ESPN Executive Committee: Third Quarter Blogosphere Review

Disney CEO, Robert "Don't Call Me Bob" Iger, spoke with the ESPN Executive Committee on Tuesday to discuss "what's cool" in the blogosphere for the 3rd Quarter of 2007. According to the meeting minutes, Iger feels that ESPN needs to more "hip" to the coveted 18-34 demographic. Given the Worldwide Leader's loss of the #1 spot for sports on the the web in the quarter, Iger is personally lending a hand to his counterparts at ESPN.

"We need to own that spot at the top. We must climb that tall pole at the top of the highest mountain, above the clouds, and into the Blogosphere. In order to reclaim the #1 spot, we need to think outside the box and leverage our brand. The key to success is knowing what the kids are talking about on the sports blogs."

According the the minutes were released on Businesswire this afternoon, Iger sees sees several key areas of growth and areas on the decline in terms of "What's Now?" in the realm of sports blogs in the 3rd quarter. Highlights from the meeting are as follows:

Negro-Americans – The blog community is becoming more popular amongst the young black male population according to a report from Nielsen. The popular black rights group, the Nation of Islam Sports Blog, was mentioned on the Sporting News Radio show and influential blogger, Liston, is teaching blog readers how to befriend black people.

Anomosity amongst various blog sects is growing. What stemmed from a rise in popularity of hate posts in the 2nd quarter has snowballed out of control in the 3rd quarter. A press release on Tuesday announced an entire blog dedicated solely to bashing other bloggers. Beware folks, nobody is safe. Oh wait, who gives a shit?

Sports blogs are apparently becoming increasingly popular with the women. The numbers of female sports blogs continues to rise and mainstays like the Ladies..., Babes Love Baseball, This Suit Is Not Black, and Strike Zones and Endzones are reaching record numbers of fans. The real question though is can they compete with Ms. Gossip?

Thanks to Big Daddy Drew, the bloggers are talking about their fantasy teams again. After a backlash of complaining about bloggers talking about their fantasy teams earlier this summer, the bloggers are writing about their personal leagues. The blog community seems to do whatever this Drew character tells them and Drew says it's cool. Can someone get me his agent?

The number of book deals went through the roof in the 3rd quarter. Publishers began giving out book deals to bloggers everywhere. Even the Ghost of Wayne Fontes were offered a lucrative deal and had the option picked up for movie rights. (haha, gotcha)

The new "It" girl for the third quarter is Taryne Mowatt. I don't like this girl. She looks like she has a lot of impure thoughts and impure fluids. Let's stay away from this one.

We expect blogger interviews on blogger interviews to experience a modest decline. While the readers seem to like them, the talent pool is drying up It seems just about everybody has been interviewed by now. Expect those crafty sports bloggers to start finding a new source of talent for interviews.

Old favorites Rex Grossman and Brady Quinn dropped off the map in the 3rd quarter. Apparently, it's not as fun to write about a guy when he never gets on the field. Blogfrica seems to really like quarterbacks who inexplicably see a lot of playing time, but throw massive amounts of interceptions. Keep an eye on Harrington, Leftwich, and Culpepper to fill this void.

The popularity of "picks" posts seem to be experiencing some negative momentum. While everyone loves writing them, nobody is any good at it - well, besides that Stan Marcohz dude. He really has the gift.

AOL Fanhouse lost its fearless leader, Jamie Mottram, in the 3rd quarter. While we expect the Fanhouse to carry on its solid efforts, the loss of their man will clearly be a significant departure. That Ness fellow looks pretty rambunctious though.