Updated

TigerBlog's door is closed now, which is a rarity.

He keeps it open nearly 100% of the time, closing it only for three reasons:

1) on the hottest summer days to keep the air conditioning in
2) when there's an office meeting
3) when the alarm in the lobby goes off

The alarm is a blood-curdling piercing sound that smashes all around Jadwin Gym. TigerBlog isn't sure what sets it off. He just knows that when it goes off, he has to close his door until it stops - or else he will turn into something from "The Walking Dead," a show, like "Breaking Bad" and "Mad Men" that he just couldn't get into.

Actually, he thinks there are two alarms in Jadwin Gym. One is for the case where Dick Kazmaier's Heisman Trophy is stored. The other must be some master building alarm.

They both appear to have the ability, as Duke once said in "Doonesbury," to "sterilize frogs at 100 paces." Or maybe it was dogs. TB can't remember.

Now that the alarm has been turned off, TB's door is back to being open.

He keeps it open because it gets either way too hot or way too cold in here otherwise, depending on the season. And he keeps it open so he can keep an eye on the people who walk back and forth; he feels a bit isolated when the door is closed.

Mostly he keeps it open so he can literally say his "door is always open" for anyone who wants to stop by. While most people say "hi" as the walk by, there are several regulars who take him up on this and actually come in to talk.

One, for instance, is assistant football coach Eddy Morrissey, who can be counted on to rather forcefully give his take on the salient issues of the day. The same is true of women's track and field coach Peter Farrell. And water polo coach Luis Nicolao.

And Nancy Donigan from the compliance office. Nancy is a bit more understated than the others, but she gets the same high marks for humor value.

Nancy actually had to use the extra OAC computer for a few days to update the Department's Student-Athlete Handbook, a document that in 38 pages outlines all of the rules and requirements and expectations and policies of the Department of Athletics.

TB hadn't looked in awhile at the little blurb about the OAC that is in the handbook each year. Apparently in a very long while.

When he finally did yesterday, he updated it - and was struck by the differences before and after. If he ever had one sure-fire reminder of just how much the OAC has evolved in a short time, this was it.

Here was the blurb that used to be in it. Obviously, it was written several years ago:

The Office of Athletic Communications is responsible for planning, implementing and supervising short- and long-range programs of internet, media relations, publications and broadcasting for the
Members of the office respond to various media requests and coordinate all media arrangements
for varsity athletic contests a well as some game management responsibilities. The office prepares news releases for distribution to local, regional and national media outlets, as well as cultivating hometown media contacts.
The production of recruiting/media brochures for each sport is the responsibility of the office. In
addition the office publishes a variety of game programs and roster cards that are distributed free of
charge at home events. The office also prints various other material, such as schedule cards, ticket applications and seasonal all-sport schedules.
The Office of Athletic Communications also assists with the marketing and promotion of the department and its teams, including the Department’s official athletic Web site. It devises and assists in the coordination of promotional events at athletic contests, works in conjunction with the ticket office to generate ticket sales and prepares advertising for print and electronic media outlets. Athletic Communications also encompasses radio and television broadcasting. The office negotiates various agreements with local, regional and national broadcasting outlets.






And here's what TB wrote yesterday:
The Office of Athletic Communications is responsible for the publicity for the University’s 38 varsity sports teams.
The OAC produces content for the University’s official athletics website, www.goprincetontigers.com, and for its official video site, www.goprincetontigers.tv. Each of the 38 teams has a sport contact assigned from the OAC, and that individual is responsible for maintaining that team’s page on the websites. Included in this are pregame stories, postgame recaps, schedules, statistics, rosters, archival information, written features, record books and recruting information, as well as video highlights, interviews and feature stories.
In addition to the two main websites, the OAC also has a blog - TigerBlog, at www.goprincetontigers.blogspot.com - that is updated every business day by noon with a more informal look at Princeton sports. There is also a weekly podcast produced and posted each Thursday.
The department’s videostreaming efforts also originate within the OAC. Princeton is one of the national leaders in live and on-demand streaming, with nearly 200 events broadcast each year across 22 sports. The OAC is also the Department liaison for negotiating television contracts, including the current deal with ESPN.
With the growth of social media, Princeton’s OAC maintains a presence on Twitter (including in-game updates for every athletic contest), Facebook, Instagram, Vine and other sites. As social media becomes a larger and larger part of the everyday workflow, the OAC’s charge is to stay current on technologies and avenues.
The OAC is also responsible for some game-management tasks, such as securing public address announcers, for projects celebrating overt pride,  for licensing and for the department’s media relations efforts. The OAC also works collaboratively with other members of the athletic department and the University in general on any number of projects.
The Office of Athletic Communications also assists with the marketing and promotion of the department and its teams. It devises and assists in the coordination of promotional events at athletic contests, works in conjunction with the ticket office to generate ticket sales and coordinates all advertising ventures.

It's two completely different operations.

Sports information used to be about producing media guides, writing news releases and assisting the media, as well as in-game stats and such. When TB first started here, there was a file to keep track of hometown placements, of how successful the OAC was at getting newspapers around the country to put in a sentence or two about Princeton athletes from that area. This was a measure of success.

Today?

It's about bringing content directly to those who want it - parents, recruits, alums, fans - in any form they want it and in any format you can.

Computers. Phones. Tablets. Written stories. Podcasts. Blogs. And video. As much video as possible.

The Tiger Sportsline? TB laughs at the memory of when the Sportsline was the best way to get scors quickly after games. Now? Twitter, where there are regular in-game updates of essentially every single Princeton event, home or away.

TB was able to listen to the end of the football game on his phone last weekend. His phone. He can get video there too.

The more video, the better. The OAC produces way more video content now than TB ever imagined, and it's still not enough to satisfy demand. And this from people who were hired originally for their ability to do publications.

TB obviously knew this all along, but reading the original blurb and writing the second made it so clear once again how much his profession has changed.

And, as he has said, he can't imagine he'd still be doing what he's doing if it still was the same profession it was back in 1995 or even 2005.

Today, it's a fast-paced profession, one where you're never exactly completely off from work. It's challenging, and it's fun.

It's not a bad way to make a living.