be the last thing getting the knife.

What? They don't have TV in the D-League? Don't watch me, watch TV.

by Mac G on Feb 4, 2009 11:21 AM EST reply actions

Amen!

Let’s see if David Broder and Richard Cohen can run Wiz blogs and chats. If not, let’s get rid of ’em and pay Ivan and Michael a little extra with the savings.

"Now, obviously individual production does not unilaterally equal better team production, but there's a high level of causation."

by Vanilla Gorilla on Feb 4, 2009 11:25 AM EST reply actions

I would pay good money to read a Bill Kristol interview with Nick Young

Preferably going in-depth about his thoughts on the stimulus package.

“yeah, man, you know, like, hahaha, the money’s right, you know?”

by pantslessyoda1 on Feb 4, 2009 1:21 PM EST up reply actions

Guys

I think many of your are overreacting a bit. The blogs aren’t going anywhere. The Post reporters just aren’t going to be paid extra for doing them.

This is par for the course for many newspapers. Most of the time, as far as I know, reporters don’t get paid extra to blog.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Feb 4, 2009 2:57 PM EST reply actions

But

Most of the time, as far as I know, reporters don’t get paid extra to blog.

Ivan and Michael apparently were. Ivan posts very often, and his posts are very informed, so will that continue now that he isn’t getting paid to do it? I’m not so worried that Wizards Insider will go away, only that it will be a lot less frequently updated.

"It's OK for the Bullets to trade baskets, as long as they can score on their end." -- Words of wisdom from Phil Chenier

by cuppettcj on Feb 4, 2009 3:14 PM EST up reply actions