Cheap Seats Daily: Who’s Gonna Read reachforthewall.com?
The Washington Post, after cutting back on tons of stuff I wanna read, has launched an all-hands-on-deck project for...swimming?
The new site, called reachforthewall.com, was introduced grandiosely yesterday: "With Monday’s official launch of reachforthewall.com, a team of Washington Post journalists and editors will bring you local, national and international swim coverage daily." And today in the Titanic, um, platform of the newspaper, we get oodles of inches about the same hi-tech swimsuits that we got oodles of inches about during last year's Olympics.
Who gives a rip about swimming?
I know they're not going after my demographic. Joe Frazier's more at home in the water than I am*. And I'd rather read about Michael Phelps when he's reaching for a bong than a wall -- count on me when reachforthebong.com goes live.
And, sure, I delivered chlorine to every pool in the DC area during college summers, so I know a lot of parents around here take kids to swim practice.
But a whole new site, with a big "local, national and international" team of journalists AND editors? For....swimming?
And there wasn't enough left in the kitty to send anybody to the Kentucky Derby this year for probably the first time since the 1800s?
I don't get it, and I don't get it.
*Joe Frazier's near-death in 1973 while taping the made-for-tv "Superstars" swimming competition (Frazier's actual rescue from the pool is cut from this youtube clip but there's enough here for giggles) is among the most memorable sporting events I ever watched. It came close to "And drown goes Frazier!"
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6:05 pm
At least they're trying something different, as opposed to certain other publications and their seldomly updated blogs (not counting today) that they then simply repurpose for the hard copy, giving readers the stalest content around.
Maybe if you actually clicked on the site instead of lazily bashing it without doing any actual research (you've learned from the School of Wemple, I see), you'd see that they're courting the vast suburban swimming audience. I'm serious: go to any community pool in the suburbs on a Saturday for a meet. About 75 percent of the parents there have a Post in their hands, and 100 percent of them would love to see their kids' results someplace, which is part of what the site is seemingly trying to do.
(side note: anyone else notice that the comments here are now seemingly being moderated, with all anti-CP comments never seeing the light of day?)
6:45 pm
Couple of notes: If Dave McKenna is a graduate of the School of Wemple, then this particular school has never boasted such a fine and accomplished alumnus. We'll be sure to feature him in the next edition of our alumni magazine. As for the point behind reachforthewall, I think what's going on here is that the Post is doing a wikiexperiment. If you register on the site, you can edit the site, posting bulletins and "stories" on what your swim club is up to and so on. Here's some of the language that greets you:
GOT NEWS?
Edit section
Coaches, parents, swimmers and fans: we’re depending on you to
keep us up-to-date on all your club’s activities and meets. Have
something you want to add?
My sense of the thinking at the Post is that, hey, here's a fanatical group of people out there---why not see if they'll do some UGC for us?
How they monetize it, well, that, as always, is the killer question.
Final point, and that relates to WCP: Thanks so much for reading carefully enough to notice that we publish stuff on the Web and then back that stale content into the paper.
10:33 pm
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