What Do You Want?

What do you want from these people?

That's an actual question, by the way. And by "these people," TigerBlog means those in the Office of Athletic Communications.

He'll get back to that in a few minutes. First, he'd like to give you a sense of how it's been going in the Office of Athletic Communications during the crossover of the fall and winter seasons.

It started a few weeks ago.

Kristy McNeil is the sport contact for men's and women's hockey. And she's the contact for men's soccer.

So go back to Halloween, which was a Saturday. Because the men's hockey team played in Trenton at the same time the men's soccer team was home against Cornell, then Andrew Borders had to cover men's soccer for Kristy. Andrew covers the women's team, and it was a doubleheader.

Then, the next weekend, Kristy was on the road with men's hockey at Cornell and Colgate, so Andrew had to cover women's hockey at Baker Rink. And this past weekend, Andrew again did the soccer doubleheader, because Kristy covered three hockey games at Baker, including a women's/men's doubleheader last Saturday.

Kristy made it up to Andrew by covering women's basketball for Ben Badua Sunday, because Ben was at Syracuse for the NCAA field hockey quarterfinals. Bed, the women's basketball contact, covered Friday night's opener and then drove up to Syracuse Saturday morning, to see Princeton defeat Maryland.

Had the Tigers lost that game, Ben would have turned around and driven back for the women's basketball game Sunday. Instead, Kristy was pressed into service.

There has been a certain amount of luck in getting all of the events covered of late.

For instance, the women's soccer team was home Saturday night, instead of, say, away Friday. Had the Tigers played Friday - even at home - then Andrew wouldn't have been able to be at Rider for the opening night of the men's basketball season.

And the field hockey team wasn't sent to North Carolina, which meant Ben could be at the women's basketball opener.

And then there's Craig Sachson. Craig is the football and volleyball contact (among a bunch of other sports).

Because the women's volleyball team made its great run to share the Ivy League championship with Harvard, there will be a one-game playoff for the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Because of the tiebreaking rules (TigerBlog heard that it has to do with how Princeton and Harvard did against Dartmouth), the match will be at Harvard. And where is Princeton playing football Saturday?

At Dartmouth. So Craig will drive to Harvard, watch volleyball and then drive to Dartmouth.

Had the volleyball been here, or playing Saturday afternoon, then Craig would have had a struggle to do both. Now, he'll be able to be where he needs to be, on both occasions.

TigerBlog can tell you that in all the time he's been here, there's never been an event, not one single event, that has gone uncovered. He long ago lost track of how many times he's covered for someone else or had someone cover for him. It's just how it goes around here.

Anyway, why did TigerBlog tell you all that? One, he'd like to publicly commend Craig, Kristy, Ben and Andrew for all that they do all the time, but especially during the crossover time.

And second, because it leads into his original question. What do you want from these people?

His point is, what content is it that Princeton's fans want to see, and it what way do they want it presented? Goprincetontigers.com? Social media? Stories? Videos? What?

TigerBlog has been having a series of conversations with the OAC staff, including video dudes Cody Chrusciel and John Bullis, about the future of athletic communications.

Other than the people who have worked here through the years (and going way back before TigerBlog was here), the best part of Princeton Athletic Communications has been its willingness to evolve.

To do so, though, the OAC people have to be willing to ask themselves tough questions.

What has value? What doesn't? What is the target audience? In what way does that target audience want to receive content?

More than anything else, the question of "what is done well but doesn't move the needle" has to be asked. It's not an easy question to ask, and the answers aren't always easy to find.

For starters, there's no tangible way to measure this.

Suppose there is a video on goprincetontigers.com that is viewed by 32 people. Is that worth doing? Depends who the 32 people are. What if they're a combination of top recruits, current athletes and members of the Friends' group for that sport? And suppose they all love it, and the video makes them feel more connected to the team and the department?

Then it's worth it. Actually, it's way more worth it than something viewed by 132 people that have no reaction to it.

And postgame stories? What do you want there? Do people still read postgame stories? What about pregame? How should the OAC balance the needs of the media with those of the target audiences?

Wow. So many questions.

There aren't right and wrong answers either. Or metrics to completely answer those questions. Just best guesses, and the hope that the needs of the audience are being met.

The OAC staff is a great one. That's something TigerBlog doesn't have to worry about at all.

The question remains the same though.

What do you want from them?