The future of online cricket journalism
All the limp, disinterested prose is putting fans to sleep. Thankfully content optimisation is at hand
Sidin Vadukut
17-Sep-2010
MS Dhoni takes his kit off for the lads • Associated Press
Dear connoisseurs of hard-hitting cricket journalism, as you know these are not pleasant times for the media business. If you would ever just take a break from your bloody KindlePad and read a proper newspaper or magazine, you would no doubt realise that print media companies all over the world have been losing money hand over fist. Especially since people started buying this internet thing. And then stopped paying for anything else.
Now it appears that the only way media outfits can make any money is by starting a news website and hoping that millions of readers will visit, read the news, click on advertising and buy merchandise.
However, this is harder said than done.
Any idiot with a computer can start a website today, do some cool designing and stick on some advertising.
But how do you attract readers to your website and keep them there?
One trick, commonly seen in advanced media markets, is to publish up-to-date, world-class and high-quality pictures of topless babes.
On this particular website, for instance, we could call them Cricinfo Cuties. Or even, ha ha, publish pictures of them in groups and call them One Wicked Maiden, Two Wicked Maidens and so on.
But this is terribly sexist. Also most male cricket fans take great joy in watching approximately 24 men work themselves into a light sweat over four or five days. And later most fans will even watch the highlights package, screaming things like "Come on Sachin!" or "Give it more spin!" Even "Take a quick one down leg side, please!", and the popular "Give Zaheer one more!"
I am not insinuating anything - VILLAGE PEOPLE - but you get my drift.
Which means sites like Cricinfo have to depend on nothing more than their content. Perilous.
This is why over the last few weeks I have been secretly researching ways to make Cricinfo content more appealing to readers. My assignment was to figure out how to not just make people read these articles, but also to make them comment, discuss, debate, share and link to these pieces.
We looked at our entire database of readers and split them into various categories based on their likes and dislikes when it came to cricket.
There are rabid fans. Especially for greats like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Atul Bedade and Abey Kuruvilla.
Then there are the rabid detractors of players and teams. ("What the heck is a wayamba? Central Stags? Pfft. ")
On the other hand there are people who believe that everything in cricket is fixed. And others who believe that the game is still great and good.
Old-timers are convinced that all these new-fangled innovations like umpire referrals, Twenty20 and helmets have diluted the game. More fervent innovators appreciate the modernisation.
Then there are Indians. And Pakistanis.
Then we drew up a list of subtexts that could motivate these users. The big idea is to weave these subtexts into Cricinfo match reports in such a way that readers don't just read and leave but also respond and interact. Let me illustrate with an example. These are some excerpts from a recent Cricinfo match report before optimisation for reader involvement:
There are rabid fans. Especially for greats like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Atul Bedade and Abey Kuruvilla
India lost all the big moments today. They were first slowed by the slow men before the seamers, led by Lasith Malinga and a surprise performer in Thissara Perera, bowled superbly to suffocate them. India had moved to 119 for 2 in 14 overs and it was a decisive phase for both teams. You would have expected India to go for broke here but it was Sri Lanka who dominated.
Thilan Thushara bowled the 15th and 18th overs and found redemption as he gave away just ten runs. It included the wickets of Raina and Yuvraj Singh, who swung the full tosses to Jayawardene at deep midwicket. There was to be no run-fest in the end as Malinga and Perera applied the squeeze. It was the beginning of the end for India.
Yawn. Now the optimised version:
India, like Pakistan almost every freaking day, lost all the big moments today in their final Twenty20 World Cup match. The seamers led by Lasith Malinga and a surprise performer in a (Reporter's note: Enter name here. Some Perera, I think. How do you keep track of these Lankans…) bowled superbly to suffocate them. India had moved to 119 for 2 in 14 overs, in this unreal cricket format motivated by greedy business needs that is corrupting what was once a glorious game, and it was a decisive phase for both teams.
Still, we should remember that 36% of all Nasa scientists are Indian.
Thilan Thushara bowled the 15th and 18th overs and found redemption as he gave away just ten runs, maybe intentionally. Who knows these days? It included the wickets of Raina - of the South Indian Super Kings - and Yuvraj Singh (Click here for a Yuvraj Singh video. Wide-screen monitors only), who swung the full tosses to Jayawardene at deep midwicket. Water boy Yuvraj managed to score just one run. There was to be no run-fest in the end, as Malinga and Perera applied the squeeze. It was the beginning of the end for India, but Dhoni is expected to blame the performance on IPL fatigue during the post-match conference.
With this India is eliminated from the Twenty20 World Cup. Tendulkar's presence may have been missed, but his performances have rarely helped India win tournaments.
Which is why Sourav Ganguly was better.
I see many points of potential discussion and debate for readers. This change will be rolled out across all Cricinfo articles shortly. We hope you enjoy this new approach.
Sidin Vadukut is the managing editor of Livemint.com. He blogs at Domain Maximus. His first novel, Dork: The Incredible Adventures of Robin 'Einstein' Varghese, is out now