There's been some recent feather ruffling over UFC light heavy champion Jon Jones' announcement that he didn't need surgery on his hand and that he'd be back to fighting right away. It was a puzzling announcement. Many wondered why Jones and his team would announce they'd need surgery only to later say they wouldn't, but then elect to not push a fight with rival Rashad Evans even though enough time permits to make it happen.
Now, I'm not here to weigh in on the merits of the argument. I don't know what to make of the situation, really and I said as much last night on my radio show. But I found this comment on Twitter yesterday by Jones' manager, Malki Kawa, in response to a column by Mike Chiappetta rather curious:
RT thank you real media @MikeChiappetta: Backlash Following Injury Announcements: A Puzzling Phenomenon http://t.co/gxmYYVH
That's interesting. The 'real media'. Not sure who he is talking about here, but given what Brent Brookhouse at Bloody Elbow had written plus a few more potshots Kawa took at the aforementioned site on Twitter, one has to surmise Bloody Elbow is not being held up as 'real media'.
That's really strange if you think about it. Let's consider the facts. Bloody Elbow is part of SB Nation. There are basically two divisions to the company. The community sites, of which there are nearly 300 and Bloody Elbow is by a mile the largest, that focus on individual teams or niche sports like MMA. Then there's SBNation.com, which serves as a go-to site for larger sporting coverage in addition to twenty-one regional hubs that give focus to major sporting markets. Between those two sections and in terms of MMA resources, SB Nation has SBNation.com/MMA, BloodyElbow.com, MMAMania.com, HeadKickLegend.com and GalsGuideToMMA.com. There's also a fully functioning database, a rankings partnership with USA Today (real media! ballin'!), a radio program on CBS Radio (oh snap, real media in the house!) and a video content partnership with Comcast SportsNet (when I say real, you say media).
For Kawa's own edification, I suggest he run some numbers on those web properties. He'd find Bloody Elbow and MMA Mania are two of the largest in MMA. Not only that, stalwarts of traffic and prestige like MMAWeekly.com are now smaller than sites like Bloody Elbow. He should verify those claims with Alexa, Quantcast or ComScore if he has any doubts.
The truth is there's no one in MMA who is more 'real' than us. But if the SB Nation thing is confusing or he just doesn't believe me, here's some helpful reading Mr. Kawa can do to bring himself up to speed. It should be noted there isn't a single other entity in all of MMA that has their business and technology covered so thoroughly, but you'd actually have to read 'real media' to know that:
- Early in the company's development, the New York Times (real media alert!) talked about SB Nation and its promising direction.
- Then the Sports Business Journal (another real media alert!) noted that a former AOL exec was helping the company on the path to prominence. You see, SB Nation, for those who understand know, is something of an AOL 2.0 type of entity. There are numerous folks, especially in key leadership positions, who once worked at and built AOL. They are here now to move on to a new venture.
- The Washington Post (OMG, more real media!) also observed the value-add that SB Nation offers in terms of its business model.
- In terms of fundraising, go here, here, here and any number of other places that are as real as real can be.
- We had a major break this year. The company took advantage of dissension in the ranks at AOL by hiring a team of writers who had once operated one of the top AOL properties until leaving the company after its merger with HuffPo. What brought them to SB Nation? Multiple things, but the publishing platform was one of them.
- Speaking of that publishing platform, here are The Economist (man oh man, more real media!) and The Washington Post talking specifically about how unique and powerful our publishing platform is.
- SB Nation also hired Rob Neyer from ESPN (real media in the house, for real, y'all!), one of the top writers in the entire sport of baseball.
- Forbes magazine (they keep it so real as real media, player) also ran a feature on SB Nation for "getting it right" because of the unique way the company marries talent and technology.
- Oh, and we had a new signing today from someone Mr. Kawa might know who also works in real media. I wonder why he'd work here given that we aren't real? Strange.
This is just a tiny sample of coverage around the meteoric growth this company has experienced. But here's the point: name the last time Forbes or The Economist or The New York Times gave any coverage whatsoever to anything the usual suspects in the MMA media were doing in terms of growth or innovating technology. Don't worry, I'll wait.
Listen, managing MMA fighters is hard work. There's lots to do, especially when you've got to be in every picture your clients are. You don't always have time to keep up with who's who in the media. That's understandable. That's why I've got this handy list of links above to help everyone who needs it. Just know that anyone who underestimates us, our reach, our audience, or content, our maketplace value-add or doesn't think we are 'real' does so to their own detriment.
Lastly, here's a helpful link everyone should check out. It's journalism professor Jay Rosen talking about what the keys are to determining if journalism is legitimate. You'll notice high-fiving managers or being cool to fighters or not talking about sensitive topics for fear of losing access is nowhere on the list. Being 'real' is harder than it looks, which is often why it goes unrecognized or without much reward. No worries, though. The rest of the larger 'real' media has already noticed what this company is doing even if others are still playing catch-up.