USA Today's Big Lead Sports notes that one of its sister sites, the Detroit Free Press, had a book commemorating Michigan's NCAA win ready to publish -- and promoted prematurely -- had the Wolverines actually won Monday night's final game.
"Michigan players weren’t going to profit from their Final Four run," the blog said yesterday. "But the Detroit Free Press definitely intended to do so. Amazon and the book’s publishers made the paper’s 'A-Maize-ing' book commemorating Michigan’s “SECOND NCAA TITLE!” available for pre-sale, at a discounted price, despite Louisville winning the title."
In a statement, the Freep said the pre-order notice at Amazon had appeared by mistake; it's since been taken down.
Deadline Detroit says Big Lead raised a legitimate issue: "While the Free Press could have profited from a potential Michigan national championship, and countless others are currently profiting from Louisville's title, the players on the court Monday night cannot."
Meanwhile, The Courier-Journal in Louisville has published the 128-page Louisville First, Champions Forever in softcover ($14.95) and hard ($24.95).
Chasing a bigger market
Gannett is placing a big bet on USAT's Sports Media Group, a giant "vertical" that's rolling up all of the company's newspaper and TV sports content into a national network meant to compete with ESPN, Yahoo Sports, Sports Illustrated and other media outlets. Corporate has set an ambitious goal for the group: adding $300 million in new revenue to the top line by 2015.
But GCI has run into trouble over commercializing sports at the high school level, most notably in Wisconsin in September over use of a player's image in billboards and a bus advertisement, and in August 2011 over livestreamingvideotaping games.
Related: The Shame of of College Sports, Taylor Branch's memorable Atlantic magazine account of how student-athletes generate billions of dollars for universities and private companies, while earning nothing for themselves.
In a statement, the Freep said the pre-order notice at Amazon had appeared by mistake; it's since been taken down.
Deadline Detroit says Big Lead raised a legitimate issue: "While the Free Press could have profited from a potential Michigan national championship, and countless others are currently profiting from Louisville's title, the players on the court Monday night cannot."
Chasing a bigger market
Gannett is placing a big bet on USAT's Sports Media Group, a giant "vertical" that's rolling up all of the company's newspaper and TV sports content into a national network meant to compete with ESPN, Yahoo Sports, Sports Illustrated and other media outlets. Corporate has set an ambitious goal for the group: adding $300 million in new revenue to the top line by 2015.
But GCI has run into trouble over commercializing sports at the high school level, most notably in Wisconsin in September over use of a player's image in billboards and a bus advertisement, and in August 2011 over livestreaming
Related: The Shame of of College Sports, Taylor Branch's memorable Atlantic magazine account of how student-athletes generate billions of dollars for universities and private companies, while earning nothing for themselves.
And what is the big deal? You haters would have gone the other way had they not been prepared. Good thing those t-shirt printers didn't have $$ signs in their eyes. This was a vendor error. You just can't admit that.
ReplyDeleteCommercializing_and nationalizing_ high school sports won't work. Like politics, high school sports is local, local, local. It's the dumbest idea I have ever heard of. Californians don't care about a running back in Missouri and so on and so forth.
DeleteBeusse will never get to $300 million revenue w/o some very creative accounting. Especially if it doenst include all the lame content whores he's forcing Gracia to purchase.
ReplyDeleteThe main sports product has turned into a real piece of crap.
Ties with Money for the worst section at Usa Today. Drivel and opinion masquerading as news does not build readership or loyalty, Sports people.
DeleteYou can make a good case that student-athletes deserve to get paid. But their scholarships ain't hay. It's false to say they're "earning nothing for themselves."
ReplyDeleteDetroit's book proceeds have always been shared widely with local charities.
ReplyDeleteI've still got my copies of The Arizona Republic's special Super Bowl edition. The headline screams: "It's Ours!" That would be Super Bowl XLIII, where the Cardinals beat Pittsburgh.
ReplyDeleteDetroit's book proceeds have always been shared widely with local charities.
ReplyDelete