100K Run: Sports Media America Avoids AOL Buyout, Settles on Milestone

Interesting. Sports Media America and Huffington Post were both founded about six years ago. Both were aiming to change the world. I can’t imagine why, but for some reason Arianna Huffington recently parlayed her venture into a huge, rich-beyond-all-dreams buyout by AOL, while we still sit here unnoticed by the big money. But who can really understand the strange workings of the new-media world? Some of us are meant, I suppose, to go about our brilliance on the relative QT. (Cold, hard truths: I suck at marketing, and I have no budget or friends in high places.)

And yet, sometime in the past week or so--completely unnoticed by me, I might add shame-facedly--Sports Media America passed the 100,000 hits mark. There were no bells or whistles to alert me, and I’ve been so busy or distracted or traveling that I had not paid attention to the site for a while. When I went to do the editorial on new contributor Henry Nichols’ story on the Tennessee Titans’ recent search for a head coach, I vaguely looked down at the SMA hit-counter and exclaimed (in my own head), “Eureka!”

Launched late in 2004, SMA was a means to indulge my serious interest in, and vast knowlege of, sports, particularly football and baseball, but potentially anything else sporting or non-sporting that could fit within our loose-ish parameters, i.e., those determined by the word media.

Happy little things happened along the way. For instance, my brother Steve became a seriously knowledgeable horse player in California, and it turned out that he was also a serious talent writing about the sport of kings. His stories on Triple Crown events have been special additions to the SMA lineup.

Sports media has exploded in the past decade, so I am ever sure that the site concept is a valid one. Sometimes it’s to the point where those reporting the news are as central to our interests as those performing on the playing fields. So I guess we’ll just keep muddling along here, posting interesting, well-written opinion pieces, sending them out into cyberspace, hoping we continue to grab our little piece of the action.

We’re very grateful to you, the mighty 100K, who have seen fit to take the time to read, and appreciate, our humble little efforts.




Sincerely,

Martin Brady
Editor/Producer