The BtownBanners Content Plan

With football officially getting underway on Thursday at IU with an afternoon practice on the practice fields behind the north end of the stadium, I would hope you’ll start to get a better feel for what we hope to do with the content side of Btownbanners.

I started delivering content last Friday and at the same time I posted a thread here looking for people who wanted to contribute to the site. I also sent something out to my 14,000 plus Twitter followers, too.

I had really good response. I heard from close to 20 people. I’d like to use everybody (and I may end up using most of them before the season is over) but after going through resumes and looking at some clips of previous work I think I’ve assembled a pretty good group to get us started in the fall.

So here is how things are going to play out moving forward with Btownbanners. Our goal is to have new and original content every day. Some days it may just be one story and other days it may be several. Obviously on football and basketball game days, and the day following a game, we’ll have substantial coverage.

I’m hoping that the guys I’ve assembled to serve as contributors will be able to do most of the day to day heavy lifting and I can work more in the role of a columnist where I provide opinions and analysis. I’ll also have a game day role though, too, as I’ll be the primary contact that is given a credential from IU media relations for IU football and basketball.

Precisely what everyone’s role will be within the content machine is still yet to be determined. As people begin providing content I should know pretty quickly which ones I’ll be looking to use more throughout the year.

With all of that in mind, I wanted to briefly introduce you to the guys who will be contributing for us in the fall.

I’ve identified four people who will begin by doing football work for us and likely move into basketball season later. There are two others who are exclusively interested in basketball and they’ll get going later. There’s one more person who is going to cover IU soccer for us. First practice for the soccer team is next Tuesday leading up to its exhibition opener against Valparaiso on Aug. 17. Finally, there is one other who will do some recruiting coverage for both football and basketball.

The four that will be helping right out of the gate with football include Mike Hutsell, Larry Small, Aaron Johnson and Ryan Palencer.

Mike Hutsell spent the first eight years of his career as sports editor at the newspapers in Jeffersonville and New Albany. I think he’s out of the business now but was interested in finding a way to satisfy his writing itch.

Larry Small will be a sophomore at IU this fall and has been an active member at this site for a while. For a few years in high school, he was a columnist at chatsports.com covering Notre Dame football where he conducted many interviews with their recruits and provided game analysis.

Aaron Johnson is an IU senior majoring in Sport Communication Print. He has worked as part of the Big Ten Student U program and has written for IUSportCom, too. He is also enrolled and taking the sports journalism class that I teach at IU this fall (which is always a plus.)

Ryan Palencer is a former student of mine from back in the day when I taught my course at IUPUI. He has been covering high school, college, and professional sports in the Indianapolis area for over a decade. During that span, he has done work as a newspaper reporter and transitioned smoothly to online content. After earning a journalism degree from the IU School of Journalism (IUPUI), he began his writing journey at the Hendricks County Flyer newspaper. Since transitioning into online, he has written general college sports for a blog called "Bloguin." He has also covered the Indianapolis Indians beat for the past two seasons for "Pirates Prospects."

Ben Faunce will be helping out with recruiting. Ben is a recent IU graduate and spent last year doing an internship for me at AllHoosiers.com. He is a guy who can watch film on players and provide analysis and a fresh take. I’m looking forward to having him back on board.

Brandt Johnson, who lives in Bedford, Ind., will be covering IU soccer for us. He graduated from IU in 2012 with a B.S. in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Sport Communication Broadcast. He has worked as an intern with Indiana Sports Corporation and also worked as the Social Media Manager and blog contributor for HoosierSportsNation.com.

Our two people who will be helping in basketball are Josh Wilson and Derek Dant. I’ll provide more details on them when they get started later in the fall.

If you expressed an interest in contributing and I didn’t list you here, don’t hesitate to continue to reach out to me and I’ll try to find something that we can get everyone to do in a contributory role with Btownbanners. Thanks to everyone who responded and indicated an interest.

One thing that I’m confident with as we get going is that this looks like a pretty solid group. I’m looking forward to seeing how we can make the content come alive on our site.