NBA Insider with Ken Berger

This is a blog for NBA content, but the fact that it’s a blog, by definition, means anything goes. So today I’m going to address a topic that is near and dear to my heart. That is, the newspaper business and its role in the rapidly transforming world of online media.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m a Mark Cuban fan. Not because both of us went to Indiana, and not only because he single-handedly turned a moribund NBA franchise into a model NBA franchise. What I really like is the fact that he’s interested and knowledgeable about online media, he’s generous with his advice on the media business in general and newspapers specifically, and his ideas have merit. His success speaks for itself, as does the current level of success being experienced by the newspaper business.

He’s also not afraid to stir up the hornet’s nest and challenge traditional thinking. He’s done it again by banning a full-time blogger who works for the Dallas Morning News from the Mavericks’ locker room.

Does he hate bloggers? Think they don’t deserve access? Far from it. Cuban himself is a blogger. Not only that, he’s a billionaire NBA owner who replies to emails from reporters like myself and fans like you, offering no greater access to me than Joe from Bayside. Unlike the owner of the Knicks, James Dolan, who has refused to utter a word to the media – and by extension, the fans – in more than a year, Cuban is accessible and offers tens of thousands of words on his blog. Forgive the mischaracterization if it is one, but Cuban is a populist. So why is he banning a blogger?

His lengthy explanation is here, but long-story-short, Cuban believes all bloggers are created equal. He doesn’t think a blogger employed by a large media company should get privileges that your average, garden variety blogger can’t get. And since there are thousands, maybe even millions of bloggers, and there isn’t room in the locker room to credential all of them, then the Dallas Morning News’ blogger shouldn’t be there, either. Also, Cuban denies having anything personal against the blogger in question, Tim McMahon.

There is a freedom of the press issue here with sound arguments to be made on both sides. I don’t want to get into that, because there’s a secondary issue that Cuban brings up that is far more important, IMHO. Cuban likes newspapers and comments often on their failing grip on market share in a media environment that is shifting toward online content. One way that newspapers have tried to combat this online threat is to give just about every reporter on staff a blog. Bad idea, says Cuban. And he makes some unassailable points:

Newspaper blogging is probably the worst marketing and branding move a newspaper can make. The barriers to entry for bloggers are nonexistent. There are no editorial standards. There are no accuracy standards. We bloggers can and do write whatever we damn well please. Historically newspapers have set some level of standards that they strived to adhere to. By taking on the branding, standard and posting habits of the blogosphere, newspapers have worked their way down to the least common denominator of publishing in what appears to be an effort to troll for page views.

He expands on the notion in another item posted yesterday under the headline, “Blogging and newspapers: A lesson in how not to brand and market.”

Consider this a rule in marketing that could be added to my Startup Rules.

Failure to do so will pull your brand down to that of the masses or elevate the masses to a position of being better able to compete with you.

Basically, Cuban says newspapers shouldn’t have blogs. They should have additional online content that is unique to the talent and experience of their actual journalists – something that is different from the stream-of-consciousness stuff that is a dime-a-dozen on the blogosphere. He suggests that newspapers re-brand this content by another name: RealTime Reporting. Give me some time and I’ll think of a catchier name, but it’s hard to argue with his concept.

If I worked for the NY Times, or any other media company with any level of brand equity, I would have done everything possible to define the section of our website that offers ongoing as anything other than a blog. I would make up a name. Call it say.....RealTime Reporting.

I would also market it as an extension of the print version. All the news that can’t fit in print. In the sports world, I think this is where mainstream media really has dropped the ball. There is no shortage of speculation and opinions on the net. There is an incredible lack of depth when it comes to game and team coverage.

All I ever wanted to be was a newspaper writer, and it’s troubling to see the business struggling this way to transition to the new media environment. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

As an aside, Cuban seems to have spent a lot of time thinking about the New York Times and how it does business. If you follow newspapers, you know that the Times – like every publicly traded newspaper company – is under pressure from investors to improve financial results and raise its stock price or sell. Hmmm. Cuban has never expressed an interest in buying a newspaper to me, and he hasn’t replied to my email yet asking if he’s flirting with the Gray Lady. He will though. He’ll probably respond to you, too, if you ask him or comment on his, um, blog.