Hornets247 Offseason Changes

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Published: July 17, 2012

As the offseason starts to resemble an actual offseason, Hornets247 will begin a period of change to get ready for the coming season and the coming era. 

It’s been a wild couple of years, and through it all Hornets247 has survived by proactively making the right changes both to keep up and to grow.

This process is continuing, and it starts now.

We can’t tell you all the things we are going to change, partly because we don’t know them all, but we can tell you there will be change.

Over the past year, asking only once for donations from readers, we took that money, put none of it in our pockets, and delivered the following:

  • Upgraded server: more speed, more reliability
  • Upgraded site: comment activity, recent highlights, more organization, more custom banners
  • Added: Writers, weeklies, season series, new original content
  • Season ticket giveaways: supports the team and the readers
  • Live text and video: reader interaction
  • Guests on podcasts: Hugh Weber, David Thorpe, experts on teams, players
  • Insider events: 9,000 STH event, lease announcement, ownership transfer, post-draft press conference
  • Media credentials: games and practices
  • Photos and video: game day, practices, and special events
  • Social media expansion: Twitter, Facebook
  • All-Star coverage: Mike was live in Orlando
  • Media invitations: ESPN, guest posts on blogs, various radio stations including WWL in New Orleans
  • Olympic and Summer League Coverage: Joe and Andrew Vivaing in Las Vegas

Plus: Watch parties, other social events, daily updates during the lockout, more in-depth features, more NBA-level coverage, more Hornets front office coverage, detailed ownership news, CBA analysis, first looks at the ownership candidates, TV deal, attempted Voodoo brand purchase, and Arena upgrades.

And more.

That’s not even getting into stuff that falls under Joe’s umbrella, which is extensive on its own.

Now we begin even more changes.

Our social media management will be changing. Our twitter management was designed around having only hundred fans who were interested in some dialog. Despite this, our Twitter presence has attracted thousands. To better serve the current and future followers, we’ll have more writers with their own twitter accounts, and the hornets247 twitter account will handle site news and information, some retweets from the writers, and opportunities for reader interaction, such as submitting questions, conducting polls, and hashtag of the day. We’ll also be using other platforms more extensively.

Michael: @McNamara247

Joe: @GerrityJoe

Mason: @WhoDatHornet88

Jake: @NOLAJake

Andrew: @DruProductions

James: @jsgrayson

We will begin the process of a site redesign. Now that the site is on a server with appropriate bandwidth to keep up with our voracious readers around the world, we can focus on the frills. With the changes to what we deliver and what readers expect, we will more clearly differentiate the various pieces we deliver to you. Also, we want make sure the site is at its peak technologically as the team becomes more and more in the spotlight.

We will begin to court sponsors. In order to continue to pay for things like our Olympic and Summer League coverage, we need more money than is reasonable to ask readers for directly. Thus, we will turn to sponsors. You will not be overburdened with ads, nor will our coverage be altered an iota as a result. This move is to expand our coverage, just as our last move was designed to do and accomplished.

We ask those that have been here for a while to reflect on how much the site has grown with so little capital, and how well those small funds were used. Let those answers tell you what to expect if we can land some sponsorship.

And if we do land it, it’s just as much because of our readers as our writers. We’re a good team.

There will be more, of course, and we ask that everyone give these changes time to happen and receive them with an open-mind. They are all intended to give you more of exactly what keeps you coming back.

Some of our writers will be taking a break, some will be shifting roles, and there may be other changes. It’s not goodbye for anyone, so don’t get too excited or too upset.

As always, we’re open to suggestions. Tell us how to get better. All suggestions will be considered.

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