SBN ATL is up and running, right on schedule.
If you're a fan of Atlanta (or Athens) teams besides just the Falcons, think of it as your new sports home page. All four Atlanta pro teams, plus Georgia Tech and Georgia, all on one site. Team blogs like The Falcoholic are only going to get bigger and better, due to synergy. If you need me to explain synergy, simply view the following image:
Pretend Jack just said the word "synergy." Now you understand.
Here's how the site specifically relates to The Falcoholic:
- If you're only here for Falcohol and don't care about other Atlanta sports, then Falcohol is all you're getting. Nothing will change about The Falcoholic itself. This is a whole new site that you can visit whenever you like.
- StoryStreams tie together pieces of content on the same topic. For a good example of a StoryStream in action, look at this, which will be updated throughout the day as the NBA Draft advances. A StoryStream could include game preview posts, the game live thread, and post-game wrapup posts. There aren't any good StoryStreams going on the Birds yet. I should've started one a while ago on rookie signings, but life is hard.
- SBN ATL editors can anoint exceptional FanPosts with Editor's Pick status. This gives your work another round of eyeballs at the hub site, adds a special designation to your post (see this post from Dawg Sports that I Editorially Picked earlier today), and promotes your post above all others on its home blog. This is a great opportunity for you guys to have your very best work seen by an even wider audience, and I'm looking forward to swelling with pride (...) each time a Falcoholic FanPost earns such an honor.
- More Falcons content. Here's a feature on the Falcons (the all-time Falcons Madden team) I wrote for the SBN ATL launch. We have several other Falcons fans on board, so surely others will write on the Birds in addition to their areas of expertise.
- The main Falcons page now has a wave of synergy across the top. (For reference, here's what the team page of a team with no hub site looks like. See all the non-synergy?)
Speaking of our experts, here's our roster: Martin Gandy, founder and lead blogger of the #1 Braves blog, Talking Chop. Martin's the site's senior editor. At assistant editor, we have Jacob Peterson, also of Talking Chop, and your boy. As editors, our job is to keep up with links and the site's layout as news breaks and our contributors hand in new articles. We'll also write features and blog posts. Our excellent contributors are Dawg expert Doug Gillett of Hey Jenny Slater (and Every Day Should Be Saturday and Dr. Saturday), SB Nation Georgia Tech blogger Winfield Tufts of From The Rumble Seat, Thrashers authority Laura Astorian of Thrashing The Blues and Chicks Who Give A Puck, and SB Nation Hawks blogger Bronn Tallant of Peachtree Hoops. That's six great bloggers plus me, altogether thoroughly blanketing a wide, wide smattering of Atlanta (and Athens) sports.
Basically, it's ready to deliver the "other perspective" on Atlanta sports that the game's been missing. As boss man puts it here:
There's an old saying, "it's no fun living in a one-horse town," and if by chance I just made that up, then there should be a saying like that because it applies perfectly to what Atlanta sports fans have dealt with for the past 18 years. Since the two big Atlanta papers merged we've had one voice and one opinion for all of our sports stories... but not anymore.
SB Nation Atlanta may not report the news, but we certainly have opinions on the news, quite often opinions that help you understand the news better. We can cut through the newspaper headline fluff and give you the guts of the story better than anyone. While this has existed for years here at SB Nation on the local team blogs, we're bringing it all to one place with SB Nation Atlanta.
We'll take breaking news and major stories and put them into Story Streams that you can follow. Read the entire history of a story all in one place. We've brought together the best team of amateur sports bloggers in Atlanta, who will bring you funny and insightful feature articles to help you waste more time at your job situation. We're combining the great tech of SB Nation and the passion we have for our Atlanta sports teams to bring you a daily destination where you can read about all things related to Atlanta (and Georgia) sports.
There is also a blog component on the site, named after the wonderful fair weather fans of the city. FairWeather Report will bring a personal touch to the site with quick commentary and reaction on the latest Atlanta sports stories.
Have a look around, jump into a post and sign up for the site, comment on our work and let us know what you think... and of course, bookmark us and check back every day for the latest and greatest. Until then Go Braves, Go Falcons, Go Hawks, Go Thrashers, Go Jackets, and Gooooo Dawgs!
On the homefront, yes, this will cut into the time I can budget for The Falcoholic. I should be able to deliver Saturday link posts that nobody comments on, and I think we're having fun together with the Falconliness project, but it's hard to make any guarantees beyond that for the time being. Still, you're not free of me yet, as I'll be sure to FanShot any features I write over there about the Falcons.
So that's that. Do go take a look today. And tomorrow. And so on. Be one of the first to Facebook it and follow on Twitter.
What do we think about all this?