Letter from the Editor: Thank You and a Few Words About the Future

Dear MSF Reader,

I want to take this opportunity to share a few thoughts with you as our site motors on into its second year. I thank you in advance for taking the time to read what I am about to write.

First and foremost, I want to thank each and every one of you who visits MSF on a regular basis. As I often tell people, building this site has been a true labor of love since we launched last August, and a major reason for that is the consistent support we’ve received from our loyal reader base.

I don’t usually like to talk numbers, but I feel compelled to do so now. In the 13+ months that this site has been in existence, 1.21 million visitors have read the words published here. That number surpasses even my wildest expectation from when we started, and infuses every thank you and word of gratitude with as much sincerity as is possible.

To each of those 1.21 million people, thank you. And to the many writers who have contributed content to this site, I also say thank you. Certainly such success would not have been possible without you.

But as we progress in Year Two, I do believe that our site is reaching a sort of crossroads. Midwest Sports Fans is not going anywhere, in fact far from it. But I do believe that a refocusing of our goals, content strategy, and path for the future is at hand.

The most important of these goals was one of my primary aims in starting this site: providing a forum where sports fans from the Midwest could be empowered to write about their teams to an active audience. We’ve provided this to a certain extent, but I believe we can do better. As we progress forward, it will be my goal to do just that.

Additionally, I want to see the content provided on our site become more differentiated. Our readers deserve a diverse amalgamation of sports content that is a clear break from what you can get from ESPN.com, SI.com, other traditional sports websites, and even other sports blogs. This is not say that content from these sites is not useful, because we all know that it certainly is. But I view the purpose of blogs as filling in the gaps in online sports reporting and commentary, not simply regurgitating what is already out there.

We can do better in this area, and it is another of my goals moving forward.

With this said, while you will begin to see some changes on the site gradually over the next few months, our most popular content will remain consistent. For example, the weekly football TV schedules are going nowhere, nor is the the weekly start ‘em, sit ‘em fantasy football column. Posts like the What You Need to Read series, however, and some of the podcasts, are going to have to be discontinued, mainly because, for some unknown and unfortunate reason, there are not 30 hours in a day.

I imagine most independent sports blogs face challenges similar to what we face right now from time to time, and must make decisions that factor time, money, skill set, reader feedback, and desire all at the same time. We are making some of those decisions here, but I see it as an opportunity to make the overall product better, and to help grow the blogging community as a whole by empowering new bloggers with some of the lessons that we’ve learned here.

And that last sentence is the lead-in to the other important announcement I want to make.

In the coming weeks, the social media marketing that I work for will be unveiling a new blog designed with one purpose: to help, teach, and empower new bloggers. Blogging as a medium of communication, expression, and reporting is not going away, and the more that we educate eachother the better the overall landscape will be.

So I do apologize in advance if my personal posting here is reduced somewhat. I don’t think I’ll ever go more than a day without posting something, and we are going to continue to grow the podcast in terms of production and guest quality, but it is only natural that some of my attention will be diverted to this new project.

Long-term though, we hope that our current writers will take advantage of the lessons we are developing, and that it helps us to locate promising new writers who want to add professional blogging to their resume. In addition, we hope to empower an entire new class of bloggers — sports and non-sports — with the liberating knowledge of how to blog.

Plus, I am well aware that I know only a small fraction of what there is to know about blogging. I’m looking forward to the challenge of this new site, fully expecting that the process of teaching will compel me to be a better and more focused student. Ultimately, I hope and expect that my own blogging will be improved as a result.

If you are interested in blogging but don’t know how or where to start, be on the lookout for when we announce the launch of this new site (3-4 weeks from now probably). And if you’ve already started blogging but want to know how to reach the next level, also be on the lookout.

There will be something for everyone, and hopefully we can all teach eachother.

Thank you again to all of the readers and writers who make this site possible. It is because of you that I have the privilege of waking up with pride every morning knowing that a portion of my work day will be spent on Midwest Sports Fans.

Sincerely,

Jerod Morris
Managing Editor
Midwest Sports Fans