Welcome to the First Annual State of The Boxing Tribune: A recap of our year as a site/community and a look ahead to what’s next.
We officially launched The Boxing Tribune June 8th and, in less than six months time, we have grown in readership beyond any of our expectations. Without going into detail, we’re talking about 1200% growth from our first month to this last month of December. And this isn’t the junk traffic that most boxing websites secretly chase after in order to beef up their overall numbers. (Yeah, we’ve learned the secret to instantly boosting traffic figures tenfold with utterly useless instant traffic, but in the spirit of what The Boxing Tribune was created to be, we’re not using these tricks. All of our numbers are based around real, hardcore fight fans who come to us to read our editorials or news coverage.)
In addition to our growth in readership, we’ve also reinforced our dedication to being the first mainstream boxing website free of network and/or promoter-funded reporting. While the bigger sites can boast a full staff and the frills that come with easy money, The Boxing Tribune strives to provide comparable coverage, but without the conflicts of interest involved in covering those who are also footing the bill for the entire operation.
Our first half-year has yielded us a brief cameo appearance on Showtime’s Fight Camp 360 and attention from various podcasts, athletes, and other sites.
2010 was a great year for us and it served as proof that a website can be successful by marketing directly to hardcore boxing fans and not just pandering to casual fans who want gushing articles about the most recent flavor of the week/month/year.
In the spirit of full transparency, here’s a brief rundown of where we’re headed in 2011:
Editorials
Our editorials will continue to be the bread and butter of the Boxing Tribune. Hard-hitting, biting, sometimes controversial, our writers will continue to lay it all on the line with no ulterior motive other than to tell the truth as they honestly see it. We will continue to be free of shills, groupies, and fan boys who only write to network themselves on to major sites and/or on the bankroll of a promotional company.
Writers who work for The Boxing Tribune will be hardcore fans with a direct focus on the betterment of boxing via informative essays, constructive criticisms, and dogged attacks on the sport’s enemies.
We name names, burn bridges, and make enemies for the betterment of our sport…and we offer no apologies for it.
News
The Boxing Tribune news coverage will consist of actual facts and not rumors, gossip, or promoter-funded BS. If it’s a done deal or legally contracted to happen, we will report on it. Otherwise, we’ll leave the fantasy to our competition.
We will also refrain from using press releases as news stories. While it’s easier and less time consuming to just copy and paste the emails we receive from promoters and publicists, press releases are meant as publicity, not as hard news. No other sport’s media acts as lazily or as irresponsibly. The Boxing Tribune will not do that disservice to its readers and will do its best to take these press releases and put them into the proper perspective.
Community
One of the innovative features of The Boxing Tribune is that our writers are easily accessible via our very own message board. If you have a comment, compliment, or complaint concerning a particular article or writer, you will always have direct access via the site’s forum. We will not publish and hide away or disappear behind an anonymous comments section or hand-picked mailbag feature– All writers for The Boxing Tribune will be 100% accountable for their work. Visit our forum, register for a free account, and be part of boxing’s pound-for-pound best collection of hardcore fight fans: The BTBC (The Boxing Tribune Blue Corner).
You can also access us through our Facebook page and our Twitter account.
Funding
Our desire to be the first major boxing website free of conflicts of interest puts us at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to funding. Our mission in 2011 is to attract independent advertising from the private sector that will fund the expansion of The Boxing Tribune and pay for a professional, independent writing staff.
Growth and Expansion
2011 will see some physical changes for our website as we hope to achieve an overall more professional look to go along with our growing audience and influence. Other additions to our growing presence will be made as the year goes on. Stay Tuned for more details.
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In closing, while some sites will boast of being “insiders” or of having “inside information, ” we are proud outsiders. Outsiders who have no vested interest in delivering news or editorials. We have nothing to gain or lose from doing our jobs…and that makes us an inherently more trustworthy source.
If you share our mission and would like to be a part of The Boxing Tribune team, send an email here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com
Thanks so much for a wonderful 2010. We appreciate every single person, every single visit and hope to pay off your support with a positive change to the sport we all love.
Here’s to an even better 2011!
Paul Magno
Editor in Chief, The Boxing Tribune
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