First, as I noted in Justin’s farewell thread, he deserves all the nice comments. This is by far one of the best Pac-12 sites we have in the network, and he and I have conversed through the last couple years so I know how committed he has been to making this a great site for Colorado fans. The goal is to maintain the standards and build on that.
As for the plan moving forward …
I’m excited to get involved here, introduce myself, part of our team and lay out the vision. First thing to know about me is I always think the best approach is full transparency and candor, as well as accessibility. I look forward to getting to know everybody here, and you can reach out to me anytime and expect a prompt response.
First, some background …
I graduated from the University of Maryland and started out in newspapers, working four years at the Kansas City Star, six years covering Coastal Carolina for the Myrtle Beach Sun News, two years covering the Florida Gators for a short-lived but fun site called SEC Country, and I’ve been the publisher of the USC Rivals site for four years now. (Hear me out, hear me out!)
We had some natural attrition at other Pac-12 sites starting in January, and that prompted Rivals and I to have some discussions about the best way we could better grow our sites out West. Some are not nearly as big or successful as this one, and thus it was unrealistic for anyone to run some of the sites for the money coming in each month and truly put the time in needed to build and grow. We made the plan to pool the resources from a handful of sites (initially Oregon, Cal, Arizona and later UCLA and Washington), hire a full-time experienced, dedicated recruiting writer to lead our recruiting coverage for those sites, put a lot of resources into recruiting coverage in general and hire team reporters to lead our coverage on the ground, while I manage it all. I think the model has been very effective overall — especially at Cal, Arizona and Oregon so far. The reality is really none of the Pac-12 sites, including the USC site, could afford a full-time recruiting writer of their own, so this created a great opportunity to grow recruiting coverage across the board.
Matt Moreno, who had been the publisher of our Arizona site, stepped into that Pac-12 recruiting reporter role for us and has been absolutely awesome. I’ll have him chime in here soon as well and better introduce himself, but basically, between Matt, myself and another versatile contributor Jeff McCulloch, we’re really at every notable recruiting event out west. Great example — this week Matt and Jeff were covering Elite 11 and the associated 7v7 tournament in Redondo Beach, Calif., while I’ve been in Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma getting recruiting interviews/updates for all of our sites.
So the plan in a nutshell is to really maximize and hopefully elevate Colorado recruiting coverage through expanded staff and resources, and line up a good reporter to lead our team coverage. I have several recommendations on that end and will make a hire in time to roll out our camp preview stories later this month.
In total, there will be a reporter based in Boulder covering the team, me involved in a variety of ways and always active here on the board, Matt and myself leading recruiting coverage and Jeff helping out here and there. I don’t get involved with anything to do a mediocre job — I want this site to excel and grow. You’ll get our full effort!
Please, hit me with any questions you have. Looking forward to interacting with everybody moving forward!
As for the plan moving forward …
I’m excited to get involved here, introduce myself, part of our team and lay out the vision. First thing to know about me is I always think the best approach is full transparency and candor, as well as accessibility. I look forward to getting to know everybody here, and you can reach out to me anytime and expect a prompt response.
First, some background …
I graduated from the University of Maryland and started out in newspapers, working four years at the Kansas City Star, six years covering Coastal Carolina for the Myrtle Beach Sun News, two years covering the Florida Gators for a short-lived but fun site called SEC Country, and I’ve been the publisher of the USC Rivals site for four years now. (Hear me out, hear me out!)
We had some natural attrition at other Pac-12 sites starting in January, and that prompted Rivals and I to have some discussions about the best way we could better grow our sites out West. Some are not nearly as big or successful as this one, and thus it was unrealistic for anyone to run some of the sites for the money coming in each month and truly put the time in needed to build and grow. We made the plan to pool the resources from a handful of sites (initially Oregon, Cal, Arizona and later UCLA and Washington), hire a full-time experienced, dedicated recruiting writer to lead our recruiting coverage for those sites, put a lot of resources into recruiting coverage in general and hire team reporters to lead our coverage on the ground, while I manage it all. I think the model has been very effective overall — especially at Cal, Arizona and Oregon so far. The reality is really none of the Pac-12 sites, including the USC site, could afford a full-time recruiting writer of their own, so this created a great opportunity to grow recruiting coverage across the board.
Matt Moreno, who had been the publisher of our Arizona site, stepped into that Pac-12 recruiting reporter role for us and has been absolutely awesome. I’ll have him chime in here soon as well and better introduce himself, but basically, between Matt, myself and another versatile contributor Jeff McCulloch, we’re really at every notable recruiting event out west. Great example — this week Matt and Jeff were covering Elite 11 and the associated 7v7 tournament in Redondo Beach, Calif., while I’ve been in Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma getting recruiting interviews/updates for all of our sites.
So the plan in a nutshell is to really maximize and hopefully elevate Colorado recruiting coverage through expanded staff and resources, and line up a good reporter to lead our team coverage. I have several recommendations on that end and will make a hire in time to roll out our camp preview stories later this month.
In total, there will be a reporter based in Boulder covering the team, me involved in a variety of ways and always active here on the board, Matt and myself leading recruiting coverage and Jeff helping out here and there. I don’t get involved with anything to do a mediocre job — I want this site to excel and grow. You’ll get our full effort!
Please, hit me with any questions you have. Looking forward to interacting with everybody moving forward!
