THE NATION NETWORK BUYS HOCKEYFIGHTS.COM

| Wanye

Ah it’s been quite a week. First we got to announce
Jeanshorts is joining the Nation Network full time to head up our new video
department. Then last Thursday we told you that The Royal Half has joined the
Nation Network as our first American team site.

And now today the grand daddy of them all: we have purchased
the immensely popular HockeyFights.com, making it the 9th site in the
Nation Network.

WHAT IS HOCKEYFIGHTS.COM?

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Seriously? What is hockeyfights?

*clears throat*

Oh I don’t know maybe one of the best websites ever?! In
addition to being roughly equal in size to the Nation Network, it is also:

·     
A Platinum YouTube channel – over 150,000,000
views of its videos

·     
Social media kings: almost 39,000 followers on
twitter.

·     
Gigantic reach across the entire planet of Earth
(and parts of Saturn)

Plus it’s the site where you can watch Oilers past and present put Flames past and present to bed, pugilism wise. What could be better than that?

THE SMART STRATEGY

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With our team sites and our trio of hockey resource websites – NHLNumbers.com,
DailyFaceOff.com and now HockeyFights.com we calculate that we have at minimum
100,000 visitors monthly in 2/3 of the NHL markets. In fact we now project we will have 60 million visitors in the next 12 months to the network, generating 150 million pageviews annually in the process.

By properly circulating content – making sure you see
OilersNation articles if you are looking at Oilers fights at hockeyfights.com, Oilers lineup
changes at dailyfaceoff.com or Oilers Statistics at NHLnumbers.com for example – we can provide all of our team sites with a massive leg up in terms of attracting a larger audience.

Following this purchase, Nation Network traffic has enough momentum to continue adding existing sites, creating new ones and recruiting top writers and videographers across the league. We are looking forward to working with everyone and anyone near and far who are committed to covering the good old hockey game. Plus we still handle all our business here in Edmonton, Alberta – writing non-bouncing cheques made of solid ice like a good Canadian company should.

And as our team sites scream at each other in the shrill
shrieks that only us bloggers can make – we can encourage more growth of a
community of hockey fans across the league. Plus we can all entertain ourselves
with photoshops, contests, games, podcasting and video and wait for the sun to
eventually burn itself out.

Nothing to do now but kick back and watch some hockey.

THE WANYE STRATEGY

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I don’t understand a word about Fenwick15, Corsi, Time on Ice
During Shifts With Stick In One Hand, etc etc etc. However I do understand hockeyfights.com. Player fights
player, player wins. We upload the content onto the internetz and talk about it
all the live long day. What could be better than that!?

Nothing. And all it took was money? Please. I’m from Edmonton – they are handing out bags of cash titled “Northern Living Allowance” on Jasper Ave 5 days a week. What else is money good for if you aren’t buying hockey fighting websites I ask you? Nothing. 

(Note: Shout out to our new partner – I swear I won’t waste all your money.)

WHAT DOES HOCKEYFIGHTS MAN THINK?

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David Singer is the genius behind hockeyfights.com and he has been diligently operating its switches and levers for a great many years. Let’s ask him shall we?

WG: What made you want to join the Nation Network?

HF: I thought it’d be nice for people to find out who you are.  You try so hard, it’s cute.  I mean, you know… Edmonton.
WG: It took a gigantic bag of cash to buy your site as well as a pile of shares that stretches to the moon. Do you think there is a viable business model in journalism in 2014?
HF: Who cares? I’m swimming like Scrooge McDuck.  But with pucks instead of coins.  After my first dive I looked like Sloth from The Goonies (j/k, I always have).
WG: How were the negotiations? Did I put you off at all with all my crying and begging?
HF: It wasn’t the crying that bothered me, it was the cuddling and smoking. 
WG: What do you envision the future for the Nation Network to be?
HF: I remember this episode of Star Trek, that may or may not have happened, but there was a planet that was like a sex utopia. I think it’ll be just like that, but with hockey. We probably need a new dress code, but we can work out the logistics later.

Is this guy great or what? With this week of announcements and a massive reconstruction of the sites in full swing the 2014-15 NHL season is now underway. Now if you will excuse me, I have about 1,204,008 hours worth of redevelopment to do prior to rolling out new features throughout the fall and a new look for all sites in January 2015.

*tears off blogger sweatpants revealing programmer track pants underneath*

SEE ALSO

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