Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

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Sophandros
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com

Post by Sophandros »

Baywave1 wrote:As concerns The Athletic, timing is all. It's a VC funded enterprise raising lots of money and interested in growth. Numbers are private but here is a reasonable example of how it could work this year before it hits maturity when valuations and strategies will change.

Current subscription cost annually is roughly $50 per year. Investors are potentially paying 10x or even 20x for each new subscriber based on assumed valuations. If the latter, that's $1000 per head. You get 200 new subscribers in SELA market (or elsewhere) in the next four weeks who list Tulane as a favorite team, that's a potential $200,000 in accrued value to existing owners and early investors.

For $200,000 you might invest $10,000 to $20,000 or even more in generating original content in the short run. Yes that's equal to gross revenue. But again these folks are in a maximum growth mode and will spend on the margin to get customers so they get stupid valuation numbers like the unicorn startups do.

Sorry to delve into the weeds here and my numbers are admittedly soft, so please take them as such. But the business strategy itself is not. If you people want to see more local informed media covering Tulane with related content, here is your chance. For a while (I can't guess how long), each subscription dollar of yours is actually worth ten or twenty or even more to this business. Ideally when they reach maturity, the Tulane coverage is baked in and we don't have to worry so much about it being cut back dramatically like TP/nola.com has done over the past two decades. I'll worry about that problem when it arises.

Meanwhile you won't need to waste your time emailing/texting the sports editor of nola.com any more, thank god.
Also, their full price cost of $60 per year is $1.15 per week. Cheaper than a paper subscription without all the other nonsense. No ads. No popup videos, fewer idiots in comments (trolls don't like to pay for access), etc

So here's an opportunity to have more TU coverage at a relatively low cost.
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by noladave »

Athleticnola.com posted they would be covering Saints, Pelicans and LSU. I posted a question on twitter, as to why no #Tulane coverage, and why should a #Tulane fan subscribe, and got this response:

We hope to expand our college sports coverage again soon. In the meantime, you can find some coverage from our national writers here:
https://theathletic.com/team/tulane-green-wave/
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by AO Sig »

So a website that included "NOLA" in its name covers a team 70 minutes away, rather than a team in NOLA. Maybe they should investigate where the name NOLA came from. I remember that Tulane was the largest private employer in the city; is this not still true?
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by Baywave1 »

We have a unique short-term window to drive local coverage of Tulane from a premier national sports media site as explained above. (I guess in a few years, The Athletic will be first in class. Just my view based on its incredible MLB reporting to date.)

Tulane cannot reasonably expect to flip any other shrinking local ad-driven media as it does not have enough current fans. The Athletic as a subscription site focused on investor valuation growth is a different financial model. Tulane has the scale to impact it. If enough Tulane fans sign up soon (they do not have to be in Louisiana) and designate it as a favorite team, Tulane will get the coverage.

We'll see. Nuff said.
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by Donny Z »

In addition to Baywave’s suggestion, encourage all to do like Randy and reply to the athletic Nola tweet asking for Tulane coverage as well. Let them hear us from all angles. Ridiculous to not even mention Tulane in their promo of local teams covered.
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by ml wave »

AO Sig wrote:I remember that Tulane was the largest private employer in the city; is this not still true?
Don't really see this as relevant to the Athletic.
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by fearthewave »

Donny Z wrote:In addition to Baywave’s suggestion, encourage all to do like Randy and reply to the athletic Nola tweet asking for Tulane coverage as well. Let them hear us from all angles. Ridiculous to not even mention Tulane in their promo of local teams covered.
I think like most things, letting them know what customers want is probably your best bet, so I don't mean to cast doubt or anything but: I believe the reason that Tulane was not mentioned is because there won't be dedicated Tulane coverage on the current roadmap (in their replies, they mention Tulane could continue to appear in national stories that subscribers can read....).

Kind of a bummer, especially when they have Will on staff (who had a great run as our beat writer with T-P).

On a personal note, I also think this is a missed opportunity. To support our documentary (since this was an expensive project compared to our usual stuff, and we had a producer), I started a podcast app folks could subscribe to for 3 bucks / month. The results have been better than I expected, and I think a big part of that is that Wave fans are particularly eager to support something that might be good. We have enough subscribers that I am going to be able to send a staffer for practice reports (starting this week) and do more specialized content.

Hopefully Athletic eventually gets in the game, but so it goes
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by Baywave1 »

FTW, Thanks for your excellent work covering Tulane. May you prosper.

All the above shows, and throwing in Guerry Smith's pay site as well, is that Tulane fans interested in more media coverage are bootstrapping solutions and not depending upon the kindness of strangers running dying media outlets who don't care about Tulane sports.
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by GreenieBacker »

dying media will always reach primarily for the lowest hanging fruit. It takes the least effort and potentially has a quicker payoff. When they do that they're just putting off the inevitable hoping for some Deus ex Machina to save them. Good luck to that.

and I thought Will Guillory was the best, hardest working Beat Writer we've had in forever.
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by visualmagic »

GreenieBacker wrote:dying media will always reach primarily for the lowest hanging fruit. It takes the least effort and potentially has a quicker payoff. When they do that they're just putting off the inevitable hoping for some Deus ex Machina to save them. Good luck to that.

and I thought Will Guillory was the best, hardest working Beat Writer we've had in forever.
Kushner was better
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by GreenieBacker »

Should have qualified it: at NOLA.com/T-P
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by greenguy »

visualmagic wrote:
GreenieBacker wrote:dying media will always reach primarily for the lowest hanging fruit. It takes the least effort and potentially has a quicker payoff. When they do that they're just putting off the inevitable hoping for some Deus ex Machina to save them. Good luck to that.

and I thought Will Guillory was the best, hardest working Beat Writer we've had in forever.
Kushner was better
Kushner should be our next SID
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by Carolina Greenie »

So I see they also list coverage of Tennessee Volunteers for Nashville while eschewing coverage of hometown Vanderbilt. And the Vols are a bigger dumpster fire than LSU.

So we are not alone. Maybe they dont like brainy kids....

I will give em a $60 flier, though. I wasted more on a second rate barbecue dinner with my family tonight
....
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by Donny Z »

fearthewave wrote:
Donny Z wrote:In addition to Baywave’s suggestion, encourage all to do like Randy and reply to the athletic Nola tweet asking for Tulane coverage as well. Let them hear us from all angles. Ridiculous to not even mention Tulane in their promo of local teams covered.
I think like most things, letting them know what customers want is probably your best bet, so I don't mean to cast doubt or anything but: I believe the reason that Tulane was not mentioned is because there won't be dedicated Tulane coverage on the current roadmap (in their replies, they mention Tulane could continue to appear in national stories that subscribers can read....).

Kind of a bummer, especially when they have Will on staff (who had a great run as our beat writer with T-P).

On a personal note, I also think this is a missed opportunity. To support our documentary (since this was an expensive project compared to our usual stuff, and we had a producer), I started a podcast app folks could subscribe to for 3 bucks / month. The results have been better than I expected, and I think a big part of that is that Wave fans are particularly eager to support something that might be good. We have enough subscribers that I am going to be able to send a staffer for practice reports (starting this week) and do more specialized content.

Hopefully Athletic eventually gets in the game, but so it goes
The podcasts are excellent. Look forward to the practice reports. $3/month is well worth it. Glad your response has been good and hope others continue to sign up. Keep up the great work!
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by visualmagic »

Carolina Greenie wrote:So I see they also list coverage of Tennessee Volunteers for Nashville while eschewing coverage of hometown Vanderbilt. And the Vols are a bigger dumpster fire than LSU.

So we are not alone. Maybe they dont like brainy kids....

I will give em a $60 flier, though. I wasted more on a second rate barbecue dinner with my family tonight
....
Tulane and Vandy don’t have big enough followings. Tennessee and LSU do. Pretty simple
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by waverider »

visualmagic wrote:
Carolina Greenie wrote:So I see they also list coverage of Tennessee Volunteers for Nashville while eschewing coverage of hometown Vanderbilt. And the Vols are a bigger dumpster fire than LSU.

So we are not alone. Maybe they dont like brainy kids....

I will give em a $60 flier, though. I wasted more on a second rate barbecue dinner with my family tonight
....
Tulane and Vandy don’t have big enough followings. Tennessee and LSU do. Pretty simple
Yeah. They don’t care what the name of the school is, only the number of potential subscribers they bring.
Tulane Greenbackers

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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by Poseidon »

So I had actually already subscribed before the conversation went in this direction.

That said The Athletic ranked all 130 teams based what they think of them now, not how they will finish.
Tulane came in at 61

Wake 34
UAB 91
OSU 4
Memphis 31
Cincinnati 85
SMU 80
Tulsa 116
USF 64
ECU 122
Houston 45
Navy 53

Straight up we are better than 7 of our opponents according to them.
Quote:The Good - TULANE
The Bad - LSU
THe Ugly - USM
Honorable mention - Navy
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by tulaneoutlaw »

Poseidon wrote:So I had actually already subscribed before the conversation went in this direction.

That said The Athletic ranked all 130 teams based what they think of them now, not how they will finish.
Tulane came in at 61

Wake 34
UAB 91
OSU 4
Memphis 31
Cincinnati 85
SMU 80
Tulsa 116
USF 64
ECU 122
Houston 45
Navy 53

Straight up we are better than 7 of our opponents according to them.
I'm only seeing six here, but still that's bowl eligibility. I'm surprised they have us this high and also surprised we are ahead of USF. Guess I'm just used to seeing us put in the 90s or triple digits.
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by Poseidon »

tulaneoutlaw wrote:
Poseidon wrote:So I had actually already subscribed before the conversation went in this direction.

That said The Athletic ranked all 130 teams based what they think of them now, not how they will finish.
Tulane came in at 61

Wake 34
UAB 91
OSU 4
Memphis 31
Cincinnati 85
SMU 80
Tulsa 116
USF 64
ECU 122
Houston 45
Navy 53

Straight up we are better than 7 of our opponents according to them.
I'm only seeing six here, but still that's bowl eligibility. I'm surprised they have us this high and also surprised we are ahead of USF. Guess I'm just used to seeing us put in the 90s or triple digits.
Sorry I assumed TA thinks their better than Nichols
Quote:The Good - TULANE
The Bad - LSU
THe Ugly - USM
Honorable mention - Navy
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by tulaneoutlaw »

Poseidon wrote:
tulaneoutlaw wrote:
Poseidon wrote:So I had actually already subscribed before the conversation went in this direction.

That said The Athletic ranked all 130 teams based what they think of them now, not how they will finish.
Tulane came in at 61

Wake 34
UAB 91
OSU 4
Memphis 31
Cincinnati 85
SMU 80
Tulsa 116
USF 64
ECU 122
Houston 45
Navy 53

Straight up we are better than 7 of our opponents according to them.
I'm only seeing six here, but still that's bowl eligibility. I'm surprised they have us this high and also surprised we are ahead of USF. Guess I'm just used to seeing us put in the 90s or triple digits.
Sorry I assumed TA thinks their better than Nichols
No that's my fault. I was looking at ranks and didn't even notice that Nicholls wasn't on here :oops: So that does make 7 wins if this plays out.
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by Poseidon »

tulaneoutlaw wrote:
Poseidon wrote:
tulaneoutlaw wrote:
Poseidon wrote:So I had actually already subscribed before the conversation went in this direction.

That said The Athletic ranked all 130 teams based what they think of them now, not how they will finish.
Tulane came in at 61

Wake 34
UAB 91
OSU 4
Memphis 31
Cincinnati 85
SMU 80
Tulsa 116
USF 64
ECU 122
Houston 45
Navy 53

Straight up we are better than 7 of our opponents according to them.
I'm only seeing six here, but still that's bowl eligibility. I'm surprised they have us this high and also surprised we are ahead of USF. Guess I'm just used to seeing us put in the 90s or triple digits.
Sorry I assumed TA thinks their better than Nichols
No that's my fault. I was looking at ranks and didn't even notice that Nicholls wasn't on here :oops: So that does make 7 wins if this plays out.
No worries. I thought the USF rank was interesting as well. I recently re-watched the UCF-USF game and USF's offense appeared to work largely becuase of overpowering player ability, not better coaching schemes. Flowers scrambles so successfully it's actually hard to tell if a pocket Qb would make their system look better. So basically, the jury is definitely out on the USF offense.
Quote:The Good - TULANE
The Bad - LSU
THe Ugly - USM
Honorable mention - Navy
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Re: Blood bath at Nola.com (athleticnola response)

Post by Baywave1 »

noladave wrote:Athleticnola.com posted they would be covering Saints, Pelicans and LSU. I posted a question on twitter, as to why no #Tulane coverage, and why should a #Tulane fan subscribe, and got this response:

We hope to expand our college sports coverage again soon. In the meantime, you can find some coverage from our national writers here:
https://theathletic.com/team/tulane-green-wave/

I guess they weren't kidding. If they want to have one of the top national CFB writers cover Tulane then more the better! :mrgreen:
https://mobile.twitter.com/BruceFeldman ... 4443041792
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