MLB battling competing media

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06:35 AM ET 03.31
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As the Reds ready for the first pitch of the 2008 season, Major League Baseball is battling an opponent of its own: the news media that cover its teams. Baseball has been negotiating for months with sports editors over the terms under which reporters, photographers and bloggers can hold media credentials and what news outlets can do with the content they gather during games. The spat started when baseball issued its annual credential guidelines, which include tight restrictions on digital content such as photo galleries, audio and video on Web sites and blogs. The issue hasn't gotten much traction among fans, many of whom may be unaware of its potential ramifications for how and where they get information about their teams. But sports marketing experts say the dispute is rooted in a larger issue in professional sports. They didn't print newspapers and we did that, so we weren't competitors. Now, we have Web sites, they have Web sites and so they view us as competitors," said John Cherwa, chair of the legal affairs committee for the Associated Press Sports Editors.

Cincinnati Enquirer

Bud Selig, AP

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March 31, 2008 08:13 AM ET

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Typical stupid Selig-run MLB! MLB needs to realize that BASEBALL is their product, not websites. Yeah, they happen to have team and league websites, but that's not their product. Absolutely stupid to try to limit the outlets wanting to cover the sport. They should be wanting to have every newspaper and blog in the country publishing MLB content, but instead they're worried about the exclusive nature of photo galleries? That is ridiculously stupid!

M-a-r-s

Waltonville , IL

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March 31, 2008 08:40 AM ET

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There are always going to be disgruntled players who want to blab to somebody so there will always be a place for something outside the house organs....

ghostofthebabe

Brookline, MA

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March 31, 2008 10:04 AM ET

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Way to go, MLB...keep pushing folks away from the game and anything related to it! It was only this past year that MLB challenged fantasy baseball sites, saying it should get $$ for any site that uses player names and statistics. Fortunately, that ruling went against MLB in the end. At the rate it's going, just to read any news on baseball will be "premium content" we'll have to pay just to see. Ridiculous!

Capt. Obvious

Elizabethtown , PA

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March 31, 2008 10:19 AM ET

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Stick with your core business bozo.

AllStarz

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March 31, 2008 10:37 AM ET

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paramount tried this years back with its star trek franchise. had all the fan site content taken down and burned with a lawyer team. ultimately, they succeeded and the franchise took a ratings slump around the time web content dried up. they rethought the strategy and backed off the fans. but the franchise never seemed to recover its momentum (or ratings) from before the crackdown in the mid 90s.

if MLB insists on targeting fan blogs, forums, and beat writers, ultimately the fans will have to decide if they agree or support this practice. there has yet to be a successful web implementation of taking content away from fans and raising fan's interest in the product. perhaps MLB can be the 1st.

perhaps not.