MLB Planning Online Newspaper

Major League Baseball has generally been the lead dog when it comes to the major American sports and taking advantage of the Internet and technology. They have MLB.tv, which is like, the greatest thing ever for a baseball fanatic such as myself, and they also came out with an application for the iPhone as soon as it hit the shelves. They also have MLB.com which brings in over 60 million unique visitors a month, and now they're looking to expand on it.

Since MLB.com doesn't offer anything but the facts of the games and stories going on throughout the league, MLB has decided that it needs a new outlet in which they can share opinions and commentary about the world of baseball. Which is why MLB Advanced Media plans on releasing its own online newspaper in May.

[MLBAM Chief Executive Bob] Bowman says the as-yet unnamed site will try to offer "a newspaper look - big pictures and big headlines - because it's an effective way to communicate. Not necessarily 'Headless Man Found in Topless Bar' headlines, but we want a tabloid look. We don't want it to just look like news items and a series of blogs."

Sounds pretty 20th century. But that's OK, says Bowman: "I like to think there are columnists who are out there and not being read like columnists were when I was growing up - and the only thing against them is that they're, say, 52. That doesn't disqualify them for me."

One of those 52-year old columnists Bowman is talking about will be Keith Olbermann, who is actually only 50 and I'm guessing is going to have a lot less time for his blog now.

Still, in spite of the fact they're calling it an "online newspaper" it sounds like a blog to me, just one that's laid out like a newspaper. It'll probably end up looking a lot like what the Sporting News has done with The Sporting News Today.

I do think they should play up the tabloid angle a bit more, though, with big front page headlines about how Bud Selig is Bat Boy and that he and Bigfoot are slowly planning on taking over the world, but I'm pretty sure that's just not going to happen. Which is a shame.