PFT: Profootballtalk and NBC partnering up

[WoodysGirl]

PFT, Peacock Poised For Partnership
Posted by Mike Florio on June 14, 2009, 8:49 p.m.

My original plan for Sunday night was to: (1) procrastinate writing my SportingNews.com column for a couple of hours; (2) fill in some of the procrastination time by playing a little NHL ‘09; (3) eventually bang out the column with a mail-it-in-mindset (they actually turn out better that way); and (4) after finishing the thing up, think about how to handle Monday’s announcement that PFT will be partnering with NBC.

But then the cat has wiggled its way out of the bag sooner than expected. Our pal Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times broke the news earlier tonight. NBC has in turn ‘fessed up to the collaboration.

So we figure we should probably acknowledge it right here.

Drum roll, please.

We’ll soon be entering into a wide-ranging partnership with the Peacock people.

So will anything change? No, nothing will change.

Let me repeat that. Nothing will change.

If you still don’t believe me, here’s how NBC Sports & Olympics Chairman Dick Ebersol explained it to Farmer: “The sites that are most successful are the ones that have the most unique voices, and I think Mike definitely has one of the most unique voices,” Ebersol said. “I can’t think of another pro football website that has the unique following in such large numbers that Mike does. I’d be a fool if I tried to change that.”

Actually, that’s not completely accurate. Some things will change. But the content, the tone, the attitude, the subject matter, and the overall philosophy of the site will not change — in the short term or in the long term.

The changes will be, in our view, improvements. For one, the “Suitable Nodes” will be forever banished from PFT Planet.

And, frankly, that was one of the major factors for us. The feeling of helplessness and abject despair that arose when the site froze up on the first day of free agency caused us to commence aggressive efforts to find a permanent solution to the technical challenges created by an ongoing crush of new traffic. The best solution was to partner with an established media company — and of the various possible partners NBC provided the perfect fit.

Also, the appearance of the site will be tweaked a bit, preserving its present look and feel while adopting a slightly more mainstream layout. (Cue the “change it back, you *******” e-mails.)

Finally, for those of you who complain that we have too many ads on the page, the PFT-on-NBC project will feature only two total ad units per page.

As of this posting, the Rumor Mill has a whopping fourteen ad units.

Of course, we’ll now be getting complaints from the folks who prefer more ads.

And we’ve learned over the years that, no matter what we do, someone will complain. Most of the complainers will adapt to the changes, especially if the changes are made with good intentions and if the content doesn’t change.

So some of you likely are still asking, “Will the content change?”

One more time: No, it won’t.

And if you ask it again, here’s my official response.

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[Bob Sacamano]

Florio has turned a website into a pretty nice gig

people may not like the guy, but they have to respect what he's done

 

[WoodysGirl]

More PFT-NBC Details
Posted by Mike Florio on June 15, 2009, 7:29 a.m.

For those of you who were burning couches in the wake of the Lakers’ umpteenth NBA title, you might not yet realize that PFT and NBC officially will be announcing a wide-ranging partnership on Monday.

Our Sunday night item regarding the development is right here.

After having an opportunity to digest your comments, e-mails, and tweets, I need to mention a few details that weren’t included in last night’s introductory blurb.

First, I have retained full editorial control over the site.

In my initial meeting in Tampa with Rick Cordella, the General Manager of NBC Sports Digital, we agreed that any arrangement between PFT and NBC would reserve to me the power to decide what to write, when to write it, and how to write it — with not a single layer of NBC editorial input (other than someone who’ll clean up typos and the occasional Emmittism).

It was clear when we met last Monday with Dick Ebersol at 30 Rock that he wants it that way, too. (The bad news is that he has asked twice now for a copy of my off-off-Broadway play, La Cocina.)

Second, in an effort to make the site even better, I’ll be giving up the practice of law. And that’s a huge deal for me; I’ve been practicing for nearly 18 years, and while it’s stressful and demanding and at times incredibly frustrating, I enjoy it.

Then again, I’ve been working toward that outcome — consciously or otherwise — ever since Sprint became our major sponsor in March 2006. That event, which likely was the most significant development in the growth of the site, allowed me to spend more time on the content, which resulted in more traffic, which triggered more revenue, which in turn allowed me to spend more time on the site.

The cycle has continued for three years, during which I’ve had periodic bouts of angst regarding whether to give up the law gig in an effort to see what would become of PFT if it were all I did.

So, in many ways, this new development is a huge relief, since I won’t have to continue to think about whether to quit the exporting and focus on the importing.

Third, as Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times pointed out last night, and as Peter King of SI.com likely will reiterate in his MMQB column, NBC isn’t “buying” the site. Larry Mazza and I still own PFT; the deal with NBC entails providing an exclusive license of our content.

We’ll be sharing even more details on this new development in the coming days. And we know that, in the end, time will tell whether things change for the better, or the worse.

We’re confident that it’ll keep getting better — and we’re confident that you’ll agree.

Until then, thanks for your past support of the site. It has helped us get to this day. We hope you’ll stick around as this crazy-*** journey continues to unfold.