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Media Survival 101 – Part 1
By Zach Arnold | February 12, 2006
By Zach Arnold
If you’ve noticed, the amount of “big” MMA web sites in terms of media coverage is smaller than you would suspect. As the Internet boom continues, more and more smaller sites are starting to pop up. However, it seems that the information in the industry is consolidated to such a small base of insiders, and this often leads to smaller upstarts quitting before they even get their feet in the trenches.
With the Japan boom for MMA cooling off (for both PRIDE & K-1) and UFC remaining the dominant monopoly player in America, it seems that very few power brokers have total control over the news cycle of what is and what isn’t reported on the MMA sites.
Can the small, concentrated circle of MMA news sites be “deregulated” and open to more competition?
Right now, the current scene is a difficult one to understand. My personal viewpoint of the current situation:
- You have a few outlets that are more or less attack machines, backed by questionable financing and hosted on various international web servers to try to avoid slander & libel laws.
- You have some “big” players who make their money either on a subscription or merchandising level, but are supported by the major fight promotions with either freebies or junkets. Junkets are common terminology in Hollywood, as often the media beat (the writers) who cover or preview movies are flown in by the studios and put up with a certain amount of open access, free room and boarding, etc.
- You have a few “independents” that try, as much as they can, to cover the business accurately and professionally, but have the deck stacked against them because they are not bought-and-paid-for media.
With the major league MMA promotions moving more and more into the “news” business by operating their own web pages, it’s a real tough proposition to make legitimate money as an independent. As an independent site, you don’t know who your friends or your enemies truly are. You can’t tell who is bought-and-paid-for and who is really independent. You can’t figure out if people are always writing under their real names or hiding under pen names.
In the past, I have talked with people on an individual level about how certain elements of the fight media operate. There is an element at work here that I’ve termed call pay-for-play, which is essentially this…
We pay you to cover our event, and you play by our rules on how you cover it.
If you run an independently-operated web site covering the fight business, you know exactly what I am talking about. And if you think it’s bad in North America or in English-writing circles, try Japan. For professional wrestling, the magazines used to be the lifeblood of the industry. Promotions would pay photographers and send them with wrestlers to various towns or countries for coverage. The magazines would cover angles in a certain manner for promotions, and the trade-off was access and money. With the magazine industry starting to die in Japan for pro-wrestling, more and more of the veterans from that industry are leaving in droves. Replacing them are young, inexperienced writers who largely do not have a sense of history about the fight game. These newer writers also face a challenge of either going along with the pay-for-play scam or putting themselves at personal risk by operating as an independently, unbiased, 100% factually true publication.
There is a method to my madness as to why I laid the foundation out for this article in the manner that I have done. If you’re reading this, you’re definitely a fan of the fight game. You probably read the major MMA web sites, and you might even have a blog or web site that covers the industry on a regional, national, or international level. You, like many other fans, have invested a lot of time and energy into your writings. And you may want to know how to gain better access to people inside the industry or, at the very least, make some money or gain more notoriety (or respect) for what you are doing.
In my next article posting, I will lay out my personal suggestions on how you (as an independent) can help build up your personal project and make some important strides in a media industry (the fight business) that has a lot of incestuous relationships.
Topics: All Topics, Japan, MMA, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Zach:
I look forward to your next installment. I’ve made a few connections who are ultra-connected to the fight game here in the PNW as well as K-1 and UFC, so we’re ready to do some exciting things. My concern is that we started this as a hobby, hoping to do more with it, but are a bit a scatter as things are beginning to move real fast — we’ve only been up for 3 weeks now and we’ve been hit with a ton of growth opportunity. We, however, want to keep our focus on what’s important to our community — fighting in the PNW. Do you have any organizational suggestions as they pertain to growing your site?
Zachikabara,
great article and points here. my thought has always been keep doing what you are doing and eventually your name attached to your work will carry the momentum to get you paid.
in the end, it is the decision of the writers as to how they are going to conduct themselves and where they want their work to appear.
getting connected to the new writers, or those that are starting is a good idea, but mma is still relatively new on this news/site level.
like a good sumo, it is best to keep moving forward.
SOLARIS
It’s a shame about the ‘pay to play’ rules, but I’m not suprised. While Dana White ‘COULD” be credited as the guy revolutionizing MMA, he instead is spouting the same exaggerations and half-truths about his influence that makes him no better than Vince McMahon…great promoters, but lousy at telling/admitting the entire truth.
As long as the media buys in and prints what they want (based on what they are told to be told!) then we hardcore fans have to cringe at the media axcess the general (and uneducated) public IS given!
There is a flip side to this and that is what do fans want to read? I’ve always been interested in the business mechinations and behind the scenes insanity of wrestling and mma. However, I see many website readers and forum members who simply want the same old generic fighter interviews, bland sound bites and fluff pieces. It makes me wonder how much real depth fans truly want in their news.
I’ve learned a lot about whats called “pay-for-play” in the last little while, and I think it betrays a lot of journalistic ethics to accept “paid vacations” to cover an industry, and in exchange, you then cover that industry the way the industry would like.
It’ll say much more about the industry your covering, if they deny you access to fighters for interviews, and press passes for their events because you wrote negative pieces about their product. I don’t think a good journalist lets stuff like that stand in the way of covering something they supposedly love.
Even after 12 years of MMA in North America, and a substantial amount of growth. The media outlets which cover MMA still have a great deal of growing to do.