On Frozen Blog

The way I’ve been touting A View From the Cheap Seats this week, you’d think Rebecca has incriminating photos of me. Not so. She’s just had a stupendous week on her blog. Today she published the first part of an interview she recently had with Caps’ owner Ted Leonsis. She asked great questions, and for me there were wide swaths of responses from the owner meriting wider showcasing.

Ted on the Year of the Hockey Blogger in D.C.:

“I actually felt that there was more talent in the blogosphere. It’s proven true when you read the collective blog posts about a subject versus a newspaper [article] there’s more analysis. You learn things from the blogosphere . . .

“I believe that traditional media, especially newspapers are in peril right now. Their circulation is decreasing, their advertising revenue is shrinking, and as a result they’re losing talent. They’re laying off people all over the place and they’re being forced to cut back on their coverage. We want and need and thrive on coverage — good and bad. I don’t care if a blogger writes badly about us, I just want them to write . . .

“I just knew in our fanbase, based on the e-mails I’ve been getting over the years, there were some very bright people. We knew if we could help activate a blogosphere it would be a very good experience for the bloggers but it would also be beneficial to our franchise because the more dialogue, the more conversation, the more coverage, the better for us.”

He also told Rebecca that the Greater D.C. area was one of the fastest growing for sales of DirecTV, and with it lots of NHL CenterIce subscriptions: “the DC/Maryland/Virginia area is one of their best, fastest growing subscription bases. People are paying money to watch lots of out of town hockey on DirecTV.”

The rest of the exchange is a terrific read as well. I can’t wait for the back half of it.

Congrats to Rebecca on a stellar week of new media reporting.