Alderson comments on Paul Depodesta’s blog and how it is another avenue to communicate with the fans

The blogosphere creates another opportunity to communicate, and I’ve got a lot of confidence in Paul — in his ability to write, in his ability to self-edit if that’s necessary — to be as straightforward as possible under the circumstances. We ran it internally for, I don’t know, a month or something like that and decided… let’s go ahead. I’m not sure what we get back in the form of commentary is terribly useful because it tends to be — not a fringe element, but I wouldn’t say it’s [laughs] an accurate poll of public opinion.

And perhaps more interesting for those of us bloggers who aren’t members of front offices, they are considering bloggers in the press box.

The other thing we’ve been toying around with is allowing people like yourself into the press box. I know there’s a lot of controversy about that among mainstream media and so forth, but our attitude is, the more access, the better. In Paul’s case, it’s a chance for him to express himself on an unflitered basis. He doesn’t get interpreted by [radio host] Philly Billy [Werndl] or [newspaper columnist] Tim Sullivan or somebody else. It’s an unvarnished line of communication.

Geoff does a great job with the interview and I encourage you to peruse all 3 parts. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

Redleg Nation » Blog Archive » Exclusive Interview with GM Wayne Krivsky

What made you start doing podcasts instead of just blogging?

This time last year I hadn’t even heard of podcasting, much less given any thought to playing out my sports radio fantasies on the internet. But one night in January I was on the phone with my buddy and fellow sports blogger Eric McErlain from Off Wing Opinion. We were talking shop about where we saw sports blogging heading, and kicking around different ideas for possibly working together at some point. Eric mentioned podcasting as a possibility, which was the first that I had even heard of the concept, and I started doing research on the topic as soon as we got off the phone.

After a couple of months of toying with the idea and trying to figure out how the back end of podcasting works, I finally sat down on March 17 to record my first show–and it was awful. But I got a real kick out of putting it together, and an even bigger kick when my aggregator successfully downloaded the file and transferred it into my iTunes library. That was a pretty big moment for me–I didn’t really care whether anyone else ever listened to that first show. I just wanted to see if I could figure out how to make it work.

Of course, once the initial excitement wore off, I had to decide whether this was something I wanted to continue to pursue. Despite the fact that the first show was embarrassingly bad, I got some really positive feedback from regular readers of my blog who took the time to listen. At that point I realized that podcasting was going to be a great way to expand the content of my blog and to reach a new audience. And now that I’ve worked out the kinks and learned how to produce a better product, I think that the podcast and the blog feed off of each other. It’s been fun to watch it grow.

How long does it take to produce a podcast? What is the ratio of “air time” to total production time (prep, editing)?

We’ve pretty much settled on producing one hour shows on a weekly basis, and to produce that show, from prep through distribution, probably takes me approximately 3.5 hours of active work–i.e. prep, research, recording, editing and posting the show. There’s typically another 45 minutes or so that you can add on to that time in which I’m waiting while my software accomplish tasks that don’t require my constant attention, such as converting the file from .wav to mp3 or uploading the show to my server via ftp.

With all that said, the good news for people interested in getting started is that software developers are starting produce new tools for podcasters which make the whole process dramatically quicker and easier. I’ve decided to stick with what I know for now–I’m a “don’t fix what isn’t broken” kind of guy.

What are the technical requirements? Can the average, moderately technically adept blogger pull it off?

There are plenty of tools out there to help the newbie podcaster. One that I took advantage of was using Feedburner to produce my podcasting feed. When I post a show announcement on my site, Feedburner scans the post, finds the mp3 file embedded in the post, and sends it out as an enclosure in a separate rss feed, which iTunes and the various aggregators can then pick up. I’m still not absolutely sure how it works- but it does, and I’m happy with that.

I use Skype, which is a very simple voip application, to talk with Eric, and a program called Audio Hijack Pro to capture the audio of our conversation. I do my editing in Audacity, which is a free audio mixer available for download on the internet, and I use iTunes to convert everything from .wav to mp3, and to add the artist and title tags that show up when people listen to the show on their mp3 players.

It may sound complicated, but this is all stuff that I–an average, moderately technically adept blogger, managed to pull off. And, as I mentioned earlier, there are software developers who are producing tools which will allow you to use one piece of software to do everything you need to do to record your own show. If anyone has anyone questions about the speciifics of the process I use, I’d be happy to answer them via email at: bleacherguyradio@gmail.com.

How do you distribute your content? With large audio files are there bandwidth/storage concerns?

I have a dedicated server to host my shows, and I take old shows down off the server after approximately 3 months to save space. Our topics are pretty timely, and I figure that it is unlikely that someone wants to go back today and listen to what we had to say about Nomar Garciaparra’s injury last summer.

As I referenced earlier, the content is distributed as an enclosure within an rss feed that is produced by feedburner: http://feeds.feedburner.com/bleacherguy. This rss feed sends the show out to anyone who has subscribed to the show and automatically puts it in their aggregator, which could be anything from the Juice Receiver to iTunes. And, with each show, there are some folks who just click the link to the show on my blog and download the file directly to their desktop.

We’re also pretty pleased to be affiliated with TPSRadio.net, an internet radio station which streams our show from 11 to noon eastern, Tuesday through Friday.

Have you done any interviews or had any special guests? If not do you plan to?

The only interview I’ve done to date was with Tony Pittman, a former Penn State cornerback who started on Joe Paterno’s undefeated 1994 team. Tony also hosts his own very successful podcast, the Penn State Football Podcast.

Eric and I have talked a little bit about whether we should try to reach out and get more interviews. To be honest, I kind of struggle with how much access I really want to have. I think our show works pretty well under the premise that we’re just two fans who happened to figure out how to post their barroom sports conversation on the internet. The more access we get, the more we might start acting like media–and I’m not sure that’s something I want to see happen.

What are some monetization opportunities for sports podcasts? Are there any?

Your guess is as good as mine. Adam Curry’s Podshow company has numerous podcasts under its umbrella, and they’ve managed to sell advertising spots to companies such as Earthlink. For an average, grass-roots show such as mine, I think some modest opportunities to monetize are going to arise in 2006 as advertisers recognize that the podcasting content format isn’t going away.

I’d like to thank Rob for taking the time to inform me (and hopefully you) about podcasts. If you want to check out Bleacher Guy Radio, you can subscribe to the feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/bleacherguy/.

BB: When did you become a baseball fan? Who were your favorite players growing up?

JW: I first got interested in baseball at age 6 1/2, when I happened to be in front of a TV set the night Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run. I’d say I became a hardcore fan in 1977, during the Dodgers’ pennant run. I liked all the usual Dodgers from that era, but perhaps most of all Reggie Smith and Manny Mota, followed by Pedro Guerrero.

BB: Why did you start your blog?

JW: It was a combination of boredom during a transitional phase in my writing and editing career, an increasing (and critically for me, early) awareness of blogs and the possibilities they offered, and a longtime desire to express my thoughts about the Dodgers unfettered and in writing. Really, until e-mail came around, it was a lot of work to quickly share any thoughts on paper about anything with anyone, and until blogs came around, you weren’t likely to engage anyone you didn’t already know. Even though I never knew I’d end up with an audience, it was fun to pretend and write like I had one.

It’s funny – I was surfing the Internet a lot and it really felt like I had gotten to the very end. An old joke, but it rings true for me. I reached a point where I felt I had something to contribute.

BB: In your biography you mention that you were once a sportswriter, and would like to get paid to be a sportswriter again. Is this something that you’ve been actively pursuing?

JW: Well, to the extent that Dodger Thoughts is an ongoing sample of mywork, I’m constantly pursuing it. The site has led directly to some freelance work. But a lot has changed since I was a full-time sportswriter – both in the business and in my personal life. In theend, conventional sportswriting is still reporting-intensive, and I’m not going to be picking up a beat and calling 100 sources a day anytime soon.

Anyone who wants to pay me to blog, I’m going to listen to. However, there’s a strong mentality out there among newspapers and such that bloggers can be generated from within, that blogging is mainly an outlet for material and writers that can’t appear in the print edition because of lack of space. Blogging is viewed simplistically as another means for drawing readers, not as a particular talent. I see very few mainstream publications that see blogging for what it really is in many ways – a home for alternative, intelligent voices. Most of the in-house blogs I see are done either by staff writers or outsiders that are all style, no substance.

So while I inquire now and then with some people that I know in the paid world, I’m not really applying for jobs in the normal sense. I mainly just do what I’m doing and hope things continue to grow, and that maybe someday Clarence will rescue me from the freezing water and earn his wings.

BB: According to your site you have attended 497 Dodger games over the last 15 years. What are your favorite elements of Dodger Stadium (the stadium itself, best place to sit, ballpark quirks, favorite food, etc.)? What was your favorite game you ever attended? Do you have any special plans for game #500?

JW: I love Dodger Stadium like a dear, dysfunctional brother. It is a beautiful stadium to look at, practically a work of art, and so there are moments of pure bliss there that you can really appreciate in between moments of poorly chosen music blasted over the loudspeakers, a segment of fans who boo a home player at the slightest misfortune, and other periodic problems. Nothing beats a great Dodger dog, though you can’t count on getting a great one – that sort of thing. One of the interesting things about last year was how much more pleasant the place became once the Dodgers were eliminated. Pretty much all that was left in the crowd were true baseball fans, and you could just feel the difference between them and the people for whom the game on the field wasn’t entertainment enough. I sound pretty curmudgeonly, don’t I? I used to go to 40-70 games a year; now that I have young children it’s more like 10-20, so it’s more important to me that things go the way I want them to.

Somewhat along those lines, the favorite game I attended was Pedro Astacio’s major league debut, which came during the Dodgers’ 99-loss season in 1992 and during sort of a difficult time personally for me. Astacio pitched a three-hit, 10-strikeout shutout with such genuine enthusiasm that I felt like I had been reborn.

(As for game #500, that’s only game #500 since I’ve been keeping track, so that has no special significance other than making my winning percentage easy to calculate.)

BB: You have a large reader base who comment vigorously. How did you build such a community, especially considering that you’re at your 3rd different URL?

JW: I’ve been doing Dodger Thoughts since July 2002 (regularly since January 2003), so in terms of audience size, it’s just a fortunate matter of people enjoying what I’ve written, linking me and noticing me and telling their friends (and enemies) about me. When the ability to comment was enabled in early 2004, I was extremely concerned that the forum be constructive. So while I give people a wide berth to talk about just about anything, I monitor behavior very carefully. I make sure different views are tolerated. I step in if it starts getting personal, reminding people to criticize the comment, not the commenter. I don’t allow profanity on the site, even though I use it all the time in my daily life, because when it’s out there in a chat room, I feel that even in fun, it risks generating a heated tone. My readers have responded well to this – I think they appreciate Dodger Thoughts as sort of a haven of decorum on the Internet – and 99 percent of the time they self-police the site. And I am tremendously grateful to have attracted an insightful and fun community. They are a blast to read every single day, and I often get jealous because I know some people come to the site more for them than for me.

As far as the URL changes go, it’s just one of those things with a young industry. My audience has been good at following me and Googling for me. And they can always reach me at dodgerthoughts.com.

BB: You recently self-published a book from your blog. What made you decide to do the book? How long did it take to prepare? How have sales been, and was it worth the effort if you don’t mind me asking?

JW: I’ve always wanted to write a book, and when The Hardball Times self-published a book in 2004, I realized that I could fulfill that dream without actually, you know, being asked to write one. I figured three years of daily writing was enough to try to cull the best pieces from.

The actual publishing took no time at all, but putting the book together took *way* longer than I imagined. Choosing the entries, organizing them, and then making them presentable was very time-consuming. The editing, the proofing, the troubleshooting…reading a 300-page book over and over again, you don’t do that in a day.

I’ll be honest with you: Sales have been disappointing. Part of that is my fault, as I’ve devoted not nearly enough time to marketing the book. I was also hoping that more readers of mine would purchase the book just to support the site – sort of like making an NPR contribution and getting this as a premium back. But many people like free things because they’re free, and I can understand that. They can read today’s Dodger Thoughts entry and search the archives any time they want. There is added value in the book, truly, but it hasn’t been easy to convince people of that.

But that’s fine. In a way, it sort of mirrors the origins of the site itself, when I was grateful to pick up just a few new readers. As far as I’m concerned, the book would have been worth the effort even if my only reader was to myself. I’ve written a book. That’s pretty much my version of getting in the game. I’m like Moonlight Graham. Sort of.

BB: What are some of your favorite blogs?

JW: It’s not by accident that I’m with the other folks at Baseball Toaster. I’m pretty parochial in my interests, so Rob McMillin’s 6-4-2 is probably my main baseball read outside of Toaster, along with Baseball Analysts by Rich Lederer and Bryan Smith, two friends and former colleagues of mine at All-Baseball.com. I will say that the two blogs I’m most addicted to are not baseball blogs; they’re L.A. Observed by Kevin Roderick and Defamer.

Many thanks to Jon for taking the time to participate. Jon gets bonus points in my book for referencing both Field of Dreams and It’s a Wonderful Life in a single interview.

BB: When did you become a baseball fan? Who were your favorite players growing up?

GY: The first game I attended was in 1977, at San Diego Stadium (now known as Qualcomm Stadium). The only things I remember from that game are that Gene Tenace hit two home runs and that at some point I asked my dad what “quarter” it was because we used to go to football games.

I didn’t start following baseball closely until a few years later, probably 1980 or so. Then in the mid-’80s I discovered Bill James and my interest transformed into an obsession, which is pretty much what it remains today.

As for my favorite players growing up, I grew up in Los Angeles and followed the Dodgers, so most of them will be guys that Padres fans hate. Players that stand out to me are Mike Scioscia, Orel Hershiser — they seemed like average guys, which I liked — Mike Schmidt, Robin Yount, probably some others that I’m forgetting.

I always appreciated the way Tony Gwynn played the game, even when I was rooting against his team. To this day, he remains one of my all-time favorite players.

BB: Why did you start your blog?

GY: I started because I thought it would be a good way to hone my web development skills and also give me an outlet to talk about the stories I found interesting in baseball that maybe weren’t getting coverage elsewhere. Over time, as blogging became more popular and there were more than just a handful of people with baseball blogs, I narrowed my focus primarily to the Padres.

BB: Your blog has been around longer than most. How have you found the energy
to continue? Have you ever thought about shutting it down?

GY: I’ll answer the last question first. Yes, I have thought about shutting it down. Usually there are a few times during the year when I ask myself if what I’m doing is really worth the trouble. I have a brief fantasy about what it would be like not to blog. Then I start thinking about how boring that would actually be, and I get back to work.

As for energy, there are a few things. First, my wife is unbelieveably supportive of what I do. She does QA on almost everything that ends up on Ducksnorts and occasionally tips me off to a story. So, there’s no way I could do this without her.

Second, and at the risk of getting my nose a little brown, my readers are awesome. The discussions we have after my initial post often are more interesting than the post itself, which is great. There is a real sense of community, which is about as energizing as it gets. I’m always curious to see what will happen next.

I started out writing, as writers do, in a vacuum. I set some goals for myself in terms of production and I met those. So I set some new goals and in the process, I found that I was blogging on a pretty regular basis. Once that happened, I started getting readers. And they would come back for more, so I figured I was doing something right.

Over time, I got to know my readers through discussion and, in some cases, in person. Once you have a few hundred people reading your stuff every day and responding to it — and to each other, it’s not real hard to find the energy to continue. If you’re passionate about something and fully committed to it, the rest tends to take care of itself.

BB: You were independent until last year. What made you want to join MVN?

GY: I actually joined All-Baseball.com, which MVN bought shortly after I arrived. I wanted to join All-Baseball.com because I respected and admired many of the bloggers that were with the network at that time. It seemed like a great opportunity to get to know some of these people a little better and maybe do some collaborative work with them.

Of course, most of them left just as I arrived (this happens to me at parties as well), so that didn’t quite come to pass. Fortunately Christian and Evan brought in some real talented writers who I’ve enjoyed reading over the past several months.

BB: You’ve done several interviews with various subjects, and your writing has appeared in a number of places. Do you consider yourself a journalist, a blogger, or both?

GY: I consider myself a blogger who aspires to journalistic ideals. I don’t have the formal training that professional journalists do, but I read books on the craft and study the best news writers every chance I get. And I’m not afraid to try new things — doing interviews this year was a conscious decision to try something I hadn’t done before, as was podcasting. Thanks to one of my readers, Ed Barnes, I even made a TV appearance on the Padres pre-pregame show this year, which was very cool.

BB: What are some of your favorite blogs?

GY: In the baseball category, Baseball Musings and Management by Baseball are must reads for me. David Pinto is on top of everything in the world of baseball and his Day by Day Database is an invaluable tool. And Jeff Angus does a great job of meshing two subjects (management and baseball) into one cohesive presentation. Beyond that, I read Exile in Wrigleyville, Oleanders and Morning Glories, and all the Padres blogs. I also do some work at Baseball Think Factory, which is a great site. Unfortunately I don’t always have time to keep up with the discussions over there.

Among non-baseball blogs, the ones I’m looking at pretty much every day are ProBlogger.net (Darren Rowse is a tremendous inspiration, and anyone who is serious about blogging needs to read his stuff), Performancing.com, Dave Winer’s Scripting News, WWdN (Wil Wheaton), LanguageHat.com, and Syntax of Things (my good friend and co-conspirator in treks around the California League, Jeff Bryant). I also read a bunch of web development type blogs to keep up my day job skills and stay on top of trends within the industry.

I’d like to thank Geoff for participating. Make sure to check out Ducksnorts for all your Padres related information.

Before we get started, it is important to emphasize the following:
The topics in this column are for informational purposes only. It is imperative that you consult with your tax advisor with regard to your unique situation before implementing anything found in this column.

BaseBlogging: What income do bloggers have to report?

Brian: Technically, anything they receive should be considered income for tax purposes, no matter how small. Whether it’s $10 or $10,000, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers it income and it should be reported on your tax return.

BaseBlogging: What are the business structures that bloggers should consider?

Brian:The easiest structure is a sole proprietorship, and in this event they basically do nothing. All of their income and expenses are reported on Schedule C of their Form 1040. This is probably the recommended version if the blogger is making a small amount of money from their blog. Once you get into the thousands of dollars and especially if you have a network or several people writing for you, it might be time to put something a little more formal into place.

One option is a Limited Liability Company (LLC) and these have become pretty popular. They’re less administratively burdensome then a corporation (which we’ll get too) and they’re usually easier to set up. A single member LLC would be set up if there’s only a single/owner member while a multi-member LLC would be set up if there’s more then one owner.

A single member LLC is taxed the same as if you were a sole proprietorship and all of the income and deductions are reported on Schedule C of your Form 1040. A multi-member LLC is required to file the same return that partnership would, Form 1065, with the income and expenses eventually “flowing” to Schedule E of their Form 1040.

Another option would be to incorporate. While there are distinct benefits to incorporating, this is the most administratively burdensome of available entities. This form of entity would be preferred if you have a large network of writers that write, but only a small number of owners. One of the burdens of a corporation is that the owners have to be on the payroll, so if you have a corporation owned by one person, they’d have to go through the process of keeping payroll records and filing payroll tax returns with the IRS and their respective state. Another burden is that the corporation needs a formal board of directors, which requires board meetings and minutes from those meetings. Some states let you have a one person (usually the owner) board, so that makes it somewhat easier.

There are two types of corporations as well. The S Corporation is pretty popular because you avoid double taxation on the income of the corporation because it doesn’t pay an entity level tax. So similar to a partnership, the income gets recorded on your Form 1040 and is taxed at your own marginal tax rate. However, to qualify as an S Corporation, you have to make a proper and timely election.

The C Corporation has some distinct benefits as well, although it has its own pitfalls. A C Corporation pays an entity level tax so the corporation has to actually cut a check to the IRS (assuming it makes money). One nice thing is the first $50,000 in net income is taxes at 15%, so if you’re in the 25% tax bracket on your Form 1040, there’s some savings there. The problem is, if you pull the money out as a dividend, you’re tax again so this might no make as much sense if you’re basically going to funnel all of the money from your corporation into your personal finances.

The other thing to keep in mind is to respect the entity. If you have an LLC or a corporation, you’ll need to set up a separate bank account and the business’ funds should not be commingled with your personal funds.

BaseBlogging:If blogging is a business, what types of expenses would I be able to deduct?

Brian:The general rule for a valid deduction is that it has to be ordinary and necessary. I know this sounds pretty grey, but unfortunately it is. Things like baseball books, publications and annuals would definitely be valid deductions. If you have MLB Extra Innings, then that would probably qualify as well, as would MLB TV on MLB.com although here we’re getting into the grey area. XM radio, which now has audio feeds of most MLB games, could also be considered a business deduction.

Your internet connection might be a stretch unless you honestly use the internet almost exclusively for your blog. Along the same lines would be your PC. If you’re using it for more then 50% business, then you’d be able to take some depreciation expense but the ideal situation would be if you have two computers, and one you’re set up exclusively for blogging. Then you’d better be able to document that the computer was used strictly for business purposes.

Another stretch would be actually tickets to the game. While you could justify deducting the ticket, it would only be yours. If you and your three friends went (or you and your family), then the IRS would probably deem that was a personal trip.

The other thing to keep in mind is what the IRS calls “Hobby Loss Rules.” I’m sure most people who make incidental income from their blogs would be able to find way more in deductions then they’re making in income. Those losses are valid and can be rolled into your Form 1040, however, the IRS has certain rules they require you to follow to ensure you’re not just turning a hobby into a tax deduction. One general rule that the IRS uses is that the business must have income of two of the last seven years. Keep in mind that while meeting this rule helps, it doesn’t completely absolve you of the hobby loss rules. So say you had thousand dollar losses in five years and minimal income in two years, the IRS might still deem that you’re basically playing games and disallow your losses.

If you’re not sure, then it’s probably a hobby. And while you can still take deductions, you just won’t be able to deduct more then what you made in income throughout the year.

BaseBlogging:What are some options for multi-author blogs?

Brian: It depends on how the network is set up. If it’s a small group of basically “equal” bloggers that have decided to set up shop under one site, then a multi-member LLC might be the way to go. The one thing to be careful of is the deductions. If one person is having the LLC pay for their MLB Extra Innings, then that cost is spread to the other owners (as is the tax deduction). Another option would be to establish one, two or a handful of people to be the owners, who then pay the other bloggers based on a fee structure. You can also do either option as a corporation as well.

If there’s no formal entity set up and the bloggers are sharing in the profits, then they’ve basically set up a simple partnership, even though they didn’t file anything with their respective state. In this event, a partnership return (Form 1065) would be required.

BaseBlogging:With the year ending, is there anything that bloggers should do to prepare from a tax perspective?

Brian:The biggest thing is to get organized. Put together a quick spreadsheet showing the cash you’ve brought in and start documenting your deductions. You should also have a copy of the receipt for your purchase (whether it’s a book, an internet bill, or your ticket stub) as backup. If you’re operating as an LLC or a corporation, then you should be keeping a formal set of books to document your income and expenses.

The other thing I’d recommend is to contact a professional. If you have any questions, you can feel free to contact me at brian@tigerblog.net and I’ll try to help you out as best I can.

I’d like to thank Brian for taking the time to answer these questions. I approached Brian for this because a)he’s an accountant, b)he’s a blogger, and c)he’s been my accountant for the last several years. If you have any questions, feel free to email Brian. If it is something you think others might want to know leave it in the comments or submit it via the contact form.

While not all bloggers will be able to get credentialed, there is something valuable to learn here. The site started with a minor league player, Francoeur. They simultaneously built a relationship with the player and they built their reputation. It also gave the author time to hone their interviewing skills and become comfortable.

Like many things, there are advantages to starting small.