Comparing the Hobby Media to Sports Card Blogging...

I always believed that if the blog articles we as Hobby bloggers wrote were to be included in a newspaper, we'd be placed in the editorial section, near the political cartoon, above the letters to the editor, just before the second to the last page of the first segment of the paper. Bloggers are free to state their opinion about a certain topic, and the readers can agree or disagree with what we write. That said, I still rely on the Hobby Media to give me actual news (and no, I'm not just singling out the number one source in the Hobby here...)

Or in a perfect world, reporting the Hobby news would be like watching your local TV newscast. You get the facts, the hard hitting stories, the fluff pieces first from the established media. Then, if there's time, you get the commentary and opinions the bloggers.

Even though I don't buy the Multi-Sport version of Beckett's Magazine (I still buy the Baseball edition), I do pick it up from time to time when I'm at the grocery store and speed read. So while at the store last week, picking up breakfast supplies for my daughter's first ever slumber party (that's a whole 'nother Oprah), I passed by the magazine section and picked one up, just to see what they were writing about for the time being.

Hey, Sport Card Blogs made the list at number 17 (of 30) in the "30 Great Things About the Hobby Right Now." How about that...we've made a dent. Although realistically, Hobby blogs, whether written by a hack like me or by more established people (who will remain nameless for the sake of fairness and non favoritism), have a long way to go into getting credibility, at least we're catching up. The only difference is that while we all reside in a virtual world, I can guarantee you that many Hobbyists could care less what we have to say and will continue to support the established Hobby media.

And that's fine!!!

Then I turned to page two of the magazine. You know, the one that has the note from the editor, second-half of the table of contents, the subscription information, the Beckett Media Staff Roster (who if it is to believed, is shrinking in Texas...hey, it's called business. Even my company recently hit the layoff button.), and address of the company.

The editor's note compared the magazine to the blogosphere, specifically to how the Panini acquisition of Donruss was reported. Yes many, myself included, jumped the gun when the transaction took place. It was one of those "I want to report first" moments that we all experience. We all want to be the first to let loose on a certain topic. The difference between the blogs and the Media, however, is that the blogs relied on outside sources to get their information. The Media had direct access and waited until all the facts were given before putting their story out to the masses. In fact, the first thing they reported was that "nothing had been made official," even though many of us believed it was a "done deal." That's why many of us already started making comments about it (mine are here.) The tone I got from the note was that while anybody could blog about the Hobby, Beckett was going to continue to be the number one source for all Hobby happenings, whether it be in print or online.

I can live with that. And to an extent, they can truly say it. It's certainly their right. They are the established media. They've reported on it longer, they've been immersed in it longer, and heck, they promote the Hobby (despite opinions claiming otherwise) like nobody else can. And unless one of these days, somebody decides to bring the best Hobby Blog writers together and create a "printed" magazine with the articles we write, there is truly no comparison with who the Hobby consumer will trust. They still have a readership that far outranks what even the best blogs get during the course of the day, and I'm not just talking about online hits.

There is a balance out there that we must strive to find. Neither side should be mocking the other. We'll we ever see that? Maybe not now, but someday.

After all, even though we live in a digital age, I can assure you that during the times that you the reader are away from the computer, away from the blogs, away from websites, whether you are stuck on a remote island, or have no access to the internet, if the apocalypse hit and all digital information was lost, the printed word will still be around.

But that doesn't mean we the bloggers won't go away quietly.