It was on Oct. 23, 1999, that the Princeton Department of Athletics launched goprincetontigers.com, its official Website. TigerBlog wishes he had taken the time to think through what the new site would mean, perhaps writing down a few thoughts on what the impact would be.
Looking back on it now, TB can't remember exactly what he thought would happen. He's pretty sure he didn't anticipate that every facet of athletic communications would change within a short time.
Today the athletic department launches another site, www.goprincetontigers.tv. This site will be the home of Princeton's video initiatives, including streaming of games and original content that will be created by the staff at TigerBlog HQ.
For the second time in the 16 years that TB has worked here, Princeton's focus in athletic communications has changed radically.
The new site is an offshoot of the commitment to move from printed materials to on-line, multi-media presentations. This content is designed to appeal to all of Princeton's constituents, from current athletes to recruits to fans to parents to anyone.
The goal of much of the video content will be to showcase the Princeton athletes and give a first-hand look at their experiences. The only subscription content is the streaming of games, live and on-demand. The rest will all be free.
And what will be included? Game highlights. Previews. Player features. Player bios. Facilities tours. Interviews. Kids' content. In other words, anything that could previously be written about is a possibility for the new site.
In anticipation of this move, we asked ourselves some questions and came up with some very specific answers:
Are media guides still the best way to reach those who need the information they contain (by "those who need it" we mean primarily media members and recruits)? No.
Is the money used to print the guides a good investment? No.
If we're not printing media guides, is it worth designing them and posting them to the Web as pdfs? No.
Would the time previously used to design the guides, a huge chunk of time here at TB HQ, better be used on multi-media presentations? Yes.
As a result, here's what we have now:
GoPrincetonTigers.com, the main Website for Princeton athletics ... GoPrincetonTigers.com will continue to have all of the same content it's always had and a continuing commitment to fresh directions, such as the podcasting that will debut this fall as well.
GoPrincetonTigers.TV, our own little TV network.
TigerBlog, which speaks about Princeton athletics and the issues that impact it and is updated daily.
Now, having said all this, here's one disclaimer: The new site will probably have some bugs. It may take a little while to sort them all out. Also, the address for the new site is goprincetontigers.tv, not goprincetontigerstv.com.
It seems like a long time ago that we here at TB HQ were reliant on outside forces to tell our stories. The launch of goprincetontigers.com 10 years ago shifted the focus from pitching stories to the print media to telling those stories ourselves.
Now, with the new site, the same is true with anything that can be televised.
We're pretty sure it'll be a site to see.
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2 comments:
Uh, for most of us, Media Guides are the only readily available format we have for seeing records. You can kill the Media Guide, and there's no need for any pdf files showing what might have been their content.
But please figure out a way to have readily accessible, routinely updated University records for each sport. Simple text files work for me:
>> SAVE AS: Current Records for XXXXX.txt
Dealing with records in the absence of media guides is important to TB as well. For every sport, all of the information that once appeared in a guide can currently be found on that team's home page. The records part can be found at a link in the gray menu bar on each sport's page titled Record Book. These link to pdfs of each sport's record book.
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