WrigleyField 22

I don't mind the frat boyish atmosphere because I feel the workers do a good job of controlling and kicking out the people that really disturb the game.

And as a smaller market, its possible the Daily Herald is just doomed. So the solution is to become more like the free content providers from an expense side. Would yield a better result than trying to compete on a subscription-pay level.

I'll chip in with an idea or two, even though I wasn't prompted. Advertisers want customers who opt in and are loyal to the product (paper) or to the advertisements. Not sure if Daily Herald has a Sunday Select product, but offer Sunday Select product. Quick lesson for others: Sunday Select is a free subscription to just receive advertising inserts. The advertisers take on the second largest cost, paper, and will pay a rate competitive (in some cases better) than normal newspaper advertising. Its a growing trend in newspapers as they have the existing infrastructure to deliver the content that advertisers don't. You could even possibly tie access to online content with this although you have to be careful the motivation is for the ads and not the online content. Also you can't marginalize paying customers. Even just making a free subscription to view certain content online would be a positive to retailers because someone seeking out a site specifically is a better bet for marketers than someone who followed the link from NSBB and has no loyalty to that publication. This would take some innovation and investment with the different tech aspects, but could yield a stronger value to advertisers. And the simplest fix is to just let paper subscribers get online access for free. If I was paying for the Daily Herald and they told me I couldn't get it online as well without further charges, I'd drop them. Whatever cost it takes to run the website is not worth the circulation losses they'll suffer from people who would have the same mindset as me. Also having certain pay/free content. Maybe some people will pay a smaller fee for special articles, but not for Bruce's daily write ups and blogs. But if you get them hooked on Bruces blogs on a daily basis and then periodically offer pay-only content that is more in depth someone may take the plunge. Just some ideas. I don't work on the newspaper side, but just looking at it from what advertisers look for and how to leverage your products to maximize that since that is a bulk of the revenue.

Well its a rapidly changing atmosphere where some stuff is relatively new would be one reason. I'll have to think about it, but I'll try to later. But my premise is just based on what I see advertisers spend every month, and I get a little bit of reason for why spending changes when it does and its all about what the media outlets provide. And serious revenue is there, both potential (if given the right access) and in actual dollars.

From the reader perspective, its not really emotional either. What does your written content provide me. How much is it worth to me? You have every right to collect money for content you produce, but if you want it from me, I might pull away. No harm, your business and my dollar don't match up. Thats just business, not emotion.

Online companies that successfully pull in revenue from advertisers provide added value than something like a simple banner ad and what you see on forums like NSBB. Thats my whole point. These banners provide low yield of eventual customers. Advertisers want customers that seek the content and are loyal, both from a content perspective and from an advertising perspective. If all you are willing to provide advertisers is simple traffic and hits your advertising revenue will reflect that. And at some point, yes newspapers as we know it will die. Well not die completely, but change is big. First what you'll just see is consolidation. Smaller markets and even sub-markets will see content discontinued, and a big trend has been to discontinue service on certain days. But smart papers adapt. Even among people who get their news media from other sources, people still prefer their Sunday inserts as advertising. And every Sunday, newspapers reach more unique users than Super Bowl Sunday. There's still plenty of potential for revenue for papers who provide that value. Not as much as there once was, but its there.

Again the comparison to places that don't pay for the content produced. You're not using your head because your emotionally tied to the fact that you were the one producing the material (I think). It doesn't matter. All that matters is the value your provide to advertisers. If you provide them with value, they provide you with money. Simple as that.

Any context on what QBs might be on the waiver wire. If I'm him I consider biting the bullet with McCoy and a waiver QB and that offer isn't enough. You can try though. Its not a bad proposal on your end, I just don't see it being accepted.

30 team league? Its a 16 team league with an extra RB, WR, TE, and one OP (along with the standard spots). It was auction draft and I had something come up that I couldn't make it. Needless to say autopick was not friendly and only drafted one QB for me: David Garrard, haha. The damn computer probably spent half or more of my budget on WR. Luckily its just a random league with nothing at stake, no money or anything. Edit- In case anyone wants to see the horrors of autopick auction

And yet, they have to be banking on that occuring, otherwise they wouldn't be trying it. Check out this article about Newsday in NY's trouble in getting subscribers to their pay site: http://www.observer.com/2010/media/after-three-months-only-35-subscriptions-newsdays-web-site Although in their paywall, they let the print subscribers get access for free while DH is charging them. I'm guessing a lot of their subscribers will be print subscribers. "banking on" doesn't sound like such a great business decision. They're probably wrong. The "double" subscription is also a joke.

And the person charging the fees shouldn't be surprised if they receive less from subscriptions than they do from the advertising hits.

Chiming in from someone working with the industry (although a lot of this may be obvious). An overwhelming amount of revenue for the newspaper industry comes from the advertisers. The amount advertisers are willing to pay is highly tied to the number of readers and circulation. Having subscriptions will most likely decrease readership. Thus advertisers will not be willing to spend as much. Now advertisers will pay a premium to advertise to readers that they know want the ads. So the best solution, in general is to make readers subscribe for free, collect info on them, and have them opt in to certain advertising. I guess every business is unique, but I highly doubt the increase in subscription fees will outweigh the decrease in advertising revenue.

Collins @Hou Grossman vs NYG McCown vs Ten Brandon Lloyd vs Oak Manningham @ Wash

Agreed. Make it a 2QB League, two extra flex spots, and one extra bench.

Yea Merriweather may not even be active the first week or two until he is acclimated in the system. By the way, Josh Moore was the one to get axed to make room. Kind of surprised, as now we have 6 safeties, but its very possible they just want to keep around an extra safety for now with Steltz and Conte having minor injuries, and things will sort out later. Still wondering if we'll get that 6th linebacker...

I can't wait, haha.

http://www.csnchicago.com/09/03/11/Moon-Breaking-down-Bears-53-man-roster-/landing_insider_mullin_loud3r.html?blockID=558848&feedID=626 I just can't believe what happened to our LB depth in a couple short years. It was our deepest position by far a couple of years ago. Now our 5th LB is a wannabe poor mans Urlacher.

I'm looking at Linnenkohl, Ryan Jones, and Josh Davis as possible practice squad material. As long as they clear waivers they would be eligible, though they could be signed to an NFL roster at any time.

For people interested in the league, but can't make the draft, any possibility you know someone who would step in and run your draft? I'm in a league with college friends and just one guy couldn't make the time. He had his girlfriend step in who knew nothing about football and she actually ended up with a pretty decent team (other than bidding $5 for a K). So basically anyone who knows how to use a computer and follow the ESPN values and such will end up with a better team than the autodraft.

Well until he hits arbitration, at least he'll be cheap. Let him compete with Soriano a bit in LF? They're pretty similar hitters.

Alex Brown was cut by the Saints. Especially with Wotton banged up, we could use another DE. Go get him Bears.

I didn't think you could rework deals already under contract. So him picking up the option would mean 14M for 2012, meaning less money for Fielder/Pujols/Wilson. If its possible to sign an extension and have it shift money away from 2012, I take that back. But the basic premise remains the same, the risk of lengthening his deal is only worth it to save money now. 3/32 at 8/12/12 would free up an extra $6M, which I think could be enough to squeeze in Wilson's first year salary, leaving a lot left over to fill our offensive needs and a back end of the rotation guy.

It shouldn't be that complicated. Scouts give grades. You can build an expectation on what those grades should translate to- using past results primarily. You track every player he grades, whether your org drafts him or not, and follow the results. Include a grade for injury risk if not there and have an adjustment if a player doesn't succeed due to injury. Position, age, draft slot... don't see why those matters (well HS vs college could matter, but you would allow for more variance with the HS draft grades as far as expected results)

Other than locking in Garza, those aren't necessarily slam dunk assumptions. The thing is, extending Dempster doesn't make sense because it doesn't help us this offseason. So really the only way it makes sense is to decline the option and sign a new three year deal in which we can backload his years. So for that scenario we would have to decide way before we know if we even have a shot at CJ Wilson. And then in 2013 you never know who will get injured, be extended, or not look as attractive. I think there is plenty of reason to be okay extending him if we can lower his salary for 2012. If he continues to pitch well he is a tradeable asset (or Garza for that matter) if we have a good chance at another guy in 2013.

This may be a stupid question, but for amateur scouting, isn't "old school" scouting still really important, probably even more important that stats. I mean if you are a really good H.S. player you're either going to get such terrible pitches that you walk without trying or you're so good that even the terrible ones you can hit for extra bases, that your stats wouldn't tell what type of approach you may actually have against better competition and how it will correlate. I mean high level statistical analysis relies on having a large enough set of results to base it on and ability to control variables (such as competition level). I have a hard time imagining high school statistical analysis is at that level. Maybe a bit more for D1 College, but nowhere near the level of MiLB or MLB still. All this for international amateur scouting as well.