In the hockey world, a face-off between bloggers and old media

As traditional media outlets scale back coverage of the NHL, at least one professional team is courting – and helping pay for – coverage by fans with laptops. Will the old guard toss their reporters' fedoras back into the ring?

from the November 16, 2007 edition

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"In case anyone hasn't noticed, the traditional media is struggling," Leonsis told The Washington Times recently, a bald and bold pronouncement that, by his reckoning anyway, few readers would have noticed.

This is, however, just half the story.

The Washington Capitals, a fairly hapless franchise since its start in 1974, have long had an image problem. Fact is, even by the admission of bloggers who are fans of the team, the Capitals didn't have much of an image at all.

"Pick up a copy of The Washington Post in February when the [National Football League] season has been over for a month and hockey is in full swing and count the number of Redskin articles versus Capitals articles," says Gary Kriebel, who blogs for On Frozen Blog. "The local media have ignored hockey, or given it basic lip service for too long now. Often, the 11 p.m. news would only mention the score of the hockey game and not even show one highlight."

Hockey coverage on ice

The Capitals are not alone in their struggles. Coming out of the labor dispute that led to the cancellation of the 2004-05 season, many newspapers scaled back their coverage of the league. For instance, citing cost-cutting, the Los Angeles Times decided not to send reporters on road trips with the Kings. Many major newspapers, particularly those in the US, opted not to send staff to major events such as the NHL All-Star Game, the entry draft, or the Stanley Cup final.

It shouldn't surprise that Leonsis would look to bloggers to fill the void. After all, he compiles his own blog, Ted's Take (http://ted.aol.com/), which unsurprisingly sees the Capitals' glass always half full.

Other teams are taking their own initiatives with bloggers – the New York Islanders have been just as ambitious with bringing bloggers aboard, and the team's owner, Charles Wang, shares with Leonsis a background in computer technology.

Instant fan reaction

Rebecca Henschel is convinced that blogs can reach fans like, well, Ms. Henschel. The daughter of a longtime Capitals season-ticket holder, Henschel says the fans of the team have been "tremendously underserved" by the mainstream media.

"Because of the way blogs are produced they can provide instant information and reactions that papers won't publish until the following day," Henschel says. "People want their information fast and, until recently, the bloggers were the only ones providing that service. I think it's extremely telling that the Caps' beat writers for the two major papers in D.C. have recently created their own blogs that can be updated as needed."

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