Rockne's Roundtable

John,

Obviously, recruiting coverage is one area where und.com will not
have an imprint due to NCAA rules. A second area, for the forseeable
future, is probably the message boards which provide a platform for
folks like me to blabber on. A third area, as you suggest, is the quality
of the people at BlueandGold--people like yourself, Wes, Lou, Jason
etc.

I also think that exploration could be made as to some type of co-existence
between BlueandGold and und.com. For example, undoubtedly und.com
(especially with Jack Nolan) will be heavily biased towards ND. In my mind
that's a good thing and I don't think BlueandGold, in the name of "integrity"
should become unduly "critical" of ND---to me that's not the way to go. But,
it seems that all the sites, even now, have the same players interviewed on
the same day with the same questions asked and answered so even now,
the stories are not much different on any of the chief sites. Why don't you
consider interviewing different players, asking different questions than for
example Nolan does and in that way, maintain your "freshness."

One other thing---I don't think most of us on this site will all of a sudden
cancel because und.com has good but free content. I certainly go to
und.com now but I am very happy to be a BlueandGold member also.
I think most of us can't get enough of ND so, it may not be a real
problem.

Just some thoughts.

Not to worry, did the creation of the YES network limit news devoted to the Yankees? If anything an abundance of content will help BGI, much more to talk about, more angles, more features.

BGI would be fine as would TOSs even though their web pages look like something out of the 90's... The 1890's

I'm not saying that all premium members will jump ship as a result of UND.com. But as you mentioned, all media gets the same access to the same players at the same time. Once you've watched an interview at UND.com on a Tuesday, you're not going to find much difference in the content delivered in interview videos across the premium sites.

Additionally, UND.com doesn't fight the same time restrictions as the premium sites, and they also get exclusive content as well.

While none of the above is likely to get you all to cancel your memberships, the potential that it will take page views and time spent per page away from the premium sites exists, significantly. Premium memberships are a big piece of the revenue pie, but not all of it nor should it be (if a site wants to be successful and maximize revenues), and advertisers are still interested in how much exposure their advertisements get.

I guess my point is that while UND.com may not do much to dwindle premium sites' business, it is likely that it will make growth that much more difficult. I find it concerning, though I believe 247 (particularly with this staff) is positioned as well as anyone to not get gobbled up in the scramble. Scout.com, for example, I'm not so sure ...

Well, the owner of BGI (and other publications) looked at a Texas publication recently, and came to the poignant conclusion that he wouldn't have taken it off of the previous owners hands for much more than free/nothing. I'm not even sure Horns Illustrated can give its product away, currently, though that says more about the popularity of online resources such as Hookem.com and Orangebloods.com than anything the university's athletics department is doing.

And Horns Illustrated publishes a very sharp, full color publication.

I'm just saying, there isn't a ton of growth in the premium marketplace. A motivated UND.com doesn't help the situation much in that regard. It only hurts it, in my opinion.

I don't care what UND.com does. As long as the current staff is here I'll gladly pay my money every month. Best site covering Notre Dame IMO

First thought, I hope J-Sapp, Lou, and Dan get nice pay raises from UND since their top-notch work should make them must-get staff.

Second, alot of people are going to get bored after UND's not unbiased moderating staff deletes every single "Turnover Tommy" message board topic.

Third, society is going to suffer greatly when Merlin has so much free time with his dime-piece sig-GF that we start seeing lil'Merlins running around. I see ya Merlin--time to update the sig pics buddy lol

John, you make some very valid points which should concern many of us. Proof of concern, in my opinion, is Tony Roberts and Tom Pagna being removed from the radio booth. If ND is in control, to reach nd haters as much as the true fan, the content wont have bias and will be vanilla, generic, and boring a just like the current radio team. That said, the good content contributors on the independent sites will always have a place for the hardcore fans like me! Do you agree?

John, I owe you an apology.......i didnt realize you arent on staff. I have critisized you in the past for being so negative and grumpy.....I was coming from the position that I have plenty of people in my life who will give me that for free and I didnt want to pay for the site and get it from the staff. Now, I won't get all worked up and take your comments just like I do all of us knucklheaded off the wall fans! Sorry again for my past behaviors and attacks!

Water long under the bridge. No worries.

How about the guy who wrote the story? Can he get a nice pay raise?

You're not gonna be the guy signing those checks Wes? Then I guess you can get a raise too lol