Interview: Jonathan Eig Talks ChicagoSide

By Chuck Sudo in News on Apr 6, 2012 6:00PM

ChicagoSide, the new sports website founded by author Jonathan Eig and his buddy Sol Lieberman, launched this week.

The genesis for ChicagoSide was a discussion between Eig and Lieberman over beer at the Duke of Perth last year. Eig writes in his introduction to the website his goal is to have a home for good long form local sports writing in the vein of the late, lamented Sport magazine and The National in Chicago, which he believes sorely needs one in an age of declining resources at local newspapers.

The lineup of writers he and Lieberman have brought together is a who's who of established writers including Lou Carlozo, Robert Kurson, Joel Reese, Alan Solomon and Elliott Harris, along with up and coming writers looking for an outlet for their talents. Former NBA player and ESPN blogger Paul Shirley makes his debut on the site today and former Chicago Bear Hunter Hillenmeyer will also contribute. A partnership agreement with TimeOut Chicago also provides select ChicagoSide articles with an opportunity to reach readers via good old fashioned dead tree media.

I sat down with Eig Wednesday to discuss the current state of sports writing, his long-range plans for ChicagoSide, hwo the TOC partnership came about, and comparisons to Grantland

Chicagoist: One of the things that frustrates me when reading local sports writing is that it seems like reporters are trading access to the teams for solid reporting. Do you agree with that or not?

Jonathan Eig: I think we have seen that, maybe since Michael Jordan. That may have been a turning point, when people stopped asking hard questions because they were so smitten with the guy or were afraid of losing access. And I think reporters today are afraid of losing access to the teams and they don't challenge the sources the way we like to think we would. I think sports writing has lost a little bit of its bite. You have teams that are now hiring their own reporters; the Blackhawks and Bulls both have their own in-house writers.

C: Bob Verdi and Sam Smith.

JE: Exactly. And the teams don't even need outside reporters. They can block them out even further, if they want. As a result, reporters are walking on tender feet, trying not to offend anybody.

C: With the decline of the newspaper industry, do you think the art of sports writing gets lost in the shuffle?

JE: There are so many things happening. One, newspapers are laying off some of their best feature writers, because they don't churn enough copy and feature writers don't pay the bills. The web certainly doesn't focus on long form, quality writing. The web is all about page views. So how many different stories can you put up in the course of a day? It's churn and burn. So I do think good writing gets sacrificed.

C: But you're bringing in those feature writers. Moving forward with ChicagoSide, will there be a mix of shorter posts to complement the longer form pieces you're currently focusing on?

JE: I like to think we can stick to the forum of featuring good writers. We're not built around increasing page views. Our business model isn't built all around internet and banner ads. The ads we do have so far are from local companies that believe in this concept. They're not asking us about page views and we can't tell them yet what those numbers are, anyway. They're coming on because they think it's cool and we're able to give them some individualized attention. We're small enough now that we can do that. We obviously want to get as much traffic to the site, but I hopefully don't become so obsessed with traffic that it becomes about clicks.

C: Is the focus on providing a forum for quality storytelling a reason you have the partnership agreement with TimeOut Chicago?

JE: Absolutely. We're not paying our writers a lot of money, so how can we show them some love? One way is to have them share in the profits at the end of the year. Another is to find new places for them to showcase their work. We give them a little more money if they make it into TimeOut. We're also talking with a couple other outlets about sharing content. So we help these writers get their names out there and get established, build up their careers.

C: But you also have some very established writers in your stable already.

JE: These guys are doing it because they want to write. Not because we're paying them big bucks.

C: With the focus on longer stories, it seems as though you're coming full circle to your beginnings?

JE: I started my career at 16 as a sportswriter with my local paper, and I spent the next 30 years trying to avoid sports writing. But I love these books I did on sports and saw this huge hole for something I wanted to read. I didn't want to necessarily do it myself. Why not see if I can build this and promote good sports writing?

C: How are you handling the difference between being a writer who has to answer to an editor to being the editor handling a group of writers?

JE: It's different. Before, I had no one to answer to but myself. There were very few emails in my inbox, so I could think about the book I was working on and take my time. Now I'm crazy busy, handling all these writers, editing stories, dealing with the business side of things. It's all new, but I'm having fun. As you know, it's exciting to work on something that's new and fresh.

C: How does your experience as an author and researcher help you with ChicagoSide?

JE: I'm dealing with a lot of young writers who want to grow and I can work with some of them, help them learn and give them some good editing. And it's hard to get good editing these days. even at newspapers, they're cutting staff and don't have the time to focus on longform stuff. I'm happy to pass along my knowledge, and I get better as a result. I also think because I'm not a straight sports guy, I have a perspective that's beyond the day-to-day coverage of sports.

C: Do you find any comparisons between ChicagoSide and Grantland flattering or grating?

JE: Well, Grantland reflects Bill Simmons' personality. Sol and I came up with the idea for ChicagoSide before we heard of Grantland. Then Grantland launched and they had the same dedication to longform writing, storytelling, being off the news. There are two big differences. One is they do a lot of cultural stuff; we're sticking to sports. The other really big difference is that we're local. We have a greater potential to find a passionate following. Sometimes Grantland can be hit or miss, because it focuses on sports and culture and it doesn't have a core center of coverage.

C: You said Sol Lieberman was ready to quit his job the day after you came up with the idea for ChicagoSide. How long was the space between his announcement and the launch of the site for him to actually do that?

JE: It took a few months. Once we decided to get serious about this, we took the idea to a business adviser and asked, "What do you think?" I think Sol and I both expected to say it's suicide. Much to our surprise, he loved the idea and said we should do it. And this is a guy who we really trusted. That's when we decided maybe we really should take a look at this.

C: Did Sol's enthusiasm rub off on you?

JE: I was much more skeptical on it than Sol, because I have a nice career writing books right now and wasn't looking for anything different. He had to sort of persuade me that this was worth taking a shot.

C: You were, until recently, writing a sports column for Chicago magazine. How did the TimeOut Chicago partnership come about?

JE: Chicago magazine was a great home for me for a long time, and then TimeOut approached me and asked if I would be interested in bringing ChicagoSide content to TimeOut. I thought it was a great idea. I did go to Chicago magazine and asked them if they would be interested, and they couldn't quite pull it off. timeOut was a good fit for us.

C: Do you think Chicago magazine's time between editors may have had something to do with that?

JE: I think it has more to do with what's going on at the Tribune right now. Things are stressful there with the company going through bankruptcy and it may be hard for them to do what they want to do. For TimeOut, it's also an easy way for them to diversify their content.

C: How is the featured story in TimeOut chosen?

JE: We have a conference call about stories we have in the pipeline and they choose the one they like best. We time it so that it goes live to the site the same day the issue comes out.

C: How did the business plan come about?

JE: We have a group of writers and, like I said earlier, we can't pay them a lot. But we can offer them bonuses at the end of the year and incentives to write. the other piece is not just relying on advertising. We've talked about selling content to other outlets and making money on events down the road, once we have a fan base.

C: Was premium content or a paywall ever a consideration?

JE: It's still a consideration. Premium content and premium events for subscribers or a "VIP club." that's something we could be rolling out down the line.

C: If the point is reached when your pool of writers attract the attention of local sports teams, how will you be able to balance access to the teams for fairness?

JE: I've worked in this business for 30 years and you learn you have to maintain access, but have to be able to hammer them when they screw up. And if they can't handle that, then screw them. we're gonna call it like we see it and if we lose access, we'll keep writing it without the access. But we're not looking to be controversial for the sake of being controversial. We want to be fair. We want to be funny. We want to be smart.

C: What can you tell me about this launch party at Haymarket Monday?

JE: If you've been following, you know we found this kid named Sam who has to choose between the Cubs and White Sox. Monday we'll have Tony Fitzpatrick arguing for the Sox and Bill Savage arguing for the Cubs, and hopefully Sam makes his decision and we'll give him the proper attire to root for his team.

ChicagoSide will host a live Cubs or Sox debate 7 p.m. April 9 at Haymarket Pub & Brewery, 737 W. Randolph St.