The BtownBanners Content Plan

[IndyHutch 1,718]

In the last few days, I've provided a few posts to whet your appetite for what's to come from a content perspective with Btownbanners. Now, here's the plan as we move into football season which officially begins with practice on Thursday. I've assembled a pretty solid group of contributors and I'm looking forward to seeing how they can help us take the content side of this site to a new level.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.

[url=https://btownbanners.com/page/index.html/_/football/the-btownbanners-content-plan-r161]Click here to view the article[/url]

[Josh 12,557]

<p>Haze the newbies!</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Just kidding? &nbsp;Thanks for what you're bringing to the site. &nbsp;<img src="https://btownbanners.com/public/style_emoticons/default/drinks.gif" style="font-size: 14px;" /><span style="font-size: 14px;">&nbsp;</span></p>

[IU Hoosier41 14,465]

I didn't make the cut..

[KelleyHoosh 2,263]

Ready to hit the ground running. Sounds like we have an A team ready to go and give the best IU sports coverage

[IndyHutch 1,718]

I didn't make the cut..

 

You were in my top 20 though.

[IU Hoosier41 14,465]

You were in my top 20 though.

Well that makes me feel happier I suppose. Baby steps!

[HereWeGoAgain 27]

Sounds like a great set-up - looking forward to seeing the work everyone does. This should also free you up, Terry, to be able to work your sources and start breaking stories like you did back in the Mike Davis days. Looking forward to getting the scoop here instead of waiting for Rabjohns, Mike Miller and Osterman for the breaking news.

[IndyHutch 1,718]

Sounds like a great set-up - looking forward to seeing the work everyone does. This should also free you up, Terry, to be able to work your sources and start breaking stories like you did back in the Mike Davis days. Looking forward to getting the scoop here instead of waiting for Rabjohns, Mike Miller and Osterman for the breaking news.

 

Truthfully, this should "free me up" to make some money in my real jobs.  :wink:

 

But the reality is that breaking news doesn't mean what it used to mean.

 

Breaking news has a shelf life of about 5-10 seconds.

 

And then it has been Tweeted and ReTweeted to death.

 

Back in the day, breaking news meant something. I can still remember surveying all of my opponents' website to see if they had a story I had in The Star. But that was long before Twitter/Facebook and other social media.

 

It's a different world.

[ThompsonHoosier 3,414]

Wait Terry has REAL jobs? I thought this was your REAL job?

[HereWeGoAgain 27]

Truthfully, this should "free me up" to make some money in my real jobs.  :wink:

 

But the reality is that breaking news doesn't mean what it used to mean.

 

Breaking news has a shelf life of about 5-10 seconds.

 

And then it has been Tweeted and ReTweeted to death.

 

Back in the day, breaking news meant something. I can still remember surveying all of my opponents' website to see if they had a story I had in The Star. But that was long before Twitter/Facebook and other social media.

 

It's a different world.

That's too bad - I thought this was going to be your full-time thing, too. What are the real jobs?

[IndyHutch 1,718]

That's too bad - I thought this was going to be your full-time thing, too. What are the real jobs?

 

Perhaps I should clarify things here.

 

I probably shouldn't have referred to the other ones as "real jobs."

 

As a friend of mine called it the other day, I just have a lot of different pots boiling at the same time.

 

1. I teach a sports journalism class at IU, something I have done for close to forever. I'm hoping to expand that role, too.

2. I write books, mostly on IU sports. I've written five books, provided a updated version of another, and I have two more books on IU basketball coming out this fall.

3. I do some freelance writing.

4. I'm in the radio booth for IU football where I keep stats for Fisch and Buck, again something I've done for close to forever.

5. And I'm the content provider at Btownbanners. 

 

All you need to know is that I'm 100 percent committed to helping Btownbanners get to wherever it wants to be. If that takes me 40 hours a week, so be it. It it takes 80, that's what I'll do. But the bottom line is that I'm here to make this work.

 

If you look at my profile at LinkedIn I think you'll find that it lists Btownbanners and my teaching as my two primary jobs so that really says it all for me.

 

Hopefully I clarified that.

[hermanbgoode 27]

I agree with Hutch that getting "the scoop" isn't as important as it used to be. But what matters these days - more than ever - is offering unique content that you can't find on other sites. Not just having the same ol' game previews, game recaps, recycled press conference quotes, media guide regurgitation and shallow "analysis" written by mr. obvious that everyone can find free at multiple places on the web.

 

What the really good college sports websites do is to offer recruiting content and relevant exclusive interviews with people knowledgable about the program that you can't find anywhere else. And that's what I'm hopeful Hutch will bring to BtownBanners -- a lot of hustle and creativity in offering unique content day after day and week after week. I know that with his experience and level of commitment, the opinions he offers won't be the same ol' easy shoot from the hip shallow bs you can get from random fans on a message board, but will be authoritative analysis based on research and sources, as is typical of the work of a professional sports columnist, which we're lucky to have here. 

 

You hooked me and got me to sign up for an account today, Mr. Hutchens. Can't wait to see you elevate BtownBanners to the top of the Hoosier heap!

[IndyHutch 1,718]

Welcome aboard!