Sunday, April 4, 2010

An employment update

I mentioned the other day that I've been given the opportunity to cover the Nationals on a freelance basis this season for an established media outlet here in town. Well, I can now reveal details.

The media outlet is CSNWashington.com, the online home for Comcast SportsNet. I'm excited to be able to join the talented team they've assembled there, including three former colleagues of mine from The Washington Times: Ryan O'Halloran (who has been hired full-time to cover the Redskins and other sporting events around town) and Corey Masisak and Mike Jones (who have been covering the Capitals and Wizards, respectively, on a freelance basis).

The folks at CSN have been very gracious in working out a system that allows me to continue covering the Nats for this site. And my plan, as I outlined on Thursday, is to keep this site running all season, using funds from reader subscriptions to make as many road trips as possible.

It's going to be a bit of a trial-and-error process figuring out what articles to write for CSN and what articles to write for this site. But no matter where the information is posted, I'll be providing links back and forth between the two so readers don't miss anything.

In fact, here's a link to my first piece for CSN: A preview of the 2010 season, centered on the idea that the Nats' roster will evolve over the course of the year, with reinforcements like Stephen Strasburg, Drew Storen, Chien-Ming Wang and Ross Detwiler coming sometime this summer.

Hope you enjoy that piece, and hope you enjoy the coverage from both sites all season!

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds great ... good luck! [suggested edit: use centered "on"]

Anonymous said...

2:47pm Anon - Does anal-retentive have a hyphen?

WA2CHI said...

Good luck Mark. It's good to see that CSNWash will be giving more coverage to the Nats this year, and you'll only be a couple of clicks down from MASN and MLB TV

Sam said...

Congrats, Mark! CSNWashington was immediately added to my bookmarks.

As far as your trial and error of where to write which articles, I think the story-ish ones should be on the CSN website, and the newsy ones should be here. This is just my opinion, of course. The blog could serve as your quick outlet to post news as you hear it, and the CSN site could be your portal to writing the features, such as the one you wrote about Harris.

Whatever you chose, I am glad that I will be able to read your work throughout the year.

Jim now ready for opening day said...

Glad for you! Remember to always pay close attention to the ones who are helping to support your family. I will look forward to your read in both places.

Anonymous said...

Great news, Mark. Good for you. Looking forward to Opening Day tomorrow. It will be a beautiful day for baseball in Washington.

Michael Dempsey said...

Smart move CSN...I'll add that to my bookmarks. Mark's reporting of spring training was outstanding. So good, I got out of my habit of visiting washingtonpost.com & nationals.com twice a day.

Anonymous said...

whats Mocks Fastball clocked at? anyone know?

JayB said...

93 tops

ahoya said...

Congrats Mark. And +1 to what Dempsey said - this will drive my traffic over to CSN.

SBrent said...

Who says there're no editors on a blog? ;) Congrats, Mark. I echo the comment that this has quickly become my main go-to site for Nats news, abandoning other mainstays. Good luck with CSN, and I'll look for your stuff there too.

natsfan1a said...

Congrats, Mark! I'm glad that you picked up the gig, and that your former colleagues picked up some work there as well. I'll also be adding the site to my bookmarks.

Anonymous said...

Good luck Mark,I've gotten more than my $20 worth from your spring training coverage.Do what you've got to do, we'll find the good info no matter where it is.

Wally said...

Mark

Glad to hear about the CSN gig. Sounds like a nice complement to this site, and I'll be sure to read both places.

Also, I think that you did a great job in spring training; seemed like you broke most of the news (such as it was), and I enjoyed the flow of information that you were able to put forward. I look forward to more during the season. There is probably a book in all of this for you to think about, something like 'journalism in the iPhone age'.

Well, call me crazy, but I am really looking forward to tomorrow. Most of you are probably right that it will be same old nats, but I can still dream about different results for right now. Plus, I would rather watch Pudge, Desmond, Kennedy and Willie than Bard, Guzzy, Dukes and the litany of 2Bs from last year. And like Mark says, there is always July to root for.

Traveler8 said...

Mark, sounds like a good pairing of work for both you and us. I greatly enjoyed your spring coverage and am looking forward to the season, from both your channels.

Sunshine_Bobby_Carpenter_is_Too_Pessimistic_For_Me said...

Congrats on getting the CSN gig. More the merrier. You're like me: you used the Washington newspaper gig for the best training in the world, then moved onto the real world without the ink-stained wretches. You write great, and you've got a great nose for news, as well as a great feel for baseball. I never read you in the Times--It was that Moonie paper thing, you know--but I read you now regularly, and always with enjoyment. Keep smiling, and keep up the great work. You're also a great photog, and so is the Mrs. Z. Have a great season.

Section 109 said...

Congratulations, Mark--this is CSN's gain. You really do a great job of reporting and analysis. Here's to the start of the season.

Anonymous said...

Mark,
Congrats on the additional job! Thanks for your wonderful postings. They begged to be read. Appreciate the writing skill and knowledge and love of baseball that shine through.

Looked for you at Spring Training but weren't successful. Hope to see meet you at the park at some point.

Thanks to Mrs. Z. for being your partner in this adventure.

Anonymous said...

any TV time in your future??

Jim said...

Great news, Mark. We know how much you love writing about baseball and the Nats in particular. Glad to see that CSN and your subscribers here will enable you to keep doing what you are so good at.

Anonymous said...

"This time last year I would have called JayB the most clueless commenter in the Natmosphere. But not any more. He's been eclipsed by peric/periculum/lerici. (I think that's Latin for "even more annoying than Clint.") However, this doesn't mean JayB has gotten any smarter. Just means peric is even dumber than JayB."

Its annoying reading posters whose rudeness far surpasses their intellectual capacity. This "anonymous" poster seems relate to criticizing individual posters the same way that teenagers relate to sex. Teenagers *do* actually have sex, but they talk about it and claim to have done it far more often than it actually happens. Very rarely does this "anonymous" poster stop posting for longer than a few days without, with little credibility in doing so, criticizing the posts of individuals, their frequency, as well as personally insulting them.

The idiot or idiots doing this seem to have severe self-esteem problems if they must constantly post their tedious dribble intended to demean other posters.

Anonymous said...

That's great news - congratulations! Just read the New Yorker piece and that's how i found your blog. I'm looking forward to being a regular reader.

Post a Comment