Is "On the Ball" Magazine Still In Business?

[pking34]

I haven't seen an "On The Ball" magazine on the racks lately, and I went on their website and the last copies referenced on the site were from February of this year. Is "On The Ball" still in operation?

[sportsguy1976]

Unfortunately no... they declared bankruptcy and closed the Middle Tennessee market... although the West Tennessee magazine still operates to some degree... poor business decisions... I have firsthand knowledge of the situation... great concept... poor execution...

[66in74]

That's too bad.

I really enjoyed that publication.

It got alot of student-athletes some press.

[rollredroll]

Unfortunately no... they declared bankruptcy and closed the Middle Tennessee market... although the West Tennessee magazine still operates to some degree... poor business decisions... I have firsthand knowledge of the situation... great concept... poor execution...

 

Interesting that Middle Tennessee would close but West Tennessee would stay in business.

 

Wasn't the magazine free? I think it was, and, if so, I would think advertising would be easier to sell in Middle Tennessee, with larger cities and, presumably, higher disposable income per household.

 

Oh well, it was a nice magazine - perhaps a little light on content (not terribly), but it had good curb appeal.

[shakinthefat]

If the Tennessean sports dept. would take a break from reporting 3 pages of the Titans everyday and send a couple of reporters to area high schools, maybe I would read the sports page again.

[Mr. Bad Advice]

rollredroll, you'd think it would sell better in larger markets like Nashville...but it doesn't. There are several reasons for this, IMO, two majors ones of which are:

 

1) The concept is better suited to smaller communities where people have lived for all their lives and the thing to do on a Friday night is to go to the local high school's games. Metropolitan areas have way more transients who really don't have much of an emotional connection to the area high schools.

 

2) There are a lot more (and better) advertising opportunities available for businesses in large metro areas.

 

All that said, I think it still could have succeeded in Nashville had it been done right...and I don't mean done right by Corby and Doug, who did an excellent job there. Businesses go under by growing too fast just as often as they do by not growing fast enough.

[66in74]

rollredroll, you'd think it would sell better in larger markets like Nashville...but it doesn't. There are several reasons for this, IMO, two majors ones of which are:

 

1) The concept is better suited to smaller communities where people have lived for all their lives and the thing to do on a Friday night is to go to the local high school's games. Metropolitan areas have way more transients who really don't have much of an emotional connection to the area high schools.

 

2) There are a lot more (and better) advertising opportunities available for businesses in large metro areas.

 

All that said, I think it still could have succeeded in Nashville had it been done right...and I don't mean done right by Corby and Doug, who did an excellent job there. Businesses go under by growing too fast just as often as they do by not growing fast enough.

 

"Sell"?

I always picked one up at school for free.

[rollredroll]

rollredroll, you'd think it would sell better in larger markets like Nashville...but it doesn't. There are several reasons for this, IMO, two majors ones of which are:

 

1) The concept is better suited to smaller communities where people have lived for all their lives and the thing to do on a Friday night is to go to the local high school's games. Metropolitan areas have way more transients who really don't have much of an emotional connection to the area high schools.

 

2) There are a lot more (and better) advertising opportunities available for businesses in large metro areas.

 

All that said, I think it still could have succeeded in Nashville had it been done right...and I don't mean done right by Corby and Doug, who did an excellent job there. Businesses go under by growing too fast just as often as they do by not growing fast enough.

 

I can buy into that, particularly number one. I do enjoy the "small-town" football environment and know that many things, including community morale, can revolve around the high school football team. But, I was also thinking those same small towns have neighborhood groceries, stores, etc. that everyone knows about, and in this time of a shaky economy, that perhaps those smaller businesses would have to cut back and rely on word-of-mouth.

[tigertiger]

They had gone from West TN to Middle TN to Dallas TX? I always thought that was kind of a stupid mix.

 

Anyway, I've been checking the site every day now for about a month and just TODAY the online site finally refreshed. It is all West Tennessee with several team previews!!!

 

Very happy it is back.

[swampler]

I had contacted them last year about providing some images and was told they were discontinuing their Middle TN edition due to costs.

 

The local papers seem to be the best way to keep up with local sports. The Tennessean can't cover everybody, but the locals (Wilson Post, Lebanon Democrat, Daily News Journal, etc) do a good job of covering their local teams.

[Purple & Gold Standard]

I've had my 2009 Football Preview about a week now.....

 

This from my copy of the magazine...

 

"Many people have wondered what we here at ON THE BALL have been up to over the summer. Some have wondered if the Magazine was going to continue and if we were going to update our website. The reality, we, like many other businesses, have been affected by the downturn in the economy. Thank the good Lord, that He has blessed us with a group of talented people that have put together the most progressive and innovative products to cover high school sports. In the spring of 2009, we looked at the future of our business and saw how we could cover high school sports better than before. Our website, to be blunt, was not very good. It did not have updated content, was slow, and difficult to navigate. So we made it our primary focus over the summer months. We are proud to introduce a completely new site that will have fresh content daily, much faster load times, and simplified navigation. We hope you will see the benefit of following your favorite team and players at ontheballmag.com. With the combination of ON THE BALL TV, Magazine and ontheballmag.com we believe the future has never looked brighter for covering high school sports."

[66in74]

Appears to be a Regional (west TN) publication now.