Fantasy Sports Writers Association Newsletter
March 2006
GREETINGS, FSWA MEMBERS!
For most of you, the months leading up to the NFL Draft are the most peaceful and relaxing of the year. The life of a fantasy football writer can be crazy during summertime, and downright nuts during the fall months (for you baseball writers -- my condolences, as the work is only beginning)
And so the month of February seemed just about the appropriate time to create and distribute the first-ever FSWA newsletter. From now on, expect this email to arrive once a month. We hope to provide you, the fantasy writer, with job opportunities, market news, and announcements about FSWA awards and events. Next month, in fact, we'll announce the winners of our 2006 spring awards.
We hope you find great value in everything we offer to FSWA members (and we welcome your suggestions). As always, feel free to contact any member of the executive committee if you have a question about the FSWA fantasy leagues, or if you'd like a bit of direction regarding how you can improve your place in the fantasy industry.
Mike Beacom, Chairman, FSWA
FSWA NEWS
>>FSWA Spring '06 Awards To Be Announced Next Month
Votes are currently being tallied for the FSWA Spring '06 Awards. Nominees were assessed in the following categories:
Football -- Writer of the Year; Print Article of the Year; Web Article of the Year; Ongoing Series of the Year; Major Media Article of the Year; Humor Article of the Year.
Other Sports -- Fantasy Racing Writer of the Year; Fantasy Golf Writer of the Year.
Winners will be announced in our March newsletter with an official awards presentation tentatively scheduled to take place March 15-16, during the FSTA convention at the Stardust Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.
>>The FSWA Fall '06 Awards will honor those in the fields of Baseball, Basketball, Hockey and Golf. Watch for more on these awards in upcoming issues of the FSWA newsletter
>>Grogans Win 2005 FSWA Football Experts League
The 2005 FSWA Experts League featured entries from ESPN, SI.com, USA Today Sports Weekly, Xpert Sports, Pro Forecast Magazine, Rotoworld, FootballDiehards, Gridiron Grumblings, Pro Fantasy Sports and our 2005 Champion:
Grogan's Fantasy Football
Thanks to impressive efforts from Tiki Barber, Steve Smith and others, the Grogans powered through a strong playoff field -- ESPN, Pro Forecast and Rotoworld -- to secure the title with a 102-74 decision over Rotoworld securing the title.
Feel free to review rosters and results here: http://football25.myfantasyleague.com/2005/home/60690
JOB OPENINGS
>>Pro Fantasy Sports is searching for an AFC and NFC writer for the 2006 NFL season. These are paid positions. Looking for experienced fantasy writers able to commit to a busy summer and fall schedule. If interested, please send your resume and a few sample clips to: Mike Beacom, senior editor at mikebeacom@profantasysports.com
Pro Fantasy Sports is searching for hockey and golf writers. Paid positions. If interested, please send your resume and a few sample clips to: Mike Beacom, senior editor at mikebeacom@profantasysports.com
>>TheFantasyFootballTimes.com is looking to add 1-2 freelance writers this year. The company is also interested in content swaps with others in the industry. To help achieve that goal, TheFantasyFootballTimes.com have set up an RSS feed to distribute their latest articles and stats. It's been well received and they are looking to continue to grow and expand that into different areas.
Please contact founder and publisher Greg Bebezas at gbebezas@thefantasyfootballtimes.com
INDUSTRY NEWS
>>RotoWorld.com has partnered with USAToday.com to provide their online fantasy news and columns. All four major sports are covered with a unique look and feel on USAToday.com's fantasy sections.
RotoWorld.com and Beckett's publication have partnered on the first fantasy sports monthly magazine, appropriately titled Fantasy Sports Monthly. The debut issue was the 2006 Baseball Preview issue. Interested writers can send writing samples and/or article pitches to Rick Cordella at RCordella@allstarstats.com and Gregg Rosenthal at GRosenthal@RotoWorld.com.
>>Pro Fantasy Sports (profantasysports.com) will offer fantasy content during the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Pro Fantasy Sports, which acquired Fantasy GMs last June -- and with it a large staff of fantasy college writers -- has continued to offer content for major fantasy college sports year round. This March a staff of four writers will analyze the tournament. In all, the site's college division employs 15 writers. College fantasy sports is one of our industry's fastest growing areas.
>>Matt Schauf was recently hired as the individual defensive player (IDP) specialist for Pro Fantasy Sports football division. Schauf is an accomplished fantasy football writer, and a finalist for a 2005 FSWA award.
>>Bill LeConey has joined Guru Fantasy Reports, Inc., as a full-time writer and editor for the company's web site (FantasyGuru.com Magazine) and magazine (FantasyGuru.com Magazine).
LeConey is an accomplished sports journalist with nearly 15 years of experience as a daily newspaper reporter and freelance writer. He wrote more than 5,300 bylined articles for The Press of Atlantic City from 1992-2004, covering a broad range of sports at every level from youth to college to pro. He was an NHL and NBA beat writer on the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers, and covered everything from the World Series to the NFC Championship Game, Stanley Cup playoffs and NCAA Basketball Tournament.
LeConey, a 1984 graduate of Gettysburg College, won a national award in the 1995 Associated Press Sports Editors contest for a story on the future of horse racing at Atlantic City Race Course. He earned special recognition from the Art Dorrington Ice Hockey Foundation in Atlantic City for articles on the organization's efforts to provide hockey and education to inner-city youths.
>>The latest Sandlot Shrink news: CDM-champ Larry Schechter will be utilized more this year. He will be editing the baseball book and projections as well as answering the "Ask the Experts" column and representing the Shrink in many experts leagues including Tout Wars which he won running away last year.
We've also expanded the baseball book to more players, more prospects and more stats to make it the largest product in our history.
We have the projections already posted on the web site (as of Feb. 1), which is the earliest in our history for that as well.
>>TG Fantasy Baseball on Wednesday announced that RotoUmpire, the original fantasy resolution service, is returning for its sixth season with a new RotoUmpire express service.
The RotoUmpire express service guarantees a 24-hour response. The level of detail supplied in the analysis will be less than with a traditional response, but the turnaround time will be much quicker than usual and is for those leagues who are facing tight deadlines and are not as concerned with the how's and why's as they are with simply getting an accurate answer quickly. Since it's inception in 2001, The RotoUmpire service has guaranteed a 72-hour turnaround time, with most recommendations returned within 24 to 48 hours, and will continue to do so for regular customers.
The RotoUmpire was founded prior to the 2001 baseball season and has served as a reliable and unbiased fantasy baseball incident resolution service. This unique service goes a step beyond statistics to incorporate expert opinions into league dispute resolution, most commonly imbalanced trades.
Please visit http://www.rotoumpire.com for more information. TG Fantasy Baseball can be found at http://www.thomasgeorge.com/baseball. For more information, please contact Robert Burghardt at 610-310-4890 or e-mail the RotoUmpire team at baseball@thomasgeorge.com.
>>In addition to its long-standing relationships with clients including USA Today, CBSSportsLine.com and FOXSports.com, The Sports Xchange continues to build its own brand name in several areas.
NFLDraftScout.com continues to be one of the most respected draft products in the country, topping 1 million hits a month and garnering praise from agents, scouts and other pro personnel. NFLDraftScout.com will have a full staff in Indianapolis for the NFL Combine, including publisher Frank Cooney, NFL writers Howard Balzer and Derek Harper and draft expert Rob "Boomer" Rang. Rob also attended the Senior Bowl and the East/West Shrine game, and can be contacted at rrang@nfldraftscout.com. Draft profiles, positional rankings and historical draft information dating to the AFL/NFL merger can all be found at NFLDraftScout.com.
mysportspage.com and fantasynewsdirect.com are two other popular products. For fantasy sites, TSX offers a variety of products. NFL and MLB player wires are produced daily in-season and as-needed offseason. In-season they average approximately 250 notes per day, are prioritized by importance and are delivered via XML and text. Our professional writers on the scene with every team also produce team reports for all teams in the NFL, MLB and NBA. College football and college basketball reports are also available.
We don't currently have room for new staff writers, but we do encourage those looking for increased exposure to contact Derek Harper about the possibility of placing columns, etc. on our sites.
