CHAPTER 14: Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude

Time has a way of getting away from you. One day you’re a college graduate. Soon thereafter, you are married with children. Now, I’m blessed with a beautiful granddaughter, I’m 62, and in many ways, still wondering what I’ll be when I grow up. The years go by like minutes. To borrow from Don Henley:

You live from day to day,
And you dream about tomorrow.

Now that I’m somewhere deep into the back-nine of my existence on this planet, topics like “legacy” creep into the forefront of my mind. How will I be remembered? When I’m gone, what will define me? In part, these thoughts that are constant companions as I venture down this memory lane that I affectionately refer to as The History of RSR.

Previously, I mentioned that I collaborated with Tony Scuito to deliver the song, Unitas We Stand. For a minute, the song was newsworthy and local TV stations and a few radio stations showed interest. Baltimore is a nostalgic town and Johnny Unitas is deeply woven into the fabric of our town’s heritage.

The media attention brought the song some fleeting recognition and its release trickled into discussions at my kids’ school, St. John The Evangelist. One day after picking up my kids from school, my daughter Tori seemed rather excited. Apparently, there was some chatter that day about the song and she innocently said, “Dad, some people want to know if you’re going to do an album?”

From the mouths of babes…

Twenty years later, I’m still working on song no. 2.

My son Tyler eventually got involved with my little project and worked with us when he graduated from Salisbury University. He developed into an excellent writer. His ideas were great, and he interacted so well with our Senior Editor, Derek Arnold. A friendship blossomed. It warmed my heart. RSR could be better than it is today had Ty stayed around but his ambitions were bigger than our little piece of real estate on the world wide web. And I knew that he’d make a bigger impact in the world outside of our “domain”. A scene from one of my favorite movies comes to mind…

Meanwhile, during the 2012 season, we were humming along at Ravens24x7.com. Kris Jones worked like a beast, developing his craft as a writer, pursuing new client relationships, and expanding the reach of his alter ego, Goob. Derek kept Ravens24x7.com running on all cylinders with efficiencies that I wish I possessed. He can seemingly do in 20 hours what takes others a full work week. But still, we needed more help. So, I thought to reach out to local universities to see if there might be the possibility of landing some interns – those who might have interest in sports journalism.

Towson University expressed interest with a caveat. The students can’t work remotely. They must report to a place of business. So, I consulted with my partner Bill Pisano. We discussed the possibility of renting an office. Given our then recent growth, it seemed like the right thing to do. We didn’t have to convene daily but regular meetings in an office might spur creativity. We thought an office might couple as a think tank of sorts and propel 24×7 even more. So, we made the investment and that opened the door to interns.

My recollection is that we only had three interns. I’ll refrain from mentioning names, but let’s just say that one intern was a gem – a quick study who was seemingly impossible to overwhelm. I’m proud to say that he’s gone on to greater things and I’m hopeful for a future reacquaintance. The second intern was a likable kid, ambitious and a pretty decent writer. We did butt heads from time to time. I’m sure that his strong will has served him well in the work force, but he came in a bit hot. He hadn’t yet earned the right to tell us how we should go about our business but did so anyway. But I admired his aspiring spirit.

The third intern was nearly disastrous, one who I will refer to as “No. 3”.

He had all the makings of a perfect fit. He had a quiet demeanor, a passion for sports and he knew what he wanted to be at an early age. As a grade-schooler, No. 3 had the gumption to enroll in a broadcasting camp. Some of the most successful kids are those who embrace a vision for their futures at an early age and go after it with gusto. I saw that in No. 3. What I didn’t see was the swindler within.

No. 3 would come into the office, do some research projects that we assigned to him as well as contribute articles from time to time that we all thought were solid pieces coming from someone of his age. Things seemed to be progressing quite nicely. Until one day…

I received an email from one of our avid site visitors. He wanted to call my attention to an article written by No. 3. He said that while reading No. 3’s piece, it sounded very familiar – like he had read it before. It turns out that the visitor DID read it before! No. 3’s article was lifted verbatim from an ESPN article. I was stunned!

All our hard work. All the sweat equity. All the time spent on building a reputation and goodwill in the community. All this and so much more could be completely shattered if we were labeled as a publication guilty of plagiarism. That is the death knell of any journalist. Every single published piece from the past and in the future might be questioned. We just go Milli Vanilli’d!

I looked at No. 3’s piece and compared it to that published a day or so earlier by ESPN. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. So, I printed No. 3’s article posted on Ravens24x7.com, printed that from ESPN and then deleted forever No. 3’s piece. We then stored anything he had ever written as a draft in our site’s admin. I could no longer trust anything we posted with his name on it.

I then invited No. 3 into the office to give him an assessment of how I thought his internship was going. I also instructed the rest of our team NOT to come in that day.

Expecting the entire team to be in attendance, No. 3 seemed caught off guard when it was just me in the office. I asked him to have a seat just in front of my desk. I then handed him his printed article and that from ESPN. The color from his face drained.

I didn’t want to flunk him. I didn’t want that “F” to appear on his transcript. I didn’t want his college career to be smeared with the label of plagiarism. I didn’t want to crash this kid’s dream, one that started with his enrollment in broadcasting camp as a youngster. I didn’t want to be that guy! What I did want was for him to admit what he did and allow it be a huge lesson in his career as a journalist – a red-letter day that he’d never forget.

Despite the overwhelming evidence, despite my reminding him that he put the livelihoods of everyone at Ravens24x7.com at risk, despite me giving him a way out, an easy way to redeem himself, No. 3 refused to admit that he was guilty of plagiarism. He refused to admit to ever seeing that ESPN article. He refused to come clean.

I told him that I’ll give him a little more time to think about it and admit his transgressions. He sat in that chair for over an hour, bawling like a baby. I wanted to put my arms around the kid to comfort him. It hurt like hell to watch his pain, but I knew that I had no choice. I distracted myself from the drama by attending to some admin work there at my desk.

He finally broke the silence as he struggled to say, “Tony, you want me to admit to something that I didn’t do. I’ve never even seen this ESPN article.”

“It’s all right there in front of you. This is no coincidence”, I replied.

The crying continued and I suggested that he not go anywhere until he pulled himself together. The confession never happened – at least not to me. My team shared later that he did admit to them what he’d done, but he never was honest with me. I gave him every opportunity. I wanted this to be a life-lesson for him but at the same time allow him to continue. He just wouldn’t give in. Nor did I. I had no choice but to reach out to the school’s internship moderator and flunk No. 3 for plagiarism.

I never spoke to No. 3 again.

I owe the site visitor that brought this careless, selfish, and potentially crippling act to my attention. I wish that I knew his name. I wish that I could buy him lunch to say thank you. I hope that he’s reading this and if you are, please hit me up at **@ru*****************.com.

We dodged that bullet thanks to him.

But there was another coming our way.

During the 2012 season, I received a call from Gabrielle Dow. For 8 years, Gabrielle was the Ravens Vice President of Marketing which included the team’s marketing, promotions, sponsor activations and brand management. That’s where we came in – the brand. The Ravens had previously made some overtures about our use of Ravens24x7.com. And we obliged them, changing to Profootball24x7.com, temporarily. But after seeing other Ravens-related ventures using the name “Ravens” and after our failed attempt to expand to other NFL cities, we reverted back to our original Ravens24x7.com.

But with expanding popularity comes more attention. And Gabrielle took notice. Protecting the brand was her mission and having a law degree, Gabrielle was a force.

When I received the call from Gabrielle, I knew it wasn’t to say hello and/or exchange pleasantries. She made it clear that it was her opinion that we benefitted off their brand. I argued that we were a promotional vehicle for the Ravens that they paid nothing for and that other sites like ours across the country, used team names as part of their brand.

She wouldn’t budge. It was a battle that I lost.

I asked if we could at least operate as Ravens24x7.com for the balance of the 2012 season. She obliged.

When the Ravens won Super Bowl 47, I hoped that maybe the team’s success might inspire Gabrielle to back down – to let us be. Those hopes were dashed when I got another call.

“Tony, what are you doing about that name change?”, she asked.

I requested one more week to collect the thoughts of our team and consult with our webmaster in order to not risk damaging our SEO.

“One week!”, she sternly replied.

We were at a loss. We all loved that others referred to us as 24/7. It captured who we were. And of course, for me, it was representative of my original vision jotted down on that napkin at The Dough Roller in Ocean City over 10 years prior. We had to keep “24×7”. But how?

We came up with RaveOn24x7.com as a temporary holding spot until we could come up with something better. The name, albeit quite lame, at least allowed us to retain our logo and our look. We never even made an announcement. As long as Gabrielle saw “RaveOn24x7.com” atop the pages of our site, she seemed satisfied, even if we were not.

We never got a call from Buddy Holly about using “Rave On”.

We kept the URL, ravens24x7.com. And those who still sought us out with that domain, were redirected to Raveon24x7.com. Bookmarks were safe. But “Rave On” wasn’t a crazy feeling for us. We continued to seek its replacement.

My partner John Gehrig came up with a great name – Fanimal. I loved the name but not for Ravens24x7.com’s replacement. We bought that domain to store it for the future but it just wasn’t a fit for our website – not 24×7.

Kris, Derek and later our sales manager, Katherine Savin, all chipped in with thoughts – tons of them. But none was unanimously embraced. We struggled to find a replacement that we all could agree on. Kris and Derek spent hours preparing presentations, but each new name seemed dead on arrival. We all wanted to retain 24×7 as part of our name but everything, every single suggestion, fell short of Ravens24x7.com.

We planned to get together in the office to hash this out one more time – hopefully for the last time. I hit the shower that morning and got ready to meet up with the team.

While in the shower my thoughts drifted towards a new name. Why couldn’t we land on one? Was this “24×7” SO important, SO strategically critical that it had to be part of the name?

I then thought about my days as an intern with the Baltimore Colts while attending Loyola University. I thought of the Colts. I thought of Memorial Stadium. I thought of that building once called “The Insane Asylum on 33rd Street”.

33rd Street.

“The Ravens play on Russell Street”, I thought.

But what about the “24×7”?

And then like a bolt of lightning it hit me as the hot water pounded my head. Russell Street. Russell Street Report, Baltimore’s home for football, 24×7.

That’s it! That’s the name! The tag line retains the 24×7!

I couldn’t wait to get the office and when I did, Kris and Derek were there waiting to present their newest thoughts on what we thought would be our final swing at this name thing. They seemed eager to get started but before they did I said, “Wait, I think I’ve got it.”

Initially there was silence. They seemed to be absorbing what I shared. Shortly thereafter, they were on board with it. We finally had that unanimous choice – that name that had been eluding us for months.

We bought the domain and began the implementation of RussellStreetReport.com.

The relief in the room was palpable.

A new era had begun.

We continued to grow on the heels of the Ravens Super Bowl win. And our collective confidence was stronger than ever before.

Changes in latitude, changes in attitude.

[Click HERE for Chapters 1 thru 13]

(In Chapter 15 we add another piece to our online offerings plus we pursue a merger that never happened.)

The post CHAPTER 14: Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude appeared first on Russell Street Report.