PFW Shutting It Down

Saw Hub Arkush on a flight out of Chicago once. Love the name. He used to do spots on tv as well.

Just sayin.....

Adapt or die. They never adapted to the internet age. I went to the Google Play store to see if I could purchase their draft guide. It hadn't been updated in over a year. Their website sucked too.

I paid for their services back in the 70s and 80s. Then I paid a year or two in advance in the late 80s and they went bankrupt. I never got anything from the pre-payment. I am amazed they lasted as long as they did. Back in those days tho it was PFW with Joel Buschbaum, Ray Nitschkes Packer Report where Ray and some fan named Ron Paque would do battle every week and the Sporting News.

Friday Afternoons were great because all three publiclications would come in about the same time. Got nothing done till until I finished reading those three papers.

Ah, the good old days. I subscribed in the mid 90's for a few years. Then the internet took hold.

Video killed the radio star and the internet killed PFW.

They missed multiple opportunities to become a leader in online coverage of the NFL and football. They stuck their heads in the sand while Football Outsiders and Cold Hard Football Facts became the go to sites for sabermetric like data analysis. Instead of carving a niche out for themselves early on, they tried being ESPN in a world where ESPN is lazy, horrible, but has all the money and resources on earth. The last several years, the content on their site was stale, outdated, old, slow. They actually have some interesting statistical data that no one else has that I've seen - that they bury far beneath the site, and operated in an absolutely braindead UI. They had a solid brand, with some recognized talented writers and they completely squandered it. I have no love lost for Hub Arkush in general because he's a Bears guy, but the failure of PFW was not because of bloggers or because of the Internet. They didn't understand or recognize the shift and opportunities the Internet brought. They tried to avoid it, and they thought simply doing an online version of the paper was enough.

When papers were all we had, PFW was great, not because it was, but mainly because it was the only game in town if you wanted dedicated NFL coverage, especially if you didn't live it the city of the team you rooted for.

Great summary

They had some very good content but they just didn't adapt; and indeed their website was a lousy experience. I'd guess some of those guys will show up elsewhere, Wilkening already found a new site.

They had a hell of a run, but in the end TBSS and they just couldn't shake the bear-stink that surrounded them

Tom Waddle moved on to NFL Network. Not certain why Hub Arkush didn't.

Adapt or die is exactly right.

{Change Subject}

Guess what? Timesfour will be changing this month. We will have a mobile optimized site.

Get ready. I think 2013 is going to be a great year in Packerland.

Oh goodie now we can get henya's "thoughts" as he is stuck in traffic in the commuter lane

henya doesn't commute to work, work comes to him

quote:

Originally posted by Boris:
Tom Waddle moved on to NFL Network. Not certain why Hub Arkush didn't.

Adapt or die is exactly right.

{Change Subject}

Guess what? Timesfour will be changing this month. We will have a mobile optimized site.

Get ready. I think 2013 is going to be a great year in Packerland.

Cool

quote:

Guess what? Timesfour will be changing this month. We will have a mobile optimized site.

Ooh, a site for people with fondle-screen technology!

quote:

Originally posted by Boris:

{Change Subject}

Guess what? Timesfour will be changing this month. We will have a mobile optimized site.

So is this like a hint for more donations?

quote:

Originally posted by Fedya:

quote:

Guess what? Timesfour will be changing this month. We will have a mobile optimized site.

Ooh, a site for people with fondle-screen technology!

We should be more like you and stick to fondling ourselves.

It's not as if anybody would want to fondle Goalline.

Keep denying your feelings.

quote:

Originally posted by Satori:
henya doesn't commute to work, work comes to him

Which translates to which dirty boxers I'm wearing at any particular moment.

quote:

Originally posted by Goalline:
Keep denying your feelings.

fondling...feelings

I see what you did there.

quote:

Originally posted by Satori:


Great summary

They had some very good content but they just didn't adapt; and indeed their website was a lousy experience. I'd guess some of those guys will show up elsewhere, Wilkening already found a new site.

They had a hell of a run, but in the end TBSS and they just couldn't shake the bear-stink that surrounded them

I concur, and your post wasn't chopped liver either.

Joel Buchsbaum is turning over in his grave. I would think that if he were still around he wouldn't have a problem finding work.

Got that right Ghost.

Here's a quote from that article

quote:

We built some truly great stuff that you all seemed to love, but try as we might, we couldn’t get enough of you to pay what it cost us to deliver it.

No Hub, you couldn't get us to pay what YOU WANTED to be paid to support your lavish lifestyle in Chicago.

Seriously, that sentence, after reading it to that point I stopped reading the entire article.

quote:

Originally posted by Boris:
Got that right Ghost.

Here's a quote from that article

quote:

We built some truly great stuff that you all seemed to love, but try as we might, we couldn’t get enough of you to pay what it cost us to deliver it.

No Hub, you couldn't get us to pay what YOU WANTED to be paid to support your lavish lifestyle in Chicago.

Seriously, that sentence, after reading it to that point I stopped reading the entire article.

+1

Blame the consumer..."What NOT to Do in Business 101."

quote:

Originally posted by PackFoo:

quote:

Originally posted by Boris:
Got that right Ghost.

Here's a quote from that article

quote:

We built some truly great stuff that you all seemed to love, but try as we might, we couldn’t get enough of you to pay what it cost us to deliver it.

No Hub, you couldn't get us to pay what YOU WANTED to be paid to support your lavish lifestyle in Chicago.

Seriously, that sentence, after reading it to that point I stopped reading the entire article.

+1

Blame the consumer..."What NOT to Do in Business 101."

only blame the consumer when he can't figure out how to just respond and not use the quote when quoting is completely unnecessary.

quote:

Originally posted by Boris:
Adapt or die is exactly right.

Maybe they should have just found random football blogs to mock? I hear that's trending on the innerwebs...

Yeah & we keep punching bags around too. All at a cost of pennies but not 6 figures like Hub wants.

Yes, it's "all the rage"