Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Paintball Media

Time to alienate some more peeps. With the demise of PGi paintball media is diminished. Oh sure there are still plenty of mags about; digital Splat (paintball's FHM wannabe), PB2X (media mouthpiece of Pacific Paintball), Paintball Sports (defunked but not defunct) and Rich Telford's World of Paintball, er, FaceFull. Yeah, there's a couple others but seriously... None of them are terrible. (Your mileage may vary.)
I was gonna dog the remaining mags for the things they aren't and the inclination to play it safe while delivering their personal brand of vanilla sludge. Instead I'd like to encourage all of them to consider the opportunity they have now. That opportunity is to break out of the mold and become something more than just another cookie cutter paintball cheerleader. An opportunity to step up and take a leading role, to be a responsible advocate for the good of the game, to exercise a little honest paintball journalism. Does Paintball need another snap-shooting article or puff piece interview of some soon to be forgotten "pro" or could Paintball use some vocal leadership, some fearless voices asking the big, tough questions and stirring debate with uncompromised positions?
The answer of course is high-minded journalism doesn't pay the bills and the first irate phone call from an advertiser unhappy with an editorial position is a no-brainer. Lose the attitude. Reality bites.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's a question...

...is print media even the appropriate place for that kind of commentary anymore?

At best, the paintball magazines have 6-week lead times. Now throw on top of that that we live in the internet age and web sites are 'free' - where is a paintball magazine superior to, say, a well-read web blog?

Baca Loco said...

The thought had occured to me. Still, the banality and squandered potential irk me. What can I say?

Anonymous said...

Its all about the exclusivity of the information, and actually doing things right. If a paintball magazine has a juicy piece of info, lets people know they have it, and simply asks them to pick up a copy to find it out. Isn't that what magazines are about? Just don't leak your information to every idiot and it won't get posted. Also, I can't read my computer on the shitter.... or wait, can I?

The Paintball Reject said...

If you got a smart phone you can...

Anonymous said...

Ahhh doesn't PB2X cover the PSP just as vigorously as they do the NPPL? It seems as though they do to me...