if you read around SBNation, you’ll see the skills are there. I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but I’ll put what we do here at TST up against anything else out there. Some of the “professional” stuff will be better, some will be worse, but a lot of the people that make sites like this one go have the training and the experience.

That brings us to access, the quote-unquote real journalist’s main weapon in the race to denounced bloggings and bloggers. The only reason they have access is because they work for established institutions, like a newspaper or ESPN. That’s changing fast. Newspapers are going under and entities like SBN are growing. Ten years ago no team would have given a Yahoo.com writer the time of day, now they get access like anyone at a daily newspaper. Mark my words, SBN will reach that point; it’s pretty damn close. Platforms like this can do much more than simply report news; they allow people to interact and react to the news instantly as well as weave the fan experience into the day-to-day.

Look at what blogs have done for political reporting. Politicians and their media handlers have recognized the value of connecting directly with their core audiences as well as more peripheral watchers via the independent electronic medium. Now, those people have regular spots in the press briefings and are always a phone call away, access.

Which entity is more likely to be here in 5 years, TST or a daily print edition of the PD?