PR Move of the Day:announcement thi.week to make tickets available for free and at low cost fo.for matches at World Cup 2010 in South Africa. It is a great move for FIFA. which will stage the world's biggest event in Africa for the first time and has always taken heat over the growing commercialism and high price for fans at World Cup. Jamie Trecker, Fox Sports outstanding columnist and the author of the best book about the game out there nowLove and Blood at the World Cup) documented the great excesses and branding that has gone on at the last two Cups in the Far East and Germany (the book is a must read for soccer fans in the U.S. by the way), so this move comes at a great time.
Other Items of Note:Apropos of Nothing…here are some great examples…This week's Bulldog Reporter had some great insight into a plan MWW Group has put together on building an online pressroom…although not 100% sports related, it is an area of great growth and interest for any sports marketer or publicist on what to include, what photogs and those who will access will need etc in making the online work environment that much more useful…worth clipping and saving…on the lighter side, a recent USA Today piece took a funny look back into history as to how some crucial events would have been spun...there was also a very important recent story in Media Post from the Newspaper Association of America…while it showed that circulation in most major papers continues to decline, it added that the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), the group that tracks circ numbers…is including online views as part of circ numbers now…this is a big plus for those in PR and marketing, because many times stories will have larger and longer lives now on the .com side…it is a trend that will hopefully continue to be recognized more going forward, and help increase the prominence of online news sites for daily papers.
Lastly, huge plus to ESPN.com, who has started running more and more long form pieces…this week Michael Weinreb's piece on Bo Jackson was great, and was a must read for fans of Bo from back in the day and now…hope that trend of great writing in long form continues…
