NiceBallz - Play Ballzy

If you follow golf online via blogs and twitter at all you’ve probably heard about the recent Time article by Sean Gregory.  In it Gregory tees up Play Golf Designs and bashes them with his 3 wood.  It’s hooking hooking…is it out of bounds?  Maybe.
 
We won’t get into the ins and outs of the article.  A number of thoughtful posts have been done on that already at Waggleroom, Golf Girl and Bushwood CC and others.
 
But here at NiceBallz what caught our attention (given our ‘day job’ backgrounds in journalism and PR) were two things:
 
1) The traditional media are struggling and generally are willing to try anything to drive traffic and readership — which really, makes them not that different than any media in history.  Perhaps there is a slightly more desperate tinge to some tactics employed by publications and individual writers given declining ad revenues and regular layoffs in news rooms, but it’s not that different than what’s occurred in the past.  Sure, now they may be more willing to use tricks from the blogsphere in an attempt to stand out and sometimes those can have mixed results.
 
2) Some companies tend to underestimate the value of sound communications counsel.  Obviously we weren’t there when the first email or phone call came in from Time to Play Golf Designs, so we’re admittedly speculating here, but it seems possible (if not likely) that there was more excitement at the prospect of Time writing about them than any level of concern or skepticism around what made a story on PGD compelling right now?  What was the narrative?
 
Even if they did have this inner debate that doesn’t mean the story wouldn’t have turned out exactly the same way. But they could have been better prepared and may have avoided some fairly rookie mistakes such as claiming some comments were taken out of context (see several of the posts mentioned where this claim appears). 

Not to be overly snarky but um…that’s what media do.  They handpick the most compelling content.  The most interesting quotes aren’t going to be about you praising someone who everyone praises (e.g. Lorena Ochoa) but the one where you give a slightly dismissive statement about that person. 

And please, even if true, don’t play the ‘taken out of context’ card.  If you were flat out misquoted that is one thing and ask for a correction, but the taken out of context bit is not credible and often makes the person look like they’re desperate to deflect accountability for words they said.  It’s hard to take some things truly out of context.
 
Back to the first point though – if Gregory is guilty of anything it is that he has resorted to stealing an old blog trick – the linkbait headline.  “Tiger Woods will never win another major” – BAM 10,000 hits to your site, way to go you’re a mega blogger!  Who wouldn’t want to pile on and share a piece of their mind?  

But a great point that Corey brought up to me separately is no one should assume Gregory wrote or approved the headline.  His copy editor may well have done this and Gregory may have not agreed with the headline (or he may have, we can’t know).  The copy editors job is to drive traffic and help with sales. So congrats to Time/Gregory/Gregory’s copy editor - you’re now as unimaginative as your average blogger.  Ironic given many bloggers aspire (if they were to be completely honest) to achieve the respect and automatic credibility that come from writing for a publication like Time.
 
There are probably silver linings for all involved. Gregory/Time is likely enjoying more traffic on his article than any of his other recent posts. And for Play Golf Designs, while the near-term may be painful I would also bet they are seeing a notable increase in traffic to their site and an uptick in overall awareness which will probably drive more business.  They’ve also had a positive response from the online golf community so they have to feel good about the moral support and knowing most bloggers and tweeters ‘have their back’. 

Plus they have a lifelong lesson that when an outlet like Time comes a knockin?  It may not always be good news.