Next year no more excuses and if there’s a bad start again then Sucko better get the ax right away. I wish the avs would go in a different direction, but it looks like joe sucko will be back and looking clueless as ever. He has no more excuses. He has ran off every player in his doghouse.

I guess what I’m getting at is that the blogs you have in place can already diversify the tone of the coverage of the team. For example, there was a post over at MHH this morning about the long-term outlook for the Avs, and how whether or not the team makes the playoffs this season, there are encouraging signs for the road ahead. That’s the kind of stuff that one usually doesn’t see in a newspaper, which is more focused on the day-to-day stories. Blogs also have the advantage of leveraging their history. Most newspapers archive their online content, making it difficult or impossible to present how a given story has developed over time. But on a blog, for example, you could put together a post on a particular player and show how perceptions of that guy have changed, referencing and quoting pieces from previous seasons. You can also bring together content from various outlets (which is often anathema to the MSM) to provide a richer, more engaging narrative.

It’s in providing that depth of experience and perspective where blogs can mop up most newspapers.

To your point about media in Nashville, I’d say there’s been some development on the mainstream side over the last few years, but how much of that is due to the overall growth of the team’s presence in the city, as opposed to the competitive presence of blogs, that’s incredibly hard to say. I know the sports media pros around town pay attention to the various hockey blogs, but in terms of our influence? I don’t know how great that is.

Of course, every town is different in that regard, so I wouldn’t presume to know how Denver’s situation shapes up. Good luck fighting the good fight…

Quite what the Avalanche organisation is scared of is unclear. I thought the point of PR (and that’s essentially what it is) is that you get the product noticed. As an organisation, how can you possibly put all your eggs in one MSM basket? Why wouldn’t you want an army of intelligent, creative people working for you, for free?

But thanks for the encouragement. It’s appreciated.