Troy University Athletics
Let The Blogging Begin
7/25/2008 5:00:00 AM | General
Friday, July 25
2:30 p.m.
Let The Blogging Begin
All across the country right now, college athletes are getting ready to report for the start of training camps. Football, volleyball and soccer are first, and for Troy University, football officially starts on Monday.
I know there is keen interest in the Trojans football program because in just two weeks since posting the 2008 Football Media Guide online, that page has received almost 12,000 hits. The real books were delivered today (188 total boxes) and are available for sale through the Athletics Ticket Office for $15 each.
While the coaches and players are getting ready for the start of another season, Media Relations offices across the country are getting ready as well. Over the years our business has undergone rapid change, and the change feels as if it is running the Daytona 500 right now.
When I first started in this business in 1994, few schools even had athletics web sites because the internet was still new. We were using what was called “Fax-on-Demand” to get our releases into the hands of media outlets.
The growth of the internet has coincided with the steady decline in the newspaper business. More people now get their news from the computer than from the morning paper. That has affected the amount of coverage we have received because the newspapers simply don't have the editorial space, or staff, to cover everything the way they did in the1960s and 70s.
All of that change means change for Media Relations offices as well. No longer can we be content with feeding story ideas to the media because we have the same vehicle to tell our stories that they have.
So, to help tell our stories, and to get the ball rolling, we have an aggressive plan to introduce blogs from a variety of people to get the word out about our teams. These blogs won't just come from the Media Relations office, but will come from the student-athletes themselves, the coaches, the trainers and managers, and others within the athletics department.
You probably noticed that we got things started earlier this week with Taylor Bryan's blog from the Sun Belt Football Media Day. Taylor is one of our best and brightest student workers, and he'll be doing a lot of blogging during football camp. He is also responsible for covering soccer and softball for us and will be blogging those sports as well.
You can also expect to see blogs from Jason Wright, the former Trojan punter and current Media Relations graduate assistant, as well as Travis Jarome, our Assistant Director of Media Relations. Travis did a little blogging over the summer as he traveled with O'Darien Bassett and Tawanna Meadows to the U.S. Olympic Track & Field trials in Oregon.
We also plan to present more feature stories through our web site, www.TroyTrojans.com. Many of these features will be written by students about students here at the University. All will serve to better tell the stories of our teams.
Like all new ventures, I expect this project will have some growing pains, but I am excited about it. You'll notice a new drop down menu at the top of the main page of the web site. This is where links to our general blogs will be. Sport specific blogs will be located on the different sport pages.
I hope that all Trojan fans will embrace this effort. I also hope that you will become a part of it. We want to hear feedback from you on what we are posting. If you like it, let us know, if you don't, let us know that as well (we do have fragile egos, so take it easy). On occasion I will post a blog with some of your feedback, like a “Letters to the Editor” feature from the newspaper.
Finally, all of our blogs need to have catchy names. While “View From The Pressbox” is OK, I am sure there is a better name out there somewhere. Send me some suggestions and I'll post the ones I like best and put it to a vote. Email me at jehazel@troy.edu and let me know what you think.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
RH
