WASHINGTON — This is, arguably, the busiest time of year on the local sports calendar. The Caps and Wizards are launching simultaneous playoff runs, just as the Nationals are in the opening weeks of what they hope will be a third straight NL East title run. There’s even the NFL Draft looming out at the end of the month.
It’s a lot for a sports-centered media outlet to keep track of and create intelligent content around — especially when the head count at said outlet numbers just three. But that’s the reality for veteran D.C. sports journalists Todd Dybas, Brian McNally and Ben Standig, who took a mutual leap of faith and launched their own subscription-based D.C. sports site, The Sports Capitol.
In the mold of The Athletic — the subscription-based sports site planting affiliates all over the country — The Sports Capitol challenges the existing internet media model, charging a $5.99 monthly fee or $30 for six months. In exchange, there are no ads, no pop-up videos. Basically, they’re trying to avoid all the aspects of the online experience that readers have grown to hate. And it’s actually a return to more of the original print publication model, supported by subscribers instead of advertisers.
The big question, of course, is whether or not it will be viable. Six weeks after launch, at least the initial questions have been answered.
“When people ask me how it’s going, I always say, ‘Well,’” said Dybas in a recent roundtable at WTOP. “But there is no, ‘We should be here Week 1 or we should be here Week 2.’”
That lack of a template made for an awfully stressful launch, especially since Dybas did all the web design himself. With no central editorial or support staff, that meant every reaction on Day 1 rested solely on them, hoping everything goes smoothly.
“What is going to happen? And is anyone in their right mind going to say, ‘You know what? This looks good, I’m going to subscribe to this.’ So that was terrifying,” said Dybas.
Those uncharted waters also mean that early benchmarks might serve as nice mileposts to aim for; they aren’t hard and fast. The trio won’t even really look as far as a year out in terms of where they hope to be.
“We just put the shingle out, so I guess we’ll just kind of have to see how things go,” Standig said.
They’re hoping the timing of the launch will drive some good initial traffic from around the various fanbases.
“I think having the playoffs coming up, people will be invested in teams in a way they may not necessarily be invested in hockey or the NBA in October or November,” McNally said.
Although with a daily output of 5-7 posts — between written features and analysis pieces and podcasts —that hasn’t left much time for, well, much of anything else, including sleep.
“Last night I started watching the most recent ‘Star Wars’ — but that’s only because it was finally on iTunes, I missed it in the theater — and we got through about 90 minutes of it and then I had to stop and then went back to work,” Dybas said.
Those are the growing pains when you’re trying something not just new for you, but new for everyone. For more about how the site came together and what you can look forward to as a subscriber, listen to the full roundtable above.
