So I’m reading that TrueHoop, a NBA blog, have been bought by ESPN. That’s great news for the owner, who most likely got a little pile of cash and landed a full-time gig as a blogger at ESPN.
From your perspective as a reader, I don’t think it will mean all that much. The writing, and the way TrueHoop is created will not change. I’ll be reading and linking to the same newspapers, blogs, magazines, and websites every day.
The various executives and editors at ESPN have been nice enough to make clear, even in writing, that they aren’t interested in monkeying in any profound way with the way things happen here. (The changes are along the lines of not swearing, and not linking to porn. Not big concessions for me.) It will continue to look more or less like what you are looking at right now. I’ll be sitting at the same desk, doing the same work.
No changes? As far as I can tell, and the announcement confirms it, there is no money coming in from the blog. Why would ESPN buy it? Why not just kick out a blog over at their own site if they felt they needed bloggish NBA coverage?
The answer is probably Henry Abbott’s content. They must be impressed by that, since there’s no money and no plans on making major changes. Either that or they’re going to screw poor Henry over and ruin everything. Sorry, that’s the cynic inside, they could just as well upgrade it to a great NBA resource, linking it with whatever services they offer and so on. They are more likely to screw it up when making changes though, history tells us that.
Best of luck and congratulations to Henry Abbott. I sincerely hope ESPN will stand by their word and not mess around with your baby. That would really suck tenfold.
Check out the announcement post for a lot more on this. It’s interesting to read since TrueHoop seems very Henry-focused and therefor isn’t the natural choice for anyone wanting to buy a blog. Unless, of course, you want the writing talent…
Hat tip: Problogger
Originally posted on February 15, 2007 @ 2:21 am