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We noted last week that ESPN appeared to be getting rid of its Hashmarks blog, and today ESPN confirmed that Hashmarks is, in fact, going away.
It will be replaced by a network of football blogs, with one blogger assigned to each of the eight NFL divisions, one blogger assigned to each of the six BCS college football conferences and one blogger assigned to non-BCS college football.
The eight NFL bloggers are former Cowboys beat writer Matt Mosley on the NFC East, former Seahawks beat writer Mike Sando on the NFC West, former Browns beat writer James Walker on the AFC North, former Broncos beat writer Bill Williamson on the AFC West, former Titans beat writer Paul Kuharsky on the AFC South, former Vikings beat writer Kevin Seifert on the NFC North, former Panthers beat writer Pat Yasinskas on the NFC South and former Dolphins beat writer Tim Graham on the AFC East.
All eight were previously reporters at daily newspapers, as were all of the college football bloggers ESPN has hired. That continues a trend that our friend Adam Thompson of the Wall Street Journal noted last year: The Worldwide Leader is stocking up on reporters with experience in print journalism.
So how will this football blog network work? In general, people who get their football news from blogs tend to be looking for a different approach than the perspective that newspaper beat writers offer. But we’ll reserve judgment until we’ve seen this blog network up and running.
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:55 am
As long as it isn’t “Insider” content, I’ll read it. ESPN will never get into my wallet. Neither will NFL Network, for that matter.
The beauty of having blogs for each division is the comment sections will be loaded with smacktalk bewteen fans of all the rival teams.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:57 am
Pat Yasinskas used to write for the bucs, too. he is horrible and I am very disappointed he is back to covering the bucs. he has a huge bias towards the panthers and a huge hatred towards the bucs. i can only hope this new plan lasts as long as hashmarks did.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:12 pm
The sctrictly MM version of Hashmarks was a daily read for me, but this new format has turned me off to the point where I’ve completely weened myself from it.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:28 pm
“In general, people who get their football news from blogs tend to be looking for a different approach than the perspective that newspaper beat writers offer.”
Which is why they hired all former beat writers. Makes sense to me.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Exactly how is that different from Hashmarks? They have the same writers for each division.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 12:42 pm
This internet thing will never last. It’s just a faze.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Wonder if Tomase will get an invite to cover the Pats
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 22nd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I’m surprised ESPN didnt hire their favorite journalist John Tomase to cover the AFC East.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 22nd, 2008 at 1:15 pm
As bad as Hashmarks was, this is already a joke. So far the AFc East blog consists of Graham posting links to other newspaper articles.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
PFT’s my first place to go to when I’m wanting football info, plain and simple. Where I find my content after that will just be a matter of chance.
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Rating: 3.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 22nd, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Better hire by the Sporting News in getting Albert Breer. He knows the game better than the eight of them combined.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 1:39 pm
It’s a joke, as many have already said. I read the NFC North page a few days in a row, and all it was, was a Favre-fest.
Who cares?
I thought it was an NFC North blog, not a Bret is my Favre-orite player Blog.
Oh, and what a coincidence that the writer is a Vikes fan, and they were purported to be the frontrunner for him.
Nah, I’m done with it as well.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 1:47 pm
do they really expect people to go to 8 different pages?!
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July 22nd, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Great, a Cowboys beat writer is certain to give us an unvarnished, balanced evaluation of the NFC East. ESPN should change their web site to the “go away” network.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 2:45 pm
What, no Ron Borges?
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July 22nd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I was just listening to Matt Mosely on his afternoon radio show in Dallas (the good sports station had gone to commercial). He was talking about the reorganization of the ESPN blog and talked about how he was going to cover the NFC East, but “namely the Cowboys.”
Later in the show, during a mind-numbing Brett Favre segment, they (Mosely and Chuck Cooperstein) brought up PFT and Florio’s item about Favre possibly calling it quits. Mosely said something to the effect that that’s what Florio does (posting rumors) before wailing on a dead horse (the horse being a certain internet post about the demise of a HOF Steelers quarterback).
Mosely pens a second-rate NFL blog and hosts a second-rate radio show. In both cases, the guys in first are not affiliated with the Worldwide Leader and are therefore much less sterile and boring.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Someone explain to the four-letter that a blog is more than just links to other people’s work. The AFC East “blog” is a joke.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Sounds just like NFL Gridiron Gab except they have a main site and then all 32 team sites with complete blogging and updates. I bet the ESPN network will expand also into each team.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Graham hasn’t satrted yet. He’s still finishing up at the Palm Beach Post. ESPN is probably just holding the page.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Graham hasn’t started yet. He’s still finishing up at the Palm Beach post. ESPN probably is just holding the page with content until he gets there.
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