Good morning all,
Today is a new day that brings with it great excitement and – as should be the case – some trepidation. Starting Thursday, August 1, 2024, I will take over as the publisher for Duck Sports Authority.
First, I want to thank Ryan Young and Rivals. When I approached Ryan with this idea a few months ago, he was very receptive to the concept and went to bat for me with Rivals corporate. It means a lot to me that there was enough goodwill and trust established over the last 13 years to feel I was capable of handling this site.
There is a little question that might come to everyone’s mind – why now? Why not back at the end of 2021 when AJ left? The answer is not short, but I will try to keep it as brief as possible.
In December of 2021, I was still working at Intel and spent a good portion of my day inside the Fab or interviewing for new employees. I still owned a house in South Carolina and traveled there at least once per quarter to keep the house and yard maintained. I was still working toward my MBA. In some ways, it was a miracle I found enough time to write three articles per week.
Additionally, the truth was that the model we tried was conceptually a good thought. By spreading the costs of coverage across multiple sites, economies of scale were more plausible in coverage gaps.
As 2022 rolled into the second quarter, I sold the house in Carolina. I returned to my former employer. We bought a new home in Portland. We got a dog. During most of last year, I was thinking of methods to increase our subscriber base and I started to do some research on different concepts.
It was earlier this year that I spoke with some friends that are in the business to see what we could do to turn around our site and start growing again. I know the answer is that we need more Oregon specific interviews, more Oregon specific coverage of recruiting events. But that costs money and we need to find a way to get the things I know you all want.
The hard truth is that there is not enough revenue coming in to have this be anyone’s full time gig. I will still work at my day job, but this is a passion project for me, and I do have an idea for how we get you all more of the content you have said you want.
The idea I have is to find a writer that wants to be more than just a writer; someone who wants to break into the business and make this site grow. Someone who will have a direct stake in the growth of this site. This is a different model and one I think has some promise.
I have identified a person that wants to take on this challenge, but we have some steps to clear with Rivals before he can start calling recruits. When he is on board, I will introduce him here.
What will you get from me? I currently write about 13 articles per month (3 per week which averages out to 13). That number will increase. I am going to add some content on both Tuesday and Thursday every week. Yep. Five columns per week. You will see me on the boards being as active as possible during most days. You will have an Oregon graduate working to spread the Duck Sports Authority brand as actively as possible. I have already reached out to nearly a dozen different people looking to expand our reach.
As we start to grow, we will be able to get more content. More interviews. More information. We will also get a new breed of subscribers and I want to invite as much interaction as possible. They will be different in the manner that they communicate and there will certainly be some more personalities. That’s okay. Change is scary for most people, but to thrive we must embrace the changes that are ahead.
This will still be a place free of politics and religion because I think it makes the discussion much more authentic when we base it solely on sports.
In June when I had lunch with AJ, we discussed this, and he was very supportive. In fact, if you have not noticed, his old X (Twitter) account has suddenly become more active. That handle will now be the Official Page for DSA Publishing while I will also maintain my personal Twitter account.
As we did with the last turnover, Brandon will stay on and work on our social media. I am grateful to him for his assistance and support. We will partner with our good friend at Oregon Duck Football News (Warren Williamson) to get some game photos and he and I will also do some after game video discussion sort of like an ‘Instant Analysis’ piece.
While I will not be able to attend most practices, I am planning to partner with those who can be there. Given the limited amount of time we have to view practice and the lack of reliable information we can glean, the value of money is better placed elsewhere than via paying someone to be at practice to get very little substantive information. Partnering with others is our best method to get coverage.
I will be in the booth this year and will do my best to be a part of the press conference after every home game.
We will also still continue to host the Duck Sports Authority tailgate at our RV spot this season and are looking forward to the opportunity to maybe see some more of you out there.
There are other ideas I have for the future as well, but those are down the road things like our own podcast once we have started to create a more stable base financially for this site. While getting information to you all is our hedgehog concept, without increasing revenue, we cannot get enough content. Podcasts and sponsorship are an avenue for us to grow our revenue which will allow us to generate more content.
Thank you all for your continued support of this site and for sticking with us for the years. I love this community and look forward to getting better and better. I don’t think we have to be in a zero-sum game in coverage.
Today is a new day that brings with it great excitement and – as should be the case – some trepidation. Starting Thursday, August 1, 2024, I will take over as the publisher for Duck Sports Authority.
First, I want to thank Ryan Young and Rivals. When I approached Ryan with this idea a few months ago, he was very receptive to the concept and went to bat for me with Rivals corporate. It means a lot to me that there was enough goodwill and trust established over the last 13 years to feel I was capable of handling this site.
There is a little question that might come to everyone’s mind – why now? Why not back at the end of 2021 when AJ left? The answer is not short, but I will try to keep it as brief as possible.
In December of 2021, I was still working at Intel and spent a good portion of my day inside the Fab or interviewing for new employees. I still owned a house in South Carolina and traveled there at least once per quarter to keep the house and yard maintained. I was still working toward my MBA. In some ways, it was a miracle I found enough time to write three articles per week.
Additionally, the truth was that the model we tried was conceptually a good thought. By spreading the costs of coverage across multiple sites, economies of scale were more plausible in coverage gaps.
As 2022 rolled into the second quarter, I sold the house in Carolina. I returned to my former employer. We bought a new home in Portland. We got a dog. During most of last year, I was thinking of methods to increase our subscriber base and I started to do some research on different concepts.
It was earlier this year that I spoke with some friends that are in the business to see what we could do to turn around our site and start growing again. I know the answer is that we need more Oregon specific interviews, more Oregon specific coverage of recruiting events. But that costs money and we need to find a way to get the things I know you all want.
The hard truth is that there is not enough revenue coming in to have this be anyone’s full time gig. I will still work at my day job, but this is a passion project for me, and I do have an idea for how we get you all more of the content you have said you want.
The idea I have is to find a writer that wants to be more than just a writer; someone who wants to break into the business and make this site grow. Someone who will have a direct stake in the growth of this site. This is a different model and one I think has some promise.
I have identified a person that wants to take on this challenge, but we have some steps to clear with Rivals before he can start calling recruits. When he is on board, I will introduce him here.
What will you get from me? I currently write about 13 articles per month (3 per week which averages out to 13). That number will increase. I am going to add some content on both Tuesday and Thursday every week. Yep. Five columns per week. You will see me on the boards being as active as possible during most days. You will have an Oregon graduate working to spread the Duck Sports Authority brand as actively as possible. I have already reached out to nearly a dozen different people looking to expand our reach.
As we start to grow, we will be able to get more content. More interviews. More information. We will also get a new breed of subscribers and I want to invite as much interaction as possible. They will be different in the manner that they communicate and there will certainly be some more personalities. That’s okay. Change is scary for most people, but to thrive we must embrace the changes that are ahead.
This will still be a place free of politics and religion because I think it makes the discussion much more authentic when we base it solely on sports.
In June when I had lunch with AJ, we discussed this, and he was very supportive. In fact, if you have not noticed, his old X (Twitter) account has suddenly become more active. That handle will now be the Official Page for DSA Publishing while I will also maintain my personal Twitter account.
As we did with the last turnover, Brandon will stay on and work on our social media. I am grateful to him for his assistance and support. We will partner with our good friend at Oregon Duck Football News (Warren Williamson) to get some game photos and he and I will also do some after game video discussion sort of like an ‘Instant Analysis’ piece.
While I will not be able to attend most practices, I am planning to partner with those who can be there. Given the limited amount of time we have to view practice and the lack of reliable information we can glean, the value of money is better placed elsewhere than via paying someone to be at practice to get very little substantive information. Partnering with others is our best method to get coverage.
I will be in the booth this year and will do my best to be a part of the press conference after every home game.
We will also still continue to host the Duck Sports Authority tailgate at our RV spot this season and are looking forward to the opportunity to maybe see some more of you out there.
There are other ideas I have for the future as well, but those are down the road things like our own podcast once we have started to create a more stable base financially for this site. While getting information to you all is our hedgehog concept, without increasing revenue, we cannot get enough content. Podcasts and sponsorship are an avenue for us to grow our revenue which will allow us to generate more content.
Thank you all for your continued support of this site and for sticking with us for the years. I love this community and look forward to getting better and better. I don’t think we have to be in a zero-sum game in coverage.
