Jeff Beckham

Following the “One’s a anomaly, two’s a trend” line of thinking, I’ve come across a couple of similar posts in my reading over the past week: That the websites of events and groups are beginning to rival media websites as the best places to go for information.

First, Steve Yelvington pointed out that Berkeley journalism instructor Jane Stevens showed off the Kentucky Derby’s website at the recent Online News Association conference. Steve noted that the Derby’s website — packed with news, context, community, multimedia, entertainment — was greater superior to the coverage from the Louisville newspaper.

Second was this item by Alan Abbey in E-Media Tidbits about MLB.com’s superior coverage of the baseball playoffs vs. ESPN, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, etc.

Anecdotally, I deleted my bookmarks for ESPN.com and Sports Illustrated’s site long ago and have never looked back. A sports blog, Deadspin.com, provides the majority of my sports-related info, along with local sites with Longhorn football info.