by mike in boston / @mikeinboston / email
Good morning sports media watchers. A quick mid-week post for some pre-Festivus airing of the grievances. Once we get further into December I promise to be more positive.
One week on TSN.ca
Last tuesday I woke up and wondered who won the Monday Night Football game that aired on TSN. So I clicked over to their website to get caught up. Here's what the front page looked like:
No mention of the NFL game but a gigantic ad for something that was airing on TSN (1/3/5) 4 hours later with links to other TV content.
Next I wanted a list of TSN's twitter feeds so I googled "TSN twitter". Among the top search results is this page from the old TSN site. Listed there is this guy:
I clicked on his twitter feed and was greeted by this message:
Dutifully I clicked on @TSNAaronWard which ended with this:
I then wanted to find a list of the "TSN Originals" documentaries for inclusion in our TSM Best of 2016 post. This is some of the most critically acclaimed (and expensive) content TSN produces. I couldn't find it in the header bar until I clicked on "More". There it is!
TSN values this work so much they nestle it in next to their viral video subsite and the TSN shop. If you have ever wondered what is in the TSN shop, feast your eyes on these beauties:
I'm not really the target market for a "Celly" t-shirt so I won't pass judgment on those who would spend $40 for one. Anyway, if you want to find the documentary about soccer in Brazil's slums, it's next to the "Show me ur Crest" merch.
This morning I went to the Columnists section to see what people have been writing about lately. TSN boasts quite a few talented writers.
Good stuff. I wanted to read some more:
The landing page shows a jumbled listing of headlines with no indication of who wrote what. Thankfully there is an "All" button that helps you find an index of writers. Here's where that takes you:
What follows is a long list that includes everyone from Bob McKenzie to "Cabbie" Richards to Scott Ferguson. I think this is stretching the definition of columnist but that's just my opinion. There is also no indication of who has a recent post. The last column from Ferguson is from 2014. Further, the list of 50 or so names has no apparent order: it's not alphabetical; it’s not organized by sport. Maybe it’s an internal TSN power ranking? Who knows.
Notice that they have separate categories for TV and Radio. Oddly The Star's Bruce Arthur is listed under both categories. No other newspaper regulars on TSN — e.g. Feschuk, Siegel, Simmons — are listed under any category. McKenzie is listed under all three.
As I have asked many times before in this space: why is it so hard for major sports outlets to run competent websites? They have an unlimited pool of eager interns from which to draw. Cleaning these things up is maybe 5-10 hours of work with basic HTML skills.
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happy wednesday
until next time …
mike (not really in boston)