as a medium. That’s a HUGE, HUGE increase in a core audience. This simple fact is also inarguable: women love the Ravens. The NFL marketing folks will tell you that the Ravens have the largest female fan base in the league.
And WNST.net is doing our best to serve the female audience with the same credible information that we were only offering on the radio just three years ago in a sphere where women didn’t feel as comfortable or welcomed in accessing the information.
We’re going start our own “Ladies of WNST” club in 2010 and start doing some fun outings for our female audience. I’ve been desperately trying to find a female personality who would be a great fit in our web model. Molly Dunham, my former boss at The Evening Sun, has politely declined my offer for participation. But she’s the best I’ve ever seen in Baltimore — hands down. If you’re not as good as Molly, don’t bother. I want a rock star, not a porn star. I want a sports analyst, not a jock sniffer. I want meat and potatoes, not meet and greet.
You need to be as a good as her — and that’s a high, high bar in my opinion!
(If you know of anyone, send her along! My email is nasty@wnst.net. We’ll also be doing another Coors Light King of Baltimore Sports Media competition this spring to find more young talent of any gender.)
If you’ve made it this far through my Opus on Baltimore sports media, chances are that you at least like and respect some aspect of what we do at WNST.net. (At least that’s a fair assumption given the time you’ve spent this week reading this series.)
So, you’re probably one of the ones who wants to HELP us get better. People always say the nicest things to me on the streets of Baltimore and when we do trips about “wanting to help.”
So, today I’m going to pull back the curtains on what you can do to help us (or any of our competitors for that matter):
Come to our website. Participate. Register. Play our games. Comment on our blogs. Write your own blogs. Subscribe to our blogs on RSS. Follow us on Twitter. And by all means, be our Facebook friend!
And when you’re considering buying an item in Baltimore, consider using our sponsors and visit their websites through our platform so we get the “credit.”
There’s nothing that helps us more when we go to sponsors to try to improve WNST.net than when you’ve been on our site participating in some way.
So, if you take nothing else out of this lengthy missive, here’s the biggest “secret” in the media industry. When you CLICK on WNST.net you help us stay in business, feed our families – and hopefully – GROW our business so we can serve you better.
If you like WNST.net, tell your friends. Share our content. Join our clubs and services. They’re all FREE – and in this day and age, what more could you ask for? Our sponsors pay for them to market you and we get to feed our families and you get the best, most authentic sports coverage in the marketplace anytime you want it.
We’re very, very serious about being the ULTIMATE resource in Baltimore sports media on the web. I’ve dedicated my life to it. So has everyone on my team at WNST.net.
So, while we’re winning in the only measurable stats that I believe, we’re still “losing” per Arbitron.
And let’s get this outta the way now: first things first, we don’t like “losing” at WNST. It’s one of our many “pet peeves” with the Orioles. Last place is unacceptable. Accepting any defeat is unacceptable.
It’s just not who we are.
We like to compete and we like to be measured properly.
But the tangible results and numbers don’t lie – WNST.net has usurped a wide swath of the market share via our web reach, content, accuracy and integrity.
Every radio station in the market is desperately trying to get you to go to their websites so they can show their “reach.” Well, it turns out, this hasn’t gone so well for virtually all of them because their product on the web sucks.
What they claim their audience is – and the actual impact that message has for an advertiser – is diminishing every day with many people reaching to the web and Facebook and Twitter for recommendations and advice and “leads.” In every facet of life, this is true.
EVERY single time you click on my website, you are measured. Almost EVERY time you listened to WNST-AM 1570 you were NEVER measured.
And, right now, more of you are coming to us. And we can prove it. It’s inarguable at this point.
Over the next few days we’ll discuss the changing climate of the local media and how the distribution of content and information has been forever changed by this wonderful medium known as the internet.
We’ve been asking you all week to JUDGE FOR YOURSELF what’s working for you, personally, in Baltimore sports media in 2010. Where do you go for your sports news, information and daily conversation?
Feel free to share this with a friend in your life who doesn’t listen to or read WNST.net. I’d love to know why they listened to Anita Marks or read The Sun instead of coming to WNST.net.
We want to make WNST better for you into the new decade and beyond.
And just like Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco, we DO ENCOURAGE you to visit our competitors! If we’re doing our job properly, you’ll be back – again and again.
And the more often you come back the better we can make the product.
Wednesday’s class: content and distribution and the level playing field of the world wide web.
