We're always trying to reinvent ourselves, and we take a long look at things at the end of each calendar year. It's an opportunity for a reset.
Two major areas we're looking at for 2022.
1. Enhancing our multi-media platforms.
* One new item I'm very excited about - through an NIL deal, we've partnered with Illinois defensive lineman Keith Randolph for a monthly podcast running February - December of 2022. It is tentatively called "In the Trenches with Keith Randolph". Alec will be doing much of the production work on it. (We're looking for sponsors if anyone is interested).
* We have a good idea for a similar NIL deal on the hoops side, but we haven't gotten that ball rolling yet, so to speak.
* Former Illini Stephen Bardo does a weekly Facebook live show called "Bados's Breakdown" and he's given us permission to post it to our front page. He mostly talks about Big Ten basketball.
* We plan to ramp up our own podcast as well. We haven't placed much emphasis on it, honestly. We only have 27 episodes so far. It's on Podbean and we're going to start pushing it to Apple and Spotify.
* We're experimenting with Facebook live for major events. We'll see if that's worth the time and effort.
* Alec and his buddy Brandon do a great job with Inside the Arc, and we'll continue to put that on the front page.
Note: I'm still a believer in written content, but the market is changing and we need to keep pace.
2. Breaking news coverage.
* I've never been a proponent of filling up the front page with snippets that pop up during the day, instead focusing on stories with some teeth. But I would like to expand on our breaking news coverage. To that end, we will probably bring back "The Wire". You may remember that The Wire is a message board post breaking down some daily Illini-related news.
* Text & email notifications have been offline for some time now. We're exploring ways of bringing it back. We want you to be informed when a kid commits, or some other big news breaks.
* We will make more use of the breaking news headline that we have the option to scroll at the top of the home page.
Note: We're also rededicating ourselves to recruiting coverage, which is our lifeblood. In the short term, you'll see more film review. We have limited that to new commits before. Long term, I'm exploring a replacement for the Block I Report, which I think needs some enhancements.
As always, your suggestions and comments are welcome. Consider this post to be in lieu of our annual subscriber survey, so if you have feedback please post it here. If you don't want to post it here, feel free to DM or email me.
Two major areas we're looking at for 2022.
1. Enhancing our multi-media platforms.
* One new item I'm very excited about - through an NIL deal, we've partnered with Illinois defensive lineman Keith Randolph for a monthly podcast running February - December of 2022. It is tentatively called "In the Trenches with Keith Randolph". Alec will be doing much of the production work on it. (We're looking for sponsors if anyone is interested).
* We have a good idea for a similar NIL deal on the hoops side, but we haven't gotten that ball rolling yet, so to speak.
* Former Illini Stephen Bardo does a weekly Facebook live show called "Bados's Breakdown" and he's given us permission to post it to our front page. He mostly talks about Big Ten basketball.
* We plan to ramp up our own podcast as well. We haven't placed much emphasis on it, honestly. We only have 27 episodes so far. It's on Podbean and we're going to start pushing it to Apple and Spotify.
* We're experimenting with Facebook live for major events. We'll see if that's worth the time and effort.
* Alec and his buddy Brandon do a great job with Inside the Arc, and we'll continue to put that on the front page.
Note: I'm still a believer in written content, but the market is changing and we need to keep pace.
2. Breaking news coverage.
* I've never been a proponent of filling up the front page with snippets that pop up during the day, instead focusing on stories with some teeth. But I would like to expand on our breaking news coverage. To that end, we will probably bring back "The Wire". You may remember that The Wire is a message board post breaking down some daily Illini-related news.
* Text & email notifications have been offline for some time now. We're exploring ways of bringing it back. We want you to be informed when a kid commits, or some other big news breaks.
* We will make more use of the breaking news headline that we have the option to scroll at the top of the home page.
Note: We're also rededicating ourselves to recruiting coverage, which is our lifeblood. In the short term, you'll see more film review. We have limited that to new commits before. Long term, I'm exploring a replacement for the Block I Report, which I think needs some enhancements.
As always, your suggestions and comments are welcome. Consider this post to be in lieu of our annual subscriber survey, so if you have feedback please post it here. If you don't want to post it here, feel free to DM or email me.
