July 18, 2013 by Charlie Eisenhood in Other with 9 comments
Earlier this week, Ultiworld celebrated its first birthday. On July 15, 2012, after a marathon weekend coding session, we launched the website with a republication of our first story about the AUDL lawsuit. The early days of the website were almost AUDL-exclusive as we followed the twists and turns of the legal drama that unfolded during the summer months.
That fall, we began doing club tournament coverage. The early days consisted of me at a tournament, sitting on top of a 10 foot ladder with a hand held camera, shooting footage. We started writing recaps and putting up game tape and our audience started to take off.
Now, we are excited to have an outstanding staff that continues to grow as we move ever forward with our coverage. We will have reporting and video highlights from the upcoming U23 World Championships, we are streaming live games and reporting this weekend at Terminus, we will have coverage from the Mixed Pro-Elite Challenge at the Philly Invite, we will have dispatches filed from the World Games in Colombia, and we hope you will help us make our videographer’s documentary about Team USA a reality in an upcoming crowdfunding announcement.
Our coverage has been ambitious (sometimes overly so, as highlighted by some technical difficulties we faced during the US Open) and we plan to continue to push the boundaries of the somewhat tired preview/recap model of reporting in ultimate.
Here’s where we’re headed:
Substantially more reporting.
We are aggressively expanding around the country to bring more tournament reporting to the front page. This continues to be our number one focus. We want to go beyond just the “majors” and highlight smaller, more regionally focused tournaments, especially during the college season.
More women’s coverage.
We’ve heard the complaints — our lack of women’s coverage in the past has been dictated by a staff shortage, not a desire to avoid covering the women’s division. We are extremely pleased to have Keith Raynor on board to guide our women’s reporting throughout this club season and into next year. But we still need more women’s reporters! Surprisingly few of our writer applications have come from women. Contact us and get involved.
Continued editorial independence.
We are not going to pull punches in our reporting or commentary. We value getting to the truth and presenting that in an unbiased way. Regardless of our partnerships and advertising arrangements, we will not spike stories or “sweeten the beat.” Sometimes, that means we’re going to make players, teams, and organizations upset — we will live with that. We strive to be fair and honest in our reporting. In the long-term, that matters more than avoiding conflict.
New voices.
We have been somewhat slow to involve “ultimate insiders” on our staff for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, we value good writing and reporting more than knowledge of the ins and outs of the game or the scene. But there is great value in having the wisdom of heavily involved players and thinkers. We will be opening new positions to highlight the influential people in our sport.
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As always, we are listening. Don’t hesitate to drop us a comment or an email with your thoughts. We are only here thanks to your continued support. Help us make year two even better than year one!
(Oh, and if you’re in the Tri-State area, get ready for our blowout one-year anniversary party in New York City).
