Press Passes Please

Darren Carlson wants in. The Big Red Network blogger feels he’s earned the right to ask coaches, players and administrators at University of Nebraska questions.

While my colleague Steve may not want credentials and access, I most certainly do. But, when we request press credentials from the University of Nebraska, we are given a form letter response saying that only print, television and radio media are given credentials. Universities need to revisit the standards for press access. Frankly, I think our site absolutely qualifies.

That is a laughable policy in 2008. Particularly considering that print media is fast moving to the web, where their readers/viewers are, not to mention the ad dollars.

I’m not going to argue for change here. The argument makes itself as blogs–including several good ones that currently cover the Cornhuskers–are becoming more mainstream by the day.

As an imperfect means of evaluating market place reach, Let’s look at some Alexa rankings:

• Big Red Network’s Rank: 273,995
• The Independent’s Rank: 120,968
• Lincoln Journal Star’s Rank: 34,435
• Omaha.com’s Rank: 32,084

In other words, Big Red Network is the 273,995th most visited site on the web, according to Alexa.

BRN, a part time site run by four fans, isn’t all that far behind Nebraska’s top three newspapers in online circulation (the entire paper, not just the sports section). HuskerZone’s numbers are a somewhat smaller–our traffic typically decreases after the football season (along with the frequency of our posts). But, traffic is one measuring stick. There are others. Like, honesty, integrity, loyalty, professionalism and passion for the subject.

I’m confident you will see members of online media organizations with press credentials in the Husker locker room before too long.